Another new PC thread... sorry

[BigGlenn]

Please see post further down for new proposed specs


Afternoon all,

I am looking at building a new PC in the new year and was originally looking at an AM2 system until I started looking at prices and hearing what everyone had to say about performance so this is what I am considering now

I will not be overclocking as I haven't got a clue and I don't really want to mess the machine up as soon as I get it

My budget is going to be around £500 - £550 so can you give me your thoughts on this please (all from Scan)

LN15444
256MB XFX 7600GT XXX, PCI-E (x16), Mem 1600 MHz, GPU 590 MHz, 12 Pipes, Dual DVI/HDTV SLi £83.77 £98.43

LN9707
80 Gb Samsung HD080HJ SpinPoint P80, SATA300, 7200 rpm, 8MB Cache, 8.9 ms, NCQ £24.49 £28.78

LN16564
Lite-On 16X DVD+/-RW/RAM black internal IDE Oem £15.39 £18.08

LN16642
Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition SP2b OEM Single Pack £47.21 £55.47

LN16909
Antec NSK6500 uATX/ATX Super Mid Tower, has Hi-Efficiency 430W ATX12v v2.0 PSU £61.69 £72.49

LN7771
1Gb (2X512Mb) Corsair TwinX XMS2, DDR2 PC5400 (667), 240 Pin, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 4-4-4-12 £59.54 £69.96

LN15451
MSI P965NEO-F i965, S775, PCI-E (x16), DDR2 533/667/800, SATA II, ATX £55.95 £65.74

LN15047
Intel Core 2 Duo E6300, Socket 775, 1.86 GHz, 1066MHz FSB, Allendale Core, 2MB Cache, Retail £98.95 £116.27

Total - £541 approx

I guess a couple of things may(?) change depending on prices after xmas but at least this will give me an idea

I have only put one HDD in for the time being but that will do me for a couple of months until I want to put more storage space in there

Many thanks in advance and hope everyone has a good Christmas and New Year

Glenn

[redsky009]

What do you plan to use it for? Games (if so what games), music, video editing, or just standard pc stuff?

[Hasnath]

have a look at scan today only page, a few quid knocked of the e6300 for example and the 7900gt is up for £129 which i would recommend

[DanceswithUnix]

Agreed on the GT, or keeping close to budget the 7900GS on Today Only is another 4 quid, not bad for going from 12 pipes to 20.

[BigGlenn]

What do you plan to use it for? Games (if so what games), music, video editing, or just standard pc stuff?

Sorry Redsky... meant to state what I intend to use it for

I use it for both gaming and general PC stuff for work (and listening to music while I work) - I usually play the obligatory CS:S although play a few other things as well although I have a console for general gaming. I am not a big gamer but I would like to be able to play some of the fairly recent titles if I decided to

This system will be a major improvement on what I currently have (An old Athlon XP2800+, 512Mb, Geforce 6600) so as a basis, would the system I suggested be ok??

Cheers

Glenn

[DanceswithUnix]

I am sure the system will be lovely, but the graphics card stands out as a weak link.

Look at this link for an example of 7600GT vs the 7900GS which is only marginally more expensive. I gather new silicon for the 7600GT is out which should drop the price and slightly improve performance, and frankly it needs it.

[redsky009]

yeah, the gfx will be the weak link really... if you aren't planning on overclocking, it might be worth looking into 2 gig of value select (667), although that would take you a bit over budget.

If you can squeeze out another few squid you could get the asus x1950 Pro (LN16520 for £123.48) which will give you a good boost in performance.., if not then the 7900GS should be a good buy

[acrobat]

I agree with what people said about the graphics card. Also, I would definitely suggest trying to stretch to 2gig of ram. It makes a big difference in gaming nowdays. Not every game... but a fair few. Gothic3 for example, runs like a dog with 1gig, and with 1.5gig its like a magic fix which just makes it much better. So 2 gig is the way to go. Also, the core2duo isn't hugely dependant on the RAM speed. So the value select (667) mentioned above should be great.

I also personally would consider getting a 120gig disk instead of the 80. It shouldn't be too much more expensive. Probably just a couple of quid.

[redsky009]

that's the problem with asking for advice here, everyone always wants to spend more of your money! happened to me too! still you get a better pc out of the deal, nothing worse than spending £500 and still not being able to play games at high res

[BigGlenn]

Ok, everyone, following my original post a while back now I still haven't managed to get myself a new PC but hopefully things are going to settle down to let me get one

This is what I am now looking at and I would appreciate any advice as to how it looks

LN16909
Antec NSK6500 uATX/ATX Super Mid Tower, has Hi-Efficiency 430W ATX12v v2.0 PSU £56.99 £66.96

LN15070
Gigabyte GA 965P-DS3 iP965, S775, PCI-E (x16), DDR2 533/667/800, SATA II, SATA RAID, ATX £59.59 £70.02

LN17304
Intel Core 2 Duo E4300, Socket 775, 1.80 GHz, 800MHz FSB, Allendale Core, 2MB Cache, Retail £66.49 £78.13

LN7771
1Gb (2X512Mb) Corsair TwinX XMS2, DDR2 PC5400 (667), 240 Pin, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 4-4-4-12 £32.99 £38.76

LN16176
256MB Sapphire Radeon X1950Pro, PCI-E(x16), Mem 1400MHz GDDR3, GPU 580MHz, 36Pipes, Dual DVI, TV-Out £88.39 £103.86

LN11461
250 Gb Samsung SP2504C SpinPoint P120, SATA300, 7200 rpm, 8MB Cache, 9.0 ms, NCQ £31.49 £37.00

LN17483
NEC AD-7170S-0B 18x DVD±R, 8x DVD±DL, DVD+RW x8/-RW x6, DVD-RAM x12, SATA, Black, OEM £17.93 £21.07

LN16381
Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition SP2b (Release 2) OEM - Single Pack £45.79 £53.80

This all comes out at around £485 which keeps me within my original budget (which had to be spent on other things previously, hence the delay in this build) but looks like giving me a better machine due to the natural price drops

As mentioned in the earlier posts it will be used for general work and gaming (CS:S, Half-life 2 etc tho I may look at some things like STALKER if that is possible)

One question I have is this - is it worth spending the little bit extra to get 1Gb of the PC6400 memory or 2Gb of the PC5300 memory?

