Project "Value for Money"

Lo dudes.

I'm working my way through my favourite thing: working out just WHAT should someone buy, in component parts, to make a real VALUE FOR MONEY rig, with staying power.

We're gonna need a PROPER CASE....a PROPER PSU....cos in my experience, those two things out last everything else.

Then we want good quality Mobo and Ram...these will both last for several CPU upgrades.
I will only use Western Digital AAKS drives at the moments, so a 500 gig AAKS is on the list.

And lastly.....bottom of the pile in terms of price, the cpu and gpu!!

I know this makes people's heads hurt sometimes, but when people upgrade from basic Athlon XP2600 style rigs, you KNOW a cheap Intel Dual Core will shock them! Ditto going from a 9800 Pro to anything half decent really...

SO....here goes!

I like Antec cases for quality, and so a 900 is likely.
Corsair seem to make good value/quality PSU's..and modular is good, so the cables not needed can be unplugged from the PSU.
Corsair ram for us too...2 gig required but which kit?

I was thinking Palit 8600 GT 512DDR3.
I was thinking E 2160

and was thinking Dark Raider Abit mobo.....

so....rip me apart, put me back together...but case and psu first.....ram and hard drive second....cpu and gpu last. Must be intel dual core minimum.

cheers for any input...this always intrigues me!

I think you're pretty much sorted IMO :)

Ironically my friend has a very low end rig that came up from an old AMD 1700+

Got him an aBit Fatal1ty F-I90HD mobo, 2GB PC5300 OCZ ram and an E2160 and he bought his HDD over from his previous system. This was mounted into a cheap and cheerful A+ Blockbuster case and the PSU was harvested from his previous rig as it was fairly new. System works great for what he wants (playing World of Warcraft, watching movies and surfing).

All I'm doing now is getting him a Palit 8600GT because he wants to play City of Heroes which doesn't work well with the onboard chip.

Hows about one of the antec cases with the built in PSU? These are decent PSUs and I have had one running in my HTPC for well over a years (its on most of the time!) that also did for gaming for a while.

Otherwise looking good, unless you can stretch to a 3850 which I understand are excellent budget cards.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by menthel

Hows about one of the antec cases with the built in PSU? These are decent PSUs and I have had one running in my HTPC for well over a years (its on most of the time!) that also did for gaming for a while.

Otherwise looking good, unless you can stretch to a 3850 which I understand are excellent budget cards.

---

will look at that card next then :)

hmm....different level of "budget" as the 8600 GT is about £49!

Now that is budget! ;)

I don't know much about the 8600gt but if it gives similar performance to the 7600gt then you can't go much wrong at a budget level.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Zak33

Then we want good quality Mobo and Ram...these will both last for several CPU upgrades.

---

The problem here is that DDR2 which is the vfm choice now soon will be old school/obsolete but DDR3 sure isn't vfm yet.
& perhaps more importantly in under a year Intel is switching to a new socket so I don't think that you will get several CPU upgrades out of a 775 ...

The IP-35 dark raider is £58 on scan today only in the supersavers today. True value for money :)

Value for money graphics is the ATi HD3850pro imo. It's more money but better bangs for bucks.

GT isn't bad for basic gaming though.

In the interest of saving money as opposed to value for money the Antec Case + PSU's such as the Sonata 3 + 500 Earthwatts combo :)

That said I would have the antec P182/900 and corsair 520w in preference. Your system would run nicely on the corsair VX 450w though which is amazing for the money and remains silent.. just not modular.

Western Digital AAKS.. a fine choice good sir :thumbsup:

OK.....the cpu upgrades: let me explain,

In about 6 months time LOTS of 775's will be for sale second hand....and quads will drop too...so the upgrades will be easy.

I WAS angling towards an X1950 second hand, or an 7800 GT/X as they are popping up a lot now, but i'll look hard at the 3850 Pro then.

PSU VX 450 is also good idea.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by menthel

Hows about one of the antec cases with the built in PSU? These are decent PSUs and I have had one running in my HTPC for well over a years (its on most of the time!) that also did for gaming for a while.

---

The right idea here. The decent Corsair PSU's (SeaSonic) start with the VX450 which is £45 and more than you need for a VFM setup. And the Antec cases with PSU's are great value compared to case + PSU, not to mention that they're a trusted PSU manufacturer.

