£850 To Spend

BloodWolf · 29 May 2006 at 20:45

I got around £850 to spend on a new pc..

It's purely for gaming

What I need is..

Motherboard(DFI)
Memory
Graphics Card (NVidia)
Case/Power Supply
Processor (AMD)
Hard Drive (250GB+)

If anybody can show me the way?

Thanks,

Bloodwolf

hp7909 · 29 May 2006 at 21:12

Follow me (/well not literally :rolleyes:

):

DFI LanParty NF4 SLI-DR EXPERT (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-018-DF) £109.95
GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit CAS3 (GE2GB3200BDC) (MY-046-GL) £114.95
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+ (Socket 939) - OEM (CP-152-AM) £161.95
Samsung SpinPoint P SP2504C 250GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-018-SA) £45.95
Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940) (FG-000-AR) £14.95
Lian-Li PC-7 PLUS Black Aluminium Midi-Tower Case (No PSU) (CA-054-LL) £48.95
OcUK GeForce 7900 GT 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-037-OK) £159.95
Tagan TG530-U22 530W ATX2.01 2Force SLi Compliant Silent PSU (CA-005-TG) £59.95
Subtotal £716.60
Shipping (City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)) £10.95
VAT £127.33
Total £854.88

Explicit · 29 May 2006 at 21:28

BloodWolf said:
It's purely for gaming

The X1900XT will be better than the 7900GT for gaming:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+ (Socket 939) - OEM (CP-152-AM)
£190.29
Asus A8N-E nForce4 Ultra (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-088-AS)
£64.57
Mushkin 2GB DDR EM3200 Enhanced Performance Dual Channel Kit (2x1GB) CAS3 (991461) (MY-006-MK)
£129.19
Connect3D ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (3056) (GX-047-CO)
£276.07
Hitachi Deskstar T7K250 NCQ 250GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (0A31636) (HD-002-HI)
£62.22
Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940) (FG-000-AR)
£17.57
Antec Sonata II Piano Black Quiet Case - 450W Smart Power PSU (CA-040-AN)
£66.92

Total inc VAT: £806.83

£45 left over to upgrade whatever you want (e.g. OCZ Platinum RAM, or pick a different mobo such as a crossfire one if you realistically think you need it)

crashuk · 29 May 2006 at 21:34

forget about socket 929 look at the am2 with faster mem.

semi-pro waster · 29 May 2006 at 21:52

Something like this might be suitable for your needs.

CP-166-AM AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+ 2.00GHz (Socket AM2) - Retail (CP-166-AM)
£184.95 £184.95
MY-034-GL GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC5300 667MHz Value DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB5300DC) (MY-034-GL)
£109.95 £109.95
CA-040-AN Antec Sonata II Piano Black Quiet Case - 450W Smart Power PSU (CA-040-AN)
£56.95 £56.95
HD-002-HI Hitachi Deskstar T7K250 NCQ 250GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (0A31636) (HD-002-HI)
£52.95 £52.95
GX-047-CO Connect3D ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (3056) (GX-047-CO)
£234.95 £234.95
MB-096-AB Abit KN9 Ultra nForce 570 Ultra (Socket AM2) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-096-AB)
£89.95 £89.95
Subtotal £729.70
VAT £127.70
Total £857.40

crashuk · 29 May 2006 at 21:55

yep that what i would go for.

Explicit · 29 May 2006 at 22:21

crashuk said:
forget about socket 929 look at the am2 with faster mem.

Some points for BloodWolf to consider:

- Decent low-latency DDR2 RAM costs well over £300.
- AM2 CPUs are not in stock yet.
- There is only one aftermarket heatsink for AM2 at the moment which is also not in stock.
- Motherbaords lack variety (e.g. no DFI overclocking boards) and of the ones that are available, there is hardly any feedback on the forums.
- Motherboards also appear to be buggy, look here for example.
- Also bare in mind that the performance difference between Socket 939 and AM2 is negligible.
- Socket 939 is a mature, reliable and proven system - it's also much cheaper too!
- On the otherhand, AM2 is more future proof and seems to have a better upgrade path, AFAIK AMD will be releasing their new 65nm processors on socket AM2.

