£1500 to spend, help me do it!

Monstermunch · 18 Feb 2006 at 21:22

Right think i'm getting there after a month or so cating up on the new tech. My current spec is in the sig, but i'm planning on recycling the 120gb maxtor SATA and my Coolermaster Tornado Case (by burning the old 80mm fans with a blowtorch and buying some new ones)

I mostly play games like Fear, COD2 etc and also watch as few dvd movies, this is what i've come up with so far:

CP-127-AM AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4400+ (Socket 939) - Retail (ADA4400CDBOX) (CP-127-AM)
£289.95 £289.95
HS-011-ZA Zalman CNPS7700-ALCU Ultra-Quiet CPU Cooler - Retail (HS-011-ZA)
£18.95 £18.95
MB-014-DF DFI LanParty UT NF4 Ultra-D (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-014-DF)
£84.95 £84.95
MY-000-MK Mushkin 2GB DDR XP4000 Extreme Performance Dual Channel Kit (2x1GB) CAS3 (991483) (MY-000-MK)
£139.95 £139.95
GX-048-PC PowerColor ATI Radeon X1800 XT 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-048-PC)
£234.95 £234.95
HD-046-WD Western Digital Caviar SE16 250GB 2500KS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD-046-WD)
£64.25 £64.25
CA-022-TT Thermaltake PurePower TWV 500W ATX2.0 Modular PSU (W0057) (CA-022-TT)
£64.95 £64.95
MO-045-VS Viewsonic VP930 19" LCD Monitor - Black/Silver (MO-045-VS)
£299.95 £299.95
KB-066-LG Logitech Media Keyboard Elite - Retail (KB-066-LG)
£16.95 £16.95
KB-056-MS Microsoft Laser Mouse 6000 - Retail (KB-056-MS)
£19.95 £19.95
Subtotal £1,234.80
VAT £216.09
Total £1,450.89

Need to keep about £50 ish back for extra fans a steelpad, thermal compound etc etc.

BTW I plan on clocking the nuts off what I buy

Noni · 18 Feb 2006 at 21:31

Swap the RAM for -G.Skill 2GB DDR HZ PC4000 (2x1GB)

Its cheaper

.

Swap the 7700 for a ARTIC COOLING FREEZER PRO.

Cheaper and better cooler.

Swap the Thermaltake PSU for a ENERMAX LIBERTY 500W.

MUCH BETTER PSU.

Get this monitor instead- Samsung SM-930BF 19" LCD Monitor

Its on offer this week too. And SAMSUNG are great!

With the money saved you may want to upgrade to a DFI EXPERT

.

Good luck mate.

Monstermunch · 18 Feb 2006 at 21:42

Noni said:
Swap the RAM for -G.Skill 2GB DDR HZ PC4000 (2x1GB)

Its cheaper .

Swap the 7700 for a ARTIC COOLING FREEZER PRO.

Cheaper and better cooler.

Swap the Thermaltake PSU for a ENERMAX LIBERTY 500W.

MUCH BETTER PSU.

Get this monitor instead- Samsung SM-930BF 19" LCD Monitor

Its on offer this week too. And SAMSUNG are great!

With the money saved you may want to upgrade to a DFI EXPERT .

Good luck mate.

Thanks for the advice.

The G Skill is rubbish though - look in the memory section there are a number of people having to RMA it more than once -stay well clear!!!

Can't use the Samsung though, It's rubbish for movies i've heard. I would gladly like to save more money on the TFT and would have liked to have kept the budget at around £200 and not £300. Apparently all TFT's that use the TN panel are great for gaming but rubbish for movies, the MVA panels are the best all rounders but are generally slower, unless that is if you spend around £300-£400 on a really good 8ms one.

Noni · 18 Feb 2006 at 21:59

Ok mate, but make sure you get the artic freezer pro and the enermax liberty

.

Also, you might need a newer case? The Lian Li PC7+ is great.

Also, if your a silence freak, get the SAMSUNG HD's as they are more silent!

Monstermunch · 18 Feb 2006 at 22:05

Noni said:
Ok mate, but make sure you get the artic freezer pro and the enermax liberty .

Also, you might need a newer case? The Lian Li PC7+ is great.

Also, if your a silence freak, get the SAMSUNG HD's as they are more silent!

I'll look into the Freezer (no not literally) and the liberty, the cooler and PSU are some of the items i'm unsure of. I'm not really obsessed with silent running, I just want to be careful this time not to get something that makes my ears ring for an hour after using my pc. I think it must be something to do with the 6 80mm y-tech fans in the case! :mad:

I like the Lian Li cases, but my case is a full tower and most of the tower cases these days are over £100 which I think is a rip off. If I can shut mine up than I'm happy to keep cos it's a well built spacious case!

Don't wanna sound tight, but any money I save can either go towards an x1900xtx or a later gfx update in 6 months or so.

Explicit · 18 Feb 2006 at 22:33

I would personally change some bits as follows:

Tagan TG530-U15 530W ATX2.01 Easycon SLi Compliant Modular Silent PSU (CA-008-TG) £70.44 (inc VAT) [or a Seasonic]

Thermaltake Big Typhoon 4 in 1 Heatpipe (Socket 939/754/775/478) CPU Cooler (CL-P0114) (HS-007-TT) £25.79 (inc VAT)

And possibly...

Hitachi Deskstar T7K250 NCQ 250GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (0A31636) (HD-002-HI) £75.14 [May want to see this]

Monstermunch · 19 Feb 2006 at 17:24

Explicit said:
I would personally change some bits as follows:

Tagan TG530-U15 530W ATX2.01 Easycon SLi Compliant Modular Silent PSU (CA-008-TG) £70.44 (inc VAT) [or a Seasonic]

Thermaltake Big Typhoon 4 in 1 Heatpipe (Socket 939/754/775/478) CPU Cooler (CL-P0114) (HS-007-TT) £25.79 (inc VAT)

And possibly...