I'd say the antec sonata III, comes with PSU and is a really good, solid case. It's slightly pricier (£70) but comes with Antec Earthwatts 500.

The problem with going for some 'lower end' components is that you will want to upgrade and won't get much money back when you sell it on or in my case, hoard it. So it's actually increasing the price if you get something 'basic' with a view to upgrade in 6 months, when the decrease in price of the upgrade is probably less money than the cost of buying a lower end component and selling it on, meaning overall it's just putting off the expense. However, if there is no real gain then it's just frivolous.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Zak33

OK.....the cpu upgrades: let me explain,

In about 6 months time LOTS of 775's will be for sale second hand....and quads will drop too...so the upgrades will be easy.

---

yes, but you won't get several CPU upgrades out of a 775.

well a Core 2 Duo and then a quad is half way towards several ;)

OK...any more suggestions guys? I;m waaay open for ideas :)

Oh, and we missed the fairly obvious budget choice. Get a Dell. Yes they're non-standard parts and yes, they're not very upgradable but quite frankly, they work, they're quiet and once you wipe the HDD down and install windows from scratch, they're fine :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Lucio

Oh, and we missed the fairly obvious budget choice. Get a Dell. Yes they're non-standard parts and yes, they're not very upgradable but quite frankly, they work, they're quiet and once you wipe the HDD down and install windows from scratch, they're fine :)

---

True but there is an obvious desire to upgrade shown and even though the requirements are fairly wooly I'd imagine zak like most of us, like's to know what is in his pc :)

I almost bought my gf a dell for xmas but ended up doing a build because I wanted what I consider to be ultra reliable parts.

If we are talking VFM rather than just cheap, I would go pretty much with Zak33:

Antec 900
Corsair HX520
Abit Dark Raider
E2160 or Q6600 (depends on whether any need for Quad - I do for instance)
WD 500Gb AAKS

2x1Gb or 2x2Gb named PC6400 (depends on use)
Graphics card very much depends on whether gaming (and what resolution & games).

Lian-Li PC-7 PLUS II Aluminium Midi-Tower Case £55 approx?

I can't comment on the case/PSU much. The Antec 900 + a 520 Corsair is probably what I'd go if I really couldn't afford the extra £10 for the P182. But to be honest, I don't think that they are necessarily the best value for money. A case that cost half as much may not be half as bad - it's much harder to measure the bang for buck for those things. Even PSUs are partly subjective.

The Samsung T166 can more often be found for less than the AAKS (I got mine for under £50). At the same price, I think there is room for debates as to which one is more suitable, but with a £10-15 price gap, it may be king of bang/size for buck.

RAM wise, I don't think you can go too far wrong. those may well be the cheapest I've seen posted (but I wonder if its 2x1GB or 1x2).

Hexus hasn't tested the 3850 Pro (so I can't just link a simple bang for buck chart), but my impression is that the 8800GT would be more money for even more performance. It beats the 3870 with ease in that aspect (Palit Sonic is about £153).

I have no opinion on CPU. I've only been looking at the upper mid end (E6750, Q6600, E8400) and I am quite sure those carry a premium over lower models.

E6750 isn't worth considering with the new chips out now.

I have a soft spot for the Q6600 I think it represents very good value for money given how well it overclocks.

Pentium dual cores are well known for overclocking with little effort upto and above 3.0Ghz and since they are about £45 I'd say that was great value for money. You could of course get a bit of a lemon and it won't clock as high.

We have had deals floating around for the 512mb 3850pro for < &#163;100 and it's perfect for most games you could through at it @ 1680 x 1050 or less.

Antec 900/P182 + corsair 520w HX is a great combo for sure. It's what I would buy and recommend but whether it is the best value compared to something like the sonata 3 I don't know.

I haven't quite looked at the pricing of the E6750 lately. If it hasn't budged since the release of the E8-series, then no, I suppose not. But if it eventually dip to just under &#163;100 (or say, 15-20&#37; less than the E8400), then it still represent good B4B.

may i ask what you will use your pc for? gaming? photoshop, programing?

It'll be used for Gaming and web use. Occasional photo editing, but gaming on the whole.

Resolution isn't the end of the world, the video card is gonna be potential for change, and so it's bottom of the list, but moving up fast.

get a 8800GT, thats the best bang for buck card out at the moment