Advice on p.c specs - 1st time builder.

[Dodger]

I would go for something like this:

BenQ FP202W 20" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Black
(£152.74 inc VAT)

Western Digital Caviar SE16 250GB 2500KS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM
(£46.99 inc VAT)

Sapphire ATI Radeon X1950 Pro 256MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail
(£105.74 inc VAT)

GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400UDC)
(£111.61 inc VAT)

Asus P5N-E SLi nForce 650 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
(£82.24 inc VAT)

Intel Core 2 Duo E4300 "LGA775 Allendale" 1.80GHz (800FSB) - Retail
(£109.26 inc VAT)

Liteon DVD-8900 16x DVD±RW/RAM (Black) - OEM
(£16.44 inc VAT)

Akasa AK-ZEN-01-BK Zen Black Case - No PSU
(£29.36 inc VAT)

Seasonic S12 430W Silent ATX2.0 Power Supply
(£46.99 inc VAT)

Total : £703.99 (Shipping not included)

If you can wait a few more days the price of the e4300 is likely to fall so you'll be within your £700 budget

 

[Flubble]

do you need windows xp/vista aswell as the computer and monitor?


i would have gone for,

Belinea 19" widescreen £96.99
Seasonic 420w £39.99
Sapphire X1950pro £89.99
Akasa Zen £24.99
Arctic Freezer 7 pro £14.99
Samsung SATA DVD±RW £17.99
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 250GB SATA £42.99
Geil 2GB PC6400C5 £79.99
Intel Core2Duo E6320 £99.99 *(Pre-Order)
Gigabyte DS3p £74.99

sub-total: £582.90
shipping: £12.95
vat: £104.27
Total : £700.12

 

[AlSukhon]

hi,
fubble => don't need an operating system, have a multi-user xp2003. will do me fine for now.
dodger=> what's the point of having an SLI motherboard if it can't run two ATI gcards? or is there a way??
All=> why do you all keep avoiding the "Arctic Cooling T1 Pro Case (PSU - 500W)" is it complete poo?
also been looking at the clearance stock. they've got the same motherboards but £10 cheaper! is it a case of the boxes are damaged or is it something worse? anyone bought from it before?

cheers!

 

[Dodger]

hi,
fubble => don't need an operating system, have a multi-user xp2003. will do me fine for now.
dodger=> what's the point of having an SLI motherboard if it can't run two ATI gcards? or is there a way??
All=> why do you all keep avoiding the "Arctic Cooling T1 Pro Case (PSU - 500W)" is it complete poo?
also been looking at the clearance stock. they've got the same motherboards but £10 cheaper! is it a case of the boxes are damaged or is it something worse? anyone bought from it before?

cheers!

Chose the Asus P5N-E because its a good overclocking board and assuming you want to hit at least the 3GHz mark it would be a good choice, alternatively you could go with the DS3 they are both similar in price.

 

[steve258]

All=> why do you all keep avoiding the "Arctic Cooling T1 Pro Case (PSU - 500W)" is it complete poo?

No one knows because the official AC site reveals little about the power supply, but in general integrated PSUs are inferior than a seperate PSU solution - a decent 500W PSU will cost £20 more than the AC T1 Pro Case with included 500W, I think that's why people have been avoiding it. However according to another retailer the included PSU (AX500-F) has been testing fine with A64 FX-62 with 2*1950XTX in crossfire, so I suppose it's good enough.

The P5N-E is a great overclocker while still supporting SLI setup but if you are only interested in single graphic then there are cheaper boards out there that are just as overclockable i.e. DS3/S3, P5B.

B-Grade stuff are perfectly fine just lack the packaging or accessories AFAIK, you still get the same warranty from OCUK though.

 

[semi-pro waster]

According to Arctic Cooling the PSU included is quite good but then they would say that. I don't actually know that much about it which is the main reason why I wouldn't advise it although it is probably absolutely fine for your intended uses.

Clearance stock means that they want rid of it, either it might not be retail packaged or it has some non-essential parts missing such as IDE/SATA cables and manuals. They should work perfectly or you can return them though.