I wouldn't want to be an £850 guinea pig tester for new gear. But someone has to take the plunge into the AM2 pool, and if BloodWolf chooses to be one of them, then Semi-Pro has given a good AM2 spec above.

I'm not saying Socket 939 is better than AM2, I'm just giving the OP some points to consider when deciding whether to choose 939 or AM2 from the perspective of how things stand today.

BigDom · 29 May 2006 at 22:25

Explicit said:
Some points for BloodWolf to consider:

- Decent low-latency DDR2 RAM costs well over £300.
- AM2 CPUs are not in stock yet.
- There is only one aftermarket heatsink for AM2 at the moment which is also not in stock.
- Motherbaords lack variety (e.g. no DFI overclocking boards) and of the ones that are available, there is hardly any feedback on the forums.
- Motherboards also appear to be buggy, look here for example.
- Also bare in mind that the performance difference between Socket 939 and AM2 is negligible.
- Socket 939 is a mature, reliable and proven system - it's also much cheaper too!
- On the otherhand, AM2 is more future proof and seems to have a better upgrade path, AFAIK AMD will be releasing their new 65nm processors on socket AM2.

I wouldn't want to be an £850 guinea pig tester for new gear. But someone has to take the plunge into the AM2 pool, and if BloodWolf chooses to be one of them, then Semi-Pro has given a good AM2 spec above.

I'm not saying Socket 939 is better than AM2, I'm just giving the OP some points to consider when deciding whether to choose 939 or AM2 from the perspective of how things stand today.

Excellent points.

Explicit · 29 May 2006 at 22:29

BigDom said:
Excellent points.

Thanks mate

I'm sure a lot of people are on the fence at the moment about this whole AM2/939 thing, so I thought it might be useful.

crashuk · 29 May 2006 at 22:49

Explicit said:
Some points for BloodWolf to consider:

- Decent low-latency DDR2 RAM costs well over £300.
- AM2 CPUs are not in stock yet.
- There is only one aftermarket heatsink for AM2 at the moment which is also not in stock.
- Motherbaords lack variety (e.g. no DFI overclocking boards) and of the ones that are available, there is hardly any feedback on the forums.
- Motherboards also appear to be buggy, look here for example.
- Also bare in mind that the performance difference between Socket 939 and AM2 is negligible.
- Socket 939 is a mature, reliable and proven system - it's also much cheaper too!
- On the otherhand, AM2 is more future proof and seems to have a better upgrade path, AFAIK AMD will be releasing their new 65nm processors on socket AM2.

I wouldn't want to be an £850 guinea pig tester for new gear. But someone has to take the plunge into the AM2 pool, and if BloodWolf chooses to be one of them, then Semi-Pro has given a good AM2 spec above.

I'm not saying Socket 939 is better than AM2, I'm just giving the OP some points to consider when deciding whether to choose 939 or AM2 from the perspective of how things stand today.

from what ive heard am2 can do t1 on 4 sticks and the 939 only on 2 sticks, because the mem controller is better also, if you get 633mhz ram on a 3500 am2 socket it will beat the 939 socket 3500 with ddr 400. thats what ive been reading. (oops)

BigDom · 29 May 2006 at 23:09

crashuk said:
from what ive heard am2 can do t1 on 4 sticks and the 939 only on 2 sticks, because the mem controller is better also, if you get 633mhz ram on a 3500 am2 socket it will beat the 939 socket 3400 with ddr 400. thats what ive been reading.

