Final Spec Check (Yawn ! :D)

Andelusion · 1 Feb 2006 at 23:05

Hey all, this isn't for me it's for a bud who's just about to order a new computer.

He's building it for games basically and doesn't want to spend much more than what the spec amounts to (about £800 afaik).

I've checked it over for him and it looks fine to be but i've been a bit out of touch with the latest hardware really so want some more knowledgeable people to give it the OK

CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3700+ Socket 939 1MB Inc HSF

Mobo: Gigabyte GA-K8N Ultra-9

Ram: G.Skill 2GB DDR HZ PC4000 (2x1GB) CAS3 Dual Channel Kit (F1-4000USU2-2GBHZ) (MY-008-GS)

GFX:Gigabyte GeForce 7800 GT 256MB GDDR3 VIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) & Quake 4 Bundle

HDD: Western Digital Caviar 250gb SATA150 WD 2500JD

DVDRW: NEC ND4551GEN

Case: Lian-Li PC-7 PLUS Black Aluminium Midi-Tower Case (No PSU) (CA-054-LL)

PSU: Hiper HPU-4K580-MK Type R 580W Modular ATX2.2 PSU - Black UV (CA-005-HP)

Keyboard and Mouse: Logitech UltraX™ Media Desktop - OEM (KB-065-LG)

He's buying everything from here besides the Mobo, HDD, CPU, DVDRW.

Is everything going to work together fine? Does anyone have any other suggestions?

Thanks.

kbc · 1 Feb 2006 at 23:14

Looks fine to me, but he could go with a DFI motherboard for better overclocking capabilities with the 3700+, as that CPU can clock pretty well.

Also, why not check out the already cheap SATA-II 250GB WD as opposed to the one you have listed, it has 16MB cache too.

Other than that, it looks fine to me.

Lakeland · 1 Feb 2006 at 23:17

id swap the board for this epox one. everything else looks fine to me

Epox EP-9NPA+ nForce4 (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-030-EP)

Webzta · 1 Feb 2006 at 23:19

The other gskill kit is cheaper and will run pc4000 at better timings than cas 3.0, if you're even overclocking.

Dace · 1 Feb 2006 at 23:23

That looks like a very good setup.

Two minor things (both already picked up on above):

*Consider the G Skill ZX and running it on a divider.
*Consider altering the motherboard to an Epox, Asus or MSI just for a few more overclocking options (provided the Ultra 9 is the cheap S939 board, my housemate has one and its not suited to overclocking at all).

Andelusion · 1 Feb 2006 at 23:45

Thanks guys

I forgot to mention (doh) that he's not into overclocking, the Gigabyte board he's specced is only about £70 I think, I originally suggested to him the DFI one but as it's much more expensive and he's not into overclocking I said it wouldn't be for him.

jaxon said:
Epox EP-9NPA+ nForce4 (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-030-EP)

Is this a decent board for a non overclocking user? I don't think he's going to want to spend more than £100 on the motherboard as he's spending a lot altogether already.

And this stuff: G.Skill 2GB DDR ZX PC3200 (2x1GB) CAS2 Dual Channel Kit (F1-3200PHU2-2GBZX) (MY-007-GS)

...same as mobo really, is this going to be worth the £6 extra (lol) if he's not overclocking? Is it generally better memory?

Thanks guys

kbc · 2 Feb 2006 at 00:08

Andelusion said:
And this stuff: G.Skill 2GB DDR ZX PC3200 (2x1GB) CAS2 Dual Channel Kit (F1-3200PHU2-2GBZX) (MY-007-GS)

...same as mobo really, is this going to be worth the £6 extra (lol) if he's not overclocking? Is it generally better memory?

Thanks guys

I think you've said it yourself, if he's not overclocking, he doesn't need the PC4000 high frequency stuff. He's better off with PC3200 RAM at stock and tighter timings. It's £6.00 well spent, and if he does take the plunge for overclocking - then these are a good set aswell.

Andelusion · 2 Feb 2006 at 00:26

Okay thanks everyone, he's gone for the PC3200 mem and Epox board, i'm seriously jealous of him

Oh well when i upgrade in a few months and his system's out of date i'll be pwning then

Ta.