£1200 To Spend - Please Check This System

Monster · 1 Feb 2006 at 09:10

Hi all,

I'm sure you all get bored of these threads but they are so helpful!

Ok I have preferably £1000 to £1200 to spend and can take bits from my current system also (read soundcard etc).

I'm looking at getting:

AMD x2 4400

DFI Crossfire board (Unlikely will use crossfire so would the Asus A8 32 thing be better, altho big cost difference it is a main part!)

Corsair XMS3500LL 2 x 1gig (is this overkill if not a big overclocker, would a nice mushkin twin pair setup be better, saving me £50?)

Radeon 1900 XT - good standalone card, and cant afford SLI so should be fine?

What cooler should I get for the cpu, like something meaty so i have peace of mind but want quiet as possible, any good zalman out at minute?

Case wise - Silverstone JT07

This comes to about £1300 i think, any improvements etc you can suggest?

Thanks in advance!

BigDom · 1 Feb 2006 at 09:13

The DFI Crossfire is a bad choice - poorly specced and expensive.

I like the Asus Crossfire although some people are having issues with it - it's fine for me. Good spec, good sound ( uses the same HD audio as the Sapphires - close to seperate sound card quality ) , SATA 2 (the DFI just has SATA1. ).

FrankJH · 1 Feb 2006 at 09:36

I would go for an Ultra D myself, no need to get a crossfire board really and the Ultra D is a great clocker.

Otherwise the propsed rig looks great to me - or you could get the gskill hz 2Gb set

mp260767 · 1 Feb 2006 at 10:22

as mentioned ultra-d mobo looks nice, as for the memory just get the best stuff u can afford with the best timings.

mushkin should be very nice as would the gskill 3200 zx.

Defcon5 · 1 Feb 2006 at 11:02

If your not going to be hardcore overclocking get DDR400 with the lowest timings, you dont need the extra bandwith of high frequency ram.

Monster · 1 Feb 2006 at 11:23

Ok so pretty much only the mobo and ram are up for being picked at.

Can save myself a bit of money and get some mushkin or g skill then, think will go mushkin as they seem good and a good name.

For the motherboard which is decided best then out of:

Abit AN8 SLi Fatal1ty nForce4 SLi (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-070-AB)
Love the cool panel with this one, anymore info on it?

Abit AT8 ATI RD480 Crossfire (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-091-AB)

Asus A8N32-SLi Deluxe nForce4 SLi X16 (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-118-AS)

Any other main ideas, pick one for me!

trojan698 · 1 Feb 2006 at 12:10

You could always try the Thermal Big Typhoon cooler, I'm yet to install mine yet but its supposedly has better performance than the zalmans @ 16db (not sure if this is quieter, havent checked) It is pretty massive though..
Seeing as you're not going the crossfire route and if you dont intend to, you should consider the DFI ultra-d.

I want that card.

edit: think theres some compatibility issues with Corsair and DFI. But if you're going for the GSkill/mushkin, it shouldn't be a problem obv.

Monster · 1 Feb 2006 at 13:58

Just purchased it with the typhoon cooler and g-skill ram

Came to £1238.04

I feel abused but happy to have a new pc on its way!

Thanks all.

trojan698 · 1 Feb 2006 at 15:52

Good choice.

What mobo did you opt for?

Good luck with the build.

Monster · 1 Feb 2006 at 18:53

Went with the ultra-d mate