New Build: First Ever....

[803hart]

Hi there, I'm looking to build an intel dual core pc (C2D ready for later upgrade) for the first time ever. Its main use would be for 3D apps, movies and gaming... The allocated budget is roughly £500 for the base unit only.

I have picked the folowing components so far:

Intel Pentium D 805 Socket 775, SmithfieldCore, 2x2.66 GHz, 1MB x 2 Cache, Retail £57.50 £67.56

Gigabyte GA 965P-DS3 iP965, S775, PCI-E (x16), DDR2 533 / 667 / 800, SATA II, SATA RAID, ATX £81.89 Ex VAT £96.22 Inc VAT (Was thinking of getting an Asus P5B Deluxe is it worth it though, thinkin in terms of budget? coz Im guessing I'll have to make a sacrifice somewhere down the line)

[kalniel]

You've got a tight budget which you need to spend a chunk of on graphics, so I'd go for the ASrock conroe 945G DVI motherboard at around 48 quid. It's Pentium D and Core2Duo compatible, and the 50 quid saving is better spent on a graphics card upgrade.

[DanceswithUnix]

The 805 is pants at games, you will get rubbish frame rates even with a good graphics card.

You list 3D apps and video first in your list, and the 6300 will excel at that with the option of relatively easy overclocking if you want it to excel even more.

Spend the extra on an E6300, drop to the Asrock motherboard if you have to.

You might want a shuftie at some benchmarks. The 805 really isn't a good gaming CPU, unless you spend a ton on cooling and overclock it hard. I suppose it isn't that bad at rendering 3D or at media encoding, but check out where the AMD 3800 is on there, and then look at any benchmark of a 6300 and watch the AMD chip get left behind.

Other alternative is to get a cheap socket AM2 3800 for now (as motherboards are cheaper) and wait for K8L to come out next year to close the performance gap.

[803hart]

Spend the extra on an E6300, drop to the Asrock motherboard if you have to.

You mention dropping the E6300 into an ASrock mobo, which board would compliment this CPU?

Is it worth trying to build a system without having all the necessary funds avail i.e. bying a Mobo + CPU now then buying the rest of the components in a months time???

[dave87]

You mention dropping the E6300 into an ASrock mobo, which board would compliment this CPU?

Is it worth trying to build a system without having all the necessary funds avail i.e. bying a Mobo + CPU now then buying the rest of the components in a months time???

ASRock Dual Vista is the one to look out for - and if you want to buy it in stages, you can do, but beware prices will fall & could possibly rise (DDR2 for example)

The only benefit to buying now is if there is an insanely good offer, or you can use it with some of your current components, otherwise you are best off waiting. Oh and if you buy Mobo & CPU & RAM, & use the existing gfx card, you will need to reformat when you add the new Graphics card to get the best performance

[kalniel]

Well I mentioned it in my post, the ASrock conroe 945G DVI motherboard.

I wouldn't go for the dual vista one, it's slower I think.

[DanceswithUnix]

I wouldn't go for the dual vista one, it's slower I think.

It does seem to be slower, but more flexible with AGP and DDR support.

I notice that the "Advanced Search" facility on the Scan motherboard list allows you to ask for Core 2 Duo compatible motherboards only. There seems to be quite a range now, though Asrock are still the cheapest with their 945 based crossfire boards at around 55 quid.

[803hart]

Ok so I've made the following selection so far, will this work? Am trying by all means to keep it below £500, where may I make a cut?
CPU+MB+RAM:
Motherboard Bundle Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 1024MB 667Mhz DDR2 Heatsink And Fan Gigabyte Motherboard (DS3) £287.88

HDD:
Samsung 160 Gb Samsung HD160JJ SpinPoint P80, SATA300, 7200 rpm, 8MB Cache, NCQ, 8.9 ms £38.76

Case:
Gigabyte Gigabyte Triton GZ-XX1CA Black Midi Tower Case £49.93

PSU:
Xclio 480W XClio-SCF aPFC Super Silent SLi (21Db) 12cm Fan 8/20/24 ATX2/2.01 12vEPS + SATA+PCI-E Hi-End £52.86

GPU:
Saphire 256Mb Sapphire Radeon X1600XT PCI-E(x16) 12Pipes 1400MHz GDDR 600MHz CrossFire D-Sub/DVI-I/HDTV £76.83
(GPU is jus a temp measure till DX10)
O/S:
Microsoft Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition SP2 OEM Single £57.33

Total (inc VAT) :£563.59

[alcor]

Cut microsoft XP and use Linux? as it is a free OS?

Probably not a practical solution, but i thought i would throw it in the air.

[nvening]

If you already have XP, or run linux or something like that then

[kalniel]

Nvening gives a good base - you could cut another 10 quid from it by using the enermax 430W powersupply. And you can shave a bit more off by downsizeing the HDD, gets you close to being about to afford XP.

[alcor]

I have had an even better idea, well at least i think so!

Microsoft do a sort of trial Windows XP x64, basically its a trial version of the 64 bit OS, and the only limitation is it says Evaluation Copy on the bottom corner in the desktop. It lasts for 4 months or so. It gives you a chance to see if you have all the drivers and so on before comitting to purchacing a whole new OS.

So that is what i am using until Vista comes out, i figured there is no need to buy XP now and Vista in a few months.

So u can take off the OS, get the price down to £500, and then upgrade instantly to Vista in a few months hopfully when you have some more money.

Problem solved!!!

https://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/...cts/trial.mspx

[nvening]

Well its at RC1 so its pretty solid, there are just a few niggles here and there.