Unsure as what to buy for next computer :|

[Scorchin]

Hi all, hoping you can help me out....
I want to buy a new computer for the new Sixth-Form Term, and i've made up a budget that i can get to *hopefully* the only problem is, i don't know what to buy?

All i need is for the tower to be built, and i've figure out that ill spend around £120 on case and fans/cooling, then £800-1k on parts. so, what can your brilliant minds conjure up for that sort of price?
The computer needs to have at least a dvd-rom drive, and a v.powerful processor, im thinking of going towards the s939 setup, and a minimum of 512mb RAM. The rest is up for debate.

[Alex]

Whats it mainly to be used for? Gaming, multimedia, work?

[Alex]

Hmmmm... how about this:

AMD Athlon 64 3400+ S754 £280
Asus K8V MoBo £70
Geil 1GB Value PC3200 £120
Radeon 9800pro £130
NEC 2510 DVD-RW £60
Samsung Spinpoint P160GB £70
MS Wireless optical desktop £30
Thermalright SLK940U +92mm fan £40
Thermaltake 480W PSU £50
Creative Inspire 5.1 P580 £30
Windows XP Home OEM £65
Thermaltake Tsunami Dream case £90
Fan Controller for case & CPU fans £20

Prices are guestimates, but total inc case and cooling is £1060. Maybe 512MB RAM and X800pro instead for about £150 more.

[Riley]

Socket 939 Is extremely expensive at the moment you are looking at atleast £350 (EDIT: for the CPU alone), and I don't think that the price will drop much by September time. You wouldn't do it justice with a £1000 budget.
Personally I would buy a not so cutting edge but still a decent performance and most importantly good value cpu/motherboard/memory setup now and wait and see what happens over the next 12 months with DDR2, PCI-Express and with 64 bit and maybe buy a new cpu/mobo/mem setup then.

Here is an idea (general use):

Antec P160 Annodized Aluminium Super Midi Tower £100

Antec True Power 550W ATX PSU £100

Abit IC7-G Intel 875 Motherboard £105

Kingmax PC3500 SuperRAM 433Mhz 1GB (2 x 512Mb) Dual Channel £130

Intel Pentium 4 Northwood 3.0C Ghz 800Mhz Retail Boxed £150

Lite-On LTR-52327S White CD-RW Retail £20.00

Lite-on SOHW-832S Dual Layer DVD+R / DVD+RW Retail Boxed £65

Western Digital Caviar 7200RPM 120GB 8MB SATA OEM £70

Sapphire Atlantis Radeon 9800 Pro 128Mb LITE Retail Boxed £140

Total: Around £900 including VAT and Delivery

You could overclock the P4 if you wanted too.

I hope this helps.

[Scorchin]

well, its basically going to be used for gaming, and general office tasks, such as Word etc.

But more gaming, not gonna Overclock just yet, give it a couple months.

[Alex]

Do you need windows, keyboard/mouse, speakers etc?

[Scorchin]

nope, just need to build the tower and maybe a decent mouse so i can expand the budget another £25ish

[Scorchin]

ooooo, i forgot, need an OS, so windows XP needs to be included in the price

[Alex]

In that case...

AMD Athlon 64 3400+ S754 £280
Asus K8V MoBo £70
Geil 512MB Value PC3200 £60
Radeon X800pro £310
NEC 2510 DVD-RW £60
Samsung Spinpoint P160GB £70
Thermalright SLK940U +92mm fan £40
Thermaltake 480W PSU £50
Thermaltake Tsunami Dream case £90
Fan Controller for case & CPU fans £20
Windows XP Home £65

Total cost £1105.

[Scorchin]

hmmm, everyone is saying to go with s754 setups, yet when i look around on the net, sites are saying that s754 will become obsolete soon, and s939 systems are going to go, this new system, needs to last me around 2-3 years, as thats when ill next upgrade it.

[Alex]

Well, does it really matter if S754 becomes obsolete? In 2/3 years, you'd need a new motherboard to upgrade your CPU anyway...

[Riley]

Antec P160 Annodized Aluminium Super Midi Tower £100
Antec True Power 550W ATX PSU £100
Abit IC7-G Intel 875 Motherboard £105
Kingmax PC3500 SuperRAM 433Mhz 1GB (2 x 512Mb) Dual Channel £130
Intel Pentium 4 Northwood 3.0C Ghz 800Mhz Retail Boxed £150
Lite-On LTR-52327S White CD-RW Retail £20.00
Lite-on SOHW-832S Dual Layer DVD+R / DVD+RW Retail Boxed £65
Western Digital Caviar 7200RPM 120GB 8MB SATA OEM £70
Sapphire Atlantis Radeon 9800 Pro 128Mb LITE Retail Boxed £140
Razer Viper Mice 1000dpi Pro & Icemat2 Professional Gaming Surface £50
Microsoft XP Home £60
Total £1010 including VAT and Delivery (prices are accuarate)
+ £40 for XP Pro

[Scorchin]

hmmmmmmmmmmmm, why p4, people say its better getting an AMD

[Riley]

If you are serious about socket 939:

Antec P160 Annodized Aluminium Super Midi Tower £100
Antec True Power 550W ATX PSU £100
Asus A8V Deluxe WI-FI VIA K8T800Pro Socket 939 Motherboard £90
AMD Athlon 64 3500+ £355
Kingmax PC3500 SuperRAM 433Mhz 1GB (2 x 512Mb) Dual Channel £130
Lite-On LTR-52327S White CD-RW Retail £20
Lite-on SOHW-832S Dual Layer DVD+R / DVD+RW Retail Boxed £65
Western Digital Caviar 7200RPM 120GB 8MB SATA OEM £70
Sapphire Atlantis Radeon 9800 Pro 128Mb LITE Retail Boxed £140
Razer Viper Mice 1000dpi Pro & Icemat2 Professional Gaming Surface £50
Microsoft XP Home £60
Total £1200 including VAT and Delivery (prices are accuarate)
+ £40 for XP Pro
+ £200 odd if you really want a X800...

EDIT: Total price wrong...

[Scorchin]

what sites are you guys getting these prices from?

[Riley]

what sites are you guys getting these prices from?

www.overclock.co.uk