Another £1500 gaming PC spec-me-up

Man of Honour
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Monstermunch said:
It's not!

If he wants to sli later he cant without upping to at leat 500w. Most card manufacturers now state 400w single card and 500w for sli.

Yes if going SLi then 500w+ is recommended but note I specifically said the proposed hardware(i.e. as at this present moment in time). We can also argue about the absolute necessity of 500w+ for SLi as there are people who are using less powerful PSUs and running SLi but the essential point is that for a single graphics card and the components selected 450w from a good manufacturer is fine. It is all moot anyway since DJsean is likely to be going with the Hiper 580w.
 
Soldato
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King_Boru said:
Exactly, I find people buy the 'Pro' version becasue it says 'Pro' its like those gaming mice, buy this one becasue it says 'Pro' becasue you'll be able to frag better with a 'Pro' mouse. Maybe windows will run better if they put 'Pro' in its name. what people fail to realise is that its simply down to the advaced networking capability which they will never use in the house.

get the home version. save the pennies.

Don't get the Home edition. It doesn't support dual core.
 
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Sure it works with home, Although i advise going pro.

I tried Dual Xeon rig on home, and it showed 2 cpu Load box things, pro showed 4. (HT)
 
Soldato
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Another feature as to why I use pro over home is remote desktop - I use this application heavily. Home doesn't support this.
 
Soldato
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trojan698 said:
Don't get the Home edition. It doesn't support dual core.
Webzta said:
erm XP Home is garbage, atleast get pro.


my god...
where do people these days get their hardware/software knowledge from?
an argos catalogue?

Pro does offer a few things that aren't in Home, yes... but i'd say that around 80-90% of people haven't used all of the extra features it offers.

a quick run down of what Pro offers that home doesn't
Pro features that aren't in Home Edition
The following features are not present in Windows XP Home Edition.

* Power user Remote Desktop - All versions of Windows XP--including Home Edition--support Remote Assistance, which is an assisted support technology that allows a help desk or system administrator to remotely connect to a client desktop for troubleshooting purposes. But Only Pro supports the new Remote Desktop feature, which is a single-session version of Terminal Services with two obvious uses: Mobile professionals who need to remotely access their corporate desktop, and remote administration of clients on a network. You can access a Windows XP Remote Desktop from any OS that supports a Terminal Services client (such as Windows 98 and, interestingly XP Home). XP Home can act as the client in a Remote Desktop session; only Pro can be the server.
* Multi-processor support - Windows XP Pro supports up to two microprocessors, while Home Edition supports only one.
* Automated System Recovery (ASR) - In a somewhat controversial move, Microsoft has removed the Backup utility from the default Windows XP Home Edition, though it is available as an optional installation if you can find it on the CD-ROM (hint: it's in the /valueadd folder). The reason for this the integration of Microsoft's new Automated System Recovery (ASR) tool into Backup. In Pro, ASR will help recover a system from a catastrophic error, such as one that renders the system unbootable. ASR-enabled backups are triggerable from XP Setup, allowing you to return your system to its previous state, even if the hard drive dies and has to be replaced. Unlike consumer-oriented features such as System Restore, ASR is not automatic: It must manually be enabled from within the Backup utility in Windows XP Pro. In any event, while there is a Backup utility available for Home Edition, you cannot use ASR, even though mentions of this feature still exist in the UI. Confusing? Yes. But it's better than no Backup at all, which was the original plan.
* Dynamic Disk Support - Windows XP Professional (like its Windows 2000 equivalent) supports dynamic disks, but Home Edition does not (instead, HE supports only the standard Simple Disk type). Dynamic disks are not usable with any OS other than Windows 2000 or Windows XP Pro, and they cannot be used on portable computers. Likewise, Home Edition does not include the Logical Disk Manager.
* Fax - Home Edition has no integrated fax functionality out of the box, though it is an option you can install from the XP Home CD.
* Internet Information Services/Personal Web Server - Home Edition does not include the IIS Web server 5.1 software found in Pro.

* Security Encrypting File System - Windows XP Professional supports the Encrypting File System (EFS), which allows you encrypt individual files or folders for local security (EFS is not enabled over a network). EFS-protected files and folders allows users to protect sensitive documents from other users.
* File-level access control - Any user with Administrator privileges can limit access to certain network resources, such as servers, directories, and files, using access control lists. Only Windows XP Professional supports file-level access control, mostly because this feature is typically implemented through Group Policy Objects, which are also not available in Home Edition.
* "C2" certification - Microsoft will attempt to have Windows XP Professional certified with the "C2" security designation, a largely irrelevant status, but one which will not be afforded to Home Edition.

