Yep, A Spec Check! =)

[Bhazza]

Hi, I would appreciate it if you guys could just have a quick browse over the system spec below. It's for my Dad. He intends to use it for gaming along with general usage. Quite a tight budget of £600 for everything, so I've come up with the follow:

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA P31-DS3L £48.18
Computer hardware and software at amazing prices, available online from Scan Computers UK

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E4500 £70.44 (Was considering the E2180 for £20 cheaper but decided to go for the 2mb cache... I intend to overclock as much as is reasonable)
Computer hardware and software at amazing prices, available online from Scan Computers UK

Cooler: Arctic Cooling Freeser 7 Pro £15.73
Computer hardware and software at amazing prices, available online from Scan Computers UK

PSU: 450 Corsair VX Series £43.35
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HDD: 320Gb Western Digital WD32000AAKS Cavair SE16 SATA II £42.89
Computer hardware and software at amazing prices, available online from Scan Computers UK

GFX: 256MB XFX 8800GT PCI-E, 1400Mhz:600Mhz (these are all showing as pre-order from scan, hoping they'll have some in within a couple of weeks (need delivery by 7th December), thoughts? Also, going to be running XP Prof so no need for DX10 but I figure this is still the best card to get?)
Computer hardware and software at amazing prices, available online from Scan Computers UK

RAM: 2GB Corsair TwinX XMS2 DDR2 PC2-6400 (5-5-5-12) £37.01
Computer hardware and software at amazing prices, available online from Scan Computers UK

Monitor: 19" LG 194WT £113.96 (Not really sure about this. The price is right but I don't know if the monitor is...)
Computer hardware and software at amazing prices, available online from Scan Computers UK

Case: Aplus CS-188AF ATX Case (not to keen on the door-front, but Custom PC rates it and it's cheap!)
Computer hardware and software at amazing prices, available online from Scan Computers UK

The rest: Sony FDD (£4.57) , Pionder DVR-212 (£18.97), 120mm AKASA AK-191BL near silent fan (£4.69), Asus WL-138g 54G wireless PCI adapter (£4.69), Logitech Cordless Desktop 1500 rechargeable Mouse and Keyboard (£28.31)

That all rocks in at £606.41, so right on budget. I could downgrade the CPU to a E2180 and put the £20 extra toward a slightly better monitor maybe. I understand the E2180 will overclock quite well, would there be a considerable (£20-like) difference between the E2180 and E4500 once overclocked? Probably a stupid question...

I also want the computer to have upgrade potential. I believe the motherboard will support the quad cores etc, so my dad could buy one a couple of years down the line and give it a little boost.

Any thoughts/comments/advice welcome. A few of these items are on Scan Today only, so will prob order tomorrow evening to take advantage of that.

Thanks!

[NightshadowUK]

Very good spec for the price and don't worry about the monitor, it's a solid display (my friend has one).

I'd change a few things in the extras though:

- Samsung x20 DVD RW SH-S203D ~ £17.61

Apparently one of the best SATA drives available.

- 120mm Sharkoon 1000 ~ £6.90

Much much much better case fan.

Finally, stick with the E4500 for a CPU - it's well worth the extra £20.

[smallstool]

I have a E2180 that loves it at 3.4Ghz on a Gigabyte board.

[PenguinJim]

I'd strongly recommend against a widescreen 19" monitor. 1440x900 means it won't display the standard resolution of 1280x1024, and it will also be a very... short screen.

Gaming along with general usage... unless your Dad's gonna watch a heck of a lot of movies/TV shows on there, the being-wide won't offset the disadvantages of puny height res. Get a 19" 1600x1200 display, or look around for a 20" 1650x1080 screen.

There is this at £124 on Today Only, but it's lacking DVI. This one is 22", and has DVI, but it's £149 (again, Today Only).

[Thorsson]

I agree with Nightshadow's recommendations, and also PenguinJim's, except having used both extensively I would prefer 20" wide over a 19". 19" is a stretched 17", just like 22" wide is a stretched 20" wide.

[staffsMike]

I have that monitor and love it but I only use it for a bit of gaming and mainly for movies

Everything else looks pretty good.

An alternative is to go to AMD rather than Intel. I did a cheap build recently with a £34 asus motherboard (still very good quality and should last a long time I think) and the AMD X2 5000+ black edition. It has an unlocked multiplier so you don't need to overclock the motherboard at all

Runs nicely at 3.0ghz without changing anything but the multiplier. With a little more voltage it will get to 3.2Ghz or more i'm sure. Also runs stupidly cool. I really like it..shame i've given it to its new owner now lol

[Bhazza]

Hey guys. Thanks for your recommendations!! I'll take on Nightshadow's alternative parts and PenguinJim/Thorsson's monitor advice. I suppose the limited vertical resolution on the 19" widescreen could get quite annoying when displaying standard pages. I hadn't really considered the 22" Cibox monitor because I've not heard of them, but according to the description it's an LG panel and built by Foxconn. I'm sure I could justify the extra £30 for the massive monitor. Why's it so cheap though, is it because it's just a 'stretched 20"' and therefore has quite a large dot pitch?

Thanks for the comments StaffsMike. For no logical reason I'll prob stick with intel, it just feels more....cosy.

Incidentally I'm still running a P4 AGP system and this build for my Dad should wipe the floor with it...and I'm the 'enthusiast', oh well!

[Thorsson]

22" wide monitors generally use 6-bit panels rather than the 8-bit panels used by their smaller brethren. How much you notice that is arguably down to the individual.

[Blitzen]

I'd strongly recommend against a widescreen 19" monitor. 1440x900 means it won't display the standard resolution of 1280x1024, and it will also be a very... short screen.

Gaming along with general usage... unless your Dad's gonna watch a heck of a lot of movies/TV shows on there, the being-wide won't offset the disadvantages of puny height res. Get a 19" 1600x1200 display, or look around for a 20" 1650x1080 screen.

There is this at £124 on Today Only, but it's lacking DVI. This one is 22", and has DVI, but it's £149 (again, Today Only).

Dont worry about this...I game on a 19" Widescreen and its fantastic.

[this_is_gav]

I've always found a 19" widescreen to have more desktop space to work with than the 4:3. They don't, but it just feels like it for some reason. It'll depend what you're doing I guess, but on a 4:3 it's hard to stick 2 windows next to each other, so they inevitably just end up stacked on top of each other, whereas at 1440x900 you can (albeit still a bit narrow).

[Bhazza]

Ordered now guys, thanks a lot for your advice. In case you're interested I went for the 22" Cibox widescreen (along with the Samsung DVDR and snowball fan). Fingers crossed the 8800GT will be in stock soon.

[PenguinJim]

I was about to suggest you nick that monitor, and give your Dad your old one, but I see you already have a 2407!

There's an 8800GT thread in Hexus Bargains here which is frequently updated with places that have them in stock, but I expect Scan will have some of those in stock soon, and I doubt you'll get a 256MB card significantly cheaper than that.

[amjedm]

Ordered now guys, thanks a lot for your advice. In case you're interested I went for the 22" Cibox widescreen (along with the Samsung DVDR and snowball fan). Fingers crossed the 8800GT will be in stock soon.

Didn't know Sharkoon had bought a new 'snowball' fan out

[Bhazza]

Ha, I bet my Dad would love my 2407 but he's not getting it!

Yeah Amjedm, it's like the golfball version, only cooler ;-)

[freddie]

good, good, but i see nothing wrong with a e2140 if your overclocking just to reasonable levels. it costs about £40 and even though the multiplyer isnt as advantages ase2160 or e2180 it'll still get to 3ghz no problems!