Hitachi Deskstar T7K250 NCQ 250GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (0A31636) (HD-002-HI) £75.14 [May want to see this]

I'm a bit confused, how do the hitachi's manage to beat the raptors, is it just because of they're raided! If so I reakon that the WD std drives would be even better cos their transfer rates are faster and they have more cache!

MrX · 20 Feb 2006 at 00:18

Nice updates Nomi - i would do pretty much the same, bar the PSU - where its either a Tagan or a Seasonic...

Monstermunch · 20 Feb 2006 at 00:45

Right done some more reading, made some more decisions, think i'm getting there now. Any comments on this update:

MO-045-VS Viewsonic VP930 19" LCD Monitor - Black/Silver (MO-045-VS)
£299.95 £299.95
CA-025-EN Enermax Liberty 500W ELT500AWT ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU (CA-025-EN)
£63.95 £63.95
CP-148-AM AMD Opteron UP 170 Dual Core San Diego 2.0GHz 2MB Cache (Socket 939) - Retail (CP-148-AM)
£299.95 £299.95
FG-000-AR Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940) (FG-000-AR)
£14.95 £14.95
MB-014-DF DFI LanParty UT NF4 Ultra-D (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-014-DF)
£84.95 £84.95
OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) PC4000 Dual Channel Gold GX XTC Series EL-DDR CAS3 (OCZ5002048ELGEGXT-K) (MY-060-OC)
£149.95 £149.95
GX-048-PC PowerColor ATI Radeon X1800 XT 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-048-PC)
£234.95 £234.95
HD-047-WD Western Digital Caviar Special Edition 160GB 1600JS SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-047-WD)
£49.95 £99.90
CD-026-NE NEC ND4551 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer LabelFlash ReWriter (Black) - OEM (CD-026-NE)
£27.95 £27.95
Subtotal £1,276.50
VAT £223.39
Total £1499.89

Don't think I could have gotten any closer to my £1500 budget.

BigDom · 20 Feb 2006 at 01:06

Not sure I'd bother with the two 160gig's.. just get a single drive. No point to two 160's in a real world unless your RAID 1ing them.

Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 10 NCQ 300GB 6V300F0 SATA-II 16MB Cache

Will do you well or a 250GB spinpoint (quiet and reliable).

Journey · 20 Feb 2006 at 01:55

Preety much like what you have above but have a look at my changes,

NEC ND-4550A Black 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer - £24.39
Asus A8R32-MVP Deluxe S939 - Crossfire ready - 2x PCI-E x16 - 2x Gig Lan - Raid - SATAII - 8ch Sound - £121.74
AMD Opteron 170 (2Ghz) Dual Core S939 2MB - £247.00
19" Viewsonic VP930 TFT - £276.46
2 G Corsair TwinX, DDR, PC3200PT - B£117.91
512MB PowerColor X1800XT PCI-E DVI/VIVO - £241.44
200Gb SATA300 Maxtor Diamondmax Plus 10 (7200rpm,8MB) - NCQ - £48.84 x2
530w Tagan EasyCon - TG530-U15 - 2Force Silent Modular PSU - £56.32
Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro - £12.53

Total inc. VAT = £1404.67

I have changed Mobo to a Crossfire RD580, so you can add another Gfx card if you want, Corsair RAM as OC'ing the opteron will probably mean you will not be able to run it 1:1 anyway. The Tagan modular PSU because everyone should have a modular PSU

Monstermunch · 20 Feb 2006 at 02:20

BigDom said:
Not sure I'd bother with the two 160gig's.. just get a single drive. No point to two 160's in a real world unless your RAID 1ing them.

Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 10 NCQ 300GB 6V300F0 SATA-II 16MB Cache

Will do you well or a 250GB spinpoint (quiet and reliable).

Yes I am planning on raiding them, I have read a few things lately that suggest raided sata2's will outperform a raptor.

Monstermunch · 20 Feb 2006 at 02:24

Journey said:
Preety much like what you have above but have a look at my changes,

NEC ND-4550A Black 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer - £24.39
Asus A8R32-MVP Deluxe S939 - Crossfire ready - 2x PCI-E x16 - 2x Gig Lan - Raid - SATAII - 8ch Sound - £121.74
AMD Opteron 170 (2Ghz) Dual Core S939 2MB - £247.00
19" Viewsonic VP930 TFT - £276.46
2 G Corsair TwinX, DDR, PC3200PT - B£117.91
512MB PowerColor X1800XT PCI-E DVI/VIVO - £241.44
200Gb SATA300 Maxtor Diamondmax Plus 10 (7200rpm,8MB) - NCQ - £48.84 x2
530w Tagan EasyCon - TG530-U15 - 2Force Silent Modular PSU - £56.32
Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro - £12.53

Total inc. VAT = £1404.67

I have changed Mobo to a Crossfire RD580, so you can add another Gfx card if you want, Corsair RAM as OC'ing the opteron will probably mean you will not be able to run it 1:1 anyway. The Tagan modular PSU because everyone should have a modular PSU

Not interested in adding onother gfx card cos IMO xfiring or sliing is a waste of money, i'd rather just upgrade every 9 months to the new chipset and sell my old card. I think I'll stick with the DFI Ultra board for clocking reasons, and money, that asus board is silly money for a mobo. If I stick with the DFI I can't use corsair either cos they have conflicts.