Check my spec <£1000

cheesyface · 8 Apr 2006 at 19:13

Check my work <£1000 - Build failed

Lo peeps.

Gonna build a new pc so that I'm not always the last person into a new round of bf2... Also want to run Oblivion with as much candy as possible. I've got a 17" tft, so am going to be running at 1280x1024 max. And will probably not be overclocking as I'm to lazy.

How does the following spec look?
AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego 90nm (Socket 939) - OEM (CP-150-AM) £119.95
Asus A8N-E nForce4 Ultra (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-088-AS) £59.95
OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) PC3200 Dual Channel Platinum Series EL-DDR CAS2 (OCZ4002048ELDCPE-K) (MY-057-OC) £139.95
PowerColor ATI Radeon X1800 XT 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-048-PC) £194.95
Western Digital Caviar SE16 250GB 2500KS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD-046-WD) £55.50
Plextor PX-130A DVD-ROM (Black) - OEM (CD-026-PL)£15.95
Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940) (FG-000-AR)£15.95
Antec SLK3000B Midi Tower Case - No PSU (CA-027-AN) £29.95
Hiper HPU-4B580 Type R 580W Modular ATX2.2 PSU - Blue (CA-006-HP) £52.95
Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition inc. SP2 - OEM - 1Pk (N09-01528) (OS-001-MS) £49.95
Subtotal £735.05
VAT £128.64
Total £863.69

Thanks,
Cheesy.

xirokx · 8 Apr 2006 at 19:42

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+ (Socket 939) - Retail (ADA3800BVBOX) (CP-134-AM) 211
DFI LanParty UT NF4 Ultra-D (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-014-DF) 94
GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit CAS3 (GE2GB3200BDC) (MY-046-GL) 111
Antec NeoHE 500W Modular ATX2.0 PSU (CA-045-AN) 73
PowerColor ATI Radeon X1800 XT 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-048-PC) £194.95
Western Digital Caviar SE16 250GB 2500KS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD-046-WD) £55.50
Plextor PX-130A DVD-ROM (Black) - OEM (CD-026-PL)£15.95
Antec SLK3000B Midi Tower Case - No PSU (CA-027-AN) £29.95
Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition inc. SP2 - OEM - 1Pk (N09-01528) (OS-001-MS) £49.95

Total £833

System is overclockable in the future will run the games u stated at high res and IMO is bang for buck compared to what you suggested....

I kept the gfx card the same as I am assuming you prefer ATI....

Oh yea and its DUAL CORE...

Good luck

cheesyface · 8 Apr 2006 at 20:17

Is it really worth going dual core? I can't see that its going to have a vast improvement whilst gaming over the single core chip. And I can always upgrade to a dual core in the future if I need it.

Thanks.

Jack Bauer · 8 Apr 2006 at 20:32

xirokx said:
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+ (Socket 939) - Retail (ADA3800BVBOX) (CP-134-AM) 211
DFI LanParty UT NF4 Ultra-D (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-014-DF) 94
GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit CAS3 (GE2GB3200BDC) (MY-046-GL) 111
Antec NeoHE 500W Modular ATX2.0 PSU (CA-045-AN) 73
PowerColor ATI Radeon X1800 XT 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-048-PC) £194.95
Western Digital Caviar SE16 250GB 2500KS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD-046-WD) £55.50
Plextor PX-130A DVD-ROM (Black) - OEM (CD-026-PL)£15.95
Antec SLK3000B Midi Tower Case - No PSU (CA-027-AN) £29.95
Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition inc. SP2 - OEM - 1Pk (N09-01528) (OS-001-MS) £49.95

Total £833

System is overclockable in the future will run the games u stated at high res and IMO is bang for buck compared to what you suggested....

I kept the gfx card the same as I am assuming you prefer ATI....

Oh yea and its DUAL CORE...

Good luck

Not including vat, how close to his budge is it?

xirokx · 8 Apr 2006 at 21:30

It is including VAT.... barr a few things...

Why spend money twice when you can get it over and done with in one hit? then next time you can go amd2

cheesyface · 9 Apr 2006 at 01:35

Is the 3800 x2 really worth it over the 3700 when I'm only going to be gaming and its £60 difference. I'd buy a dual core processor if it would mean better gaming, but if I'm just going to be playing a lot of bf2, bf:dc, cs:s and oblivion is it worth spending the extra now on a dual core?

