Building a new PC for around £1000?

Blackhorse

Blackhorse

Blackhorse

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15 May 2006
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495
Ok ill try be as descriptive to my dilemma I can be!

Im currently sat in front of 4.5 year old PC! Now when I built it, it wasn’t so shabby and has since had minor upgrades but nothing mega

It stands at:

Running on Win XP
AMD XP 2.2Ghz
1.5Gb DDR 333 Mem
128MB ATI Radeon 9700 Pro
Motherboard is MSI
80 GB Hard Disk
Audigy 2 Sound Card
DVD rewriter
DVD reader

Im in two minds do I upgrade? Or do I build from scratch? What would be any pros of keeping this thing? As far as I can tell the only thing I may salvage is the DVD rewriter, OS and possibly Audigy 2?! Or do I keep waiting as this gets me by and prices are dropping and what’s the point in wasting cash whilst this one works?!

Basically im looking at spending about £1100 on a new tower, I keep looking at graphics cards but always find myself drawn to the £400 ones and the £400 processors! Which then blows the budget? I realize there is a certain threshold you get to when buying where you ending up forking 50% more for an item that only kicks out an extra 15% power. This whilst nice, is something I want to try avoid!

Please help! It would also help a great deal if you included rough prices on the parts that are suggested.

Typical usage would to games like Oblivion, and upcoming Dark Messiah looks cool, so basically I like gaming! Is it possible for quiet or am I asking far too much on that budget?!

Heres what i came up with!
Akasa Eclipse-62 Aluminum Case (CA-005-AK) £82.19

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4200+ (Socket 939) £240.82

OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) PC5300 Dual Channel Gold GX XTC Series EL-DDR2 £164.44

ATI Radeon X1900 ***Crossfire Edition*** 512MB GDDR3) £305.44

Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Music - £78.67

Asus A8R32-MVP Deluxe Crossfire (Socket 939) £129.19

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB £76.32

Liteon SHM-165P6S-02C 16x DVD±RW/RAM £31.14

FSP Sparkle FX600-GLN Epsilon 600W ATX2.0 PSU £82.19
Click to expand...
 
ok, dont get the crossfire version, thats the second card used when you wnat crossfire, if u want just one 1900 get the stanadra xtx/xt
 
yeh go for some nice ddr, and mayeb the money saved will allow a 4400
i take it your thinking of going crossfire at some point?
 
I would wait 2/3 weeks as the AM2 cpus are coming out this month or start of june.
If I was spending £1000 I would want to future proof. While AM2 won't give you much of a performance increase now, their will be faster cpus to upgrade to in the future.
 
david.n.c said:
why wont ddr2 mem work? :confused:
Click to expand...
Because that motherboard, & any other AMD Socket 939 motherboard for that matter only take DDR! AM2, the new AMD socket will be DDR2 compatible :D
 
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Unless an early adopter, this should keep you going until AM2, Conroe, Vista, DX10, etc all settle in:
  • AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+ (Socket 939) - OEM (CP-152-AM) £157.95
  • Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB ST3320620AS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD-078-SE) £64.95
  • Zalman CNPS9500-LED Aero Flower (Socket 939/754/478/775) CPU Cooler (HS-015-ZA) £27.95
  • Lian-Li PC-60 Silver Aluminium Midi-Tower Case (No PSU) (CA-041-LL) £69.95
  • Tagan TG580-U22 580W ATX2.01 2Force SLi Compliant Silent PSU (CA-006-TG) £66.95
  • Asus A8R32-MVP Deluxe Crossfire (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-131-AS) £109.95
  • HIS Excalibur ATI Radeon X1900 XT-X ICEQ 3 SILENT Heatpipe 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-052-HT) £299.95
  • Corsair 2GB DDR XMS3200C2PT TwinX (2x1GB) CAS2 (MY-079-CS) £119.95
  • Subtotal £917.60
  • Shipping (City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)) £10.95
  • VAT £162.50
  • Total £1,091.05
 
hp7909 said:
Unless an early adopter, this should keep you going until AM2, Conroe, Vista, DX10, etc all settle in:
  • AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+ (Socket 939) - OEM (CP-152-AM) £157.95
  • Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB ST3320620AS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD-078-SE) £64.95
  • Zalman CNPS9500-LED Aero Flower (Socket 939/754/478/775) CPU Cooler (HS-015-ZA) £27.95
  • Lian-Li PC-60 Silver Aluminium Midi-Tower Case (No PSU) (CA-041-LL) £69.95
  • Tagan TG580-U22 580W ATX2.01 2Force SLi Compliant Silent PSU (CA-006-TG) £66.95
  • Asus A8R32-MVP Deluxe Crossfire (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-131-AS) £109.95
  • HIS Excalibur ATI Radeon X1900 XT-X ICEQ 3 SILENT Heatpipe 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-052-HT) £299.95
  • Corsair 2GB DDR XMS3200C2PT TwinX (2x1GB) CAS2 (MY-079-CS) £119.95
  • Subtotal £917.60
  • Shipping (City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)) £10.95
  • VAT £162.50
  • Total £1,091.05
Click to expand...

