Help me create a build

Don't really want to spend over £900 if possible, even less would be great.

Already have a Samsung 226CW (22" 1680x1050), Speakers a mouse and Keyboard.

Need a small case (while staying ATX) so am going for this:

Lian Li PC-A05B
http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/info_1067.html

But scan is my preferred retailer.

Right now i'm still playing BF2142 and would quite like to play it on High with Full AA and 1680x1050 res. So the main use of my computer will be mid-range gaming.

I'm guessing a Dual Core is best bet for me, 4GB Ram and Windows 64bit?

Thanks,

Tim

Scan have the case (on pre-order)
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Lian-...luminium-Black

Nice case, slightly odd layout but it's cramming a lot in. Personally I'd go uATX, saves on more space and gives graphics cards better cooling as that case can make them struggle.

I would build this,

E5200 ~£60 + xigmatec/scythe cooler ~£25 - £30
4GB PC6400 ~£36 (ebuyer, crucial ballistix.. good stuff)
Biostar P45 ~£80
Lian Li A05B ~£60
Enermax Modu82+ 425W (or Proe82+) £50
HIS Hd4850 ~£120
640GB WD AAKS/Caviar Blue ~£50
Optiarc DVD ~£15

That's around £500 and will be overclockable to 3.0GHz+ and quiet too.

What I would actually do though is go uATX AMD, get a phenom II quad core and keep the rest the same. That will be about £100 more but a beast for a long time. Change the case for an Antec NSK3480, silverstone tj08 or Antec P180 mini :)

I don't need the case to be any smaller if anything I would like it to be slightly bigger its just my desk limits the height to about 400mm.

Any ideas on the rest of the hardware?

Yep lots of ninja edits above.

Would it be worth going for a E8400 instead? and how about a Corsair 500w PSU.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mit321

Would it be worth going for a E8400 instead? and how about a Corsair 500w PSU.

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1. Not really...The 5200 is a very good CPU
2. The Enermax unit Mike mentioned is a better unit than the Corsair EVERY time.

Ok, I'll try and put a Scan list togther, put does that look like the best list for me? No Video encoding or anything like that just Game playing and music listening

Also with that Mobo is Biostar reputable I was thinking of one of the more well known brands

Also sorry to add another post but won't I need a slightly beefier PSU for the 4850 + i might want to upgrade it in the future.

Well you really should need any more power than that for a single graphics card, but if you're that worried you could go for the 525w enermax
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/525W-...uard-SafeGuard
I would go for a modular in a smaller case, which you are going to be limited to by a max height of 400mm (that's probably the biggest pain)

Apart from that Lian-Li you're looking at an mATX case as ATX midi cases generally start around 450mm tall
As scan don't have it in stock you'd have to go elseware for one.
(unfortunately the antec 180 mini is too tall so that's out)

If you want to stick with intel cpu then you may want to look at the DFI Jr p45 probably the best mATX socket 775 motherboard
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/DFI-J...SATA-RAID-uATX
(again not in stock :( )

One final note you may want to consider a bolt through kit or cpu cooler which comes with one rather than push pins, esp if you're useing a large aftermarket cpu cooler.

I pretty much wanna defo stick with full ATX, theres a 128page thread on the [H]ard forum on the case and it seems to fit everything you need.

I'm pretty much set on that and the ram and the graphics card and the harddrive that Staffsmike suggested just not sure about the Mobo,Cpu and PSU

Case: Lian-Li PC-A05B £58.72 Inc VAT
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Lian-...luminium-Black

PSU: 525W Enermax MODU82 £73.01 Inc VAT
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/525W-...uard-SafeGuard

Isn't the cost of this overkill for the system i'm getting?

