Got a budget of around 1000
looking to buy a decent pc which will run all games well, and be pretty fast, aint an expert on hardware meself.
Any help appreciated please :)
No monitor needed
Printable View
Got a budget of around 1000
looking to buy a decent pc which will run all games well, and be pretty fast, aint an expert on hardware meself.
Any help appreciated please :)
No monitor needed
ok, a few questions before the mob descends on this thread..... ;)
1000 pounds, dollars, yen?
Are you interested in how it looks (ie should we budget for a nice case)?
And are you bothered about how loud it'll be?
sorry, must elaborate meself :P
£1000, if it looked nice it wud be a bonus but performance is most important
im not really fussed about sound as long as it dont sound like heathrow airport hehe, a kind of level being sommat i cud sleep thru :)
right, well seeming as none of the regular, more knowledgeable lot are replying to this, ill have a bash myself. Personally, i'd go the AMD route.
AMD Athlon "Barton" XP3200+ 400FSB (Socket A) CPU £258.44
Abit NF7-S v2.0 nForce2 (Socket A) Motherboard £78.14
TwinMOS 1GB (2x512MB) DDR PC3200 Dual Channel Kit £140.88
LiteOn LDW-411S 4x DVD±R/±RW Drive £97.53
Hercules 3D Prophet 9800 Pro 128MB DDR £279.59
Maxtor DiamondMax Plus9 Serial ATA 120GB 8MB Cache £78.43
Antec Sonata Piano Black Quiet Case w/380w Truepower PSU £88.07
Yours for £1021.08 @ OcUK, but you could probably get it under £1000 if you shop around.
I reccomend you consult this chart: http://www.romulus2.com/feedback/chart.php?1 before choosing your retailer, and remember that the cheapest prices doesn't always mean the best service.
i would go with the cheaper Athlon 2500+ http://www.pcindex.co.uk/showtop.asp...9&id=866128779 (prices from £70-85) which you can usually overclock to 3000+/3200+ speeds and is a fraction of the price..
other than that you cant complain.. nf7-s 2.0 is a quality board, paired with a couple of 512mb sticks you'll be laughing :) i guess you could get another 120gb sata drive and RAID that with the other one using the money you would've saved from getting the 2500+ instead of a 3200+...
mark
AMD Barton 2500- overclock to 3200 speeds easy
NF7-S v2.0
2*512 TwinMos 3200 w/winbond
Radeon 9800pro
2 80gig 7200rpm 8mbcache maxtor drives for raid0
cd writer dvd reader combo
From kustom http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/product.p...4de29af2b6e3eb
or http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/product.p...4de29af2b6e3eb
depending on your favourite colour :D
Good quality branded 360w psu (at least)
HSF slk700 cheap and it does the job admirably
That saves you a load of cash. Dont spend a grand- no point. The spec ive listed will kick ass for a long long time. Its more than enough to run all the latest games with all the eye candy on full and the frame rates kept higher than a britney spears induced trouser tent :D
Maybe get a nice new keyboard and mouse as well :)
How about:
P4 2.4C £139.83 (overclock to at least 3.0Ghz, probably 3.4)
Asus p4c800-e £143.35
TwinMos pc3200 1GB £140.88
Powercolour Radeon 9800 Pro £258.38
WD Raptor 38GB 10000RPM £74.75
Seagate V 120GB 7200RPM £69.99
Aero 4 £16.80 (www.ebuyer.com)
Sub Total:
£843.98
Case if needed:
Coolermaster ATC-201B-SXK "Silver Widow £93.94
Antec 550W PSU £83.9
£1021.82
Serious gaming comp this one. If you need some speakers:
SB Live 5.1! £24.15
Creative Inspire 5.1 P580 £49.5
Total:
£1095.47
Went a bit over but worth every penny.
All prices from www.overclockers.co.uk
;) A lot depends upon whether you want top perf so long as it's under your budget and whether or not you fancy trying o/c'ing (never been easier or more worth it). For example most XP2500+ will run as XP3200+ with VERY little trouble. Most P4 2.4ghz or 2.6ghz 800FSB (C) achieve around 3.2ghz when o/c'ed. Most Rad9800 can run as 9800PRO when o/c'ed and most 9800PRO can hit 9800XT speeds. Esp if you want to avoid o/c'ing consider how much more perf you get for the extra you spend. Example the 9800XT is only fractionally faster than the 9800PRO and a lot more pricey. Even the 9800 is pretty close to the 9800PRO but savings there are smaller. The XP3200+ isn't much faster than the XP2800+ or XP3000+ but is likely to demand a lot more cash. The P4C 3.2ghz isn't much faster than the 3.0ghz which in turn is very close to 2.8ghz and yet price diffs are very large.
:cool: There are 3 main CPU choices at the mo. AthlonXP, Athlon64 and P4 (C=800FSB with HT). None is likely to give you much headroom for upgrading as AthlonXP is nearing the end of its road, Athlon64 will be switching from 754pin to 939pin and the new P4's are liekly to be incompatible with current mobos (even the new 800FSB ones). Athlon64 is the clear perf leader but costs a LOT. AthlonXP is easily the best value and still very powerful but P4 does get a nice little boost from 800FSB and HT so that really is the perf choice without forking out for Athlon64.
:p For the gfx card Rad9800 or Rad9800PRO make the most sense, GF-FX really aren't worth it even if they were cheaper while the Rad9600PRO/XT are a fair step down and not likely to be what you're looking for. Gfx card is THE most important part where gaming is concerned. 128MB is all you need, 256MB if you get a good deal and want the added peace of mind.
