Another £600 spec me thread

kieves1 · 6 May 2009 at 18:22

Hi all

I have been asked by a friend at work to spec him a gaming machine for around £600

He has a 19 inch monitor, keyboard and mouse but would need an OS.
He has XP on his old computer HD and was talking about using it in his new pc as dual boot.Xp from his old hard drive and a 64 bit OS from the new spec.

He wants to keep his back catalogue of games and he says some have issues with vista and some are even moddified DOS games to work on XP.Anyway im not to sure on this side so i thought i would post here and see what specs you guys come up with and then let him decide.

He says he may want to do some basic OC ing for that little bit extra performance.

Cheers all

Kieves

cmndr_andi · 6 May 2009 at 18:37

Here is a spec based on the Core 2 Duo E5300, a very good overclocking chip.

That graphics card should be brilliant, especially on that monitor and he should be looking for at least 3.5GHz with that cpu/mobo/cooler combination.

kieves1 · 6 May 2009 at 19:18

Sorry cmndr andi forgot to mention he wants to go AMD

Sorry

Azurael · 6 May 2009 at 19:34

kieves1 said:
Sorry cmndr andi forgot to mention he wants to go AMD Sorry

Ugh, why?

It makes no sense really...

I only went for AMD because I wanted something cooler running than my old Q6600 B3 and since I know how bad 680is are with 45nm chips (although my Abit claimed to support them - it was bad enough clocking my Q6600, I had it at nearly 3.5GHz on the old P35 board.) and needed SLI support... It would have cost me a lot more to build an equivalent Intel platform, but only because of the bits I already had an investment in - I didn't want a 780i 'bodge job' board, and DDR3 was very pricey when I built my rig.

In hindsight, I'd just have gone back to the P35 board with a 45nm quad, but it's too late now!

kieves1 · 6 May 2009 at 19:37

Just personal preferencei imagine.If you can show a good spec intel that is better then i will pass it on to him

mp260767 · 6 May 2009 at 19:37

kieves1 said:
Sorry cmndr andi forgot to mention he wants to go AMD Sorry

any particular reason for wanting to go amd ?

kieves1 · 6 May 2009 at 19:47

kieves1 said:
Just personal preferencei imagine.If you can show a good spec intel that is better then i will pass it on to him

Must have posted at the same time

hes just an AMD fanboy i guess

Kennysevenfold · 6 May 2009 at 20:18

Product Name Qty Price Line Total

Microsoft Windows XP Professional x64 Edition 64-Bit SP2c - OEM (ZAT-00124) £114.99
(£99.99) £114.99
(£99.99)

XFX ATI Radeon HD 4850 "XXX Edition" 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail £92.99
(£80.86) £92.99
(£80.86)

Corsair VX 550W ATX Power Supply (CMPSU-550VXUK) £69.99
(£60.86) £69.99
(£60.86)

Western Digital Caviar Black 640GB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (WD6401AALS) £63.99
(£55.64) £63.99
(£55.64)

Gigabyte GA-M720-US3 (Socket AM2+) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £57.49
(£49.99) £57.49
(£49.99)

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 7850+ Black Edition 2.80GHz (Socket AM2+) - Retail + Battleforge Game £55.98
(£48.68) £55.98
(£48.68)

Antec 300 Three Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black (No PSU) £49.99
(£43.47) £49.99
(£43.47)

OCZ Gold Edition 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 PC2-8500C5 Dual Channel (OCZ2G10664GK) £39.99
(£34.77) £39.99
(£34.77)

Scythe Mini Ninja CPU Cooler (Socket 478/754/939/940/AM2/LGA775) £34.49
(£29.99) £34.49
(£29.99)

Samsung SH-S223F/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
(£15.64) £17.99
(£15.64) Sub Total : £519.89 Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : FREE VAT is being charged at 15% VAT : £79.86 Total : £599.75

Azurael · 6 May 2009 at 20:22

May as well bust the bank by £20 or so and go for a tri-core Phenom II, the overclocking and performance per clock is noticeably better than the older K10 cores, even if you don't benefit from the extra core. Plus, there's always the possibility that like many others, the 4th core will actually be fully functional when enabled in the BIOS

Cristian · 6 May 2009 at 20:30

this?

Kennysevenfold · 6 May 2009 at 20:43

cristi said:
this?

but we wants to stick to xp so stick another £20 on that

way outta budget, stick with dual

Kennysevenfold · 6 May 2009 at 20:46

something like this even...

