500 quid 'budget' Gaming Box replacement

[davethechamp]

Nice one mate!

enjoy

Dave

[atrull]

I just took a peek at the scan mixit section .. damn, bad for my wallet. but not too bad - having considered the offering there I think the slightly higher cost more than weighs out the performance benefit of getting a 7800gt... or something

#What I went to bed thinking of last night:

QTY Price (ea) Ex VAT Total Inc VAT
1 LN11240 1Gb (2x512Mb) Corsair Value Select PC3200 non-ECC unbuffered CL2.5 Lifetime Warranty £49.94 £58.68
1 LN11813 NEC ND-4550A Black 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer DVD-Writer OEM UK £25.86 £30.39
1 LN12746 256Mb ScanFX PCI-E 6800GS SLi Extreme Edition GDDR3 ViVo Tv Out Dual DVI HDTV £118.83 £139.63
1 LN5291 1.44Mb Sony Black Floppy Disk Drive OEM £3.99 £4.69
1 LN12173 AMD Opteron UP 144 1.8GHz 64bit 1Mb Cache S939 Retail with AMD Heat Sink Fan 3Yr £98.18 £115.36
1 LN8301 420W Tagan I-XEYE Blue Light Whisper quiet 21db aPFC 12v EPS/SATA/XEON 3rs Warranty ATX/BTX £40.39 £47.46
1 LN11722 Abit KN8 Ultra PCI-E S939 NF4 DDR400 SATAII Raid Gbit Lan USB2 7.1Ch Audio £57.00 £66.98
1 LN11543 160Gb SATA300 Western Digital WD1600JS Caviar SE (7200rpm,8Mb) - NCQ £51.99 £61.09
1 LN10142 XClio 3010B Black Midi Tower Case w/o PSU Hi End Prescott Ready £19.95 £23.44
2 LN12813 12cm AK-174BK-S Black Case Fan, 3 Pin, Sleeve Bearing Ultra Quiet (17dBA) Retail Package £2.90 £6.82
1 LN12286 Scythe Ninja Fanless HeatPipe Cooler S775/S478/S754/S939/940 £27.49 £32.30

(I've left out the x850xt from ocuk, but it would cost more and there would be no free delivery on that little number)

TOTAL £604.44 including VAT, including 15 quid carriage

# What I'm thinking performs better for the relatively close money:
...

1 LN12813 12cm AK-174BK-S Black Case Fan, 3 Pin, Sleeve Bearing Ultra Quiet (17dBA) Retail £2.90 £3.41
1 LN10142 XClio 3010B Black Midi Tower Case w/o PSU Hi End Prescott Ready £19.95 £23.44
1 LN5291 1.44Mb Sony Black Floppy Disk Drive OEM £3.99 £4.69
1 LN11813 NEC ND-4550A Black 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer DVD-Writer OEM UK £25.86 £30.39
1 LN11237 512Mb Corsair Value Select PC3200 non-ECC 184 DIMM unbuffered CL2.5 Lifetime Warranty £26.15 £30.73
1 LN6678 80Gb SATA150 Western Digital Caviar SE WD800JD (7200rpm,8MB) £34.64 £40.70

1 ScanFX Extreme GF7800GT Combo :

AMD Athlon 64 3500+ 32/64Bit CPU S939 "Venice" 90nm OEM
Gigabyte GA-K8NF-9 NF4, ATX, DDDR400, PCI-E, Gbit Lan, USB 2.0, AC'97 Audio, 4 x SATA, Raid
512Mb Corsair Value Select PC3200 non-ECC 184 DIMM unbuffered CL2.5 Lifetime Warranty
480W Tagan TG480-U01 Quiet ATX2.0 SLi 12v EPS/SATA/XEON 3 Years Warranty ATX/BTX
256MB ScanFX PCI-E *Extreme Edition* GF7800GT *450 Core 1.05Ghz Mem* (256bit) ViVo 2xDVI
Gigabyte GH PCU31-SD 3D Copper Super Silent Heat Sink Fan Extreme Super Silent S478/SoA/S754/S939
£429.95 £505.19

TOTAL £638.55 including VAT, excluding 15 quid carriage

[killkoy]

a 7800gt will outperform the 6800gs and 850xt by a fair margin, seems like a good deal
have you remembered to include the price of an os, that can add a fair bit

[davethechamp]

Here's the same lot I showed you last nite, with the 7800gt instead and keeping the opteron goodness for some OC fun if you fancy it. Otherwise what you found yourself is good to!
I left in the slightly more expensive Akasa fan simply because it is nice and quiet, your ears will appreciate the extra few quid!!