:D Those are the choices for your key parts, base the rest of your system around the choices made above. PC3200 is all you need for AthlonXP but you may want something as fast as PC4000 if you want to keep the RAM and FSB synced when o/c'ing an 800FSB P4. Brand matters. For the mobo the nForce2 Ultra400 with MCP-T/Soundstorm is the top choice for AthlonXP, i875P is top chipset for the P4 800FSB. Then it's really just a matter of adding in things like HD, DVD Writer, case, PSU, mouse, keybd, printer etc. For £1000 you should be able to get 2 very nice systems so do consider that avenue.
£70 XP2500+ (o/c around XP3200+)
£15 Volcano 11+ (or other Decent HSF)
£220 Rad9800PRO (@ Komplett)
£80 ABit NF7-S v2.0 or Asus A7N8X Deluxe
£70 2x256=512MB TwinMOS PC3200
£100 4x DVD Writer '+ and -'
£70 120GB 7200rpm 8MB HD
£50-100 for case and PSU
£20-50 for nice keybd & mouse
TOTAL £700 (2nd PC may not need top gfx, DVD Writer etc).
wow thanks for that austin
nice to know that people will go out of thier way to help me :)
After reading around a bit, and weighing things up, i think that i will go with the p4 2.8c (c being any with 800fsb?) sorry aint really up to date with modern hardware seeing as my pc is a duron 1200 :P
ive been told that corsair XMS3200 is good ram and i shud get 2 sticks of 256? that a good choice? could someone please explain ram to me nowadays cus it really does confuse me...
ive also been told to get an asus p4p800 deluxe "springdale" motherboard, but it doesn't have that chipset u said was the best so perhaps a little more for a Asus P4C800 Deluxe "Canterwood"?
For the gfx ill deffo be going 9800 pro (probably sapphire).
thanks for all ure help so far :)
DESCRIPTION QUANTITY PRICE COST REMOVE
Intel Pentium 4 2.8GHz (800FSB) with HT Technology - Retail (CP-026-IN)
£139.95 £139.95
Asus P4C800 Deluxe "Canterwood" (Socket 478) Motherboard (MB-021-AS)
£114.50 £114.50
Sapphire ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB DDR TV-Out/DVI - Retail (GX-017-SP)
£238.50 £238.50
Corsair 256MB DDR XMS3200LLPT Low Latency Platinum CAS2 (MY-013-CS)
£56.50 £113.00
Pioneer DVR-106 4x DVD±RW - OEM (CD-011-PO)
£91.85 £91.85
Zalman CNPS7000-Cu Ultra-Quiet CPU Cooler - Retail (HS-005-ZA)
£31.90 £31.90
Enermax EG365AX-VE(G)(FMA) 350W ATX Power Supply (CA-003-EN)
£38.75 £38.75
Subtotal £768.45
VAT £134.48
Total £902.93
Looks to be a good system, dunno how well the zalman will cool that processor though so might want to get a few reviews or views from other posters.
thats just an example system that i have came up with from people saying whats good etc, please feel free to say what u think wud be worth changing etc :)
Its not bad.Quote:
Originally posted by Stylez
Looks to be a good system, dunno how well the zalman will cool that processor though so might want to get a few reviews or views from other posters.
I have the AlCu cooler on my own P4 2.6C processor. I have JUST overclocked it to 3.03gig and the idle temp is 37.5-39.5oC with it rising to 56oC under constant heavy load (encoding DVD's for 6 hours constant) but this drops to 42oC in around 1 min from stopping encoding and continues to drop again till idle temp.
This may not be as cool as some but you MUST remember that the Zalman runs 2-3 times SLOWER than a standard fan i.e. 92mm fan @ 1400RPM at slowest giving around 20db of noise and I regularly sleep thru it.....
So the temps are prety good considering the mild overclock (2.6 ---> 3.03 gig) This is using Arctic Silver 3 mind and is after the AS3 200 hour reocmmended "burn in" period.... Temps are higher until this is passed for some reason.
:D We're a friendly bunch round here.Quote:
Originally posted by fraggie
nice to know that people will go out of thier way to help me :)
:cool: Springdale (i865PE) is a fine mobo chipset, only a very small notch down from the Canterwood (i875P) ... prices are usually very small so it makes sense to get the i875P esp as you're after top perf. These mobos are designed for 800FSB like the P4C (C=800FSB with HT) so that's defintely how you want to run them.
:) Corsair is often regarded as the best RAM out there but it's also way over-priced so you're much better off with TwinMOS (esp with WinBond chips) or Adata (very cheap) although there are others. 2x256MB=512MB (ie 2 sticks) is what you'll surely want as 2x512MB=1GB is pricey and overkill for most people/uses. AFAIK all 865/875 based mobos have 4 slots so adding another 2x256MB is likely to be easy when the time comes. If you want top perf and lastability just get 2x512MB now. You want 2 sticks as that enables Dual Channel access which doubles the overalll RAM speed to 6400MB/s (RAM bandwidth is VERY important for P4). PC3200 is all you need but for o/c'ing PC3500-4000 is ideal although you can still use PC3200 just a slight perf loss by running async. So bottom line, I wouldn't say Corsair is worth it so look to another good brand then either 2x256MB or 2x512MB of PC3200. I take it you won't really be o/c'ing anyway otherwise it would make more sense to get the 2.4C or 2.6C.
;) Yep Rad9800PRO is a very fine choice, you could even buy that NOW and stick it with your Duron then max out AA+AF in the drivers and see how brilliant things run even before the rest of the PC is upgraded. I take it your current mobo can't handle AthlonXP?
my current mobo cudn't run a mile :p
ive actually changed my mind round a bit now as to what i want for price etc.
Now ill be looking at these items -
p4 2.6c
Intel D875PBZ "Canterwood"
Hercules Radeon 9800 Pro
1 gig Pc3200 ram (prob twinmoss)
Pioneer 106
Still not sure on a good HSF to run on the processor which is good.