Building a new pc

4p · 10 Jul 2006 at 18:52

After reading Ultra Extreme's guide to build a computer i decided that i myself was going to build a pc, but i need a little help

I will be using it for media and gaming.

I have around £550 for a new rig.

I've been reading around, looking at this site and i have come up with these components.

Mobo: Asus A8N-SLi SE nForce4 SLi (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-101-AS)

Cpu: AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Venice (Socket 939) - Retail (CP-119-AM)

Gpu: BFG 3DFuzion GeForce 7600 GT 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-025-BG)

HDD: Samsung SpinPoint P SP2504C 250GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-018-SA)

Ram: I have no idea, are those ram chips with the pretty coats worth it?

Psu: what sort of psu would i need to power the above? 500w?

Thanks in advance.

Thorpy.

fenderbass86 · 10 Jul 2006 at 19:15

You gotta get a 3700+ San Diego at the price OcUK are doing them for.

CP-121-AM AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego (Socket 939) - Retail (CP-121-AM) 1
£77.95 £77.95
MB-101-AS Asus A8N-SLi SE nForce4 SLi (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-101-AS) 1
£56.95 £56.95
HD-046-WD Western Digital Caviar SE16 250GB 2500KS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD-046-WD) 1
£49.95 £49.95
CA-005-SK FSP Sparkle AX500-A Blue Storm 500W ATX2.0 PSU (CA-005-SK) 1
£49.95 £49.95
GX-080-LT Leadtek GeForce 7600 GT 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-080-LT) 1
£111.95 £111.95
MY-007-GS G.Skill 2GB DDR ZX PC3200 (2x1GB) CAS2 Dual Channel Kit (F1-3200PHU2-2GBZX) (MY-007-GS) 1
£119.95 £119.95
Subtotal £466.70
VAT £81.68
Total £548.38

Stelly · 10 Jul 2006 at 19:21

fenderbass86 said:
You gotta get a 3700+ San Diego at the price OcUK are doing them for.

CP-121-AM AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego (Socket 939) - Retail (CP-121-AM) 1
£77.95 £77.95
MB-101-AS Asus A8N-SLi SE nForce4 SLi (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-101-AS) 1
£56.95 £56.95
HD-046-WD Western Digital Caviar SE16 250GB 2500KS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD-046-WD) 1
£49.95 £49.95
CA-005-SK FSP Sparkle AX500-A Blue Storm 500W ATX2.0 PSU (CA-005-SK) 1
£49.95 £49.95
GX-080-LT Leadtek GeForce 7600 GT 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-080-LT) 1
£111.95 £111.95
MY-007-GS G.Skill 2GB DDR ZX PC3200 (2x1GB) CAS2 Dual Channel Kit (F1-3200PHU2-2GBZX) (MY-007-GS) 1
£119.95 £119.95
Subtotal £466.70
VAT £81.68
Total £548.38

Always seems to be getting their before me

Stelly

xirokx · 10 Jul 2006 at 19:23

Asus A8N-SLi SE nForce4 SLi (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-101-AS)

you dont really need that mobo if your not planning to go SLI...

Would not be interested in getting a conroe chip instead of an AMD? your budget will cover you for it..

Depending on the games you play you should be fine with Geil Value 1gb or 2gb Ram depending on what u play....

PSU wise I would get anything from 450w to 500w...

Gfx card wise I think thats fine..the 7600 are good enuff...having said that pls advise which games you play and the resoultion you play them at?

I would seriously consider getting a conroe if I was you because its more bang for buck IMO and you will also have the latest tech as opposed to what you specced there yourself...

4p · 10 Jul 2006 at 19:58

Games i play:

Coduo
RO - well i get like 10 fps >.<
Raven Sheild
css

All around 30fps

Games i want to play:

cod2
bf2 maybe
dod:s

Resolution: 1024x768 n 1280x1024

I was thinking about SLI, buy a sli ready mobo, buy the 7600, then in future when games demand more i could stick another 7600 in.

Conroe ey, is that intel? I always thought AMD was better.

xirokx · 10 Jul 2006 at 21:17

On 24 july 2006 intel will be launching Intel dual core conroe chips which can be overclocked enabling you the user to get very high speeds i.e. 3 - 4ghz I believe with 1 - 2mb L2 caches

So its always up and down with Intel and AMD however to get the most value for your money £550 you would be better off going for Intel...however if you wanted AMD then go for it....Its only that Intel conroe chips will out perform most chips you can buy for the money you have available to spend...So its more of "whats the best I can get for my money" thats how I tend to look at it...

For example you can go for the amd 3700 and overclock up to 2.7 - 2.8ghz I believe

whereas with conroe you can overclock to 3.4ghz upwards I believe..

altho I believe the amd 3700 is cheaper so its your call mate

You will be fine with a 7600gt gfx card at those resolutions on the games you mentioned....When games require more then you will have to change your gfx card altogether so therefore I dont think its in your best interest to get an SLI mobo....

IMO I also believe at the moment i dont think you need 2gb ram for those games when you require another stick in the distant future u can always buy one then...

fenderbass86 · 10 Jul 2006 at 21:18

It was AMD, but Intel's new processor is the dog's doodaa's! Even the budget ones are brilliant.

4p · 10 Jul 2006 at 22:57

Thanks xirokx for clearing a few things up for me.

So do you think SLI isnt worth it... In my case? I could spend more on the cpu, SLI adds quite a bit of money to the price right?

xirokx · 11 Jul 2006 at 14:41

you could get something like this which means you would have the latest tech and it would be more value for money than the below pc, also you could overclock it to reach processor speeds of 3ghz +.......

CP-126-IN Intel Core 2 DUO E6300 "LGA775 Conroe" 1.86GHz (1066FSB) - Retail (CP-126-IN)
£129.95 £129.95
MB-020-DF DFI Infinity 975X (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-020-DF)
£129.95 £129.95
MY-014-GS G.Skill 2GB DDR2 NR PC2-6400 (2x1GB) CAS5 Dual Channel Kit (F2-6400PHU2-2GBNR) (MY-014-GS)
£114.95 £114.95
GX-080-LT Leadtek GeForce 7600 GT 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-080-LT)
£111.95 £111.95
Subtotal £486.80
VAT £85.19
Total £571.99

just an example...

you could swap the mobo for a cheaper one, only get 1gb RAM if you wanted to drop costs

SLI is not worth it for you and in your case will not increase the price infact its not even adding an extra penny because you are not buying 2 grafix cards only...as you need two graphics card to run SLI....

I realise its £22 over your budget however like I said just get a cheaper mobo to lower the price

overall point being its more value for money than the amd 3700+