LN12173 AMD Opteron UP 144 1.8GHz 64bit 1Mb Cache S939 Retail with AMD Heat Sink Fan 3Yr £98.18 £115.36
LN11240 1Gb (2x512Mb) Corsair Value Select PC3200 non-ECC unbuffered CL2.5 Lifetime Warranty £49.94 £58.68
LN8301 420W Tagan I-XEYE Blue Light Whisper quiet 21db aPFC 12v EPS/SATA/XEON 3rs Warranty ATX/BTX £40.39 £47.46
LN5291 1.44Mb Sony Black Floppy Disk Drive OEM £3.99 £4.69
NEC ND-4550A Black 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer DVD-Writer OEM UK<br>+ Ahead Nero Express Burning ROM Sui £25.50 £29.96
1 LN11813 NEC ND-4550A Black 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer DVD-Writer OEM UK
1 LN9628 Ahead Nero Express Burning ROM Suite 1 6.6.x OEM ** NEW**
XClio 3010B Black Midi Tower Case w/o PSU Hi End Prescott Ready £16.50 £19.39
1 LN10142 XClio 3010B Black Midi Tower Case w/o PSU Hi End Prescott Ready
LN9036 120mm Akasa Amber Case Fan, 3 Pin, 2 Ball Bearing , Ultra Quiet and Long life £6.89 £8.10
160Gb SATA300 Western Digital WD1600JS Caviar SE (7200rpm,8Mb) - NCQ £49.75 £58.46
1 LN11543 160Gb SATA300 Western Digital WD1600JS Caviar SE (7200rpm,8Mb) - NCQ
LN11722 Abit KN8 Ultra PCI-E S939 NF4 DDR400 SATAII Raid Gbit Lan USB2 7.1Ch Audio £57.00 £66.98
256MB ScanFX PCI-E *Extreme Edition* GF7800GT *450 Core 1.05Ghz Mem* (256bit) ViVo 2xDVI £187.99 £220.89
1 LN11796 256MB ScanFX PCI-E *Extreme Edition* GF7800GT *450 Core 1.05Ghz Mem* (256bit) ViVo 2xDVI



Net Total £536.13

Carriage £0.00

V.A.T. £93.82

TOTAL £629.95

Bargain.

[nvening]

lol, the price keeps creaping up by about &#163;10 each time. I would say you want 1GB RAM as 512 is the minimum spec for most games!

[davethechamp]

lol, the price keeps creaping up by about £10 each time. I would say you want 1GB RAM as 512 is the minimum spec for most games!

Whole heartily agree!
All the system suggestions so far have included a gig, one way or another!

The price going up is always a prob with this srt of thing, though hopefully the need for any near upgrades should not be there!! hopefully!!


Dave

[atrull]

I'm revisiting the opteron vs amd64 thing

If I went overclocking, does anyone know which end up giving better performance ? an opteron 144 or an amd64 3500+ ?

[davethechamp]

3500+ is : 2200Mhz with 512Kb L2 cache (11 x 200 = 2200)
144 is : 1800Mhz with 1meg L2 cache (9 x 200 = 1800)
If you were able to use a 166 divider in bios and set the HTT (fsb) to 250 and the LDT multiplier to 4 (default is 5), you would get:
9 x 250 = 2250Hmz for the CPU, and your memory frequency would only be about 204Mhz.
Therefore you memory will easily cope with the overclock.

Though noone in their right minds would ever guarantee any chip to overclock at all, if I had to bet on one, it would be the opteron 1xx series for socket 939

To answer you question though:
the opteron is cheaper.
At same Mhz speeds as an A64, performance will be higher.
Overclocking (something for nothing) is good fun!!

Dave

[atrull]

and my mileage.. may vary I agree.

I'm tempted to go after an aftermarket cooler 'n fan too just for the longevity.

[iranu]

my 2p

Opteron v A64

Opteron 146 stock cooler/stock volts (Asus A8R-MVP crossfire) does 2.6ghz no problem - will go higher with better cooler and more volts - waiting for bios to mature.
The 144 should do similar albiet with higher fsb. A64 3000/3200/3500 will do 2.5-2.6Ghz max.

I'd go 144 if you know how to overclock - @ £90 oem from scan is a steal.