* Management Domain membership - Home Edition cannot be used to logon to an Active Directory domain. For obvious reasons, the Domain Wizard is also missing in Home Edition.
* Group Policy - Since Home Edition cannot be used to logon to an Active Directory domain, Group Policy--whereby applications, network resources, and operating systems are administered for domain users--is not supported either.
* IntelliMirror - Microsoft lumps a wide range of semi-related change and configuration management technologies under the IntelliMirror umbrella, and none of these features are supported in the consumer oriented Home Edition. IntelliMirror capabilities include user data management; centrally-managed software installation, repair, updating, and removal; user settings management; and Remote Installation Services (RIS), which allows administrators to remotely install the OS on client systems.
* Roaming profiles - This feature allows users to logon to any computer in an Active Directory network and automatically receive their customized settings. It is not available in Home Edition, which cannot logon to an Active Directory domain.

* Corporate deployment Multi-language support - Only Windows XP Professional will ship in a Multi-Language version or support multiple languages in a single install.
* Sysprep support - Windows XP Pro will support the System Preparation (Sysprep) utility, while Home Edition will not.
* RIS support - See the IntelliMirror heading in the previous section; Home Edition does not support RIS deployments.

* 64-bit Edition Microsoft is shipping a 64-bit version of Windows XP for Intel Itanium systems that mirrors the Professional Edition feature-set.

Networking features
* The following networking features are not included in Home Edition: The user interface for IPSecurity (IPSec)
* SNMP
* Simple TCP/IP services
* SAP Agent
* Client Service for NetWare
* Network Monitor
* Multiple Roaming feature

User interface features
* Windows XP Home Edition has some different default settings that affect the user interface. For example, Guest logon is on by default in Home, but off in Pro. The Address bar in Explorer windows is on in Pro by default, but off in Home. During the beta period, Microsoft had intended to use a business-oriented shell theme ("Professional") by default in Pro and the "Luna" consumer theme in Home Edition. But feedback from corporate users suggested that everyone liked the consumer-oriented Luna theme better, and development of the Professional theme was cancelled. Other user interface features that are present in Pro but not Home include: Client-side caching
* Administrative Tools option on the Start menu (a subset of the Admin tools are still present in Home, however).


for most people, nearly all of those features are not truely needed and indeed having them doesn't make you Windows XP Pro installation any better than somebody elses XP Home install.


anyway getting back to the issue of the spec

i think the only thing worth noting is that a lot of Belinea monitor users have been experiencing quite bad backlight bleeding on the monitors and some say poorly built USB ports on the back.

whether this is just from a bad batch, or poor build quality i do not know.
that model is one of OcUK's best selling monitors though, and they have got very good reviews apart from the two issues i mentioned.
 
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semi-pro waster said:
Again on the motherboard I'm not totally sure but I think the Asus has a marginally better chipset and some people (BigDom especially) have recommended it as a good motherboard. I'd doubt there to be too much difference performance wise though.
Thought I could feel my ears burning :)...

Yep my Asus is still going strong and reliable :)
 
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OP
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OK.... Here goes!!!

Shopping Cart (Prices in British Pounds) REFERENCE DESCRIPTION QUANTITY PRICE COST REMOVE
CP-134-AM AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+ (Socket 939) - Retail (ADA3800BVBOX) (CP-134-AM)
£184.95 £184.95
KB-060-LG Logitech MX518 Gaming-Grade Optical Mouse (KB-060-LG)
£27.95 £27.95
OS-001-MS Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition inc. SP2 - OEM (OS-001-MS)
£50.95 £50.95
KB-000-SL SpeedLink Ultra SL-6465 Flat Metal Keyboard (KB-000-SL)
£19.95 £19.95
GX-046-CO Connect3D ATI Radeon X1900 XT-X 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (3055) (GX-046-CO)
£329.95 £329.95
HD-088-MD Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 10 NCQ 250GB 6V250F0 SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD-088-MD)
£59.95 £59.95
HD-000-MI Mitsumi FA 404M 7in1 USB 2.0 Floppy & Media Drive - Silver (HD-000-MI)
£13.95 £13.95
MB-066-MS MSI RD480 Neo2 Crossfire (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-066-MS)
£64.95 £64.95
CD-028-NE NEC ND4551 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Silver) - OEM (CD-028-NE)
£28.70 £28.70
CA-008-TG Tagan TG530-U15 530W ATX2.01 Easycon SLi Compliant Modular Silent PSU (CA-008-TG)
£59.95 £59.95
MO-015-PH Philips 200W6CS 20" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Silver (MO-015-PH)
£299.95 £299.95
MY-009-GS G.Skill 2GB DDR HS PC3200 (2x1GB) CAS2.5 Dual Channel Kit (F1-3200USU2-2GBHS) (MY-007-GS)
£124.95 £124.95
Subtotal £1,266.15
Shipping (City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)) £12.95
VAT £223.85
Total £1,502.95

How's that little lot look?

I have to admit I also bought the I-Trigue 3400 speakers, Antec P160W case and Akasa amber 120mm fan from another etailer

TOTAL = £1640 (Oopsie :p)

Opinions greatly appreciated although if I realise I could have had a LOT better for the dough...... :mad: LOL
 
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