RAM: Crucial 4GB (2X2GB) DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 Ballistix Memory £35.42 Inc vat
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/143844

GPU: XAE/48500+T352-PM9048 - 512MB Palit HD 4850, PCI-E 2.0(x16), 1986MHz GDDR3, GPU 625MHz, 800 Cores, 2x DL DVI-I/ HDTV, HDCP £118.80 Inc VAT
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/512MB...VI-I-HDTV-HDCP

HDD: 640 GB Western Digital WD6400AAKS Caviar Blue, SATA 300, 7200 rpm, 16MB Cache, 8.9 ms £55.99 Inc VAT
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/640-G...MB-Cache-89-ms

Yes very much so but the 425W doesn't seem to exist anymore :(

So what would u recommend instead, considering I may want to upgrade to more powerful tech in the future.

Case: Lian-Li PC-A05B £58.72 Inc VAT
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Lian-...luminium-Black

PSU: 525W Enermax MODU82 £73.01 Inc VAT
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/525W-...uard-SafeGuard

Isn't the cost of this overkill for the system i'm getting?

RAM: Crucial 4GB (2X2GB) DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 Ballistix Memory £35.42 Inc vat
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/143844

GPU: XAE/48500+T352-PM9048 - 512MB Palit HD 4850, PCI-E 2.0(x16), 1986MHz GDDR3, GPU 625MHz, 800 Cores, 2x DL DVI-I/ HDTV, HDCP £118.80 Inc VAT
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/512MB...VI-I-HDTV-HDCP

HDD: 640 GB Western Digital WD6400AAKS Caviar Blue, SATA 300, 7200 rpm, 16MB Cache, 8.9 ms £55.99 Inc VAT
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/640-G...MB-Cache-89-ms

Updated List what do you think of the GPU, + still need recommendations on PSU, Mobo and CPU

E5200
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Intel...B-Cache-Retail

This would be a fine cpu for what you want, it is easily overclockable to 3ghz and you should have no trouble running BF2142. If you want to spend more money go for one of the later versions, but you shouldn't need it.

The is no point getting the memory from ebuyer unless you are going to be buying something else to get the free delivery may I suggest you go for the Powercolor 4850 PCS+ from eBuyer £129 but the extra £10 buys you a quieter, cooler running and pre-overclocked card and qualifies the order for free delivery ;) If the extra £10 is too much of a stretch then the Play edition form Powercolor is also quiet and cool but not overclocked comes in at £123.

Might it be worth going for this and spending a little more now if it lasts me longer:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/512MB...VI-I-HDTV-HDCP

Sorry to change my mind but surely I should maybe scarp this idea and go for this?

http://forums.hexus.net/hexus-right2...m-699-a-2.html

Is it possible to upgrade the GPU at a later date or am I stuck with the 4850, (which is the one I would choose)

It's £750 for that model now but it is a good deal. The Power supply I seem to remember was strained so yes you can upgrade the graphics put not really in terms of power requirement.

Stuck with 1 year warranty (without paying more) and a few proprietory parts..

It is a very good deal if you don't want to build yourself but I would say it's far from perfect. In my mind the better option is a custom AMD build with phenom II but each to their own.

Will GPUs get more power hungry or will it be possible to upgrade in the future to something better? + will Dell Bios stop me?

Well yes and no. They will always push the the limits of what a chip can take etc.. but midrange cards should get better or stay the same.

the bios won't stop you.

ok so do you think since i'm not very expert in computer building this would be my best option for now. I was looking foward to the challenge of building a comp but it seems like this deal is too good to be missed.

Since you can save £200 odd on your own build and quite possibly won't see much real world difference.. value for money comes down to your own opinion.

I wouldn't buy the dell personally. I'll have their laptops any day but I'd rather know what was in my PC and know I can replace anything when I want with what I want.

