£400.00 Spec Check

kidkhaos

kidkhaos

kidkhaos

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For a friend who wants to spend £400.0 on just a base. He wants it to play games like plays sims 2, Half Life 2 (cs:s, TF2) and wants a 1tb hard drive. This is the best i could come up with:

Pioneer DVR-215DBK 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - (£17.61)

Samsung SpinPoint F1 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103UJ) (£97.51)

Intel Core 2 Duo E2200 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.20GHz (800FSB) - Retail (£52.86)

GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400UDC) (£31.71)

Asrock 4CoreDual-SATA2 Rev2 (Socket 775) PCI-Express/AGP DDR2 Motherboard (£43.46)

Akasa AK-ZEN-01-BK Zen Black Case - No PSU (£35.24)

Gigabyte SUPERB 460w PSU (£28.19)

PowerColor ATI Radeon HD 3850 Pro Extreme 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail (£88.11)


Total (inc VAT + Shipping): £407.57

I doubt you can, but just i case you can, anyone come up with anything better?


Thxs
 
the only things i can see which i'd possibly change were to go for maybe a cheaper gfx card and invest in a better processor if you say they only want for less demanding games like sims 2 and cs:s

i dont know about the psu, but i'm sure someone will have an opinion
 
i'd swap the case/psu for the Antec NSK 4480B Mini Tower Case (Black) - 380W Earth Watts PSU.

swap the motherboard to the Gigabyte GA-P31-DS3L Intel P31 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard as you dont really want the asrock one unless u;re moving over with an agp gfx card/ddr memory.

and i'd drop the gfx card for the PowerColor ATI Radeon HD 3850 Pro 256MB, not likely to need the 512mb of the gfx card for the games you listed.

any particular reason why you friend is insistant on the 1tb drive ?
 
i would get a 750 gb hdd, put that (£20) to a better cpu, then get a cheaper case.

also i would get the ocz or corsair xms ram.
 
the hard disk is overkill. get the Gigabyte GA-G33M-DS2R and the HDD in my sig. you can always buy a second HDD and add it easily.
 
Thanks for all your help. Shame the Gigabyte GA-P31-DS3L Intel P31 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard is out of stock as that would have been perfect :( .

I have no idea why, but he is adamant for a 1 tb hard drive :confused:

This what i got so far (if that m/b wasnt out of stock could have got a better cpu....oh well)

GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400UDC) (£31.71)

Intel Core 2 Duo E2200 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.20GHz (800FSB) - Retail (£52.86)

Antec NSK 4480 Mini Tower Case (Silver) - 380W Earth Watts PSU (£52.86)

Samsung SpinPoint F1 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103UJ) (£99.86)

Asus P5K SE Intel P35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (£62.26)

Pioneer DVR-215DBK 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM (£17.61)

PowerColor ATI Radeon HD 3850 Pro 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail (£76.36)

Total (inc vat + del) : £406.41

Would the 380W earth watts psu been enough power, a 450+ is recommended for the 3850 :confused:


,thxs
 
I dont see why i have to, maybe OCUK should take note and stock a few more mATX boards. I love OCUK, dont get me wrong but the choice of certain lines is limited. the fact that i couldnt get the gigabyte board on OCUK means i brought everything from ******, if OCUK had the board they would have had the other £400 i spent as well.
 
Janesy B - because it is against forum rules. If you owned a cookie shop and I went in there sticking up flyers saying the shop next door has a better selection of a particular type of cookies, would you think to yourself "hat is so helpful of him" or would you be thinking "this guy is costing me business"

bennyboy2606 - Although your point is made in the best possible way, I would *fully* star out the competitor mention.
 
i've edited my post, i wasn't aware it was against the forum rules. My point still stands, OCUK lost my money because they didnt stock a big enough range of mATX boards and it's something they should have a look at, especially now that HTPC and Small Home servers are becoming more and more popular.
 
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1000gb is easy to fill nowadays

with mkv's being 4.5gb+, it doesn't take that long

make sure he backs up though, schedule robocopy to backup the important folders to another drive, it only copies new or updated files
 
His willing to go up to 430.00 if that makes a difference. I came up this (hopefully he can upgrade it when minimum amount of fuss):

GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400UDC) (£31.71)

**B Grade** Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L Intel P35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 (MB-100-GI) (£35.24)

Pioneer DVR-215DBK 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM (£17.61)

PowerColor ATI Radeon HD 3850 Pro 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail (£76.36)

Gigabyte GZ-X5 Black Midi Case No PSU (£31.71)

Samsung SpinPoint F1 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103UJ) (£99.86)

Hiper 530W HPU-4M530 SLi Certified ATX 2.2 PSU (£41.11)

Intel Core 2 Duo E7200 LGA775 'Wolfdale' 2.53GHz (1066FSB) - Retail (£86.94)

Total (inc Vat + Del): £433.42
 
:D cheers for that. Now i've got:

GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400UDC) (£31.71)

Pioneer DVR-215DBK 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM (£17.61)

PowerColor ATI Radeon HD 3850 Pro 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail (£76.36)

Gigabyte GZ-X5 Black Midi Case No PSU (£31.71)

Samsung SpinPoint F1 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103UJ) (£99.86)

Intel Core 2 Duo E7200 LGA775 'Wolfdale' 2.53GHz (1066FSB) - Retail (£86.94)

Gigabyte SUPERB 460w PSU (£28.19)

Gigabyte GA-P31-DS3L Intel P31 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (£46.99)

Total (in Vat + Del): £432.25

Only got two questions:

a. Will the gfx fit in the case?
b. Is 460w enough juice to power all this?


,thxs
 
I take it your friend will not be gaming at high resolutions , if he is not sure that that card will be upto it, as the higher ress you game at the better card will be required.
Just check his ress size before confirming that card m8 :D :D
 
i'd change the case & psu for a single solution, and get 4gb ram, it's worth it over 2gb, it's about £50 for 4gb too
 
Wolfdale will be a total waste for this spec.
I have E2200 and it handles my HD3870 and black dragon geils just fine,
OCed to 3.2ghz runs everything on total max without any problems.

I dont see any reason going for wolfdale with HD3850 256, it will bottleneck it like hell anyways.

Get 1tb spinpoint, E2160 with P31 or P35 DS3L from GB, 2gb GeiLs, Radeon 3850 and whatever you got left spend on GOOD PSU and good case. I would also get arctic freezer pro instead of retail cooler.

OC it to 2.6-3.0 with ram running on 880+- C4 and enjoy your cheap rig running everything just perfect.
 
I would but my friend doesnt like the idea of overclocking unless its necessary, so i thought the best cpu in his budget without overclocking was the wolfdale. Also if he wanted an upgrade all he would need would be a cpu cooler, psu and gfx card and then overclock the cpu (which by then would be necessary) to have a much better system.

As for the case , if the case turned out to be carp i would have just given him my old coolmaster wave. The psu is the only thing i'm taking a risk on, but hopefully it be fine :D
 
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