Building a new system

Fire_Fox · 27 Mar 2006 at 15:02

Well I was going to upgrade my existing comp, but after looking what I would need I've realised I might as well get a new system. At least thats what the story is to justify spending the best part of a grand

.

What I want is a nice fast comp, mainly for gaming but also some design and music recording work, as such I need decent graphics and sound.
As far as sound goes, would a separate sound device give much benefit over an onboard system? If so what?
Where graphics are concerned, basically, I want to play games like BF2 at full spec and only have to worry about server lag.
Ideally I want a quiet system too (don't we all), as my current one sounds like a jet engine starting up.

(Don't need monitor, keyboard/mouse, speakers)

Budget is around the £7-800 mark.

Thanks in advance for your help

jellybeard999 · 27 Mar 2006 at 15:09

CP-152-AM AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+ (Socket 939) - OEM (CP-152-AM)
£169.95 £169.95
MB-040-GI Gigabyte K8N SLi nForce4 SLi (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-040-GI)
£54.95 £54.95
GX-070-XF XFX GeForce 7800GT Extreme Edition 256MB GDDR3 VIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (PVT70G-UDF7) (GX-070-XF)
£149.95 £149.95
MY-080-CS Corsair 2GB DDR Value Select PC3200 CAS3.0 Kit (2x1GB) (VS2GBKIT400C3) (MY-080-CS)
£94.95 £94.95
CD-036-PO Pioneer DVR-110BK 16 x 16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter - (Black) OEM (CD-036-PO)
£25.95 £25.95
HD-018-SA Samsung SpinPoint P SP2504C 250GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-018-SA)
£53.95 £53.95
SC-037-CL Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 4 7.1 EAX Sound Card - OEM (SC-037-CL)
£29.95 £29.95
CA-040-AN Antec Sonata II Piano Black Quiet Case - 450W Smart Power PSU (CA-040-AN)
£59.95 £59.95
FG-000-AR Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940) (FG-000-AR)
£12.95 £12.95
HS-012-ZA Zalman VF700-ALCU Quiet Copper/Aluminium VGA Cooler (HS-012-ZA)
£12.95 £12.95
Subtotal £665.50
VAT £116.47
Total £781.97

dont think i forgot anything

fenderbass86 · 27 Mar 2006 at 16:51

REFERENCE DESCRIPTION QUANTITY PRICE COST
CP-134-AM AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+ (Socket 939) - Retail (ADA3800BVBOX) (CP-134-AM) 1
£179.95 £179.95
MB-046-MS MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum nForce4 Ultra (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-046-MS) 1
£64.95 £64.95
MY-046-GL GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit CAS3 (GE2GB3200BDC) (MY-046-GL) 1
£89.95 £89.95
GX-121-SP Sapphire ATI Radeon X1800 XT 256MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-121-SP) 1
£169.95 £169.95
HD-046-WD Western Digital Caviar SE16 250GB 2500KS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD-046-WD) 1
£55.95 £55.95
CD-030-NE NEC ND4570 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM (CD-030-NE) 1
£24.95 £24.95
CA-040-AN Antec Sonata II Piano Black Quiet Case - 450W Smart Power PSU (CA-040-AN) 1
£59.95 £59.95
Subtotal £645.65
VAT £112.99
Total £758.64

Doesn't have a sound card as the motherboard has good 7.1 onboard sound. It has a fantastic graphic card, perfect for gaming and design work, 2GB RAM will also help in these areas. If you wanted to overclock the CPU a bit, then you could get the OEM and an Arctic Freezer 64 pro.

Fire_Fox · 28 Mar 2006 at 00:08

Cheers for specs. Can anyone give me advice on my soundcard question?

Naffa · 28 Mar 2006 at 00:15

basically newer onboard sound is as good as a low to mid range sound card and nower days is very good compared to how it was. the only thing that holds me back from using on board is the fact that the cpu has to produce it all so its more strain on it. granted it probally wont make much of a difference but i prefer a seperate sound card because it uses less cpu power.