Right, sure this type of question gets asked all the time. I’ve looked through past threads as best I can to get this far with the spec.I’m putting this PC together for friend who has around £800 to spend. Prices I’ve put are the rough prices (probably excluding delivery) I’ve seen around, as stores vary on each product by a matter of pounds. I wish places would make delivery charges easier to find. Comments and recommendations on these parts would be very much appreciated, please.
Mobo:
Abit NF7-s v2.0 (~£80ish)
Processor (either or):
Barton XP 2500+ (~£70ish) OR
Barton XP 2600+ (~£77ish)
HDD:
Maxtor Diamond Max Plus 9 SATA 8MB cache 7200 RPM 80GB (~£72ish)
RAM:
2 x Twinmos 256MB DDR PC2700 (~£70ish for pair) OR
2 x Twinmos 256MB DDR PC3200 (~£75ish for pair)
Seems worth getting PC3200 for £5 extra?
Graphics Card:
128MB ATI Radeon 9600 Pro DDR DVI+TV-OUT Retail (~£140ish)
OR
256MB MSI Nvidia FX5600-TD DDR 8XAGP TV-OUT Retail (~£135ish)
Case:
Antec Sonata Piano Black Quiet Case including 380 Watt TruePower PSU (~£75ish)
Monitor:
Eeek, no real idea, but he can’t afford a TFT or anything fancy like that, what would be the best that could be got for say £100ish? I’ve got a Hansol, which I’m pleased with and they seem cheap. CTX and Samsung also seem cheap.
CPU Cooler:
Zalman Flower CNPS6000-Cu Silent Socket A CPU Cooler (~£30ish)
The pieces I’m having most trouble with are the monitor (as you can see above) and the graphics card, ATI or Nvidia, also does the manufacture of the board matter, e.g. MSI, Asus, Hercules?
I want to get the important parts right first, but any recommendation as to CD-RW etc, are very welcome.
Thanks,
Anders.


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I’m putting this PC together for friend who has around £800 to spend. Prices I’ve put are the rough prices (probably excluding delivery) I’ve seen around, as stores vary on each product by a matter of pounds. I wish places would make delivery charges easier to find. Comments and recommendations on these parts would be very much appreciated, please.
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NF7-S v2.0 is a good solid mobo, it has its downsides IMHO but every mobo does I guess (and nothing truly major). You could save £40ish and get a non Dual Channel nForce2 (400 non-ultra), it only loses you 3-5% perf, I'd suggest the ultra myself but do consider the otions.
XP2500+ is definitely the CPU to go for esp if you want to o/c (even some point in the future). You should find a 10% speed boost from o/c'ing disgustingly easy and XP3200+ speeds are not uncommon.
The Maxtor SATA would be my best choice but I would go for the 120GB model, I'd suggest the 7200-8 ATA133 120GB over the SATA 80GB easily ... probably 7200-2 too. Not that capacity is all important but it costs so little to get 120GB now and makes a LOT of sense.
TwinMOS is great although there are alternatives. PC2700 isn't overly limiting in the real world BUT prices are so close it makes MUCH more sense to get PC3200. Obviously you want 2 sticks for Dual Channel, 2x256MB is more than enough for almost all home users and with RAM pricing I'd suggest going that route. The only downside is that when more RAM is req'd you'll probably have to lose 400FSB to run with 3 sticks so may need to chuck your 'old' RAM for 2x512MB.
Zalman Flowers are great and quiet coolers, the all copper one is preferable esp if you may want some o/c'ing. There are plenty of other great alterantives which also come in cheaper, the £15 Volcano 11 leaps to mind.