Basic System Spec

[RavenNight]

Right, I've been asked to build a fairly cheap system, sans monitor and peripherals, that will allow gaming, but more importantly lots of 'upgradeability' in a year or so. This is what I've got so far, if I'm making any blinding errors, please tell me! I'm recycling the HDD and DVD/CD kit from an old machine.

(All kit to be ordered from Scan)

Mobo: Asus P5K SE (P35 - 775) - £69.31
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E4400 - £76.25 (pennies more than a 4300)
Memory: 2GB Corsair Value Select 667 - £49.98
GFX: Leadtek 8600GTS 256mb - £118.68
Case: Akasa Zen Black - £28.78
PSU: Corsair VX450 - £45.83

TOTAL (inc. free delivery) £388.82

All comments and crits welcome!

[Blitzen]

Nothing wrong with any of that so definitely no need to change a thing.

For under £400 thats good.

[staffsMike]

you won't do much better than that unless you don't want DX10, then you could have an Ati x1950pro for about £70 instead of the 8600gts. Preforms better than the 8600 if im not mistaken

[RavenNight]

I'd like some DX10 ability, the performance is very similar, but it's definitely work thinking about! The poor thing will probably only be running 1024x768.

[staffsMike]

lol then the 8600gt would also do the job well.

[UseItNow]

If you're upgrading again soon, I'd look at possibly getting a beefier PSU.

[tigerboyce]

also have a look at the antec sonata III case, It looks very nice, better thatn the asaka zen, and comes with a very solid and reliable antec earthwatts 500w PSU for £70ish i think..

[DanceswithUnix]

I hope you intend clocking the knackers off that, otherwise for the price of motherboard, PSU and case you could get an AM2 Shuttle and be the owner of a thing of beauty rather than a big heavy lump.

OK I know I am biassed, but it does seem rather expensive for stock speed and apart from upgrading the graphics every year (which any games player has to anyway) I would love to know what they want to upgrade?

Link to Ebuyer shuttle

[RavenNight]

The current system is an ageing 478 Williamette Compaq, it needs replacing. I'm going for the Full size PC because it makes upgrading easier, and I think the Intel chips are faster at the moment.

[Pob255]

For future upgrades I'd go with socket 775 & p35 as there are plenty of more beefy cpu's that motherboard can take.

I would advoid the 8600gts still too pricey esp if you consider upgradeing to a 8800 in the near future.
best options would be a 8600gt (for dx10) but better still EVGA 7900GS factory overclocked £90 the reason for this over an x1950pro is the EVGA EVGA 90 day Step-Up Program, so you have roughtly 3 months to save up for a new card which you'll have £90 towards

[CooperXS]

I'd take Asus P5K vanilla. SE versions usually misses lot of overclocking settings in BIOS and few other things.
Also 8600GT should be just fine - get one with good cooling and overclock it
FSP 400W (not BlueStorm) power supply is cheaper and will do the job just fine

[aidanjt]

If you're upgrading again soon, I'd look at possibly getting a beefier PSU.

A VX450 is plenty beefy.

[Pob255]

I'd take Asus P5K vanilla. SE versions usually misses lot of overclocking settings in BIOS and few other things.
Also 8600GT should be just fine - get one with good cooling and overclock it
FSP 400W (not BlueStorm) power supply is cheaper and will do the job just fine

I wouldn't overclock on the cheap model FSP PSU also it wouldn't be so great if he upgrades.

[CooperXS]

I used that PSU with Opteron 165@2.8GHz and 1.45V, 6800GT and 2gigs of DDR@250MHz and 2.7V. Plus 2 old raptors in raid0 and no glitches at all. Current setup consumes A LOT less power even when overclocked. If new beefier graphic card will be used in the future additional 5.25" PSU for video card is a nice thing.

[Pob255]

That's nice to know as the Opteron 165 is very power hungery (could hit 160w under load) (ps very good oc you got out of it)

The graphics card would be the big power drain for future upgrades, as a quad core q6600 only pulls around 105w under load

Are we talking about the same PSU btw?
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=468726

[RavenNight]

System is now happily chugging away downstairs, had to go for an Abit motherboard due to stock problems, but overall I'm delighted with it, the 8600GTS has a heck of a lot of grunt, runs Oblivion beautifully. The system is very very nippy, moving round Windows is a delight! Thanks for the input!