Advice On New Build ~£1200 limit

PESolution · 16 Jul 2006 at 11:24

Hey guys, in the past i have only ever built one PC with a help of a friend, so im not to good at finding things that are definately compatible. Was wondering if some of you guys out there could help me choose a decent gaming system with a limit of about 1200£. Im looking for AMD not intel and pretty much the best of everything i can get for my money (need new decent case too). Items i don't need are monitors, and other perihperalls (mouse keyboard speakers etc).

So please all list away what the best is you think i could get and if possible with prices and totals if you dont mind

Would be greatly appreciated.

P.S. can you also please include all LANGUAGE! - Rilot additions like optical drives/cables etc ty

Joe42 · 16 Jul 2006 at 13:18

PESolution said:
Im looking for AMD not intel and pretty much the best of everything i can get for my money

Why?
To get the best for your money it will have to be Intel.

Jonners · 16 Jul 2006 at 14:14

CP-128-IN Intel Core 2 DUO E6600 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail (CP-128-IN)
£214.95 £214.95
MB-152-AS Asus P5W DH Deluxe WiFi (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-152-AS)
£149.95 £149.95
MY-064-OC OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) PC5300 Dual Channel Gold GX XTC Series EL-DDR2 (OCZ26672048ELGEGXT-K) (MY-064-OC)
£114.95 £114.95
GX-112-SP Sapphire ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-112-SP)
£219.95 £219.95
HD-089-MD Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 10 NCQ 300GB 6V300F0 SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD-089-MD)
£58.95 £117.90
CA-054-LL Lian-Li PC-7 PLUS Black Aluminium Midi-Tower Case (No PSU) (CA-054-LL)
£48.95 £48.95
CA-005-HP Hiper HPU-4K580-MK Type R 580W Modular ATX2.2 PSU - Black UV (CA-005-HP)
£54.95 £54.95
SC-014-CL Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Platinum eX - Retail (SC-014-CL)
£39.95 £39.95
CD-078-SA Samsung SH-S182D 18x18 DVD±RW ReWriter (Black) (CD-078-SA)
£21.95 £21.95
Subtotal £983.50
VAT £172.12
Total £1,155.62

Wheaty · 16 Jul 2006 at 14:24

Tupac said:
CP-128-IN Intel Core 2 DUO E6600 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail (CP-128-IN)
£214.95 £214.95
MB-152-AS Asus P5W DH Deluxe WiFi (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-152-AS)
£149.95 £149.95
MY-064-OC OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) PC5300 Dual Channel Gold GX XTC Series EL-DDR2 (OCZ26672048ELGEGXT-K) (MY-064-OC)
£114.95 £114.95
GX-112-SP Sapphire ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-112-SP)
£219.95 £219.95
HD-089-MD Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 10 NCQ 300GB 6V300F0 SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD-089-MD)
£58.95 £117.90
CA-054-LL Lian-Li PC-7 PLUS Black Aluminium Midi-Tower Case (No PSU) (CA-054-LL)
£48.95 £48.95
CA-005-HP Hiper HPU-4K580-MK Type R 580W Modular ATX2.2 PSU - Black UV (CA-005-HP)
£54.95 £54.95
SC-014-CL Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Platinum eX - Retail (SC-014-CL)
£39.95 £39.95
CD-078-SA Samsung SH-S182D 18x18 DVD±RW ReWriter (Black) (CD-078-SA)
£21.95 £21.95
Subtotal £983.50
VAT £172.12
Total £1,155.62

Looks great- But swap the PSU for a Seasonic 500W.

Joe42 · 16 Jul 2006 at 14:31

Wheaty said:
Looks great- But swap the PSU for a Seasonic 500W.

Agreed.
I would swap the Maxtor for something a little more reliable aswell.

Jonners · 16 Jul 2006 at 14:47

At the end of the day, we all have personal preferences, I find my Maxtor drives ok...

Joe42 · 16 Jul 2006 at 14:49

Its the same with all these things, some people have no problems and others do, but i think its fair to say Maxtors tend to cause more trouble than other makes. Same goes for the Hiper psus really, although there is a little list of other reasons why not to get one of those...

PESolution · 16 Jul 2006 at 22:47

Thanks for the replies so far guys, that setup looks good tupac

MAybe i could stretch another 100£ ontop for a slightly better gfx card? IF so which would you suggest?

Also in reply to the amd/intel comment, i wasnt aware that intel were cheaper nowadays, i hought amd was better value for money?

-oh and P.S. ive kinda got a cursh on the "Lian-Li PC V1100 PLUS Black Aluminium Midi-Tower (No PSU) (CA-031-LL)"

HicRic · 17 Jul 2006 at 08:52

PESolution said:
Also in reply to the amd/intel comment, i wasnt aware that intel were cheaper nowadays, i hought amd was better value for money?

That used to be the case but the new Core 2 Duo range by Intel look to be outperforming AMD's current line of processors by quite a margin, and are cheaper too. If you take a peek inside the CPU forum you'll see people going mad waiting for them to arrive.

Stelly · 17 Jul 2006 at 08:56

HicRic said:
That used to be the case but the new Core 2 Duo range by Intel look to be outperforming AMD's current line of processors by quite a margin, and are cheaper too. If you take a peek inside the CPU forum you'll see people going mad waiting for them to arrive.

and to carry on from this... if you look in the CPU forum you can read all the Conroe reviews.

Stelly

fenderbass86 · 17 Jul 2006 at 09:22

I'd swap the OCZ RAM from Tupac's spec and replace it with G.Skill 2GB NR for the same price, it'll overclock that E6600 further.

