Mid-spec system - comments please

[ed^chigliak]

This case was posted in the bargains section maybe of interest see link below. Price is £49 but was £100 not so long ago and is high quality from what I read. Worth investing in a nice case IMO but I can see your sticking to a mid range budget and it will bump up the cost to go for an aluminium case.

http://www.komplett.co.uk/k/ki.asp?sku=301965&cks=SER

My previous rig with Panaflow 80mm fans was quieter than the Antec so the 120mm are not exactly essential to a quiet PC

The XP120 cpu cooler in terms of mainboard compatability is a not very good. It may fit your current build but what of the future? There are no such problems with the XP90 which fits all mainboards and not much difference in performance or noise.

[jimborae]

That Igloo looks like a Lian Li pc60 clone to me, and the cooling perfomance of them was not great unless the fans were on high. But for the price it's not bad however I think SLK3700bqe is better value.

Totally agree with regard to XP120 vs. XP90.

[Taz]

Oh dear! You guys are all making sense! I think the choice of case and PSU is important so i've changed a few things. I've also taken on board the comments about the Gigabyte mobo. I've found an Asus one (using the VIA K8T890 chipset, not NF4). This seems to be a good deal at Scan at the moment. I also found a huge aluminium case at Scan that is also a good deal. I've changed the PSU to one that is highly recommended everywhere - the Tagan 480W. Finally, i've changed the monitor to one that does a full 16.7 million colours and has DVI input, albeit at 25mS. So, here is version 2 of the shortlist:

- Silverstone "TEMJIN" J06S (Silver) Aluminum Supertower Case (w/o) PSU
- 480W Tagan Whisper quiet 21db
- Asus A8V-E Deluxe, VIA K8T890
- AMD Athlon 64 3200 32/64Bit CPU S939 Winchester
- 128MB Gigabyte GV NX66T128VP - GF6600GT
- 200Gb Maxtor Plus 10 (7200rpm,8MB) SATA NCQ
- TwinMOS PC3200 DDR-DIMM 1024MB Dual Pack Kit
- MX5020 2-piece wall-mountable speaker system
- 19" Iiyama PLE481S-S Silver, 15pin D-sub, DVI-D, Speakers, 25msec, 400:1, 250 nits, 1280 x 1024
- Thermalright XP-90 (will need a silent 92mm fan for this)

This has pushed the price up but to a little over £1000, it's not that much of an issue though. I'm still not that happy with the hard drives or the CPU (would prefer a Winchester 3500+ if I can get one) but the other components seem okay. I've also taken on board the comments about the heatsink. The XP-90 will be a better bet (subject to it being compatible with this mobo). One other thing about Gigabyte mobo's that I found out: they appear to have a custom-made plastic CPU socket back plate. Most of the high end heatsinks require a proper steel AMD-spec back plate. This only appears to be available in the US and not in the UK as a separate product.

I've got three more weeks before I place the order (pay day!).

Taz

[ed^chigliak]

I would consider 16.7m colours as secondary importance to the response time. I don't know what you do with your PC but at 25ms games and DVD will likely ghost a little. Viewsonic VX912 maybe?

Most important decision the screen... it's what you look at for one thing and will likely outlast your PC as a useful piece of kit.

Only one thing worse than choosing the case and that's the screen

Looks good to me. T minus 3 weeks and counting.

[Taz]

Most important decision the screen... it's what you look at for one thing and will likely outlast your PC as a useful piece of kit.
Looks good to me. T minus 3 weeks and counting.

Thanks, ed. I shortlisted the Iiyama as a result of a discussion in the Graphics forum (see here ). globalplayer seems very knowledgeable about TFT displays.

You're right about screens though. I still have a *very* old EIZO FlexScan F563-T Professional Monitor that I purchased over 10 years ago for £1000! It has seen several upgrades over the years of one of my systems and is still going strong.

I'll keep the VX912 in mind and see how the 'Today Only' and 'This Week Only' offers go over the next three weeks. I'm still waiting for all the highly-anticipated discounts following Xmas.

Taz

[RDL]

If you're not happy with that HDD, take a look at the Seagate Barracuda 200gb model, it is quiter than the Maxtor, and it is also very reliable.

[KingJimi]

That PC would be more than capable of doing what you want it to do.

[Duncan_Mon]

That PC would be more than capable of doing what you want it to do.

This thread is over 11 months old, kinda stupid bumping it up with that post

[project187]

That PC would be more than capable of doing what you want it to do.

omg you could make usefull posts to boost ur total u know thats about as much use as me telling him tp get a 7800 gtx bk then. stop spamming

[Thorsson]

That is really lame!!!