6800gs v x850xt (v x800gto v x800gto2)

It's a no brainer - x850xt for £146. 6800gs ~ 6800gt, even if you oc the 6800 it isn't gonna touch the x850xt. I got a friend who bought a x800gt for £122 - does 520 on core and 540 on mem - couldn't unlock the pipes - gets 5700 3dmark. why bother with a gto2 when the real deal costs the same/less. x850xt (with same ram and chip as my mate) does 6200 without an oc. SM 3.0 meh - by the time it's popular you'll have bought a new card?

If you have a bit more to spend then a 7800gt is best bang for buck @£200 these days.

Rather than a WD drive, perhaps look at the 200g hitachi sata, 3gb/s, ncq, 8mb cache at scan for £58.

Apart from that I reckon you got it pretty sorr-ted (our Perry)

[atrull]

I'm trying to find that 144 oem iranu
ahah.. found it. woohoo.

[davethechamp]

I do think the opteron is best route to go. Aftermarket HSF, thats almost a whole thread to itsself!!
Agree with iranu about graphics cards. If money is there 7800gt all the way!

Cheap good HSF?
scan are supposed to be getting in the Arctic cooling range this week??? should be (at a guess) &#163;15 or so I hope

This can always be the upgrade you do in a months time!!!

dave

[atrull]

well, I've taken the plunge now.

came to a mean &#163;650, but that is with a nice funky processor and gfx card.

funny how your point of view changes when you can see what can be had for a just a teensy bit more

[atrull]

and for posterity :

QTY &#163; (exc Vat) Total &#163;
1 LN 1.44Mb Sony Black Floppy Disk Drive OEM &#163;3.99 &#163;3.99
2 LN 12cm AK-174BK-S Black Case Fan, 3 Pin, Sleeve Bearing Ultra Quiet (17dBA) Retail Package &#163;2.90 &#163;5.80
1 LN XClio 3010B Black Midi Tower Case w/o PSU Hi End Prescott Ready &#163;16.50 &#163;16.50
1 XClio 3010B Black Midi Tower Case w/o PSU Hi End Prescott Ready
1 LN NEC ND-4550A Black 16x16 DVD&#177;RW Dual Layer DVD-Writer OEM UK
+ Ahead Nero Express Burning ROM Sui &#163;25.50 &#163;25.50
1 NEC ND-4550A Black 16x16 DVD&#177;RW Dual Layer DVD-Writer OEM UK
1 Ahead Nero Express Burning ROM Suite 1 6.6.x OEM ** NEW**
1 LN 10pcs eProformance Premium x52 speed (80min) Spindle &#163;0.75 &#163;0.75
1 10pcs eProformance Premium x52 speed (80min) Spindle
1 LN Scythe Ninja Fanless HeatPipe Cooler S775/S478/S754/S939/940 &#163;27.49 &#163;27.49
1 LN 420W Tagan I-XEYE Blue Light Whisper quiet 21db aPFC 12v EPS/SATA/XEON 3rs Warranty ATX/BTX &#163;40.39 &#163;40.39
1 LN 1Gb (2x512Mb) Corsair Value Select PC3200 non-ECC unbuffered CL2.5 Lifetime Warranty &#163;49.94 &#163;49.94
1 LN AMD Opteron-UP 144 1.8GHz 64bit 1Mb Cache S939 *OEM* &#163;84.18 &#163;84.18
1 LN 256MB ScanFX PCI-E *Extreme Edition* GF7800GT *450 Core 1.05Ghz Mem* (256bit) ViVo 2xDVI &#163;187.99 &#163;187.99
1 256MB ScanFX PCI-E *Extreme Edition* GF7800GT *450 Core 1.05Ghz Mem* (256bit) ViVo 2xDVI
1 LN 200Gb SATA300 Western Digital Caviar Special Edition WD2000JS Caviar SE (7200rpm,8Mb) &#163;54.45 &#163;54.45
1 LN Abit KN8 Ultra PCI-E S939 NF4 DDR400 SATAII Raid Gbit Lan USB2 7.1Ch Audio &#163;57.00 &#163;57.00
Net Total &#163;553.98
Carriage &#163;0.00
V.A.T &#163;96.95
TOTAL &#163;650.93

thing is.. noise doesn't worry me that much since this thing will just sit in a cupboard ? why'd I go for all-black ? well.. I do open the cupboard now and then.

[davethechamp]

so what exactly did you order then!!! lets see..... Please!!!

dave

[atrull]

look up