Finally ordered by new PC!!!

[fishboy25uk]

So after months of waiting, it's finally ordered. Just thought you guys might be interested in what I got, and the prices because there are some great deals on at the moment, especially in the Scan 'Today Only' section (which will be available until the end of the year).

All these are available at the moment, and include VAT.

Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 Retail - £138.64 - Scan
Asus P5B - £90 - Couple of months ago from ebay
GECUBE X1950Pro 512MB - £139.94 - Ebuyer
Western Digital WD3200KS 320GB - £51.09 - Ebuyer
2GB (2x1GB) CorsairTwinX XMS2 6400 - £170.38 - Scan
AKASA Zen case - £24.66 - Scan
550W Xclio PSU - £49.94 - Scan
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler - £14.68 - Scan
Samsung SH-S182M/BEBN Black Lightscribe DVDRW - £19.39 - Scan
HannsG HN198D 19" TFT - £121.01 - Ebuyer
Logitech Cordless Desktop EX 110 - £16.63 - Ebuyer
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Music - £51.45 - Scan

I've had to scrimp in some areas like the case and the graphics to keep it on budget, but all this (plus WinXP and a couple of little extras) came in at around £960 delivered, so not too bad I think. It'll certainly do me for 18 months or so, considering I'm not an avid gamer, and I can always slip in a DX10 card in 6-9 months time.

Any comments or suggestions are welcome, and thanks to everyone for the advice over the last few months.

EDIT: Got so excited there I mis-spelt the title. Feck.

[MiLaMber]

Congrats on your new purchase, enjoy it
Nice price on E6400

[Max Tractor]

Connect 3D X1950XT 256MB GDDR3 DVIx2 VIVO PCI-E for £160 just £20 more than the pro, personally I would go for it, I would also do a check on the x-fi, every forum I keep reading about them



I would aslo go for a ws monitor, had a look on ebuyer the 19inch ws I saw don't have DVI, have a look for the hanns-g ws, one of the online stores have it for around the 120/130 mark

[fishboy25uk]

Connect 3D X1950XT 256MB GDDR3 DVIx2 VIVO PCI-E for £160 just £20 more than the pro, personally I would go for it

I saw the x1950XT, and I know it's only £20 more, but I could play the 'If I just spend £20 more...' game all day really. The x1950Pro will do me fine for a few months, and the 512MB version (which cost me £20 more!!) will be slightly better because a) I want to get into Oblivion now I can play it with reasonable frame rates, and b) More games will start to want more than 256MB VRAM.

I wanted to spend £20 more on a better PSU, £20 more on a better monitor, £40 more on a better case, but I had to draw the line somewhere.

I would also do a check on the x-fi, every forum I keep reading about them

Really? Is there something wrong with them? I've not read a great deal about them because every other Sound Blaster I've had has been great. Most comments I saw were good.

[Max Tractor]

The 512mb of ram on the card will only come into use and higher res, 1280x1024 will make no difference.

x-fi

Take your pick

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&l...ms&btnG=Search

http://techreport.com/onearticle.x/9994

http://www.ngohq.com/home.php?page=a...read&arc_id=76

http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=33913

I speed read them, but you get the jist

[fishboy25uk]

Not bothered about widescreen - not using it for watching DVDs, and I can always connect the PC up to a proper WS LCD if I want to later down the line. No doubt I'll want to get a 24" in a couple of years anyway so I'll worry about it then.

[fishboy25uk]

The 512mb of ram on the card will only come into use and higher res, 1280x1024 will make no difference.

Ok, after some quick googling you've made me change my mind and spend the extra £20. I don't know whether the extra 256MB would make no difference, but I didn't realise until seeing some benchmarks how much quicker the XT is than the 256MB Pro. Considering this, it would be a little silly not to spend the extra £20. Ideally I was going for the x1900 512MB, but the x1950XT is just as fast and cheaper.

Cheers for the headsup Max Tractor, but damn you for making me spend the extra £20 and damn ebuyer for making an order change so easy.

p.s. I'll take my chances with the X-Fi. Seems most of the faults are associated with NVidia kit, and hopefully firmware/driver updates will have corrected major issues. If not, I'll just return it anyway.

[vicar]

The x1950XT is a better deal, enjoy your new PC happy building.