Chris19 · 9 Apr 2006 at 01:39

I would with the OEM get an freezer 64 pro and overclock it abit you can reach 4800 speeds fairly easy off an DFI board and games coming out support dual core more

ACESHIGH · 9 Apr 2006 at 07:29

For current games i dont think you will notice much difference between the X2 3800+ & 3700+ SD, but it has been shown Quake 4 is 60% faster with the dual core patch & if you want that PC to last you as long as possible i think going dual core is the smarter choice - for the long run, where more games / programs will be patched or made for dual core CPU's.

thats the way i see it.

cheesyface · 9 Apr 2006 at 12:22

You evil people. Looking around at the tests and benchmarks the x2-3800 doesn't seem to be able to keep up with the 3700 on games, so I might just add another £100 to me spec and get a x2-4200.

Still under £1000 though

cheesyface · 9 Apr 2006 at 14:33

Does the DFI LanParty UT NF4 Ultra-D support Sata-II? Looking at the spec it doesn't sat it does.

frisp · 9 Apr 2006 at 14:37

Yes it does support sata 2

cheesyface · 9 Apr 2006 at 15:12

Thanks chaps.

Just ordered:
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+ (Socket 939) - OEM (CP-152-AM)
DFI LanParty UT NF4 Ultra-D (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-014-DF)
OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) PC3200 Dual Channel Platinum Series EL-DDR CAS2 (OCZ4002048ELDCPE-K) (MY-057-OC)
PowerColor ATI Radeon X1800 XT 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-048-PC)
Western Digital Caviar SE16 250GB 2500KS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD-046-WD)
Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940) (FG-000-AR)
Antec SLK3000B Midi Tower Case - No PSU (CA-027-AN)
Hiper HPU-4B580 Type R 580W Modular ATX2.2 PSU - Blue (CA-006-HP)
Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition inc. SP2 - OEM - 1Pk (N09-01528) (OS-001-MS)
Plextor PX-130A DVD-ROM (Black) - OEM (CD-026-PL)

cheesyface · 11 Apr 2006 at 20:09

New build won't boot..

Hi.

I have just finished building the spec above and it doesn't dp what its supposed to

When I press the on switch the psu kicks in, the lights on the mobo light up but it doesn't do anything. None of the fans start,nothing.

I've checked all my cables etc and can't find the problem

Any advice?

Thanks.

Chris19 · 11 Apr 2006 at 21:01

Try it with one stick of RAM in and use the power buttons on the mobo just to make sure that it isnt the case being werid

Monstermunch · 11 Apr 2006 at 21:51

cheesyface said:
Is it really worth going dual core? I can't see that its going to have a vast improvement whilst gaming over the single core chip. And I can always upgrade to a dual core in the future if I need it.

Thanks.

Recent tests with the Quake 4 patch for dual core are reporting a 60% speed gain over single core processors. There are a lot of big developers looking to add dual core patches and some even talking about making games to utilise dual core to be released before the year end!

Buying now and not buying dual core would probably mean repeating the exercise again before the end of 2007.

Best to go dual core IMO.

Monstermunch · 11 Apr 2006 at 23:47

cheesyface said:
Hi.

I have just finished building the spec above and it doesn't dp what its supposed to

When I press the on switch the psu kicks in, the lights on the mobo light up but it doesn't do anything. None of the fans start,nothing.

I've checked all my cables etc and can't find the problem

Any advice?

Thanks.

Double check the cables, there should be 3 cables to connect to the motherboard.

cheesyface · 12 Apr 2006 at 00:06

Stupid me didnt put all 24 pins in the atx plug

Fixed that, but having lots of problems now. Can't get onto the net cause the drivers don;t work (maybe because its dual core) and tried updating the bios but it won't recognise my floppy drive. Gonna start using a hammer in a mo...

arrrrrrrrrrrrhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
For some reason it all spins up OK, but when it goes through the cmos screen thingy the fan on the Freezer decides to stop running.
I've taken out one of the memory chips but its isn't even getting into windows now.

cheesyface · 12 Apr 2006 at 11:51

hmmm.

You'll all be pleased to know I have got some things working on my new pc (now online). I'm a bit concerned about the fact that it sees my x2-3800 Manu core as a 10200+ Clawhammer socket 754..

Have I screwed the pooch again?

cheesyface · 12 Apr 2006 at 14:13

Why does it feel like I'm talking to myself - I'm sure my sanity's still intact.

Looks like I have fixed my booting issue, the memory timings were set to auto and were at 2.5-3-2-5. But the Tcl for my memory is marked as 2, changed this manually and it seems to run a bit better now.

Still have the issue shown above with my "Clawhammer", is it something to do with the frequencies on my cpu?

squiffy · 12 Apr 2006 at 14:28

Get a updated CPU-z