Another spec me thread, £600

bobrocks · 4 Aug 2007 at 17:18

Hello folks, sorry for another spec me a thread but I was hoping someone could help me out in this new minefield of technology and spec me a build. I've been out of the hardware game for a while, last computer I built was a 1.4 thunderbird.

I want to spend around £600, but it's not a hard limit I can go over it if its justified.
This machine will mainly be used for development work. It will run linux and generally another virtualised OS at the same time. But I do like to boot up XP to play games. The one thing I want it to be is quiet.

I'll need everything bar monitor, speakers.

cheers for any help

bobrocks · 6 Aug 2007 at 19:18

Well it looks like budget has gone out the window, now trying to creep in below 1000. I blatantly copied this spec from another thread but it does look good. I changed the ram due to the very positive experiences I've had with crucial support. Hopefully this will last a while.

My question is how quiet will it be?
I don't plan to overclock any time soon.

Gigabyte GA_P35C_DS3R (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 & DDR3 Motherboard £74.99
(£88.11) £74.99
(£88.11)
Western Digital Caviar SE16 500GB 5000AAKS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM £55.99
(£65.79)
Tuniq Tower 120 CPU Cooler (Socket 478/754/939/940/AM2/LGA775) £26.99
(£31.71)
Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 PC2-5300C3 667MHz Dual Channel Kit (BL2KIT12864AA663) £57.99
(£68.14) £115.98
(£136.28)
BFG GeForce 8800 GTX OC 768MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £284.99
(£334.86)
Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "LGA775 Kentsfield" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail £149.99
(£176.24)
Corsair HX 520W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU (CMPSU-520HXUK) £54.99
(£64.61)
NEC AD7170S Serial ATA 18x18 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
(£19.96) £16.99
(£19.96)
Akasa Eclipse 62 Aluminium Case - No PSU £73.99
(£86.94)
Sub Total : £854.90
Shipping cost based on delivery to Credit/debit card billing address, EH126NN with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £12.95
VAT is being charged at 17.50% VAT : £151.87
Total : £1,019.72

I need a new keyboard/mouse combo aswell but I think I'll take a trip to pcworld and try them out.

cheers for any help.

Duke · 6 Aug 2007 at 19:38

Unfortunately "£600 budget", "8800 GTX" and "Q6600" don't go in the same sentence. If you want to cut it down, go for a 8800 GTS and E6750 or similar

bobrocks · 6 Aug 2007 at 19:51

hehe yes, I changed the budget to 1000. I decided what the hell might as well.

Just wanting to check that it will be reasonable quiet, and all work together.

Barry1337 · 6 Aug 2007 at 20:11

bobrocks said:
hehe yes, I changed the budget to 1000. I decided what the hell might as well.

Just wanting to check that it will be reasonable quiet, and all work together.

No point in calling it a budget then is there.

bobrocks · 6 Aug 2007 at 20:31

Well, ok I'm sorry for changing the budget, or even using the word budget.

When I original posted on Saturday I was thinking 600 pound would be enough. The search was gone and I had read through the first pages and I felt for what I needed that would be sensible. Over the last 2 days I've decided that with the time I spend between upgrades I should get something more expensive now. As I said in my next post with the specs I am now trying to creep in under 1000.

I'm sure I'm not the first person ever to change their mind on budget after further reflection.

Duke · 6 Aug 2007 at 20:38

bobrocks said:
hehe yes, I changed the budget to 1000. I decided what the hell might as well.

Just wanting to check that it will be reasonable quiet, and all work together.

The spec looks great (got the same myself), I'm not sure how noisy the cooler is but you could always get a volt changing cable anyway

Let us know how you get on.

rikky · 6 Aug 2007 at 20:55

£340 for a graphics card seems madness to me, do you really need it to be that high a spec.?? I mean what monitor are you planning to use with this card - if not 22" - 24" it is pure overkill my friend.

edit: yes the rest of your components look very nice indeed btw.

Trusty · 6 Aug 2007 at 22:13

What moniter do you have as the GTX can be overkill for a 19/20 inch monitor! Just trying to save you money! :cool:

bobrocks · 6 Aug 2007 at 23:31

rikky said:
£340 for a graphics card seems madness to me, do you really need it to be that high a spec.?? I mean what monitor are you planning to use with this card - if not 22" - 24" it is pure overkill my friend.

Thermaltake said:
What moniter do you have as the GTX can be overkill for a 19/20 inch monitor! Just trying to save you money!

Thanks, this is the sort of thing I want to know about.

My primary display is a Dell 20" 2001FP, secondary is a Q17.

What card would you recommend for bang for buck and future proofing?

bobrocks · 3 Sep 2007 at 22:42

Now that search is back I would just like to say thanks to all for the help. I bought it that week with Saturday delivery. All went together perfectly in a couple of hours and its been perfect since. Bioshock runs perfect as does everything else I have tried.

The slide in drawer that the mobo is on rattles a bit when the cpu fan speeds up during games but other than that its near silent.

cheers folks