Advice on new £500 build

[matt91]

Hi, I am new on this forum. I am planning on purchasing the components for a new pc in the next 2 weeks. I would just like to do a check whether the components are a good choice. My budget is £500 max, I don't do much gaming so graphics is £70 most. This is my general spec i am thinking of:

- Antec Three Hundred
- Optairc DVDRW
- Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro
- Q6600 (maybe E8400)
- 4GB Corsair TwinX PC2-6400
- 450W Corsair VX
- 512MB Palit 8600GTS
- Abit IP-35 Dark Raider
- 500GB Samsung Spinpoint F1
-- Totals £486.85 with delivery --

These are my questions:

- Does anybody know (scan?) know when the Antec Three Hundred and 500GB Samsung F1 will be in stock. I want the 300 so I will definitely not order until that is in stock. If the Samsung is not in stock until after the 300 then i will just go for the Seagate.

- Q6600 or E8400? I don't know how I would take advantage of the quad cores. Am I right in thinking the E8400 would generally perform faster? I think this is one of the biggest decisions. I will probably do a safe overclock with the cpu with the AC cooler.

- 450W corsair, I think this is the best choice for the budget as they are said to be rock solid and is nicely priced. Would this perform ok while still being quiet. I have calculated the wattage of the components to be well under 450W.

- Graphics, as previously said max £70 here. Is 8600 better than HD2600? Is this the best choice for the money?

- Motherboard, I have read that the P35 is supposed to be the best for the budget at this point in time. I would not like to go over £70 here. Any better options than the Abit IP-35 Dark Raider?

This image is of the Scan basket I put together. I might be able to spend a little more if I can get this free postage I see on this board.

m91.co.uk/scan.png

Thanks in advance, Matt

[staffsMike]

I would get the Coolermaster CM-690 over the Antec 300. It's only £10 or £15 more (depending on the day you buy it) and you get superior cooling, cable and drive management.

Any other time I would probably be recommending antec products but this time the coolermaste would get my money.

I have that particular corsair PSU and it is very good for the money. Quiet, solid performance and well built (feels a bit cheap but its not).
I'd prefer a modualr PSU though, the corsair 520w HX which I also have is a fantastic PSU and very highly regarded in this community.

Go for the Q6600 especially if gaming is non-essential, the Q6600 is far better at multi-tasking at will mature over time where the dual will fade away.

If gaming really isnt that big of a deal I'd probably go with a passive 8600GT over the GTS,keep it nice and quiet

And cooler-wise, consider spending an extra few quid on the scythe mine. It cools far better than the freezer (which again I have) and is nearly silent (which the freezer most certainly is not).

You could also try western digital AAKS drives which I have quite a few of. Considered to be the more reliable drive, just a quiet really and performance is up with the best of them.

Oh and you are better off posting in the hardware section for this stuff, don't bother re -doing it though it will be moved soon most likely.

[Dareos]

Mikes pretty much hit the nail on the head with everything there, completely agree with the quadcore choice.

To play Devils Advocate a little tho, PCFormat have put the Seagate Barracuda as their choice of drive this month, but its probably all in all much of a muchness in the end

Welcome to the forums mate, its like the Hotel California here, enjoy

[j1979]

id pay a bit exra for i better gfx card but if your really not bothered about games then i suppose there no point but, i my opinion id pay the extra £40 and get a 9600gt.

i guess my point is why do u need such a powerfull pc if your not gaming?

[matt91]

Thank you for the advice. I will take them onboard. the GTS graphics saves money so I can buy the CM 690. Does anybody know when the 690 will be in stock? All my Seagate drives I have got have been perfect so far so I will get one of them then. The Scythe Mine is also on my list.

There are these two Gigabyte graphics cards which are very similar
scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=661335
scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=661334
Which of these will be better? I assume the second one is the more updated one.

Is my motherboard choice alright? I also looked at the Fatal1ty but was not fully convinced. I don't need SLI anyway and will not be overclocking the cpu too much.
scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=605524

[matt91]

j1979, if I were to find that extra £40 then I might consider the 9600GT.

I often do programming, video encoding and the usual. My current pc is a S478 3GHz Prescott one and it's getting a bit outdated, sometimes runs a bit too slow on vista for my liking. I will probably keep this new pc for about 3 years so it needs to be future proof and I don't think £500 is an overkill.

[staffsMike]

The dark raider is a great board. Thoroughly recommend that one

I run the 8500GT version of this in one of my PC's

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=708663

great card and a steal at that price