Convince my wife! Spec for: £1000, £1200 and £1400 inc vat

Damage Inc

Damage Inc

Damage Inc

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9 Jun 2006
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Crawley (its so lovely)
Hi guys,

Im about to move in with my new wife and we want to buy a new puter. Obviously im not allowed to use it too much as I have bedroom duties to attend to (and she is in charge as all wives are) but we have a budget of between £1000 and £1400 in vat. Problem is my wife wants the £1000 and i want the £1400 system. I know it will be better...i need to convince her it will be worth the extra. Therefore im wondering essentially what differences i will see when stepping up from 1000 to 1200 to 1400 in terms of component quality/speed and in terms of real world performance when using the computer.

Im not asking for amazing answers here...just ballpark feel for what the extra dosh will gain us.

The puter needs to be oriented to games and needs to include:
Decent keyboard/mouse for gaming
24" Dell Monitor
G0 stepping Q6600
8800 graphics power.

The rest is up to you folks. If worst comes to worst and a system along these lines cant be built for 1400 inc without making stupid sacrifices then i will forgo the 24" for something smaller as I appreciate its a big chunk of the budget.

This is a from scratch build and therefore needs case, mobo, ram etc etc. Going for air cooling as cant afford water.

Lastly I am likely to overclock but im a noob and so wont be pushing the envelope too far and ill be too scared...but will go for easy air overclocks.

Very lastly - thanks for your time if anyone replies. Im around for next hour to answer questions regarding the above ramblings if anyone needs clarification on the spec.

Dancy - if your reading - its happening soon mate. It will be mine - oh yes - it will be mine.

Dam.
 
Damnit...i knew i forgot something.

I have Win 2k...but essentially yes, I need an OS. May aswell see if i can squeeze in a sensivle version of vista for dx10 compatibility in the future. I can dual boot then.

Take your pick of vista options - whatever you rekon for gaming basically. Dont need 64 bit version for example.
 
Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient 95W Edition" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail
£159.99
£187.99 inc VAT

Asus P5K Intel P35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
£79.99
£93.99 inc VAT

GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit
£49.99
£58.74 inc VAT

OcUK GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - OEM
£254.99
£299.61 inc VAT

Western Digital Caviar SE16 400GB 4000AAKS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM
£44.99
£52.86 inc VAT

Samsung SH-S203BEBN 20x20 DVD±RW Dual Layer Serial ATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM
£16.99
£19.96 inc VAT

Thermalright Ultra-120A CPU Cooler (Socket AM2/LGA775)
£29.99
£35.24 inc VAT

Scythe S-FLEX 1600RPM Ultra Quiet 120mm Fan - 3/4 Pin
£10.99
£12.91 inc VAT

Lian-Li PC-7 PLUS II Aluminium Midi-Tower Case - Black
£49.99
£58.74 inc VAT

Corsair HX 520W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU
£57.99
£68.14 inc VAT

Dell Ultrasharp 2407WFP 24" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Midnight Grey
£369.99
£434.74 inc VAT

Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64-Bit Edition DVD - OEM - 1Pk
£54.99
£64.61 inc VAT


£1,180.88
£1,387.53 inc VAT

Done my best to fit in a Quad, GTX and dell 24" within your budget and leaving a bit for a keyboard & mouse of your choice.
 
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Basically, you aren't getting a 24" screen into that spec. The monitor costs too much, and really I'd rather spend £200 LESS and drop down to a 22" dell which are superb screens. One thing to mention however, none of these specs include a 3rd party cooler as I don't know if you are planning on overclocking therefore it depends if you need one or not. Here are the 3 specs I came up with:

1st Spec - £1,020
Clicky for image!
Trying to squidge you a large monitor, and staying with 22" for all specs, so even this spec includes it. I've also got you your Q6600 into this spec and a gaming mouse, but not a gaming keyboard. In this spec you "only" get a 8800 GTS 640MB as the GTX is too much to fit into the spec without dropping out something that you really don't want to drop. You've also took a hit on the motherboard and had to drop down the IP35-E Abit board which is the lowest, but still a good board. The case is also sub-par and basically it's a case just to get you something nice to look at and won't give lots of room and better cooling as more expensive cases would.