I am not planning on overclocking immediately but may well decide to later having read some of the guides on this board (insert guide by Clunk here )

Thanks in advance

Glenn

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I would upgrade to 2gb of RAM as it does make a difference to many modern games like STALKER. If you intend to overclock it is better to get 800mhz memory - you will also need to invest in a better CPU cooler too!

[Pob255]

For gameing 1gb min, 2gb better, although pc6400 should give better resaults if you want to overclock.

I take it you're replaceing your current pc and resueing your current monitor?
If so then you could reuse windows aswell

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

This a good spec:

Your Basket
QTY Price (ea) Ex VAT Total Inc VAT Remove
Intel Core 2 Duo E4400, Socket 775, 2.0 GHz, 800MHz FSB, Allendale Core, 2MB Cache, Retail £73.99 £86.94
1 LN18122 Intel Core 2 Duo E4400, Socket 775, 2.0 GHz, 800MHz FSB, Allendale Core, 2MB Cache, Retail
LN11608
400w Silverpower SP-400P1B thermal controlled cooling fans £20.79 £24.43
LN15198
Akasa Zen Case - Black Silent Cool Midi-ATX Computing case w/2 silent 12cm fans w/o PSU £22.99 £27.01
LN15070
Gigabyte GA 965P-DS3 iP965, S775, PCI-E (x16), DDR2 533/667/800, SATA II, SATA RAID, ATX £59.59 £70.02
LN12201
2Gb (2X1Gb) Corsair Value Select, DDR2 PC5300 (667), 240 Pin, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 5-5-5-15 £58.53 £68.77
LN11461
250 Gb Samsung SP2504C SpinPoint P120, SATA300, 7200 rpm, 8MB Cache, 9.0 ms, NCQ £31.49 £37.00
LN16176
256MB Sapphire Radeon X1950Pro, PCI-E(x16), Mem 1400MHz GDDR3, GPU 580MHz, 36Pipes, Dual DVI, TV-Out £88.39 £103.86
LN17483
NEC AD-7170S-0B 18x DVD±R, 8x DVD±DL, DVD+RW x8/-RW x6, DVD-RAM x12, SATA, Black, OEM £17.93 £21.07
LN16381
Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition SP2b (Release 2) OEM - Single Pack £45.79 £53.80
LN13080
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro - P4 up to 4.4GHz - S775 Dual Core / Core2Duo Ready £10.35 £12.16
If you change any quantities, please re-calculate your basket
Scan Finance - Buy Now Pay Jan 2008
Pay £52.09 deposit and then NO payments for 9 months, then settle the balance and pay NO interest.

Scan Finance - More Sense Than Money

Net Total £429.84

Carriage £13.49

V.A.T. £77.58

TOTAL £520.91

You should be able to get the E4400 to 3ghz at least;you could save 10 quid and get a E4300 which tend to be able to reach 3ghz easily too!!

[shaithis]

Seriously, your looking at an overclockers board, an overclockers RAM and an overclockers CPU and you don't want to overclock?


Either buy an ASRock board if you really don't want to overclock (they are cheap).....or buy an E4300 and overclock it.


Both make the system cheaper without compromising performance and one of them will actually give you the performance of a far more expensive upgrade

[BigGlenn]

I would upgrade to 2gb of RAM as it does make a difference to many modern games like STALKER. If you intend to overclock it is better to get 800mhz memory - you will also need to invest in a better CPU cooler too!

Thanks for that Cat,

I had expected to need an aftermarket cooler if I decided to overclock but thanks for reminding me

The RAM might have to be done in stages then, ie get 1Gb of the 800mhz now and then add another 1Gb later as soon as I can afford it (dam house bills)...

I appreciate the alternative spec as well but having heard various comments about the PSU, is that one sufficient/reliable etc???


Pob

I am replacing my PC so will be reusing my current 19" TFT for the time being (my desk isn't really big enough for anything bigger than that and it does me fine anyway)

As for Windows, it is an old machine which only has Windows 2000 on it so am going to upgrade to XP, was thinking about Vista but will probably give that a miss for now as I am not really bothered about being bang up to date with things

Cheers again

[BigGlenn]

Seriously, your looking at an overclockers board, an overclockers RAM and an overclockers CPU and you don't want to overclock?


Either buy an ASRock board if you really don't want to overclock (they are cheap).....or buy an E4300 and overclock it.


Both make the system cheaper without compromising performance and one of them will actually give you the performance of a far more expensive upgrade

Shaithis,

Thanks for your comments

I didn't say I didn't want to overclock, I said just not immediately as I haven't done it before and want to read up on things first before doing it

That is why I am looking at the parts I posted as it gives me the potential to overclock when I am ready to do it, rather than spend slightly less now and then have to spend more to replace parts when I am ready which probably wouldn't be too far away anyway

Hope this makes my choices a bit more understandable

Glenn