Yea your right :(, I don't know what to do now. Seems like such a good deal and no hassle involved. The only thing was is worse in the Dell is the PSU and the mobo (even though it is an alot newer chipset)

Problems with that dell

http://configure.euro.dell.com/dells...=D01SX01&s=dhs
Base cost £629
Spec
Intel® Core™ i7 Processor 920 (2.66GHz, 8MB cache, 4.8GT/sec)
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium SP1 64Bit - English
1Yr XPS Premium Warranty Support - Priority Call In and Onsite Support
Microsoft® Works 9 - English
Display Not Included
2048MB (2x1024) 1067MHz DDR3 Tri Channel
500GB Serial ATA (7200RPM) Hard Drive
256MB ATI® Radeon™ HD 3450 graphics card
16X DVD+/- RW Optical Drive (DVD & CD read and write)
Dell Multimedia USB Keyboard Black - UK
Dell Laser Mouse USB (6 buttons scroll) Black

Upgrades
4850 512mb = +£150
3x1024mb = +£30.01 or better 6x1024mb = +£99.99

Total £880 Not quite such a good deal :(

EDIT: On the good side, they now use standard mATX cases so the PSU can be swaped for any standard ATX unit.
The BIOS shouldn't hold you back from upgradeing/replaceing the graphics card, what the BIOS will probably do is not allow you to overclock in any way, there simply will not be the option in the BIOS.
There will be a bit of "free software" ie crud you'll need to uninstall. but on the plus side Dells come with a hidden partition on the hard drive that has a very nice and comprehensive hardware tester on it.

No i'm getting the £749 one which has 4GB with it plus the 4850 512MB so surely that is a very good deal, better than I could do myself?

Intel® Core™ i7 Processor 920 (2.66GHz, 8MB cache, 4.8GT/sec)
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium SP1 64Bit - English
512MB ATI® Radeon® 4850 Graphics card (It doesn't actually tell you much about the card do you think it'll be any good?)
4096MB (4x1024) 1067MHz DDR3 Tri Channel
750GB Serial ATA (7200RPM) Hard Drive
16X DVD+/- RW Optical Drive (DVD & CD read and write)
1Yr XPS Premium Warranty Support - Priority Call In and Onsite Support

£749 incl VAT and Delivery + I can get a G5 Mouse lobbed in for an extra wooping 3.49!!!!!! :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mit321

4096MB (4x1024) 1067MHz DDR3 Tri Channel

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4 memory stick in tri channel :lol:

It's a good job dell don't do an overclocking service with maths like that.

Is that a mistake? Or is that really bad or something? Don't they just mean DDR 3 when they say Tri-Channel.

Me confused :(

it would be in tri channel mode if it was useing 3 or 6 sticks of memory
with 4 sticks it'll be running in dual channel (or even single channel not sure if the i7 can run dual channel)
It'll be a very small performance lose, and as the motherboard has 6 memory slots you could always get another two sticks later ;)

So it won't make a difference to me if I'm not overclocking? How do you know the motherboard has 6 slots?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Pob255

4 memory stick in tri channel :lol:

It's a good job dell don't do an overclocking service with maths like that.

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Damn....you beat me to it! :D

Note to self: Dont let Dell build me a machine

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mit321

So it won't make a difference to me if I'm not overclocking? How do you know the motherboard has 6 slots?

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nothing generally to do with overclocking, dell's restricted bios however basically rules out any possible overclocking.

I assume it's the same system as the one I linked to, that has 6x1024 as a possible memory option so it should have 6 memory slots.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Blitzen

Damn....you beat me to it! :D

Note to self: Dont let Dell build me a machine

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I'm amazed no one else beat me to it ;)

Found out some useful pic's of the inside of this dell
http://www.desktopreview.com/default.asp?newsID=537

http://www.desktopreview.com/assets/1452.jpg
PSU is made by Delta, logo gives it away, they make OEM stuff, normally found on Laptop power bricks.

http://www.desktopreview.com/assets/1456.jpg
You can see the motherboard UL number here, e93839 or Foxconn ;)

not sure if there's enough clearence beside the graphics card for a 2nd hard drive. :undecided