First build - Last check before i order!

[McPhee]

Heres my specs:

Mobo: Biostar TF560 A2+ £43
CPU: AMD Athlon X2 BE-2350 £55
RAM: 2GB OCZ ATI Certified£58
GPU: ATI x1950 Pro £70
HDD: 250GB Samsung Spinpoint £38
DVD: Samsung Lightscribe DVD-RW £18
PSU: 520W Corsair £65
Case: Thermaltake Soprano £50

Monitor: HP W2207, approx £220. 22" isn't necessary, but there aint many black monitors with a HDCP enabled DVI port. Found a few, then had to whittle it down and this came out top. I was going for the 19" version but i went in to Comet to demo it and found out it lacks a DVI port (same for the 20"). I might go for something cheaper, still looking!

All together, with a new monitor and a few other bits and bobs it comes out at £600. Half is coming from eBuyer and the rest from CCL Online

Any thoughts? Im planning on overclocking the CPU to 2.6 - 3 GHz, hence why i chose that CPU and mobo (mobo suggested over at overclock.net). Will the RAM and PSU be OK for this? My main concern is that power supply tbh, im thinking about swapping to the Corsair but then that means ordering from a 3rd store

[staffsMike]

For an overclocking machine i really would suggest going Intel.. get a lot more bang for bucks when overclocking with them.

I'd purchase from scan..you will get a decent mobo (p35 my recommendation) cpu, ram, HDD, optical from there, and i'd get the corsair 520hx PSU instead of the antec

[McPhee]

The Corsair it is then

I can't afford C2D unfortunately m8, i'd have to skimp on parts of the system that i'm not prepared to (i.e. monitor + case) or up my budget to £700. That CPU/Mobo combo only costs £100 and apparently goes from 2.1GHz to 3GHz fairly easily.

I'll bare it in mind though, can you suggest a C2D CPU/Mobo combo for £170? This + the Corsair PSU will take me up to £700

Also, is that Staffs as in Stafford?

[staffsMike]

yeah stafford lol.

OK on a tight budget amd is a pretty good way to go.

The only advantages to SATA dvd drives are a slightly faster boot up and the cables are less ugly lol

2.1 to 3.0ghz sounds like quite a lot to expect but give it a go. Are you ordering an aftermarket heatsink and fan for this?

The amd's are nice chips and have only been over shadowed by the intels becuase the c2d's overclock stupidly well.
Amd's also strongly benefit from tighter memory timings so if you can afford some pc6400 with 4-4-4-12 timings that would be good. Something like OCZ platinum or Geil Ultra is good stuff ..should be about £10 more

[silentvoice]

Is this in your price range?

Motherboard: Asus P5K £73.97 http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=590765
or Abit IP35 £84.94 http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=605524

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E4400 £74.84 http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=577091

RAM: 2GB (2x1GB) CorsairTwinX XMS2 PC2-6400 (4-4-4-12) £67.73 http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=402849

Video Card: 512MB Club 3D x1900XT ~£100 (Fine if under £100 and plays the games you want to play)

HDD: 320Gb Western Digital SATA-II 16MB Cache £48.18 http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=561030

DVD-RW: Samsung S182M £19.92 http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=534185 (IDE/Lightscribe)
or Asus DRW-1814BLT £21.08 http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=567862 (SATA/Lightscribe)

PSU: Corsair HX520 £64.50 http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=446788

Case: Thermaltake Soprano ~£50

Total: £499.14 to £511.27 + del


The case is down to personal choice. I don't know much about it but as long as it provides good airflow and enough space for your parts it should be fine. Weight / size may also be a factor so look into that too.

If you want to save a bit more you can drop down to an E21xx processor (for more adventurous overclocking) and then you should be able to get an LCD monitor to make it up to the £600 budget you specified.

[staffsMike]

Sorry kinda overlooked your actual final budget. The system as above would be pretty good. Add something like a scythe ninja or at the least an arctic freezer 7 pro HSF.

Overclocking will be easy on that board as the CPU's FSB is rated at 800mhz and the motherboard is rated at 1333mhz so you have 533mhz to play with on the chip before you are even overclocking the motherboard.

With that in mind you would get away with the Abit IP-35E which saves you another £10 - £15 but the Ip-35 does have some solid capacitors which are good for reliablilty

Or you can save more by getting a uATX G33 chipset board.

[McPhee]

I might go for that OCZ ATI branded memory then, looks pretty sweet and is only a couple of quid more than the other 4-4-4-12 stuff!

TBH im not sure exactly what overclock i'll get as it's a very new chip. Theres only 5 or 6 BE-23** build stories i can find so far, but they all say it's a fairly easy overclock up to 3GHz. If i can get 2.6GHz i'll be happy i've got my moneys worth
Im going for this CPU cooler: http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/101471 But im not sure wether to get it now, or see how far the stock fan will go first

Just realized i copied my OP straight from the eBuyer forums lol. I left the name of the other store out because they don't like it if you talk about competitors! Im buying most of this from CCLOnline, they have the case and mobo in stock and reasonable prices on the RAM and HDD

[McPhee]

Is this in your price range?

Just about, after i've added keyboard, monitor etc it'll be pushing £700 though

Sorry kinda overlooked your actual final budget. The system as above would be pretty good. Add something like a scythe ninja or at the least an arctic freezer 7 pro HSF.

Overclocking will be easy on that board as the CPU's FSB is rated at 800mhz and the motherboard is rated at 1333mhz so you have 533mhz to play with on the chip before you are even overclocking the motherboard.

With that in mind you would get away with the Abit IP-35E which saves you another £10 - £15 but the Ip-35 does have some solid capacitors which are good for reliablilty

Or you can save more by getting a uATX G33 chipset board.

Im gonna add approximate prices to my OP, will make things a lot easier. The mobo is costing me £43.11 http://www.cclonline.com/product-inf...ategory_id=342

[NightshadowUK]

Post prices for everything including the monitor and keyboard please.

[McPhee]

Added the monitor. The x1900xt went out of stock so i wont be getting that

Got an offer of a second hand XTX for £85 though! Assuming it's in full working order (which i believe it probably is) i'll be buying it Monday. I've delayed the rest til then or Tuesday now too, will just have to put my hand in my pocket and pay for better delivery!