PESolution · 17 Jul 2006 at 14:24

ahhh thanks guys

also one more thing, when it comes to RAM etc in my build i don't think ill clock it so just some standard decent RAM would be good for me. The only things i will overclock is my cpu and gfx

/me goes to read cpu forum

syke · 17 Jul 2006 at 14:27

Joe42 said:
Agreed.
I would swap the Maxtor for something a little more reliable aswell.

Id get samsung spinpoint or WD

s-

fenderbass86 · 17 Jul 2006 at 15:10

PESolution said:
ahhh thanks guys also one more thing, when it comes to RAM etc in my build i don't think ill clock it so just some standard decent RAM would be good for me. The only things i will overclock is my cpu and gfx

/me goes to read cpu forum

You still need RAM that will push a good fsb. If you get the OCZ PC2-5300 @ 667MHz you'll only get about 3.2GHz out of the Intel E6600. If you get the G.Skill NR PC2-6400 @ 800MHz I suggested, it'll push the E6600 to 3.6GHz and above for the same amount of money.

PESolution · 17 Jul 2006 at 17:50

wow didnt realise that

i think i might need to find one of you guys who livesd around the north east (near middlesbrough) to come pimp my rig for me

Another question, i was looking at the pre-built computers that you can buy on overclockers, if i was to buy this seperately and build it myself how much money would i save over just having overclockers build it for me?

fenderbass86 · 17 Jul 2006 at 18:03

Example:

Pre-built:FS-004-OC "Ultima" AMD Athlon 64 3700 Dual DDR System (FS-004-OC) 1
Choose your Case - Case Selection: 4. Akasa Eclipse 62 with window side panel 1
£742.90 £742.90
Subtotal £742.90
VAT £130.01
Total £872.91

Self Built:
CP-121-AM AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego (Socket 939) - Retail (CP-121-AM) 1
£77.95 £77.95
MB-101-AS Asus A8N-SLi SE nForce4 SLi (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-101-AS) 1
£56.95 £56.95
MY-005-GL GeIL 1GB (2x512MB) PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit CAS2.5 (GE1GB3200BHDC) (MY-005-GL) 1
£59.95 £59.95
HD-046-WD Western Digital Caviar SE16 250GB 2500KS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD-046-WD) 1
£47.50 £47.50
GX-018-BG BFG GeForce 7900 GT OC 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-018-BG) 1
£159.95 £159.95
CD-030-NE NEC ND4570 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM (CD-030-NE) 1
£21.95 £21.95
CA-007-TG Tagan TG430-U15 430W ATX2.01 Easycon SLi Compliant Modular Silent PSU (CA-007-TG) 1
£46.95 £46.95
BU-000-AK Akasa Eclipse 62 Aluminium Case & Window (BU-000-AK) 1
CA-006-AK Akasa Eclipse 62 Window Side Panel (CA-006-AK) 1
CA-005-AK Akasa Eclipse 62 Aluminum Case (CA-005-AK) 1
£82.70 £82.70
OS-001-MS Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition inc. SP2 - OEM - 1Pk (N09-01528) (OS-001-MS) 1
£51.95 £51.95
Subtotal £605.85
VAT £106.03
Total £711.88

Always build it yourself, you get exactly what you want for less. Don't get this system, it was just an example.

Beenom · 17 Jul 2006 at 18:36

fenderbass86 said:
Snip

Ahh looks like the OcUK pre-built systems haven't been changed since the price cuts of the Athlon 64s

PESolution · 17 Jul 2006 at 19:10

Thankyou very much for putting the time into that example for me. I was aware that it would be cheaper but i never imagined that they would charge 170£ more just for a bit of labour :eek:

i had imagined about 50£ ahh well. thanks again

fenderbass86 · 17 Jul 2006 at 19:18

Beenom said:
Ahh looks like the OcUK pre-built systems haven't been changed since the price cuts of the Athlon 64s

Exactly the reason to DIY!

fenderbass86 · 17 Jul 2006 at 19:19

PESolution said:
Thankyou very much for putting the time into that example for me. I was aware that it would be cheaper but i never imagined that they would charge 170£ more just for a bit of labour i had imagined about 50£ ahh well. thanks again

No problem buddy, here's what I would go for now:

CP-128-IN Intel Core 2 DUO E6600 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail (CP-128-IN) 1
£214.95 £214.95
MB-010-IN Intel Extreme D975bx-304 975X (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard - OEM (MB-010-IN) 1
£129.95 £129.95
MY-014-GS G.Skill 2GB DDR2 NR PC2-6400 (2x1GB) CAS5 Dual Channel Kit (F2-6400PHU2-2GBNR) (MY-014-GS) 1
£114.95 £114.95
GX-112-SP Sapphire ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-112-SP) 1
£219.95 £219.95
HD-023-WD Western Digital Caviar Special Edition 80GB 800JD SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-023-WD) 1
£28.50 £28.50
HD-046-WD Western Digital Caviar SE16 250GB 2500KS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD-046-WD) 1
£47.50 £47.50
CD-038-PO Pioneer DVR-111DBK 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter - (Black) OEM (CD-038-PO) 1
£21.95 £21.95
CA-054-LL Lian-Li PC-7 PLUS Black Aluminium Midi-Tower Case (No PSU) (CA-054-LL) 1
£48.95 £48.95
CA-009-TG Tagan TG580-U15 580W ATX2.01 Easycon SLi Compliant Modular Silent PSU (CA-009-TG) 1
£69.95 £69.95
Subtotal £896.65
VAT £156.92
Total £1,053.57

It's way under budget so buy a couple of new games!

I put in two hard drives, so put Windows operating system and other bits n' pieces on the 80GB and use the 250GB for games and media storage.