Opinion on this spec

[Hangman]

I am looking at putting together a new PC for the kids to use etc. Could you please give me some imput on the components I have chosen.

PCICASE PC-8601BS ATX Midi Tower Case - £31.99 Link
Ebuyer Silver 500w PSU - £8.08 Link
Gigabyte GA-K8NXP-SLI motherboard & Geforce Dual 6600GT 256MB GC - £259.54 Link
AMD Athlon 3000+ (Venice) CPU (Retail) - £84.45 Link
250GB Maxtor Diamondmax 10 SATA with 16mb Cache - £68.83 Link
Samsung DVD RW - £26.99 Link
2x Corsair 512MB PC3200 - £29.08 Link
Mitsumi OEM Floppy - £3.20 Link
Creative I-Trigue 3200 2.1 Speakers - £32.95 Link
Samsung SM913N 19" TFT - £166.79 Link
Logitech LX700 - £43.32 Link

I haven't looked around yet to check for the best prices but from what I can gather ebuyer are among the cheapest but if something is faulty the service is rubbish????

Thanks for your input.

[sawyen]

why dual 6600GT? I think you're much better off with a 6800GT and an AN8-SLI

and that is not 2 x 512.. thats 1x 512... stop dreaming m8, 1G of RAM dont come at those price. If you're looking to overclock, 3200+ is much better.... 10x multi is much more conservative.

[Fatboy]

Personally I'd spend more on the PSU, you get what you pay for and I'd be dubious about relying on the ebuyer one, look at some of the names PSU's.

Also, as in the other thread, look at getting a decent aluminium or steel case - gotta make it kid proof. You can pick up a Chieftec BX series case for slightly more than the case you're currently looking at. Granted it's not light being made from steel, but it's definately going to be kid-proof, and due to it's size, installing the system and cooling it is going to be a piece of cake - trust me, that's what my last case was.

Other than that it should be okay.

[mike_w]

I would definately not touch that PSU - £10 for 500W? Better to spend money on a well known brand, such as Tagan, Antec or Enermax.

As for case, I like the Beantech Igloos, but I don't think Ebuyer sell them.

[Hangman]

why dual 6600GT? I think you're much better off with a 6800GT and an AN8-SLI

and that is not 2 x 512.. thats 1x 512... stop dreaming m8, 1G of RAM dont come at those price. If you're looking to overclock, 3200+ is much better.... 10x multi is much more conservative.

The Mobo and GC come in a bundle
Gigabyte GV-3D1 with GA-K8NXP-SLI. Geforce Dual 6600GT Chip 256MB Graphics Accelerator bundled with GA-K8NXP-SLI motherboard

I understand the memory is 1x512mb (I will be buying 2 tho)

[GizmoStu]

I would definately not touch that PSU - £10 for 500W? Better to spend money on a well known brand, such as Tagan, Antec or Enermax.

As for case, I like the Beantech Igloos, but I don't think Ebuyer sell them.

Likewise. Chances are it will let you down sooner or later.

[Hangman]

Personally I'd spend more on the PSU, you get what you pay for and I'd be dubious about relying on the ebuyer one, look at some of the names PSU's.

Also, as in the other thread, look at getting a decent aluminium or steel case - gotta make it kid proof. You can pick up a Chieftec BX series case for slightly more than the case you're currently looking at. Granted it's not light being made from steel, but it's definately going to be kid-proof, and due to it's size, installing the system and cooling it is going to be a piece of cake - trust me, that's what my last case was.

Other than that it should be okay.

What about the 460W Akasa Ultra quiet aPFC PSU with Blue LED 12cm Fan ( 24Pin connector ) which is £45.52 at Scan?

[Hangman]

Also, as in the other thread, look at getting a decent aluminium or steel case - gotta make it kid proof. You can pick up a Chieftec BX series case for slightly more than the case you're currently looking at. Granted it's not light being made from steel, but it's definately going to be kid-proof, and due to it's size, installing the system and cooling it is going to be a piece of cake - trust me, that's what my last case was.

