Hows this?

[midzt]

Just planning my new comptuer and was just wondering what you guys thought of this so far:
any recommendations would be very welcome

Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 1.86Ghz
Gigabyte GA965P-DS3
XFX 7600GT 256MB
1GB Corsair XMS2 PC5400 (667)
480W Tagan TG480-U15 Easycon

Thank you

[philipbain]

The spec starts off well, the CPU is fine (though you might want to replace the stock cooling with something a tad more effective as that CPU has "overclock me" written all over it!) and the Motherboard is decent too, the graphics could need a bit of fine tuning, depending on what your using the machine for, if your going to be playing a few games then i'd point you in the direction of the GeForce 7900GT as it represents excellent value for money as well as great performance (being a 7900GTX at lower GPU clock speed and memory).

Memory - you'll be wanting to utilise PC6400 DDR2-800 memory, it's a little extra again but it's worth it as the slower memory will restrict bandwidth and create a possible bottleneck. I'd also suggest that you kit it out with 2GB, espeically with Vista around the corner whcih will be memory hungry. I'd think that a 2GB Corsair TwinX 2x1GB kit of PC6400 (DDR2-800) CAS5 will fit the bill nicely and represents good value too.

The PSU should be sufficient, dependant on what other kit your putting into your PC, it should take the listed hardware as well as a DVD-RW and a couple of hard drives ok.

[Dreamscape]

Whats your budget for this, as it makes it easier for people to advise

[midzt]

THanks for the replies so far, im thinking around 500 pounds.
I can get the Core 2 Duo for about 105 in HK so I'm thinking of getting that.

I'm going to be doing some 3D works with 3ds and some CAD with Solidworks, and also gaming aswell, although less so, and just general computer stuff.

[philipbain]

If your wanting a complete Core 2 Duo box for £500 then you may have to source parts from outside the country as I have done a spec along the lines of what you were looking at from a UK source (Scan) which is as follows:

Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 S775, 1.86Ghz, 1066Mhz FSB, Conroe Core, 2M Cache OEM (w/o Heat Sink Fan) £135.07
Zalman CNPS9500-AT Intel LGA775 Aero Flower Cooler £30.42
Gigabyte GA 965P-DS3, Intel P965, S775, PCI-E (x16), DDR2 533/667/800, SATA II, ATX £98.34
1Gb (2X512Mb) Corsair TwinX XMS2, DDR2 PC6400 (800), 240 Pin, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 5-5-5-15 £79.48
256Mb Leadtek 7600GT, PCI-E (x16), Mem 1400 MHz, GPU 560 MHz, 12 Pipes, Dual DVI-I/HDTV £111.50
250 Gb Samsung Spinpoint P SP2504C, SATA300, 7200 rpm, 8MB Cache, 9.0 ms, NCQ £49.69
Pioneer DVR-111 Black 16x16 x5 RAM DVD±RW Dual Layer DVD Writer (Reduced Length) OEM £25
Xclio 3010B Black Midi Tower Case w/o PSU Hi End AMD64/Prescott Ready £25.79
530W Hiper HPU-4M530 SLi Ready Black ATX2.2/BTX SATAx4 PCI-Ex2 £46.99

Total: £602.28

That spec is decent enough but is still a clear £100 more than you stated, so if you can get the parts cheaper from Hong Kong then thats the sort of spec you might be able to get for £500, VAT is a killer!

[charleski]

If you're looking to trim the cost, get cheap DDR2-667 RAM (no need for anything more unless you're going to overclock) and get an Arctic Freezer 7 Pro, same performance as the Zalman for half the price.

[Will]

I would recommend the 2gb ddr2 667 TeamGroup kit from tekheads.co.uk which clocks very well up to around ddr2 1066 speeds. It will greatly help as this mobo doesn't have lower memory dividers (yet).