Well that's logicall given the 3400 is a lower number than a 3500 :rolleyes:

BloodWolf · 29 May 2006 at 23:15

I don't want to be a tester on new stuff, I just really want to upgrade from this pc to one so I can play games like F.E.A.R and all newer games like Hitman bloodmoney

crashuk · 29 May 2006 at 23:18

BloodWolf said:
I don't want to be a tester on new stuff, I just really want to upgrade from this pc to one so I can play games like F.E.A.R and all newer games like Hitman bloodmoney

yer but you ll be good to go for a good few years if you switch to am2.

BloodWolf · 29 May 2006 at 23:23

Is am2 like... something new?

As you prob noticed, I dont know a lot >

WolfR1der · 29 May 2006 at 23:32

AM2 is the latest CPU socket after '939'. It uses 'DDR-2' memory instead of plain old 'DDR'. As mentioned though, it's realtively unproven as not many people have their hands on it yet, whereas socket 939 has been around a good while.

So it uses pretty much the same CPU's at the moment (only on a different socket, with a different no of pins), but totally different RAM. All future AMD chips for the time being will likely be on AM2, whereas there won't be any 'new' cpu's on socket 939 to upgrade to.

BloodWolf · 29 May 2006 at 23:39

So, would you recommend having AM2?

hp7909 · 30 May 2006 at 06:36

I have to agree with my fellow Overclockers that in terms of future-proofing, AM2 is a safe bet. In terms of performance, Socket 939's still up there. But bare in mind that the new Socket AM2 hasn't really 'dropped' in terms of perfromance, just not really brought much to the table, yet. Lets just say its the worst time to be upgrading right now - did i hear someone say Intel Core 2 A.K.A. Conroe

semi-pro waster · 30 May 2006 at 10:04

Just to wade in to this debate as well, I'm not sure myself what I'd go for right now, I just listed the above as an alternative to socket 939. I might still be tempted by socket 939 if I was building a new PC now but then when I had the choice of socket 754 and socket 939 last time I went socket 754 as it was a bit more mature, it cost less and offered about the same level of performance, it also helps that I almost never bother to upgrade, I just buy a new PC every couple of years normally.

Having read Explicit's point by point analysis I'd only really quibble with one, namely that there aren't any good overclocking motherboards. All motherboard manufacturers must leave in all the overclocking options that Nvidia specify to be certified, there appear to be about enough options to give DFI a run for their money as standard but it only applies for certain on the 590 and 570(SLi only?) chipset. Of course all the options in the world doesn't guarantee a good overclock if the motherboard can't supply stable voltages or whatever

gr1mey · 30 May 2006 at 10:04

hmmm yeah wait for the new intel platform if you want a new rig.

most peeps here are gonna hold onto their s939 systems for a few months yet, then when conroe has been out for a bit and initial bugs have been sorted, you will be able to pick a decent 939 system (probably one a proven overclocker) for a nice price.

BloodWolf · 30 May 2006 at 11:53

hp7909 said:
Follow me (/well not literally ):

DFI LanParty NF4 SLI-DR EXPERT (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-018-DF) £109.95

GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit CAS3 (GE2GB3200BDC) (MY-046-GL) £114.95

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+ (Socket 939) - OEM (CP-152-AM) £161.95

Samsung SpinPoint P SP2504C 250GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-018-SA) £45.95

Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940) (FG-000-AR) £14.95

Lian-Li PC-7 PLUS Black Aluminium Midi-Tower Case (No PSU) (CA-054-LL) £48.95

OcUK GeForce 7900 GT 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-037-OK) £159.95

Tagan TG530-U22 530W ATX2.01 2Force SLi Compliant Silent PSU (CA-005-TG) £59.95

Subtotal £716.60

Shipping (City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)) £10.95

VAT £127.33

Total £854.88

Seems like a pretty nice system.
Now I just got a question, OCUK is your own graphics brand? I take it's good as any other?

All I gots to do now, is because I got no debit card, I got a cashcard either ask my dad or even worse have to come down to the store! :eek: