Around £800 on new pc

BenJ · 6 Oct 2006 at 21:10

Ok im building a new pc for my bro for around £800 and ive spec'd him this so far:

AMD Athlon 64 4000+ £105.74
Artic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro Cpu Cooler £11.74
OCZ Matched 2Gig Platinum Ram DDR 2-3-2 £152.69
Asus A8N-Sli SE Mobo £64.61
Hiper Type R 580 Modular PSU £64.61
Seagate Barracuda 160Gig sata H/D £41.07
BFG GeForce 7950 GT PCI-E Graphics Card £205.61
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy SE 7.1 £18.74
Sony DVD RW £23.44
Thermaltake Soprano Case £46.94
Windows Xp Home £52.00

£787.19

The prices are based on last week so they may be a little out.

The pc will mainly be used for playing Counter Strike Source, but may be used for other games in the future.

Is this spec fairly capable of running future games?
Are there any compatability issues?
Can anyone spec anything better for the budget?

Thanks in advance.

rmuir · 6 Oct 2006 at 21:47

REFERENCE DESCRIPTION QUANTITY PRICE COST REMOVE
MB-061-GI Gigabyte GA_965P_DS3 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-061-GI)
£91.99 £91.99
CP-126-IN Intel Core 2 DUO E6300 "LGA775 Allendale" 1.86GHz (1066FSB) - Retail (CP-126-IN)
£114.99 £114.99
MY-034-GL GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC5300 667MHz Value DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB5300DC) (MY-034-GL)
£139.99 £139.99
GX-041-OK OcUK MSI GeForce 7900 GTO SILENT 512MB GDDR3 VIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-041-OK)
£153.99 £153.99
HD-079-SE Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 250GB ST3250620AS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD-079-SE)
£51.99 £51.99
CD-047-NE NEC ND7173 18x18 DVD±RW Dual Layer LabelFlash ReWriter (Black) - OEM (CD-047-NE)
£19.95 £19.95
CA-020-AK Akasa AK-ZEN-01-BK Zen Black Case - No PSU (CA-020-AK)
£27.95 £27.95
CA-002-SK FSP Sparkle FX600-GLN Epsilon 600W ATX2.0 PSU (CA-002-SK)
£79.99 £79.99
Subtotal £680.84
VAT £119.15
Total £799.99

BenJ · 6 Oct 2006 at 22:00

Cheers for the reply, althought i forgot to say.

The spec needs to include a

MODULAR, Quiet, and well respected psu
2Gig low latency Ram
Windows Xp
Dont really need a harddrive any bigger than 160gig.
Thermaltake Case
a GOOD Graphics card preferably nvidia 7900 +

Regarding the spec above...How would the cheapest core 2 duo running at 1.86ghz even begin to compare with the best amd 64 4000 running at 2.4ghz? that confuses me :confused:

, i know its dual core but surely the overal speed is not comparable? please could some one explain it abit to me. Plus Counterstrike source only uses single core, so im guessing a slower dual core processor is worthless.

Cheers.

rmuir · 6 Oct 2006 at 22:11

BenJ said:
Cheers for the reply, althought i forgot to say.

The spec needs to include a

MODULAR, Quiet, and well respected psu try an enermax
2Gig low latency Ram got that covered
Windows Xp
Dont really need a harddrive any bigger than 160gig.
Thermaltake Case why??
a GOOD Graphics card preferably nvidia 7900 + also got that covered

Regarding the spec above...How would the cheapest core 2 duo running at 1.86ghz even begin to compare with the best amd 64 4000 running at 2.4ghz? that confuses me , i know its dual core but surely the overal speed is not comparable? please could some one explain it abit to me. Plus Counterstrike source only uses single core, so im guessing a slower dual core processor is worthless.

Pretty sure ive read on here that the 'lowest' connie is easily a match for most of what amd has to offer and i was also covering the future games requirement there as well.

Cheers.

CrazyMonkey · 6 Oct 2006 at 22:34

BenJ said:
Cheers for the reply, althought i forgot to say.