Other than that it should be okay.

I do like the look of the Centurion 530 Black Aluminium Case USB2.0 x2 ,MIC x1, SPK x1, IEEE1394 x1 (No PSU) from Scan

Does the rest of the spec look ok and is this a good mobo?

[mike_w]

The Mobo and GC come in a bundle
Gigabyte GV-3D1 with GA-K8NXP-SLI. Geforce Dual 6600GT Chip 256MB Graphics Accelerator bundled with GA-K8NXP-SLI motherboard

For a similar price, you can buy another nForce4 Ultra/SLI motherboard and a 6800GT/X800XL, which I think would be better value.

[Fatboy]

Regarding the PSU, the Akasa one should be okay. As a number of us have said, best pay more and know what you're going to get rather than paying £10 for what could blow up in a week .... and take the rest of the system with it.

[magicrichard]

Ebuyer service ranges from terrible to brilliant - within the same order sometimes. For instance they sent me a broken case, they then paid for it to be sent back, they sent me another, they paid again and finally on the third time they got it right. Each time it was a tiny problem but they were extremely good about arranging for it to be picked up. I find their estimated delivery dates to be pessimistic and they usually beat them. They are not always the cheapest though - look around!

I think you have massively overspent on keyboard and mouse as well :S

[krazy_olie]

I wouldn't recommend the graphics setup/mobo setup, even though it would give you good performance, probably an x800xl or 6800gt with a £75 or so motherboard, would give you better performance for a simillar price, maybe a wee bit more expensive but definately worth it.

Also getting an actual 1 meg set is cheaper than buying two of those 512 sticks. They sell 2 of those sticks together for about £10 cheaper than it would cost to buy seperately.

Don't know about PSUs but it seems most people would be a bit wary about buying the ebuyer.

I've ordered plenty of stuff with ebuyer, including a whole systems worth of components, and never had any problems, none of the products have been faulty so I can't comment on that.

Oh and remember those prices you listed are without VAT

[Hangman]

Thanks everyone I will reveiw the kit and let you know what I have changed too.

[GFiSH]

A mate of mine has just bought that mobo and graphics card package along with a 3500+ and it runs great, can't remember the exact score but it benchmarked well in 3DMark05 and AquaMark. The spec you suggested looks fine, but just get a better PSU and maybe a better quality case. The PC should run all of the modern games, and even new games that are coming out. How old are your kids, will they be running the latest games or are they still less han 3 feet tall? I would get a good quality keyboard and mouse though, especially if they're young or you might have to replace it every 5 minutes.

[Hangman]

A mate of mine has just bought that mobo and graphics card package along with a 3500+ and it runs great, can't remember the exact score but it benchmarked well in 3DMark05 and AquaMark. The spec you suggested looks fine, but just get a better PSU and maybe a better quality case. The PC should run all of the modern games, and even new games that are coming out. How old are your kids, will they be running the latest games or are they still less han 3 feet tall? I would get a good quality keyboard and mouse though, especially if they're young or you might have to replace it every 5 minutes.

I have 1 daughter who is almost 6 and my other daughter is not even 1 yet. My wife will also be using the PC.

One of the reasons for choosing that mobo is it comes with Wifi as standard and I will also be setting up a wirless network between the 2 PC's and my work laptop.

[iranu]

500W PSU for under a tenner - you have to be joking. Please don't do that. Go for something around the £45 mark. A nice system deserves clean stable power and not to burn in a heap of flames.

SLi with 2x 6600GT is like the chav with his 1.2 Nova with all the trimmings. It may look good, it may sound good, you can brag all you like with it but, at the end of the day, it's still a 1.2 Vauxall Nova

X800XL and X800XT can be had for under £200 now. If you must go SLi then get a 6800GT now and buy another later. I've even seen 6800 ultras for £220, which will own 2x 6600GT's for the same price.