CAn someone better this ?

[shamend143]

Hi guys
About to check out from scan obviously.
Can someone please have a look at what iam about to order and better that or lower price a bit if possible and give feedback on current selection, and I will be going for a 22" monitor on top with a lot of accessories[KB,mouse,gamepad,speakers] so iam looking at spending about £250+ on top of this so trying to keep it as cheap as possible.




Currently i have core2duo 1.8 ghz with 2 gb RAM and 7300 LE Gfx card so anything better would be great i mainly keep my pc on since iam a very heavy user and gamer (4-5 hrs a day lol)
Tnx
Shamend

[Steve A]

are you asking some one to check on another site to get it cheaper for you ??

Or are you asking another company to come on here and beat the price ?

or are you asking if we would change anything in your currecnt selection ?

i hope its not the first 2 because you might not get very far

[Steve A]

personally the first and probably only thing i would change is the PSU, however this certainly wont make your cost go down,

im not a great lover of skimping on the PSU, its the most important part of a system build and if your a heavy user it makes sense to get a good one,

Im not saying that the EZcool is bad but its a budget one and budget isnt always best. i recommend this one http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/550W-...rossfire-Ready

[pauleden]

I'd also use a different PSU, but I'd probably chose a Corsair one.

[Steve A]

^^ yeah ofc corsair would be great, i was just trying to keep the costs down as much as possible.

[Agent]

EZCool are terrible, and should never be put in a system that is planning to be connected to an electrical outlet.

Please, for the love of god, change that PSU.

[divinemadness]

Better cards than 9600GT for £90, such as the Radeon 4770 or 4850s if they have stock. Even on the nVidia side, you can get a 9800GT for £77. (or GTS250 for a little under £90)

Dunno what that cooler is but if you're not overclocking stick with the stock Intel one. If mild overclocking, consider the Freezer 7, if heavy overclocking look at the Titan Fenrir. If you're doing heavy overclocking then you'll probably want a P45 board not a P43 one too though.

The RAM is very expensive, especially if you aren't overclocking, 4GB of PC2-6400 XMS2 ~£38 will do you more than adequately.

Dropping a few costs like the RAM and that cooler will open up a bit of budget for a better PSU.

[Ricco]

Here is what I would go for a minimum.


I would also change out the CPU to a 550 PhenomII for around an extra £10
(HDZ550WFGIBOX - AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition, Callisto, S AM3, 3.1GHz, 7MB Total Cache HT 4000MHz, 85W, Retail)
Total with this is £485.82

[shamend143]

are you asking some one to check on another site to get it cheaper for you ??

Or are you asking another company to come on here and beat the price ?

or are you asking if we would change anything in your currecnt selection ?

i hope its not the first 2 because you might not get very far

no way I would ask about first 2 options lol

i jst wanted help to better my current selection in terms of improving to something better and save me some money at same time.

tnx everyone for help so far so i made another list please have a look and pls comment if its good , if its good my £800+ goes to Scan's pocket - 22" monitor, keyboard , mouse , gamepad and 7.1 speakers on top

[shamend143]

sorry forgot to add pic lol

[divinemadness]

Again, the RAM is very expensive if you aren't overclocking with it and if you are, you'll not want a P43 board as they're not brilliant at overclocking.

PC2-6400 RAM would let you hit a 400FSB at 1:1 FSBRAM ratio which would have the CPU at 4.6GHz, probably way in excess of what that P43 board, the CPU itself or most air coolers are capable of anyway.

I don't see what benefit the extra £20 on PC2-8500 Dominator RAM is giving you, when PC2-6400 XMS2 or something still allows you such massive overclocking headroom.

Also I might be wrong but afaik the 4770 and 4850 are the cards to go for atm, skipping the 4830. It was good on release but has been overshadowed a touch by the new 4770 and 4850 getting price drops.

[Steve A]

Tbh, i dont think this ram is too expensive, but if you are not overclocking there is some cheaper option's and maybe the saving could help to go towards an upgraded GFX card.

But in terms of spec, the latter one is much better ...

[Phil]

A lot depends on what the PC will be used for, and how much upgrading is intended.

I'd rather cut down the rating of the PSU to maybe 425w-450w and go for a solid brand, like Corsair, Enermax, Seasonic, etc. I agree with those that have said to not economise on that. Cheap PSUs not only compromise on voltage stability and perhaps the ability to deliver under high load, but in my experience, are more likely to blow up, rare though that is. Unless it's intended to upgrade the video card, 550w may be more than is needed and cutting back a bit will save a few quid to put towards a better brand.

Another point to look at would be the hard drive. I'd go for one of the two-platter 640GB drives, unless the difference between 640GB and 750GB is really needed. My choice would be WD Caviar Blue 640. Also, I agree about the RAM - go for PC6400, given that the budget limitations require money to be carefully targeted.

[Stanman]

I would change the case for a CM690, only slightly dearer but bigger and cooler

[Ricco]

Don't go for anthing less then a ATI 4850/4770 card.
if you look at the list i made for you, you are paying the same money for a lot slower card with the 4830 , so that would make no sense at all.

Also on your budget range, deffinitely do NOT pass up on the PhenomII Black's - they will give more performance.

I think I had it just about spot on, but if you can goto a tad over £500, then you could go for a Tripple core PhenomII.
There also seem no consistancy with the cooler choices yourgoing for - IMO drop it, you don't need one till the later part of pushing the overclocks anyway and you may be able to find a decent performance unit used for around £20.