Project "Value for Money"

[Zak33]

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!

[Lucio]

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.

[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.

[Zak33]

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

[Zak33]

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

[menthel]

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.

[BUFF]

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 ...

[staffsMike]

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

[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.

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.

[Lourdes]

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.

[Dreaming]

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.

[BUFF]

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.

[Zak33]

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

[Zak33]

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

[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

[staffsMike]

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.