CheckMySpec (£500)

Ferro · 23 Apr 2008 at 08:24

Hi all, could I have your advice please?

I have a budget of £500ish quid to spend on what will be essentially a gaming system.
My first thoughts are always with the Graphics card and I identified the BFG 8800 GT OC as being a good starting point for around £100 quid.
I currently game on a 17" monitor but may upgrade to larger in the future, though not essential.

So, if I go the 8800GT can you cast your eyes over the following spec?

I will stay with XP for now. Overclocking possibility would be a benefit but not essential, how does this system sound?

Graphics:BFG GeForce 8800 GT OC 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail - £97.99 (£115.14)

CPU:Intel Core 2 Duo E8200 LGA775 'Wolfdale' 2.66GHz (1333FSB) - £99.99 (£117.49)

RAM:Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2 Dominator PC2-8500C5 TwinX (2x1GB) £43.99 (£51.69)

MBoard:Asus P5K Intel P35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £59.99 (£70.49)

Case:Antec Sonata III Piano Black Quiet Case - EarthWatts 500W PSU £69.99 (£82.24)

Drive:Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 500GB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (ST3500320AS) £51.99 (£61.09)

Cooling:??

Total: £498.14 inc VAT

Many thanks for your input..

Kearney_1988 · 23 Apr 2008 at 09:00

sound fine to me i have pretty much the same including the case, if you are not gonna overclock much/at all then some 6400 ram will do fine and save you about £20-£25

BAMBI · 23 Apr 2008 at 09:22

BFG GeForce 8800 GT OC 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £97.99 (£115.14)

Gigabyte GA-P31-DS3L Intel P31 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £39.99 (£46.99)

Intel Core 2 Duo E2200 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.20GHz (800FSB) - Retail
£44.99 (£52.86)

OCZ 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 Dual Channel Platinum Revision 2 XTC Series DDR2 (OCZ2P800R22GK)
£22.99(£27.01)

Antec Sonata III Piano Black Quiet Case - EarthWatts 500W PSU
£69.99 (£82.24)

Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 500GB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (ST3500320AS)
£51.99 (£61.09)

Total : £398.20 inc vat

bayo000 · 23 Apr 2008 at 12:17

Kearney_1988;if you are not gonna overclock much/at all then some 6400 ram will do fine and save you about £20-£25[/QUOTE said:
+1

Bambis spec would be fine too but if you got the cash get the e8200 and p35 mobo
also if you unlikely to upgrade your screen then 9600gt/3850 would save you some cash and be fine for that resolution

Kearney_1988 · 23 Apr 2008 at 12:27

yer i would go for the e8200, especially if you are not overclocking

Ferro · 23 Apr 2008 at 18:47

If I had another 100 quid what would you recommend I buy? Better graphics? Processor? Nothing yet but save it for next gen Graphics later?

Will my spec allow upgrades in 12months time ?

cheers