2nd Spec - £1,206
Clicky for image!
Gets so much better in this spec. 2 steps up in the motherboard and you now have one of, if not the, best P35 motherboard around at the moment. You also now have a superb Antec P182 case which is a major improvement from the Lian Li. Your RAM has also been doubled, and you now have 4GB instead of 2GB.

3rd Spec - £1,409
Clicky for image!
This is the best spec out of the lot. But I still haven't included a 24" monitor as previously mentioned, but even a 24" monitor on this spec would seriously hamper the power of the PC for those extra 2" of monitor which really is naff, so 22" it is! This spec gets an extra 320GB of hard drive space, making 500GB total. The ram has been upgraded from GeIL to Ballistix ram which is a good upgrade. You now also have a Deathadder mouse and a Logitech G15 proper gaming keyboard as requested. Also, you now have a 8800 GTX instead of a 8800 GTS (yay!).


All specs include Windows Vista 64bit Home Premium - 1Pk OEM.


[Edit]: Fixed image link for highest spec, had linked to the 1200 quid one :o
 
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Wow,

Thats an interesting read. I need some time to properly digest those various specs.

there are people who say it cant be done and people who have done it. I guess my job now is to look at all the individual components and start evaluating them in a way that says "will this system bottleneck at a particular component that i should have spent more on?"

Thankyou guys for your input on this. If anyone else wants to post specs feel free...im even curious to know what 1500 inc vat might bring in terms of components but i really need to go over the specs with a toothcombe to find out how one person got the 24" in and another couldnt get past 22". Im sure the 22" system had better spec comonents but will they make that much difference?

I know i dont want to compromise on components and end up with a bottlenecked or just sluggish system that cant perform to its potential, but neither do I want to get pulled too far into the hype....eg seriously what do i gain between a 80 + vat mobo and a 120 + vat mobo in terms of performance? or is it just ease and potential to overclock???

Dam.
 
Yeah it can be done, but it requires skimping on components just for the sake of getting that monitor into a spec which you should avoid. If you did plan on that £1,500 +VAT one like you mentioned in your post you could get the 24" monitor with less skimping but if you took my £1,400 one for example you'd have to lose the keyboard in place of a cheapy one and also you'd have to drop the IP35-Pro down to the standard edition.

Damage Inc said:
eg seriously what do i gain between a 80 + vat mobo and a 120 + vat mobo in terms of performance? or is it just ease and potential to overclock???
Click to expand...
Reasonable amount of difference, software wise and hardware wise. The higher end boards have more quality in them. The higher end Abit board for example comes with a uGuru chip which I don't think the lower down "regular" model doesn't. Also you get another PCI-E slot, better built components such as the capacitors andbetter layout of the board which is quite important. There's probably more differences but I'm not sure of the complete differences between the 2 board versions.
 
Look at trueblues spec. Apart from maybe going for the Abit IP-35 I would go for exactly that. That is the best spec you will get for that price no doubt about it.

And I don't know what people are saying about skimping. There's obviously no skimping there. You'll have the best air cooler around along with a very good fan.
 
Spon

Dropping to an 8800 GTS 640mb will save you some cash and should have more than enough memory for your 24" Dell of which i speced the HC model as its only a little more but you can have the standard one for £30 less. you could drop further to a 320mb model but im not sure how that would hold up powering your monitor. Going for the Noctua NH-U12F saves a bit more as it is cheaper than the Thermalright, comes with its own fan, is a very good and silent cooler. 2 gig of 6400 RAM will do you fine you can always sneak in a upgrade later if needed. I speced the OcUK stuff but the GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC6400C4 is at the same price this week. You might be able to save some more cash on the PSU with some research but Corsair ones are highly rated. Simple optical drives are pretty much the same price and keyboard and mouse is a personal thing so theres a little room there in a £1400 budget for your own choices of those. I have not speced you a soundcard as you can use on board to save cash.

Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64-Bit Edition DVD - OEM - 1Pk
Corsair HX 520W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU
Lian-Li PC-7 PLUS II Aluminium Midi-Tower Case - Black
OcUK GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail
Noctua NH-U12F CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/LGA775)
Samsung SH-S203BEBN 20x20 DVD±RW Dual Layer Serial ATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM
Western Digital Caviar SE16 400GB 4000AAKS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM
Dell Ultrasharp 2407WFP-HC 24" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Midnight Grey
Abit IP35-E (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
OcUK 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C5 800MHz DDR2 Dual Channel Kit
Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient 95W Edition" 2.40GHz (1066FSB)

Sub Total : £1,123.89
VAT is being charged at 17.5% VAT : £199.30
Total : £1,338.14

There is a P35 round up review here if needed...
http://www.techspot.com/article/61-intel-p35-motherboard-roundup/

You'll have to use arguments such as the G0 stepping chip is well worth it considering what it overclocks to and should last quite a while. The thing that will kill you is the 24" monitor as its a high price and needs a good graphics card if you want to run games on. If you are able to turn her towards gaming then you can try the HD console excuse as the 24" inch monitor will do the res. Alternately you can tell her it can be used for HD TV movies etc.. but by this time you are just clutching at straws and she's probably spent it on shoes anyway.

You are allowed a certain leeway for errors in the first year of marriage so maybe you can buy it and try a "Doh! oh well im really sorry honey i've learnt my leasson now" but the truely best thing is to go save money elsewhere in the house/bills and then use your showing of good behaviour as deserving of a reward and of course then spend the money you just saved on the extras for your rig.

Its a brave new world! Good luck :D
 
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Okay.. £5 for quad core over dual core? Tough choice :p

EDIT: @Spon. I would never skimp on memory. OCUK is fine if you're running at stock but I wouldn't trust it to overclock at all. Go with the Geil the price difference is barely anything.

I still say trueblues spec is the best by far. The performance is well worth the extra £70 over spons.

If you want to you could have a look at 2900XTs to get it under £1400 though. It's beaten the GTX in a few games now. Bioshock in XP DX9 for one. That's a good sign for future UE3.0 games.
 
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The system i specced does come in at £1,387.53 inc VAT, I never include postage or shipping costs hence why i say just £1,387.53 inc VAT.
 
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etwrf.jpg


£1,399.27 inc VAT -- EXCLUDING delivery.

Had another shuffle around trying to get that 24" monitor in the spec. I seriously can't do it good enough without removing something or skimping. I must admit I didn't include a cooler in my spec, as I didn't know if overclocking was involved, so this spec includes one and also a DVD writer.

2" extra screen, or:

Razer Deathadder instead of the G5
Logitech G15 instead of the Saitek
4GB ram instead of 2GB
Ballistix RAM instead of GeIL
Abit IP35 Pro instead of regular version or asus equiv.
8800 GTX instead of 2900XT
No 3rd party cpu cooler
No DVD writer

If it were me, I'd take the 22" and the other goodies.
 
^

Exactly the same spec i was gonna spec but decided with the 8800 GTX and personally i would choose WD AAKS HD, also remember your need a 120mm fan to go on the Thermalright.
 
OcUK memory overclocks fine and you could go for the 8500 stuff if needed but yes i'd go for the Geil if its the same price. The 2900XTs are an option as is the 8800 GTX but that leave no room for mouse keyboard and while the GTX is a bit faster does it really represent good bang for your buck? trueblues spec is certainly a very good spec mine is trying to skim the fat and help provide an alternative :)
 
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