Complete spec needed please

reefoid

reefoid

reefoid

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18 Oct 2002
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Southend-on-Sea
Its been three years since I built my current rig so its time for a complete new build. I haven't really kept up to date with hardware lately so need advice on a decent spec. Budget is around £1K, but could go slightly over. This is for everything from the bottom up (case, mobo, cpu, psu, ram, monitor, gfx, soundcard, speakers, kb/mouse, drives).

It will be used primarily for gaming and music production using Ableton (so a decent sound card and speakers are a must). Other considerations:

- as quiet as possible
- minimum 22" monitor, preferably 24" price allowing
- OS needed Vista Home Premium
- RAID storage

Your advice is welcome.

Thanks
 
I don't know anything about the speakers or soundcard but this should be a decent enough base.

Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £64.99
(£76.36) £64.99
(£76.36)
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic 7.1 Sound Card - OEM (30SB046000000) £45.99
(£54.04) £45.99
(£54.04)
Acer 2416WB 24" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Silver/Black £179.99
(£211.49) £179.99
(£211.49)
Logitech Cordless Desktop EX 110 - Retail £16.99
(£19.96) £16.99
(£19.96)
Logitech Z-4e 2.1 Speaker System (970175-0120) £44.99
(£52.86) £44.99
(£52.86)
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64-Bit Edition DVD - OEM - 1Pk (66I-01939) £59.99
(£70.49) £59.99
(£70.49)
Antec Sonata III Piano Black Quiet Case - EarthWatts 500W PSU £66.99
(£78.71) £66.99
(£78.71)
Samsung SpinPoint S 250GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (HD250HJ) £35.99
(£42.29) £71.98
(£84.58)
Gigabyte GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GV-NX88S512H-B) £134.99
(£158.61) £134.99
(£158.61)
Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient SLACR 95W Edition" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail £119.99
(£140.99) £119.99
(£140.99)
G.Skill 4GB DDR2 PQ PC2-6400C5 (2x2GB) CAS5 Dual Channel Kit (F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ) £49.99
(£58.74) £49.99
(£58.74)
Sub Total : £856.88
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £24.53
VAT is being charged at 17.5% VAT : £154.25
Total : £1,035.65
 
Thanks.

That looks pretty good for my budget, although I'll probably up the HDDs to 2 x 500GB. I'm going to head into Sound City for advice on sound card and speakers, I'm now considering separate amp and speakers.

There's no optical drive listed so would need to add one of them, other than that - great!

K
 
Quietest and best would probably be a Thermalright U120 (heatsink only) and a quiet 120mm fan - not too sure of the best brand personally. You may also have to lap the heatsink to get the best possible contact, if that sounds like too much hassle then the Noctua NH-U12P or Tuniq Tower are both decent alternatives.
 
60 over :(
PSU and case are VERY VERY quiet
capturevh4.png


also semi-pro that monitor has no DVI
 
Thanks for your input guys. This is what I am planning at the moment, quite a bit over my original budget but I think its worth it. I'm going for the Sonata rather than the Coolermaster due to the built in PSU. A couple of questions:

Are the doors on the front of the Sonata plastic or metal?

Is it worth paying an extra £40-50 for a GTX rather than a GTS? Is there much noticeable improvement?

Pioneer DVR-215DBK 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
(£19.96)
Gigabyte GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GV-NX88S512H-B)
£134.99
(£158.61)
BenQ G2400W 24" Widescreen HDMI/HDCP LCD HD Monitor - Black £221.99
(£260.84)
G.Skill 4GB DDR2 PQ PC2-6400C5 (2x2GB) CAS5 Dual Channel Kit (F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ)
£49.99
(£58.74)
Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound (3.5g)
£5.99
(£7.04)
Antec Sonata III Piano Black Quiet Case - EarthWatts 500W PSU £66.99
(£78.71)
Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £64.99
(£76.36)
Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient SLACR 95W Edition" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - OEM
£119.99
(£140.99)
Tuniq Tower 120-LFB CPU Cooler (Socket 478/754/939/940/AM2/LGA775) £29.99
(£35.24)
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic 7.1 Sound Card - OEM (30SB046000000)
£45.99
(£54.04)
Samsung SpinPoint S 250GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (HD250HJ) £35.99
(£42.29)
2 x Samsung SpinPoint T 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD501LJ) £97.98
(£115.12)
Acoustic Energy Aego M 2.1 Speakers - Black
£89.99
(£105.74)
Logitech Cordless Desktop EX 110 - Retail
£16.99
(£19.96)
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64-Bit Edition DVD - OEM - 1Pk (66I-01939)
£59.99
(£70.49)


Sub Total : £1,058.84
Shipping : £24.46
VAT : £189.58
Total : £1,272.88
 
if i were u id get the F1 320GB for OS instead of the 250. its a hell of a lot faster.

and the speakers i have speced have been getting rave reviews and they are 5.1 :)
 
shaffaaf27 said:
if i were u id get the F1 320GB for OS instead of the 250. its a hell of a lot faster.

and the speakers i have speced have been getting rave reviews and they are 5.1 :)
Click to expand...

OK, may go for the F1 instead then.

I have 5.1 on my current rig but to be honest I don't have the space to set it up properly so have never got the full 5.1 effect. Thought I'd go with a more compact 2.1 setup this time.

Thanks.
 
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