Best 4 components for £600?

Mercury

Mercury

Mercury

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Joined
7 Feb 2003
Posts
39
Location
Cambridge
Hi,

Can anyone help me spec an upgrade for me? I've just realised it's been more than 4 years since I put together my current system! No wonder it feels a bit slow! :eek:

I have a budget of around £600 including VAT.

I would like something along the lines of:

  1. Motherboard with 1x PCI-E 16x slot, lots of USB2 ports, Gigabit ethernet & fastest firewire available. Asus or Abit preferred.
  2. Decent graphics card. Maybe a BFG GeForce 8800 GTS OC 320MB?
  3. Intel Core Duo CPU. Maybe an Intel Core 2 DUO E6600 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.40GHz?
  4. Fastest memory within budget for the above (2GB required).
(I have a new uprated PSU to use already).

Many thanks for your advice/suggestions!
 
jjao4.jpg


To afford firewire you'd have to downgrade the CPU, something that I personally wouldn't do.

What case/PSU/drives do you have?
 
masslac said:
To afford firewire you'd have to downgrade the CPU, something that I personally wouldn't do.
Click to expand...
Mmm. Gotta have firewire! :)

masslac said:
What case/PSU/drives do you have?
Click to expand...
CoolerMaster Praetorian PAC-T01-E1
Tagan TG480-U01 480W
Western Digital 300GB SATA
Western Digital 250GB SATA
NEC ND3540 DVD burner
 
masslac said:
To afford firewire you'd have to downgrade the CPU, something that I personally wouldn't do.
Click to expand...

Just get a PCI card mind you my recent search around shows that firewire is not much as in demand as it was in the old days.

Pity really it's a great bus.
 
@ OP - Your PSU is probably gonna be under a lot of strain with the 8800 tbh. My first thought is to downgrade to something like the 1950PRO (still a great card at £125), then use the money saved for a firewire board.
 
masslac said:
Yah, not to be stubborn but I would really consider ditching firewire in favour of that spec.
Click to expand...

If he's not going to overclock I assume this as the spec doesn't mention a cooler :D :D

THEN cheapen up the motherboard and use the pennies saved to get a firewire card mind you I am sure there are 775 firewire mobos about ? 965 chipset maybe.

//edit not a pretty motherboard not recommended by me but at stock would be fit for purpose

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-003-AK&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=205
 
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Subliminal Aura said:
If he's not going to overclock I assume this as the spec doesn't mention a cooler :D :D

THEN cheapen up the motherboard and use the pennies saved to get a firewire card mind you I am sure there are 775 firewire mobos about ? 965 chipset maybe.
Click to expand...
I changed that post as I did not notice the PSU issue. You can get a good overclock on stock cooling anyway, so I don't think an aftermarket HSF is an issue right now.
 
The Asus P5N-E 650 SLi appears to fit the bill, oddly it doesn't seem to be listed on the UK site but OcUK do sell it and it is pretty good for overclocking also(providing the rest of the system is up to it), it costs about the same as the other Asus anyway and it does have firewire (IEEE1394). :)
 
masslac said:
I changed that post as I did not notice the PSU issue. You can get a good overclock on stock cooling anyway, so I don't think an aftermarket HSF is an issue right now.
Click to expand...

Fair enough - I'd go with what masslac says then :D
Still not too happy with the motherboard though :rolleyes:

Pity really about the PSU as I'd really go 8800gts over a 1950 anyday
 
semi-pro waster said:
The Asus P5N-E 650 SLi appears to fit the bill, oddly it doesn't seem to be listed on the UK site but OcUK do sell it and it is pretty good for overclocking also, it costs about the same as the other Asus anyway. :)
Click to expand...

ROFL gets up to check the back of his machine yup firewire and I DO love this board - is it not showing signs of aging yet ? ;)
 
Here's a good compromise as I do think getting the 8800 card is the best use of the money.

jjib7.jpg


Could easily replace the stock HSF later and get a very nice overclock out of that E6300.
 
I've upped my budget a little and have almost convinced myself to order the following:

1x Intel Core 2 DUO E6600 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail
1x BFG GeForce 8800 GTS OC 320MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail
1x Asus P5W DH Deluxe WiFi (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
2x G.Skill 2GB DDR2 PK PC2-6400 (2x1GB) CAS4 Dual Channel Kit (F2-6400

Comes to just under £800 including VAT & delivery.

I think I'll be _very_ happy with the above. My only query is around the memory - I assume that what I've chosen will be plenty fast enough? (I don't plan to overclock the CPU). Also, I'm assuming 4GB will be just fine (I do a lot of large-file image editing).

Thanks for your comments!
 
4GB will be fine on Vista, but XP will only see 3GB IIRC..

Also, why not squeeze a Tuniq Tower into the budget? :) Quiter, cooler, and allows for you to overclock later on ;)
 
Mercury said:
I've upped my budget a little and have almost convinced myself to order the following:

1x Intel Core 2 DUO E6600 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail
1x BFG GeForce 8800 GTS OC 320MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail
1x Asus P5W DH Deluxe WiFi (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
2x G.Skill 2GB DDR2 PK PC2-6400 (2x1GB) CAS4 Dual Channel Kit (F2-6400

Comes to just under £800 including VAT & delivery.

I think I'll be _very_ happy with the above. My only query is around the memory - I assume that what I've chosen will be plenty fast enough? (I don't plan to overclock the CPU). Also, I'm assuming 4GB will be just fine (I do a lot of large-file image editing).


Thanks for your comments!
Click to expand...

That ram is great stuff, have it myself.

You still havent added a psu, your tagan will be on its limit.
 
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