Thanks thats exactly what i needed, do you think i should salavage anything from my current rig?
Or use this is a spare to maybe network
 
Blackhorse said:
Thanks thats exactly what i needed, do you think i should salavage anything from my current rig?
Click to expand...
Maybe the DVD-Writer, IF its a decent one (8x+) and will not spoil the look of your new rig (colour). That’s because, good DVD-Writers are going for less than £30 incl. VAT!

You can also carry over the soundcard but bear in mind that onboard sound these days is pretty good and can match or out do your Audigy 2.

Monitor, what you got? You'll need something 1280x1024 res & above to fully enjoy that graphics card & overall setup.

The remaining parts, AUCTION - better now before they become ancient, if not already :D
 
hp7909 said:
Maybe the DVD-Writer, IF its a decent one (8x+) and will not spoil the look of your new rig (colour). That’s because, good DVD-Writers are going for less than £30 incl. VAT!

You can also carry over the soundcard but bear in mind that onboard sound these days is pretty good and can match or out do your Audigy 2.

Monitor, what you got? You'll need something 1280x1024 res & above to fully enjoy that graphics card & overall setup.

The remaining parts, AUCTION - better now before they become ancient, if not already :D
Click to expand...

Monitor, i think i need a new one! curretnly running a 17"CRT, thinking maybe id like to move to maybe sleak screen as apost to this big clunky thing! any sujuestions? 17" or 19" what am i looking for?
 
I'm also still on CRT, but a 19-inch one that can handle 1600x1200 @ 75Hz :D Good website for TFT's here :rolleyes:

Anyway, here's my revised list:
  • AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+ (Socket 939) - OEM (CP-152-AM) £159.95
  • Asus A8R32-MVP Deluxe Crossfire (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-131-AS) £109.95
  • Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940) (FG-000-AR) £14.49
  • Lian-Li PC-7 PLUS Black Aluminium Midi-Tower Case (No PSU) (CA-054-LL) £48.95
  • Tagan TG580-U22 580W ATX2.01 2Force SLi Compliant Silent PSU (CA-006-TG) £66.95
  • Samsung SM-930BF 19" LCD Monitor - Silver/Black (MO-029-SA) £204.95
  • PowerColor ATI Radeon X1800 GTO 256MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-061-PC) £124.95 - Had to make a sacrifice somewhere :(
  • Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB ST3320620AS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD-078-SE) £64.95
  • Corsair 2GB DDR XMS3200C2PT TwinX (2x1GB) CAS2 (MY-079-CS) £119.95
  • Subtotal £915.09
  • Shipping (City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)) £12.95
  • VAT £162.41
  • Total £1,090.45
 
Blackhorse said:
Monitor, i think i need a new one! curretnly running a 17"CRT, thinking maybe id like to move to maybe sleak screen as apost to this big clunky thing! any sujuestions? 17" or 19" what am i looking for?
Click to expand...

You know what i think ill just put the screen on top of me cost! :p Keeping the graphics card.
You think its a wise move to wait for AM2 to settle in and now wait for that? What are we likely to see gaming compat issues?
 
Blackhorse said:
You know what i think ill just put the screen on top of me cost! :p Keeping the graphics card.{snip}
Click to expand...
Good man ;) EDIT: Also got a HIS GFX (don't ask which one :o ), that ICEQ thingy's really made a difference in terms of noise & case TEMPS!

Regarding AM2, 'tis the big question making its rounds round the forums. Personally I'd wait BUT! just to see if it brings down the prices of current Socket 939 processors :o Also, I think there to many things 'round the corner', i.e. AM2, Vista, DX10, Conroe, etc

AM2 DDR2 vs. 939 DDR Performance :cool:
 
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I would BUY NOW.
There is no great performance advantage to AM2 with DDR2.
You may also be the guinea pig for any bugs with AM2. At least if you buy now you know youre getting a very well built & stable system.
For the same price you wont get better waiting.
 
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