budget build games rig - advice please

[Pete Davies]

Please can anyone advise me on my proposed new build arround a
Asus M2N-SLI NF570 AM2 DDR2 (800) PCI-E 16(x2) Deluxe?

(I would have used a Core 2 Duo Board but have already got the AMD one cheap)

£50 Case Phong 2
£111 AMD AM2 Athlon 64 4200 Dual core 2.2
£20 Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro
£104 1GB (2x512MB) Corsair Twin DDR2 (800)
£119 256MB Gainward 7900GS Bliss Golden Sample
£54 250GB seagate barracuda 16mb cache
£57 580w HiperPower Type-R Modular Black

Total £515

All the above from Scan, apart from the case. I already have all the other components I need.
I intend to add more memory and add another graphics card later on.
Budget £550

Appreciate your thoughts.

[menthel]

O/S? If your old one is oem you will need to replace it.

[Pete Davies]

ah, good point I'll have to factor that in!

[topgun23]

Like the rest apart from the case - save yourself £20.00 and get rid of the ugly Phong II case and go with either one of these......


Nice looking and functional Akasa Zen cases. Get a few more posts before you order and take advantage of the free postage as you are buying it all from Scan.

[moogle]

drop the hiper and add £7 more to get Xclio 700W one, they are pretty efficient, plus I've heard nothing but bad news with Hipers, plus the Xclio has a 14cm fan (more silent) and its modular. change the hard drive, you can get a samsung sp2504 spinpoin sp120 250gb drive for £46, they are the next best thing to a raptor as the tomshardware benchmarks show. £50 on that case? £1 more and you can get a Thermaltake Soprano, it looks good and has 3 fans already installed, also available on microdirect, or if you want to stick to scan then get a coolermaster cavalier. as for the cpu cooler, buy a scythe mine and get a 120mm fan to go with it, or if you arent overclocking then just get the scythe mine as it comes with a 10cm fan included, you can get it either from scan or microdirect.

plus if you could sell that board, then id advise you to switch to a Intel Core2Duo system, the E6300 is the same price and it beats the Athlon in performance.

[CrazyMonkey]

Yeh drop the Hiper and either up it to the 700w Xclio (excellent psu) or lower it for a better cheaper one.

The spinpoints are good, but going by Custom PC you cant beat some Barracuda's in RAID 0 for the money/performance.

The case has excellent reviews and is a great budget base for your system, although for a tiny bit more you could factor in some more attractive but still high performing cases such as the Armour Jr (keeps my 6300@2.6ghz to 27C with a AC Freezer Pro)

Id suggest the Artic Cooling range for the cooler, as nothing can beat it for price/performance (Keeps mine so cool)

Other than that, the AMD will keep you going for a long while games wise although a C2D is recommended.

Hope it helps good luck.

[moogle]

Yeh drop the Hiper and either up it to the 700w Xclio (excellent psu) or lower it for a better cheaper one.

The spinpoints are good, but going by Custom PC you cant beat some Barracuda's in RAID 0 for the money/performance.

The case has excellent reviews and is a great budget base for your system, although for a tiny bit more you could factor in some more attractive but still high performing cases such as the Armour Jr (keeps my 6300@2.6ghz to 27C with a AC Freezer Pro)

Id suggest the Artic Cooling range for the cooler, as nothing can beat it for price/performance (Keeps mine so cool)

Other than that, the AMD will keep you going for a long while games wise although a C2D is recommended.

Hope it helps good luck.

wahayyyyyyyyyyy! im glad someone likes the Xclio psu's

[Sumanji]

A bit more effort, but I would seriously consider selling the AMD kit you have (sounds like just the motherboard) and going for an Intel C2D setup... it is criminal spending £110+ on an X2 4200+ when an E6300 can be had for less! The Intel would beat the AMD at stock speeds, and annihilate it with a moderate overclock... too good ignore imo!!

[Flewis]

There is nothing wrong with the phong II, it has very good airflow. It may be pretty ugly but it has far better cooling than the akasa zen. Check this review out:

http://www.custompc.co.uk/custompc/r...akasa-zen.html

The specifically state that they prefer the phong II for its better cooling.

[moogle]

There is nothing wrong with the phong II, it has very good airflow. It may be pretty ugly but it has far better cooling than the akasa zen. Check this review out:

http://www.custompc.co.uk/custompc/r...akasa-zen.html

The specifically state that they prefer the phong II for its better cooling.

yes but the name.... phong thong?
a thermaltake soprano is much better looking and so is a coolermaster cavalier, for around the same price!

[Flewis]

For me form never comes before function, just personal preference tho. I dont care if i have a big grey box if it cools my components well.

[moogle]

For me form never comes before function, just personal preference tho. I dont care if i have a big grey box if it cools my components well.

gah, im the total opposite, performance comes first too but im willing to sacrifice performance for looks. ie the best heatsink is the tuniq tower, but that thing is so big and ugggleee, its not even symetrical. stuff like that i can't bear with. plus even though the phong got good reviews I bet the thermaltake beats it.

[Flewis]

The thermaltake has limited air intake from the front because it has no vents due to its smooth lines decreasing its performance. Phong has big fat vents on the front + 140mm fan.

[moogle]

yah i know, thats why im getting the antec nine hundred , but for the £50 the case with decent looks and cooling would be thermaltake, if it was best cooling then yea i'd get the phong. but ugh phong.. pong..

[Flewis]

Thing about the antec 900 is that id want to get a fan controller to manually adjust all those fans and thats more expense, unbeatable cooling tho.

[moogle]

having them all on low is good enough cooling for most. plus i wear headphones so all on high wouldnt bother me