C2D gaming box for £400- £450 challenge

[iranu]

If Top Gear can drive across inhospitable terrain in clapped out cars then you can rise to this challenge!

I'm not completely upto date with the whole Intel thing atm although I've read Clunk's excellent guide. I've got a friend who has a budget of £400-450 for a gaming rig and he only needs a box. He wants to play World In Conflict, Bioshock, Pro Evo Soccer 7/8 and Call of Duty 4 etc so I put together the items below very quickly. (Previous system was an overclocked Barton xp2500 but that's all I know).

What do you guys and gals think and can you go cheaper? The closer to £400 the better and it doesn't matter which etailer. I figure that atm Intel is going to give a cheaper upgrade path in the future but I need real help with case and cpu cooler.

Case - I have no clue as to what is good around £30 mark.
Psu - Corsair 450w VX Computer hardware and software at amazing prices, available online from Scan Computers UK £45.83
Motherboard - Abit IP35EComputer hardware and software at amazing prices, available online from Scan Computers UK £61.10
Cpu - Intel C2D E6300 PcBuyIt Intel Mobile Processors INTEL CORE 2 DUO E6300 1.86GHz/2MB/1066MHz SL9SA £58.75 (inc p&p)
Aftermarket cooler - again no clue around £20
Ram - 2GB (2x1GB) Corsair TwinX XMS2, DDR2 PC2-6400 (800), 240 Pins, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 5-5-5-12Computer hardware and software at amazing prices, available online from Scan Computers UK £45.40
8800gt (will definitely go in it's best bang for buck) Amazon.co.uk: BFG nVidia GeForce 8800GT OC 512MB, PCI Express 2.0 Graphics Card - Retail: Electronics & Photo £163.19 (inc p&p)
Dvd-RW - Samsung lightscribe sata Computer hardware and software at amazing prices, available online from Scan Computers UK £18.67
160gb (minimum) Hd HGST T7K160 Computer hardware and software at amazing prices, available online from Scan Computers UK £29.88

Total (inc £30 case and £20 cooler) = £472.88.

I think I could trim this a bit but I'd like to here your thoughts and alternatives

[MadduckUK]

right im going for it!

edit: no im not, i dont know an Intel mobo from my elbow

[Dreaming]

cpu cooler - surely the artic cooling freezer 7 pro is the best bang / buck cooler

Computer hardware and software at amazing prices, available online from Scan Computers UK

£14.68 Inc VAT, from Scan

You might be able to get a cheaper cpu than that though.

And on a budget, the 8800gt is still fairly top end at the minute - x1950 and 7950 are dirt cheap now and run most current games well as far as I'm aware.

[staffsMike]

Computer hardware and software at amazing prices, available online from Scan Computers UK
OC it and show it whos boss

Computer hardware and software at amazing prices, available online from Scan Computers UK
£5 cheaper at the bottom here
Computer hardware and software at amazing prices, available online from Scan Computers UK

Computer hardware and software at amazing prices, available online from Scan Computers UK
best you can get for the price range.

[iranu]

Thanks - it looks like the artic freezer pro is a tidy bit of kit, do Artic cooling still supply a tiny tube of TIM with their coolers?

Ebuyer have raised their prices on the 8800gt

Does anyone know of decent system builder that could get close to those specs for similar or less money?

[staffsMike]

The freezer come pre-applied with MX1 I think it is. It's very good anyway

Does anyone know of decent system builder that could get close to those specs for similar or less money?

I'll do it

Scan do custom's builds but they aren't cheap. It's best to do it yourself

[Crazytom]

hmmm, id go for either an e6550 or an e4400 instead of the e6300, ull save some money and can be overclocked a nice amount anyway. Also could save money by getting a non-OC 8800gt, or the 256mb one. tbh, spending nearly half the budget on the bpu just coz its good bang4buck isnt the best idea. Everything else looks pretty good though.

[schmunk]

Also could save money by getting a non-OC 8800gt, or the 256mb one. tbh, spending nearly half the budget on the bpu just coz its good bang4buck isnt the best idea.

Yes, yes it is for a gaming box. TBH, at the moment I wouldn't go for any GPU other than the 8800GT.

[iranu]

The freezer come pre-applied with MX1 I think it is. It's very good anyway

Ta - I just wondered if they still did. Got some whites stuf in a tube I've not used.

I'll do it

Where's my cheeky PG tips monkey

[iranu]

hmmm, id go for either an e6550 or an e4400 instead of the e6300, ull save some money and can be overclocked a nice amount anyway. Also could save money by getting a non-OC 8800gt, or the 256mb one. tbh, spending nearly half the budget on the bpu just coz its good bang4buck isnt the best idea. Everything else looks pretty good though.

yep it's hard for me with all these "E blah blah" numbers to get my head around the multipliers and OC potential not to mention the cpu cache.

The 8800GT at amazon from BFG comes in at a lower price that most stock GTs (with P&P inc) from other etailers and manufacturers although I've not ordered one myself (YET!). I'm personally waiting for the 19th Nov and hen spending the cash.

[smellybumlove]

if its cheaper go for a e2140 mine went to 2.8ghz
sitting around here actually, you can have it for £20 if that helps

[Pob255]

cpu cooler - surely the artic cooling freezer 7 pro is the best bang / buck cooler

Computer hardware and software at amazing prices, available online from Scan Computers UK

£14.68 Inc VAT, from Scan

You might be able to get a cheaper cpu than that though.

Better than the ACf7Pro
Akasa AK-965 x3 Copper Heatpipe Cooler basically the same or slightly better according to some for slightly less
£11.74 Inc VAT

frostytech love it. but they don't seem to have looked at the ACf7p

[Blitzen]

Akasa always profess to be low noise coolers.
They are always loud though.

[amjedm]

Cases I'd consider from Scan

Computer hardware and software at amazing prices, available online from Scan Computers UK - Sharkoon Rebel 9 ECONOMY Silver Edition ATX - (No PSU) - £27
Computer hardware and software at amazing prices, available online from Scan Computers UK - same as above but in Black

Computer hardware and software at amazing prices, available online from Scan Computers UK - Coolermaster RC-331 Elite Black/Silver Midi Tower Case w/o PSU - £28

There are other nice cases but not sure if you'd want a 36cm fan on the side

On the other hand post a case you like at Scan and we'll give you our opinions