PC Spec Comments

[DaKid]

I'm building a PC for a friend, well actually two friends with identical budgets and requirements, and was hoping you guys would be kind enough to offer me some advice on the spec I've initially drafted. Budget is already exceeded, so anything more than a few pence of increase will need compromises made elsewhere in the spec.

Requirements are for a gaming rig with occasional surfing and a bit of Photoshop. Mouse, Keyboard, Monitor, Soundcard not required (onboard sound will be plenty), and reliability is important, so overclocking is unlikely.

Spec so far ...

MOBO
£88.95 (£104.52)
1x Asus A8N-SLI/Deluxe nForce 4 Skt939 PCI-E +3GB/sec SATA +SATA/RAID 5 +Firewire +Gigabit LAN +8ch. audio +USB2 Dual Ch. DDR (up to DDR400)
http://www.microdirect.co.uk/product...4&GroupID=1091

CPU
£93.99 (£110.44)
1x AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Venice Core 64 bit 512k L2 Cache Retail inc.fan Skt 939 (3 yr.warr.)
http://www.microdirect.co.uk/product...3&GroupID=1083

HDD
£42.20 (£49.59)
2x 120 GB Maxtor DiamondMax Plus10 SATA 7200rpm UDMA150 8MB Cache oem
http://www.microdirect.co.uk/product...07&GroupID=596

CABLE
£2.49 (£2.93)
2x Serial ATA HDD data cable 1m RB-410
http://www.microdirect.co.uk/product...42&GroupID=558

CASE
£66.45 (£78.08)
1x Antec Sonata II Ultra Quiet Midi Tower Piano Black inc 450W PSU (Front access USB & F/Wire, 9 Drive Bays)
http://www.microdirect.co.uk/product...13&GroupID=511

RAM
£49.00 (£57.58)
2x Geil® Value 1Gb PC3200 Dual Chan DDR Kit (2x512MB) (Cas 2.5 6-3-3) with Aluminium heat spreader
http://www.microdirect.co.uk/product...8&GroupID=1116

GFX
£200.50 (£235.59)
1x Asus Extreme 7800GT 256MB DDR3, PCI-E, Dual DVI, VIVO, HDTV, Retail with King Kong Game
http://www.microdirect.co.uk/product...5&GroupID=1275

FLOPPY
£14.45 (£16.98)
1x 3.5" Floppy Disk Drive inc 7 in 1 Card Reader Black Mitsumi
http://www.microdirect.co.uk/product...564&GroupID=45

DVD-RW
£23.03 (£27.06)
1x LG GSA-4167BAL Black DVD +/-R/RW 16x16x8x6x5 Dual layer IDE OEM
http://www.microdirect.co.uk/product...479&GroupID=42

DVD-ROM
£13.25 (£15.57)
1x Asus 16x DVD ROM Black IDE Retail
http://www.microdirect.co.uk/product...441&GroupID=42

CASE-FAN
£5.10 (£5.99)
1x Sharkoon Black 12cm System Fan (Silent 21dBA)
http://www.microdirect.co.uk/product...11&GroupID=358

GREASE
£2.60 (£3.05)
1x Coolermaster High Perf. Thermal Grease
http://www.microdirect.co.uk/product...5&GroupID=1095

CPU-FAN
£15.70 (£18.45)
1x Thermal Take Athlon K8 Venus 12 CPU fan (Athlon64/Sempron) A1744
http://www.microdirect.co.uk/product...2&GroupID=1102

OS
£52.99 (£62.26)
1x Microsoft Windows XP Home (oem) inc SP 2 ** Free mouse bundle **
http://www.microdirect.co.uk/product...479&GroupID=69

TOTAL
£764.39 (£898.19)

[Smokey21]

Hmmmm, look good, but i wouldn't drop 230quid on a 7800GT. You should be able ti find one at least 40quid cheaper.

OCUK are also doing great prices on X1800XT's 256mb, and 512mb models. As low as 199, and 250 respectively.

[Salazaar]

Maybe spend a little extra and get Opteron 144/146s instead of the Athlons.

[villarule]

You should look at the A8N-SLi Premium if you want that board. Ive heard alot about the fan on the deluxe breaking alot, causing the need for a new motherboard. The Premium also has a heat pipe thing instead of a fan to cool the chipset, which means its silent, and it works very well.

[Dark Horse]

No need to buy cables as they come with the motherboard.

Why not just go for one 250gb drive rather than two 120gb drives? Spinpoint p120s is a good call, quiet and good value.

Not much point in having two optical drives these days?

Floppy drive is pretty expensive even if it has a card reader.

I'd think about sourcing it all from scan so you get free delivery, prices will possibly work out cheaper too.

[TheAnimus]

people were buying 7900's for £200.... i'd be tempted to go for that myself, check bargin bin forum for more info.

[Rohan]

Agreed with everything said above, but also:

Don't get 4x512MB, get a 2x1GB kit. Geil value are fine though.

Also don't bother with the thermaltake heatsink and thermal grease, as the retail CPUs come with both, and they're just as good.

[Dark Horse]

Good point there, if you're not overclocking you wont really need a new hsf as the AMD stock ones are actually quite reasonable. If you set the fan speed properly they will never really ramp up, especially on a 3200+.

