£900 Spec

Lagz · 25 Jan 2007 at 10:49

£850 Spec

Can anyone suggest a spec (max £850) which matches the following requirements:

Use:
>Work (Software development + testing which is CPU+Memory intensive)
>Watching TV (using a TV card which I already have), films.
>Listening to music (plug into seperate stereo. onboard sound probably sufficient?)
>Internet
>A bit of gaming

What I need:
>Just the base unit. Start from scratch (Except for TV card)

Notes:
>Must be QUIET. I found with my old PC that all the fans got knackered after a year and started making a lot of noise, so this time round I'm looking to avoid fans where-ever possible (i.e: no fan on m/b. no fan on g/c).
>I play a few games (HL2 being the newest), but not that many. Please dont go overboard on the graphics card (as people seem to love doing in here).
>It wont be overclocked.
>Will be running Vista and Suse (probably), probably on seperate disks. 2x160Gb disks would probably be enough storage.

Tombo · 25 Jan 2007 at 11:11

Base unit include case ?

furnace · 25 Jan 2007 at 11:19

>I play a few games (HL2 being the newest), but not that many. Please dont go overboard on the graphics card (as people seem to love doing in here).

Hey, if we can get you a great card within budget, then we will

But as you specifically requested not to...

Will you be overclocking at all or just leaving it at stock?

Tombo · 25 Jan 2007 at 11:20

>It wont be overclocked.

furnace · 25 Jan 2007 at 11:21

haha >.<
*opens eyes*

Tombo · 25 Jan 2007 at 11:23

Was thinking that but If you need a case that could be a problem.

furnace · 25 Jan 2007 at 11:32

Lian-Li Aluminium Case £54.04
2 x Hitachi 160GB SATA-II £38.76
Tagan TG480-U01 480W £58.74
2 x Scythe S-FLEX 1600RPM Ultra Quiet 120mm Fans £12.87
GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC6400 800MHz RAM £146.86
Intel Core 2 DUO E6600 £202.09
Gigabyte GA_965P_S3 £72.84
Tuniq Tower 120 CPU Cooler £34.06
Connect3D ATI Radeon X1950 Pro £111.61

Total: £796.37 including shipping.

You could get a better motherboard, but I don't really see the point as I don't think there will be any performance benefit...

And the X1950 Pro is this week only, so I think that leaves you with only today to order it at that price.

If you think you might get some more juice-sucking hardware later, you'd be good going for a 550w PSU instead of the 480w.

Van Diemen · 25 Jan 2007 at 13:05

If you want to run the system @ stock speeds, I advise the following:

You could get larger HDDs, a different case, a different Graphics card or even a Quiet Cooler with the remainder of the money.

Lagz · 25 Jan 2007 at 17:47

Thanks for the help, I'll have a look at what you suggested

.

p.s: Yes I do intend on getting a new case.

Lagz · 25 Jan 2007 at 18:14

Does anyone know the difference between these motherboards:

Gigabyte GA_965P_S3
Gigabyte GA_965P_DS3

I'll probably change the CPU cooler to Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 775). That passive one looks a little extreme

!

peetee · 25 Jan 2007 at 18:23

the DS3 is built to last longer, solid state capacitors or sumthing.
Cant remember exactly what they call it.

Exact same performance, but dont expect the S3 to last aslong, its got a lower average life estimate. Better off just buying the DS3 =)

Lagz · 25 Jan 2007 at 19:51

Ok, I've made a few changes and added some extra bits that I need. What do you think about the following? Is the PSU enough (I'm going to add a TV card as well)? Am I right in assuming that onboard sound is more than good enough these days?

OcUK Kit:
Intel Core 2 DUO LGA775 E6600 2.40GHz Retail
Gigabyte 965P DS3
2GB GeIL PC2-6400C4 DDR2 Dual Channel Kit

CPU Cooling:
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 775)
Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound

Case & PSU:
Tagan TG480-U01 480W ATX2.0 SLi Compliant Silent PSU
Lian-Li PC-7 PLUS Aluminium Midi-Tower Case - Black
Lian Li C-01B Aluminium CD-ROM/DVD-ROM Bezel (Black)

Disk Drives:
Samsung SpinPoint P HD160HJ 160GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM
Samsung SpinPoint P HD160HJ 160GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM
Pioneer DVR-111BK 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter - (Black) OEM

Graphics:
Gainward BLISS GeForce 7900 GS "Golden Sample" SILENT 256MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail

Extra Stuff:
Logitech Cordless Desktop S 510
Scythe S-FLEX 1600RPM Ultra Quiet 120mm Fan - 3/4 pin
Bluetooth Dongle

(£901)

Lagz · 26 Jan 2007 at 13:21

Any comments ^^^