Check the spec please and suggest a mobo

WillyNelson · 27 Jun 2006 at 19:51

Would you be kind enough to have a peek at this propsed rig. I'm going for a full new system but I'm trying to get it for as little as possible, around the £500-£600 mark.

Below is what I reckon to be a reasonable system minus the motherboard (as I have no clue), so if you could suggest a decent one I'd be grateful. Any other tweaks to the spec would be well received as long as you explain why, otherwise I'll never understand.

Thanks for looking...

Intel Pentium 4 805 Dual Core "LGA775 Smithfield" 2.66GHz (533FSB) £72.95
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 775) £14.95
Asus TA-210 Series Midi Tower (Black) - 360W PSU £32.00
BFG 3DFuzion GeForce 7600 GT 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £99.95
GeIL 1GB (2x512MB) PC5300 667MHz Value DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX21GB5300DC) £54.95
Hyundai ImageQuest B71A 17" LCD Monitor - Black £119.95
Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 120GB ST3120813AS SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM £37.95
Microsoft Wireless Optical Desktop Comfort ver3.0 - OEM £29.95

Subtotal £462.65
VAT £80.97
Total £543.62

rmuir · 27 Jun 2006 at 19:55

What do you need the system for? and your max budget, easier to help if we know. cheers

WillyNelson · 27 Jun 2006 at 20:08

It's to be used for the usual surfing/downloads etc plus photoshopping, web design & work stuff (excel etc). Plus a healthy dose of gameplay, COD2 & HL2 being current favourites.

I'm also looking for it to last for a good few years to come wthout the need for upgrade of major components.

Max budget £600

fenderbass86 · 27 Jun 2006 at 20:22

Nothing lasts for a few years nowadays!

rmuir · 27 Jun 2006 at 20:24

REFERENCE DESCRIPTION QUANTITY PRICE COST REMOVE
MB-147-AS Asus M2N-E (Socket AM2) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-147-AS)
£69.95 £69.95
MY-030-GL GeIL 1GB (2x512MB) PC5300 667MHz Value DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX21GB5300DC) (MY-030-GL)
£54.95 £54.95
HD-024-SA Samsung SpinPoint P HD160JJ 160GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-024-SA)
£37.95 £37.95
CD-033-NE NEC ND4571 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer LabelFlash ReWriter (Black) - OEM (CD-033-NE)
£22.95 £22.95
CA-048-AN Antec SLK3800BUK Black Quiet Midi Tower Case - 400W SmartPower PSU (CA-048-AN)
£45.30 £45.30
KB-011-LG Logitech Internet Pro Keyboard (Black) - OEM (KB-011-LG)
£8.95 £8.95
KB-046-LG Logitech S96 PS/2 Optical Wheel Mouse Black - OEM (KB-046-LG)
£5.50 £5.50
CP-164-AM AMD Athlon 64 3500+ 2.2GHz (Socket AM2) - Retail (CP-164-AM)
£66.95 £66.95
MO-006-HY Hyundai ImageQuest Q770S 17'' Perfectly Flat CRT Monitor - Black/Silver (MO-006-HY)
£65.00 £65.00
GX-079-XF XFX GeForce 7600 GT XXX Edition 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (PVT73G-UDD7) (GX-079-XF)
£119.95 £119.95
Subtotal £497.45
VAT £87.06
Total £584.51

best i can do.

BigDom · 28 Jun 2006 at 09:01

fenderbass86 said:
Nothing lasts for a few years nowadays!

Don't agree, if anything hardware, unless your an upgrading nutt or run hardware right at the lowest level will last for years. I help support a game at the moment and people running hardware designed in the last year is most definatly in the minority. Many people are still using 9xxx Radeons, 4xxx Nvidia etc.

fenderbass86 · 28 Jun 2006 at 09:37

I was kinda just joking on the fact that people upgrade their hardware every six months to make games playable with hq settings and full AA/AF/HDR, rather than just lowering the settings with their current hardware. I take your point though.

t31os · 28 Jun 2006 at 09:52

Depends on the game, Battlefield 2 for example, reducing the view distance will give you a disadvantage, especially for sniping.

I think there are games where the quality can put you at a disadvantage, not many mind you, but like the above, it can make a difference.

On the BF2 note again, i must say since using my x1800 on high detail, i find it generally easier to see enemies, wether i actually kill them easier is another matter, but i can defo see them much clearer and easier.

BigDom · 28 Jun 2006 at 15:02

t31os said:
Depends on the game, Battlefield 2 for example, reducing the view distance will give you a disadvantage, especially for sniping.

I think there are games where the quality can put you at a disadvantage, not many mind you, but like the above, it can make a difference.

On the BF2 note again, i must say since using my x1800 on high detail, i find it generally easier to see enemies, wether i actually kill them easier is another matter, but i can defo see them much clearer and easier.

But if your main game is BF2 in 2 years time you won't need to upgrade in the meantime. You've probably reached maximum for the game more or less so won't need to upgrade.

t31os · 28 Jun 2006 at 15:26

Yes, thanx, i'm quite aware of that mate, you're totally right.

I just didnt want to dismiss the advantages to having a better spec card. Personally i get bored with every game i play, so i go through games like hot cakes.

If however you play in a clan and only play perhaps one or two games, and don't expect to be switching to newer games constantly, no need to worry.

Damn i know my card is going to struggle at some point, but hopefully that won't arrive too soon.

If EA's patches are anything to go by though, the card may not last as long as you think, seems with every patch it gets more GPU intensive. I wish they'd learn how to code better.

WillyNelson · 28 Jun 2006 at 22:20

Hauling this thred back on topic, can anyone suggest a mobo to go with the setup in the OP? I'd quite like to stick with the 805 as it's quite inexpensive and I've read that it's highly overclockable.