Desktop Recommendations - £1,000 (ish)

[chadders]

Hello to one and all, first post (be gentle!) I think I'm in the right sub-forum for buying advice?

I've got £1,000 to spend on a new desktop PC, which rather worringly doesn't seem as much as it used too!

Obviously I want it to do hand-stands and make cups of tea:-

• Number Crunching - MS SQL Server 2000, require to host a couple of big databases (10gb & 20gb - ouch!).
• Command & Conquer Generals/Zero Hour, and the new one whenever it comes out.
• T'internet and Email for Missus Chadders
• Photo & Music Storage
• Web Devlepment / Programming (might as well say text editing!)
• Fireworks/Photoshop (think etch-a-sketch level)
• Office/Outlook
• Nice big widescreen LCD, typically for reading stupidly long lines of code and spreadsheets that collegues write
• Want to be able to upgrade the innards in the future without too much hassle (think processor, memory, graphics cards, extra hard disk).

From past experience C&C Generals/Zero Hour is a bit of a grinder on PC requirements, and it's my favourite game (despite being rubbish). So I would like to play that on stupidly high settings (never having had the chance to).

About the only thing I'm comfortable with choosing is E6600 core 2 duo and 2gb ram (upgrade later). I'm at a complete loss whether to go for a big fat graphics card or a fairly decent one able to upgrade to SLi later or not?

Actually, about graphics cards I understand an nVidea 8800-GTX is at the top of the tree (and beyond budget) but not really too sure about where all the others sit! There was a review on here about 7900GS in SLi configuration getting very high scores - hence thinking a lower spec card I can initially go for and buy another at a later date.

I've sort of settled on SCAN although Evesham have a couple of interesting offers also. I've not read anything bad about these two on here.

So, I'm open to ideas!

[chuckskull]

E6600, 8800GTS or GTX and 2GB RAM will tear through Generals no problem and should leave you with some change.

C&C3 is out btw

[chadders]

Cheers, the "leaving some change" would be nice - but I'm struggling to put them together on "system configurator" pages.

e.g. SCAN choosing 3XS system "3XS Entry-Level Intel® Core™2 Duo" then E6600, 2GB ram and an 8800-GTS is coming out at £880.

I've got to get Windows XP Pro and a monitor on there yet - without mentioning sound card & speakers!

[chuckskull]

Ah I was assuming you were building your own. Getting it pre-built add's to the cost. Might be a good time to try building your own.

Also if you wanna save some money Core 2's all overclock very well. So you can get a E4300/E4400 and overclock to E6600 speeds with no problem at all and quite easily head upward of X6800 clockspeeds. Assuming you stump up £20 for a slightly better cooler.

[chadders]

Sorry, yep I missed that off about pre-built, I could happily go down the self-build route. Unfortunately it's been a long while since I cut my fingers on casings!!

OK if I were to go down the self-build route, I'll have to be honest that I wouldn't know exactly where to start in terms of which components etc to choose! After all, you've seen that I know relatively little even on graphics cards, nevermind motherboards!

Would it be beyond the realms of Hexus.Net forums to help with this? I'd rather not get noses up from the outset.

As for overclocking - perhaps I should go back to "baby-steps" before I learn to run / explode parts of a desktop?

Appreciate your time taken replying.

[Lee`]

For a pre-built machine, I've had a quick look on mesh, and I think this would be a good benchmark to compare other pre-built machines to.

http://www.meshcomputers.com/Default...UCT&KEY=183363

[chadders]

Thanks Lee - that's basically what I'm looking at isn't it! Thanks for highlighting that for me.

The only problem is the supplier, I'm a little twitchy about choosing them, I'm not too comfortable with some of the threads in here about them.

I wouldn't want to risk my thread going off on a do use/don't use tangent though! Suffice to say, it's a contender but on the bottom of the list.

I'll go re-research MESH, see if I can feel any less twitchy.

Must admit, ChuckSkull the little devil has me pondering over self-build now! Hah hah.