Product Name Qty Price Line Total

AMD Phenom II X3 Tri Core 720 Black Edition 2.8GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £120.74
(£104.99) £120.74
(£104.99)

Microsoft Windows XP Professional x64 Edition 64-Bit SP2c - OEM (ZAT-00124) £114.99
(£99.99) £114.99
(£99.99)

XFX ATI Radeon HD 4850 "XXX Edition" 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail £92.99
(£80.86) £92.99
(£80.86)

Asus M4A78 PRO AMD 780G (Socket AM2+/AM3) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £90.84
(£78.99) £90.84
(£78.99)

OCZ ModXStream Pro 500w Silent SLI Ready ATX2 Modular Power Supply £60.00
(£52.17) £60.00
(£52.17)

Samsung SpinPoint F1 320GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD322HJ) £40.24
(£34.99) £40.24
(£34.99)

OCZ Gold Edition 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 PC2-8500C5 Dual Channel (OCZ2G10664GK) £39.99
(£34.77) £39.99
(£34.77)

Coolermaster Elite 335 Case - Black (No PSU) £32.99
(£28.69) £32.99
(£28.69)

Samsung SH-S223F/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
(£15.64) £17.99
(£15.64) Sub Total : £531.09 Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : FREE VAT is being charged at 15% VAT : £81.43 Total : £611.27

cmndr_andi · 6 May 2009 at 20:46

kieves1 said:
He has XP on his old computer HD and was talking about using it in his new pc as dual boot.Xp from his old hard drive and a 64 bit OS from the new spec.

From that I read that he has XP on a disk which he wants to keep. Then wants a second OS which is 64 bit, and doesn't specify Vista or XP (or Win 7).

So the best options are to get Vista 64 or download Windows 7 RC1 (64 bit version).

RJC · 6 May 2009 at 20:52

My offering:

OcUK Value GeForce GTX 260 "Core 216 55nm" 896MB GDDR3 Dual DVI (PCI-Express) + Mirror's Edge £139.99
(£121.73) £139.99
(£121.73)

Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (66I-01939) £89.99
(£78.25) £89.99
(£78.25)

Gigabyte GA-MA780G-UD3H AMD 780G (Socket AM2+/AM3) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £79.99
(£69.56) £79.99
(£69.56)

Corsair VX 550W ATX Power Supply (CMPSU-550VXUK) £69.99
(£60.86) £69.99
(£60.86)

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 7850+ Black Edition 2.80GHz (Socket AM2+) - Retail + Battleforge Game £55.98
(£48.68) £55.98
(£48.68)

Samsung SpinPoint F1 320GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD322HJ) £40.24
(£34.99) £40.24
(£34.99)

Corsair XMS2 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 PC2-6400C5 TwinX Dual Channel (TWIN2X4096-6400C5) £39.99
(£34.77) £39.99
(£34.77)

Coolermaster Elite 334 Case - Black (No PSU) £28.74
(£24.99) £28.74
(£24.99)

Samsung SH-S223F/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
(£15.64) £17.99
(£15.64) Sub Total : £489.47 Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £11.75 VAT is being charged at 15% VAT : £75.18 Total : £576.40

Azurael · 6 May 2009 at 21:14

I'm sure there was an OEM tri-core in the clearance section for around 70 quid recently.

I really wouldn't bother with 65nm AMD chips any more. They're hot, they overclock like rubbish and they'll be embarassed by the cheapest Core 2s.

Cristian · 6 May 2009 at 21:15

it would be quite sad to spend £114 on xp 64 now with windows 7 released...
tri core is the way to go.
in any case:

le: oups accidentally cut out the vat price.
it's 608 in total.

kieves1 · 6 May 2009 at 21:51

Cheers all.
Yeah he has xp on his current rig and wants to use his old harddrive in his new pc as a secondary hardrive(He doesnt have the disc all the recovery files and stuff are in a hidden partition as it was factory bought) but with xp still on it for his old games and stuff and a 64 bit OS on the new Harddrive.
I think the the 720 is worth the extra tenner or so over the 710 tho for the unlocked multiplier.
He is best off spending £600 on hardware and getting WIN7 for now and upgrading when its released.

Kennysevenfold · 6 May 2009 at 21:54

kieves1 said:
Cheers all.
Yeah he has xp on his current rig and wants to use his old harddrive in his new pc as a secondary hardrive(He doesnt have the disc all the recovery files and stuff are in a hidden partition as it was factory bought) but with xp still on it for his old games and stuff and a 64 bit OS on the new Harddrive.
I think the the 720 is worth the extra tenner or so over the 710 tho for the unlocked multiplier.
He is best off spending £600 on hardware and getting WIN7 for now and upgrading when its released.

you do know if his copy of xp is OEM it will not work in a new system.?

cmndr_andi · 6 May 2009 at 22:02

Yea, if he plans to boot from the XP hard disk using the new system he will have to reinstall XP on it using his disk. Trying to use an old PCs hard disk in a new build is a path littered with the corpses of many a system builder.

Just make sure he backs up his important stuff before reinstalling XP.

kieves1 · 6 May 2009 at 22:10

cmndr_andi said:
Yea, if he plans to boot from the XP hard disk using the new system he will have to reinstall XP on it using his disk. Trying to use an old PCs hard disk in a new build is a path littered with the corpses of many a system builder.

Just make sure he backs up his important stuff before reinstalling XP.

I said he was best just getting a new copy of xp and getting rid of his 5 year old HD but some people are stubborn

He should just get XP now and get a 64 bit OS in a month or so when he gets paid