The following spec is for a friend who needs simply a CPU, RAM, motherboard and graphics card.
It's mainly going to be used for playing games and photo editing. He will NOT be overclocking so I may be able to save some money in a few places.
Budget was originally £500 but so far, I've come up with the following:
CPU - Intel Core 2 DUO E6400 "LGA775 Allendale" 2.13GHz (1066FSB) - Retail (CP-127-IN) - £164.49 incl vat
Motherboard - Gigabyte GA_965P_S3 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-063-GI) - £93.99 incl vat
RAM - Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2-6400C5 TwinX (2x1GB) (MY-092-CS) - £187.99 incl vat
Graphics - Connect3D ATI Radeon X1800 XT 256MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-044-CO) - £135.11 incl vat
Total is £581.58
A couple of questions for this spec:
1) Would getting a cheaper CPU, such as the Intel Core 2 DUO E6300 "LGA775 Allendale" 1.86GHz, saving £30, make much difference?
2) A lot of people in other threads have been opting for the Gigabyte GA_965P_DS3 mobo - I assume the extra £15 for this as opposed to the above is only worth it for overclocking...?
3) The RAM seems very expensive - any way around this? (EDIT - found the Geil RAM in this week only for £176.24 - this the cheapest option?)
Many thanks.
It's mainly going to be used for playing games and photo editing. He will NOT be overclocking so I may be able to save some money in a few places.
Budget was originally £500 but so far, I've come up with the following:
CPU - Intel Core 2 DUO E6400 "LGA775 Allendale" 2.13GHz (1066FSB) - Retail (CP-127-IN) - £164.49 incl vat
Motherboard - Gigabyte GA_965P_S3 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-063-GI) - £93.99 incl vat
RAM - Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2-6400C5 TwinX (2x1GB) (MY-092-CS) - £187.99 incl vat
Graphics - Connect3D ATI Radeon X1800 XT 256MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-044-CO) - £135.11 incl vat
Total is £581.58
A couple of questions for this spec:
1) Would getting a cheaper CPU, such as the Intel Core 2 DUO E6300 "LGA775 Allendale" 1.86GHz, saving £30, make much difference?
2) A lot of people in other threads have been opting for the Gigabyte GA_965P_DS3 mobo - I assume the extra £15 for this as opposed to the above is only worth it for overclocking...?
3) The RAM seems very expensive - any way around this? (EDIT - found the Geil RAM in this week only for £176.24 - this the cheapest option?)
Many thanks.
Last edited: