£900 for a base unit

TJM · 8 Apr 2009 at 18:22

I want to spend about £900 on the guts of a new base unit. I'm a bit out of the loop with computers and have no idea what's going on with DDR3, i70000000 processors and 4895x15 GFX cards, so I need a bit of advice. I've already got a suitable HD and am considering the case separately, so for £900 I need:

A mobo
RAM
Processor
GFX card
PSU
DVD-RW drive

What's the best base unit (again, excluding the case and HD) that I can get for my money? I don't plan to ever run SLI/Crossfire, so don't bother recommending PSUs or GFX cards on the basis that they are best suited for that purpose. But I would like to do some modest overclocking, so components that aren't likely to crap out would be great.

Thanks

mp260767 · 8 Apr 2009 at 18:35

what do you plan to use the system for, and what size monitor/resolution do you use.

siumatfung · 8 Apr 2009 at 18:36

mebbes up the gfx card to a 4890 or GTX275

TJM · 8 Apr 2009 at 19:06

Cheers for that spec, looks good. I've checked the benchmarks on Techreport and it seems like the 4870x2 is the best card to get aside from the really expensive 295 series. I'll have to consider if I can stretch my budget by another £100 to get it.

And damn, mobos are expensive these days. I only dropped £75 on my 650i, although it is a bit rubbish so maybe that explains it.

mp260767 said:
what do you plan to use the system for, and what size monitor/resolution do you use.

General usage plus gaming. I've got a 24" monitor and prefer to run games in 1920x1200 whenever possible.

HangTime · 8 Apr 2009 at 19:11

TJM said:
And damn, mobos are expensive these days. I only dropped £75 on my 650i, although it is a bit rubbish so maybe that explains it.

That's one of the main problems I have with the i7 platform at the moment, there's no budget/value option really. You're talking ~£400 min spend just on the cpu+mobo, whereas a couple of years back you could get a C2D cpu+mobo+RAM for half that!

siumatfung · 8 Apr 2009 at 19:21

well you could buy the gigabyte UD3 about 70£ cheaper but it doesnt have all the features the P6T has which are spose to be the bees knees

icey_haj · 8 Apr 2009 at 19:24

TJM · 8 Apr 2009 at 19:46

Nice spec Icey, although I'm holding off on Blu-ray until the drives are reasonably priced and I have some use for it. Aside from that, it seems to be exactly what I want.

siumatfung said:
well you could buy the gigabyte UD3 about 70£ cheaper but it doesnt have all the features the P6T has which are spose to be the bees knees

The problem with my 650i is that it was aimed at low-end users and wasn't great for overclocking at all, while the apparently bottom of the bucket i7 mobo costs £160. If I'm going to cough up that sort of money then I suppose I might as well get a good one. Decisions, decisions.

icey_haj · 8 Apr 2009 at 19:48

I feel that's a pretty decent price for what you get. It plays Blu-Rays, HD-DVDs and it writes DVDs.

TJM · 8 Apr 2009 at 19:54

Aye, suppose, but I don't own any BR or HD discs yet. I think I'll wait for the 8x BR writers to hit the £100 mark before getting one.