The spec needs to include a

MODULAR, Quiet, and well respected psu
2Gig low latency Ram
Windows Xp
Dont really need a harddrive any bigger than 160gig.
Thermaltake Case
a GOOD Graphics card preferably nvidia 7900 +

Regarding the spec above...How would the cheapest core 2 duo running at 1.86ghz even begin to compare with the best amd 64 4000 running at 2.4ghz? that confuses me , i know its dual core but surely the overal speed is not comparable? please could some one explain it abit to me. Plus Counterstrike source only uses single core, so im guessing a slower dual core processor is worthless.

Cheers.

The E6300 has no problems getting 2.6ghz overclock with a decent cooler. Many people have them sitting puring at 3ghz+
The Core2Duo's whipe the 4000+ all over the floor. A good E6300 with a decent overclock will match or beat a FX62 i think. To get an AMD now over the Core2Duo's is ludicrous, you would have to seriously be mad not to go core2duo.

BenJ · 6 Oct 2006 at 22:46

I dont know how to overclock, so its based on stock speeds. Which is quicker AMD 64 4000+ or Core 2 duo 1.86ghz ??? How hard and safe is it to overclock?

rmuir · 6 Oct 2006 at 22:55

BenJ said:
I dont know how to overclock, so its based on stock speeds. Which is quicker AMD 64 4000+ or Core 2 duo 1.86ghz ??? How hard and safe is it to overclock?

overclocking is a doddle mate....well it must be if i can get my 3700+ San Diego to 2.75ghz on stock cooling. Even the next conroe up would be fine and get an x1900xt

Why the specific case?

BenJ · 6 Oct 2006 at 23:04

Ive had a quick look at the overclocking for begginers guide on these forums and it sounds like if u do anything wrong then you will kill the cpu, this sounds like a bit of a risk. The only reason for the case is based on looks.

rmuir · 7 Oct 2006 at 00:08

ive got an asus a8n sli se and the bios lets me clock away no probs.. obviously you've gotta apply a little common sense.

Better off buying a case based on space/cooling ability to be honest.

800 quid an absolute max budget? I built in april and started with a top line of 550 ended up spending 750

BenJ · 7 Oct 2006 at 09:54

so are you saying the thermaltake soprano case is not good for cooling and space? I have that case for my pc and it does the job fine. What case would you recommend then?

CrazyMonkey · 7 Oct 2006 at 13:33

BenJ said:
Ive had a quick look at the overclocking for begginers guide on these forums and it sounds like if u do anything wrong then you will kill the cpu, this sounds like a bit of a risk. The only reason for the case is based on looks.

Its very unlikely that you will kill your cpu. A good cooler and dont go really heavy on the volt's and you will fly.
Overclocking is simple a good mobo that will overclock well teamed with a E6300 overclocked will fly. If worse turns to worse and you cant boot into bios then just clear the cmos back to default and try overclocking again.
IF you get a E6300 and get it all setup with a good mobo just post in the overclocking bit about overclocking it and you will get help instantly

E6300 overclocked teamed with that 7950GT or a X1900XT will be some serious rig, at the moment id go for a E6300 with a X1900XT. 2gb of ram (perhaps some geil)
Dunno about mobo, are you going for sli/xfire? perhaps a Gigabite DS4?
Hiper Type R 580W will work great (modular :cool:

)
or consider getting a E6400 with a good HSF like a NInja Infiinity or something will be easier for you to overclock, as its got a higher mulitiplier and going on the overclocking tables they have here you wont have to get as good ram to get a 3GHZ+ overclock

**EDIT** about the case hmm, I think the soprano would be ok. Thermaltake in my opinion are quite good producers of quality cases.

BenJ · 7 Oct 2006 at 14:05

Cheers man, nice post. Ok im pretty set on getting the core2duo and giving overclocking a go now. So im looking for specs for £800 (Not really much more) for a core 2 duo, 2gig low latency ram, good overclocking mobo, preferably a nvidia card, good cooler for the cpu overclocked, i know what case, soundcard, psu, hardrive and burner i would like, so dont really need posts on those.

Um looking at the overclockers shop there are four types of mobos for the socket 775 intel chips (975x chipset,965p chipset, other chipsets, micro-ATX) Which is the correct chipset for the e6300?