Money to spend and totally undecided on what to do with it?

Hi,

Ok I'm looking to buy myself a new computer, well upgrade a few major components anyway. I have the following which I am going to keep:

ATI Radeon 9600 Pro 128MB
17 CRT Monitor
Seagate Baracuda 80GB

I'm a web designer and I use a lot of processor intense programmes so I need a rig that is going to be able to handle all of that (infact my current one does ok, but I want to get into video editing more), but I also play a lot of games and I want to improve my system for this.

I have about £300 to spend and need the following:

DVD Writer
Memory
Processor
Case
Heatsink

Now I was looking at the Shuttle SN45G which looked great, but I am worried by the small power supply and the fact that I don't have many option is I want to upgrade(i.e a more powerful graphics card).

My current motherboard is going in the bin, but I do have access to a brand new Asus A7V8X-X so I could use this.

Any ideas on what equipment would best suit my needs and price range? There is so much to choose from and reviews vary too much to make decisions easily.

Cheers,
Chris

With all the noise about socket 775 would it not be an idea to wait for a bit before diving in? If you don't go for the new chip/board set up at least the prices of the current crop of top of the range gear will drop.

As for case, I am an avid antec fan. I see you are not looking for a PSU in your list so you can pick up a case only for about £30. For a cooler I personally use a Zalman CPNS7000A but others will rave about Thermalright and Thermaltake. The Zalman will set you back between £20 and £40 (ish) depending on which one you go for and where you shop. I use Corsair memory which isn't cheap. 512 Mb will set you back around £100. Kingmax will set you back around £60 for the same amount but it doesn't gel very well with my motherboard, Abit IC7-G. With the advent of the ATI X800 XT and the new Nvidia cards. The 9800 cards and equivalents will also be coming down in price. My 9800 XT set me back £250 (there's your budget blown) but who will pay that when the new cards are out?

So unless you are in a mad rush I would suggest a bit of patience and wait and see.

Do you think this would do?

Liteon 8x DVD dual r/rw quickfind: 59069
2 x 512 DDR 333 Crucial quickfind: 42149
Athlon XP 2500+ retail quickfind: 46513
Chieftec BX-02B-SL Case quickfind: 56998

It's all of ebuyer and comes in just under £300 but you could go for a faster cpu as you say you use processor intensive programs. The gig of ram should be good for video editing but you could get less.

I don't see mention of motherboard or psu in the shopping list or what you're keeping ......

Well he's got a Asus A7V8X-X already i'm not sure what PSU he should use?

Web design programs don't really need a lot of processing power or memory. Dreamweaver? Definitely not. Flash? Definitely not.

Your current system would do the job just fine for web design

hmmm

Are you importing video into this system? I dont the think the 9600pro is vivo, is it?
something like a 9800AIW would allow you to import video as well as ripping stuff from a tv or sat as well.

Anyway.

Intel P4's are better at video editing as this is one of the chips strong points.

But if your on a budget...

Something like these would do:

Case - Cheap BX case from
£30 @ ebuyer
CPU - XP2500 mobile (runs cooler and higher OC for later) or desktop
£75 @ CpuCity
Heatsink - Stick to a stock AMD HS as they are cheap and they keep the cpus nice and cool if done correctly. Mobile cpus will run even cooler.
£5-7.50 @ CpuCity
DVD Writer - NEC ND2500a is a good nice cheap writer at the minute, you can get it from
£59.98 @ blankdiscshop
Memory - PNY are doing 256MB PC3200 for at
£25-30 @ PC World

I've already got an Antec PSU available to me, hardly ever used.

I've also got a firewire card so I'd take the video from the DV cam that way.

Would an Intel based rig be faster for gaming than an Amd? I once read that games were designed around Intel architecture, but that was a long time ago.

This is what I have seen and like the sounds of, but not sure if my money could be more well spent:

Chieftec AX-01SLD-USB Aluminium Dragon - £64.37
NEC ND-2500A 8x DVD+/-RW OEM Drive - £65.92
AMD Athlon XP 2500+ Barton OEM - £55.58
Crucial 512 DDR333 PC2700 DIMM - £127.98

Total - £313.85

Would still need a heatsink tho. I thought about a copper heatsink(I think) the ones without any fans...what do you guys think of these?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by darthmahon

Crucial 512 DDR333 PC2700 DIMM - £127.98

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Surely that can't be right :confused:

Oh sorry, I meant to say x2 :D

for gaming....
Athlon FX's and P4EE's have the best performance,
followed by Athlon 64
then P4, then Athlon XP
(in general)

However, FX and EE are out the ballpark budget wise.
A64's are reasonable if you buy a lowend, but the new 939 pin mobo's are due out in another month or 2, along with Intel's new 775 pin mobos.

If you read Anandtech's review of the ATI 9100 IGP(designed for Prescott) and notice how well it does with Prescott, it makes me think that the new 775 pin mobo's designed with Prescott in mind are going to do much better.

So you might want to wait about a month or 2 for 939 & 775 to hit the market. And worse case if they dont offer much improvement OR are priced too high. You can always go for a rig like mine. (Nortwood 2.8C + 865/875 mobo = nice rig)

Also, the 1-2 month wait will bring the prices of videocards down BIG time. Plus you could save a little more during that time and buy a fancier system.

I don't think you can get many heatsinks for the 2500+ which don't have fans but if you want a quiet hsf there's always zalman ones.

http://www.quietpc.com/uk/amdcooling.php#7000a

The Zalman Flower I have is pretty quiet, even at full speed!