Final spec, what do you guys think?

[Snow-Munki]

Hi,

ok going to build a pc for my g/f, her current pc is going to her dad as he still has something like a P120

a few parts are being salvaged or i'm giving to her as i might have spare and these consist of:

graphics card : geforce 4 ti4400
optical drive : cd writer or cd rom
keyboard and mouse

so she hardly plays any games but does a lot of photoshop work and other graphics but on quite a tight budget as doesn't believe in spending loads on her pc was going to go for athlon 64 but seems to be a bit too expensive for little difference in speed... and intel again is to expensive so therefore i've come up with the following:

Athlon xp 2600 mobile at £75 and overclocks the best i heard ?

Abit NF7-s best motherboard for the chip with decent onboard sound £65

Geil 1GB ( 2*512 ) PC3200 Value RAM : ram is very expensive not and i think a gig is important so this seem ok value for money ? £125

Hitachi 7K250 160gb : quickest harddrive around bar the raptors and quiet ish, £60

Thermalright SLK 947U : very good heatsink but not too expensive and also can cool well, £30

Zalman northbridge cooler : abit northbridge fan pretty noisey... £7

CWT 350 watt psu at only £25 seems a bargin and suppose to be a rebadged Antec so would be decent quality ?

ok so that's everything all that is left is for her to choose a case and a TFT which she likes, something i can't really do for her.. and the final price is £385

what do you guys think ?

she wants the system very quiet which i believe is possible aswell....

[mike_w]

I didn't think there was a 2600+ Mobile?

A 2400+/2500+ Mobile Barton from CPUCity will overclock well since it has low voltages. A low voltage means that you can safely overvolt more, meaning you can overclock it more. It is also multiplier unlocked, unlike the other Bartons and Athlon XPs in general. I reckon you should be able to get it up to well over 3200+ speeds. 2.5gHz shouldn't be too hard.

The motherboard choice is what I would recommend. It overclocks extremely well, with decent onboard sound, network, etc.

I don't know much about the RAM, but it might be worth considering Corsair Value RAM. This runs pretty fast for about £117 from Scan.

[da_ging]

firstly why not go a64 you can get the 2800 for as little as £90

as for memory check here for some v good deals clicky me

[BUFF]

Nf-&-S V2.0, XP-M 2400 1.45V & SLK947 @CPU City= £152 inc. VAT ex carr.
You will need a fan for the HS.
Does your Gf really want to overclock? Overclocking on air usually =more noise.
You could save a few £'s with a standard desktop XP2500 & run as 3200 (hardly counts as overclocking ) & with an SLK-900 instead of 947.
You could then spend what you have saved on a better PSU - I would at least trade up to the 430/450W.
Remember that removing the nb hsf (I've never found it particularly noisy myself) = instant voided warranty. You could save the hassle & extra expense by getting an A7N8X-E DeLuxe - yes it won't overclock as much but I still doubt that your gf really wants to.

[Donny John]

I have a brand new Asus A7N8X-Deluxe ver2.0 with all cables and manual etc, u can have for £40 if u like

[Snow-Munki]

thanks for the offers...

i was told apps like photoshop love high FSB so i thought overclocking would be a good idea..

hmm could just get a bog standard 2500 i guess....

never heard of cpu city before.. is it a decent place to shop as a lot of ppl seem to mention then here....

[BUFF]

never heard of cpu city before.. is it a decent place to shop as a lot of ppl seem to mention then here....

Yes, they are in Yeovil - not that far from Bristol really.

[BenW]

if a lot of people mention them, they must be good!

[Snow-Munki]

hmm now i'm spoilt for choice over a motherboard, none seem to be 100% perfect...

nf7-s = might be noisy ? picky bios and l12 mods etc

dfi nforce2 = amazingly high fsb but sometimes get cold boot issues ?

asus A7N8X = not very good overclocks but get free wifi

gearing towards the dfi though as its passive northbridge attracts me saving a few quid and warrenty as one of you stated

[BenW]

DFI will most likely be very picky about RAM etc

[Snow-Munki]

what problems does it have with ram, what ram do you suggest then ?

very temped to get this board now, just double checked for the latest bios and it seems to have a fix for the cold boot issues...

[Snow-Munki]

lol ok then..

an athlon 64 3000 and MSI K8N Platinum comes to only an extra £50

worth it ? as clock speed its going to be slower....

bare in mind its for photoshop / desktop work... and NOT .. NOT games ..

[r1zeek]

lol ok then..

an athlon 64 3000 and MSI K8N Platinum comes to only an extra £50

worth it ? as clock speed its going to be slower....

bare in mind its for photoshop / desktop work... and NOT .. NOT games ..

If they release maybe a 64bit extension for Photoshop (or indeed a 64bit version) that will own any 32bit version. Other than that I don't think you will see much performance increase (I might be wrong though) at 32bit.
I'd say go for it though as it will be future proof and you can run 64bit applications which will be nice and powerful for work.

[Snow-Munki]

hmm still unsure though as know very little about athlon 64's

and seems kinda stupid to future proof something that might be ages away.... as can always think like that...

[r1zeek]

Windows 64bit is coming out christmas/early 2005 I think.

All major companies (probably including Adobe) are working for 64bit extensions of their software so if your G/f needs alot of power, A64 would pay in the long run.

[Snow-Munki]

still looking !!

might go for the following:

Intel Pentium 4 "Prescott" 2.8GHz (800FSB) with HT Technology -
£109.95
Asus P4P800-E Deluxe "Springdale" (Socket 478) Motherboard
£65.95
GeIL 1GB (2x512MB) PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit CAS2.5
£104.95
Total £330.00

is that any good, will that overclock much, and to what limits ?