[DaKid]

Found a nice 7900GT after your comments for only a little more, so that's gone in now.

Not going to go with the comment about the Opterons ... am perfectly happy with the 3200, plus I've seen tests comparing an A64 3000+ against an FX-57 with no framerate difference on a reference GFX card, so I know that for the purposes the PC is intended, it'll make little difference for the most part.

Upgraded spec to premium mobo.

Dropped the cables.

Prefer two drives for the ease of spring cleaning. Store all your data on one drive and then, when it needs a bit of a spring clean, just blow away the main apps drive and reinstall. Been doing it for many, many years and it's a system that works well for me.

Personally, I've always found two optical drives useful, including these days.

Regarding the expensive floppy drive; it's either that, or a £5 floppy and a separate card reader which, even if it's cheaper, will still take up two 3.5" bays rather than one.

Fair point on the memory. The CAS timings are higher on the 1gb, but I'm thinking the difference in heat generation may offset that to a small extent and also reduce ambient temperatures and therefore noise inside the case.

Dropped the grease and HSF.

Updated Spec ...

MOBO
£90.95 (£106.87)
1x Asus A8N-SLI/Premium nForce4 Skt939 PCI-E +3GB/sec SATA +SATA/RAID 5 +Firewire +Gigabit LAN +8ch. audio +USB2 Dual Ch. DDR (up to DDR400)
http://www.microdirect.co.uk/product...4&GroupID=1091

CPU
£93.99 (£110.44)
1x AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Venice Core 64 bit 512k L2 Cache Retail inc.fan Skt 939 (3 yr.warr.)
http://www.microdirect.co.uk/product...3&GroupID=1083

HDD
£42.20 (£49.59)
2x 120 GB Maxtor DiamondMax Plus10 SATA 7200rpm UDMA150 8MB Cache oem
http://www.microdirect.co.uk/product...07&GroupID=596

CASE
£66.45 (£78.08)
1x Antec Sonata II Ultra Quiet Midi Tower Piano Black inc 450W PSU (Front access USB & F/Wire, 9 Drive Bays)
http://www.microdirect.co.uk/product...13&GroupID=511

RAM
£49.60 (£58.28)
2x Geil® Value 1GB DDR PC3200 400MHz DDR (Cas 3 8-4-4) with Aluminium heat spreader
http://www.microdirect.co.uk/product...9&GroupID=1116

GFX
£219.00 (£257.33)
1x 256MB XFX 7900GT Standard,Mem Clock 1370 MHz, GPU 470 MHz, 24 Pipes, Dual DVI-I, HDTV
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=360343

FLOPPY
£14.45 (£16.98)
1x 3.5" Floppy Disk Drive inc 7 in 1 Card Reader Black Mitsumi
http://www.microdirect.co.uk/product...564&GroupID=45

DVD-RW
£23.03 (£27.06)
1x LG GSA-4167BAL Black DVD +/-R/RW 16x16x8x6x5 Dual layer IDE OEM
http://www.microdirect.co.uk/product...479&GroupID=42

DVD-ROM
£13.25 (£15.57)
1x Asus 16x DVD ROM Black IDE Retail
http://www.microdirect.co.uk/product...441&GroupID=42

CASE-FAN
£5.10 (£5.99)
1x Sharkoon Black 12cm System Fan (Silent 21dBA)
http://www.microdirect.co.uk/product...11&GroupID=358

OS
£21.28 (£25)
1x Microsoft Windows XP Pro (Retail)
[Sourced Privately]

TOTAL
£731.10 (£859.06)


(Ignore this price, it's a modified price for my friend who's doing without the drives as he already has them)
Altered price:
£680.37 (£799.45)

[TheAnimus]

http://www.lowestonweb.com/Products/...7-77D609A60BE4

i'd get that myself, a 20mhz clock improvement on the graphics chip isn't going to get you an extra £50 in performance imo.

[Hefster]

Nice spec! www.coolestpc.co.uk are doing the Antec Sonata II for £65.95 and the Mitusmi floppy with 7-in-1 for £11.96 !

Mail the guys there at CoolestPC UK, they might even offer you a sponsorship discount on some of the gear!

[Magpa]

Dakid - LIke the Spec so far - very intersting on teh 7900GT.
A question for you peeps out there. Would it be better to go for a single 7900 or gor for Dual 6800s in SLI mode?

[Magpa]

Aria are doing Venice Core 3200's for under £100 inv VAT.

[Smokey21]

A question for you peeps out there. Would it be better to go for a single 7900 or gor for Dual 6800s in SLI mode?

Single 7900 by far.

[kasavien]

Nice spec, my only comment is why do you need a top of the range motherboard, when Asus A8N-SLI SE would be just as good and cost less, i suppose you need to ask yourself if you would use all of the features on a top end board?

Also if you're interested in saving money you may be able to save a bit getting things from scan and taking advantage of the free P&P, even though the components may be slightly more expensive the free P&P may make it worth buying from them.

Hope this helps

Andy

[Breeze]

Does the A8N-SLI SE come with the same type fan as the standard A8N or is it a heatsink? Only asking as the A8N (non sli) has a noisy fan.