[chuckskull]

LN18122
Intel Core 2 Duo E4400, Socket 775, 2.0 GHz, 800MHz FSB, Allendale Core, 2MB Cache, Retail £74.79 £87.88
LN13080
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro - P4 up to 4.4GHz - S775 Dual Core / Core2Duo Ready £10.35 £12.16
LN17360
Abit AB9 QuadGT iP965, S775, PCI-E (x16), DDR2 533/667/800, SATA II, SATA RAID, ATX £88.29 £103.74
LN17569
320MB BFG Technology 8800GTS Overclocked, PCI-E, Mem 1600MHz, GPU 550MHz, 96 Streams, 2x DVI/HDTV £162.45 £190.88
LN11596
2GB (2x1GB) CorsairTwinX XMS2, DDR2 PC2-6400 (800), 240 Pins, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 5-5-5-12 £76.99 £90.46
LN15215
620W Corsair HX Series Modular SLi PSU, ATX, EPS 12V, whisper quiet, 5 year warranty £82.99 £97.51
LN9461
250GB Seagate ST3250823AS Barracuda 7200.8 , SATA 150 , 7200 rpm , 8MB Cache ,NCQ £30.99 £36.41
LN16388
Microsoft Windows XP Professional x64 SP2b Single Pack (OEM) £72.16 £84.79

TOTAL £717.63

Thats how I'd spend it, leaving enough for a case and a 20inch monitor. If it wont overclock to 3ghz I'll eat my hat. Might be able to save another £80 by re-using your current windows license, but of course that leaves the older machine with no OS.

[chadders]

Good lord! Thanks for providing that - thread printed!

I'm looking at spending next weekend, so luckily I have the week to decide.

Aside from saying "thank you" - is Hexus.net self-funded or rely on donations, I feel I should provide something for the help?

In the meantime, I'll keep an eye on my thread for any other recommendations people might throw up.

Thanks!

[SiM]

My suggestions:
Its probably worth spending a couple more quid to get a SATA2 hard drive with 16mb cache instead.

The 520w corsair would probably be enough - but if you are gonna go for quad core in the future then the 620W is probably more future proof.

other than that, chuck's spec is great!

Don't worry about donations, we help for free here
(unless you wanna send me some money )

[chuckskull]

Hexus is funded through ad's and sponsorship as far as I know. I'm just hanging about on the forums because I'm banned from doing anything strenuous for the day, after having some teeth removed yesterday. I don't work here or anything

You can get free shipping from Scan(where I got those prices) once you have 25 posts. Check out the bargains forums too currently lots of DDR2 going cheap.

[doddsy]

but of course that leaves the older machine with no OS.

That's what Ubuntu was created for!

Looks like a good spec, I'd save a little money by going with a different gfx board (xfx is like £7 cheaper) nothing big though. Would it maybe be helpful to have a separate HD for the database stuff?

[chuckskull]

That's what Ubuntu was created for!

Looks like a good spec, I'd save a little money by going with a different gfx board (xfx is like £7 cheaper) nothing big though. Would it maybe be helpful to have a separate HD for the database stuff?

Yeah I was just skimming the prices to find the cheapest. Obviously missed one.

[chadders]

Cheers guys, much appreciated feedback.

On the o/s side, I'll have to pay for win xp - as the "old" machine is a works laptop! Can't go for Vista due to requirement of sql 2000.

Ideally later on a 2nd drive would be nice for "data" - but I'd rather spend the money on knowing I've got a more than adequate setup that I can add to later.

As for over-clocking, is this straightforward? Don't need details now, obviously I may still end up going for pre-built! Just so I can make a better informed choice.

[chuckskull]

As for over-clocking, is this straightforward? Don't need details now, obviously I may still end up going for pre-built! Just so I can make a better informed choice.

With Core 2 it is very simple. There's also a great guide in the hard-stuff forum about it. Also with 250-320 gig hard drives going for less than £50 now adding a second large drive isn't a major expense.

[chadders]

It's such a nice day, and working from home means prying eyes aren't around, so I've been "window-shopping"...

Pretty much the same spec. as chuckskull opened with, just a few changes/additions:-

Hard Disk: same Seagate Barracuda 250gb but the SATA300 (SATA-II?) @ £45.40 (LN13120).

CD/DVD: Optiarc(Sony/NEC) SATA @ £20.17 (LN17483)

Display: 22" Viewsonic Q22wb Black LCD, 1680x1050, VGA/DVI, 5ms, 900:1 widescreen (LN18205)

Case: Coolermaster Mystique 631 Black Aluminium (LN15276)

Figured I'd use the same case on SCAN 3XS system (not knowing any better/cheaper).

Windows XP 64-bit because the Core 2 Duo's are 64-bit processors yeah? Just wondering if that may cause an issue with running SQL 2000? Must check that.

So, all in £1,018.21 (including the vodka and tonic). Pretty much what I budgeted on.

Get speakers later - the missus tells me I am going deaf anyway (selective man-hearing I call it!), I take it internal card readers (e.g. digital camera) aren't an issue?