Generic spec me thread title!

Anewbe4u

Anewbe4u

Anewbe4u

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26 Dec 2003
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Hiya gang,

Hope everyone is well. After putting off buying a new pc for ages and using only laptops, I fancy getting something a bit more meaty. I was only planning on playing Starcraft II but now I want to make it a little better.

Nothing too fancy, the budget is £750. If it meant getting a much much better spec, I could go to £850.

A couple of questions. Are there any major upgrades coming up which might lower the price of the low end market I assume I'm looking at?

I have a Keyboard, Mouse and legit copy of Windows 7 so that's all fine.

What I'll be using the PC for.

Downloading, lots and lots of downloading. Browsing, Converting Avi's to DVD's, Matched betting, playing a variety of games, some very old (Ultima Online) and some newer, Starcraft II and any bunch of generic First person shooters that may take my fancy. Basic Office functions.

I'm not a Frames per second whore, so as long as they play smoothly, I'm fine. I'd like to do some simple OC'ing to get the best from my components so maybe a decentish CPU cooler might be required.

I did this spec but I'm sure it can be improved so any help would be really appreciated. Because I'm so out the loop, if you could tell me why you picked what you did, over what I did it would be great, just so I can learn and also so I can make a more informed decision.

Cheers for the sure to come help!

 
You're still a bit under budget, I'd recommend uping the graphics card to the new gtx 460 or looking to see what happens to the prices of the 5850, especially at the full HD resolution you may see a performance hit. You could also decided if you want to up the CPU, though the 555 is great, getting a quad core will last you a lot longer!
 
There is a chance to be able to unlock Phenom 555s to quads, however I'm not sure which of the 800 series motherboards supports it, so you might want to check.

My suggestion would be:

OcUK Value GeForce GTX 460 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £179.99
(£153.18) £179.99
(£153.18)
BenQ G2420HDBL 24" Widescreen LED Monitor £159.79
(£135.99) £159.79
(£135.99)
AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition 3.20GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £129.24
(£109.99) £129.24
(£109.99)
OCZ Reaper Low-Latency 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 12800C6 (1600MHz) Dual-Channel (OCZ3RPR1600C6LV4GK) £93.99
(£79.99) £93.99
(£79.99)
Asus M4A87TD Evo AMD 870 (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard £84.99
(£72.33) £84.99
(£72.33)
OCZ ModXStream Pro 600w Silent SLI Certified Modular Power Supply £64.99
(£55.31) £64.99
(£55.31)
Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000.C 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (0F10383) £44.49
(£37.86) £44.49
(£37.86)
Antec 300 Three Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black £41.99
(£35.74) £41.99
(£35.74)
Titan TTC-NK85TZ/V2 Fenrir CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/LGA775/LGA1156/LGA1366) £32.99
(£28.08) £32.99
(£28.08)
LG GH22NS50 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
(£12.76) £14.99
(£12.76)
Sub Total : £721.23
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £19.10
VAT is being charged at 17.50% VAT : £129.56
Total : £869.89

Which is £847.45 with free shipping. :) (kinda the same as what Michael said)
 
I'd change the motherboard to an Asus M4N98TD Evo, and go with the 1GB GTX460. This way you can go SLI later on. It also allows core unlocking on the 555.

That means you'd probably want to go for a better PSU, and I'd suggest an OCZ 700W ModXStream. Only other thing would be to go for OCZ Reaper RAM, as it's a steal with the extra low timings.

Oh, and I'd probably go for the Samsung F3 1TB, but that's only because I don't know how good the Hitachis are.
 
Redmint said:
There is a chance to be able to unlock Phenom 555s to quads, however I'm not sure which of the 800 series motherboards supports it, so you might want to check.

My suggestion would be:

OcUK Value GeForce GTX 460 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £179.99
(£153.18) £179.99
(£153.18)
BenQ G2420HDBL 24" Widescreen LED Monitor £159.79
(£135.99) £159.79
(£135.99)
AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition 3.20GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £129.24
(£109.99) £129.24
(£109.99)
OCZ Reaper Low-Latency 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 12800C6 (1600MHz) Dual-Channel (OCZ3RPR1600C6LV4GK) £93.99
(£79.99) £93.99
(£79.99)
Asus M4A87TD Evo AMD 870 (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard £84.99
(£72.33) £84.99
(£72.33)
OCZ ModXStream Pro 600w Silent SLI Certified Modular Power Supply £64.99
(£55.31) £64.99
(£55.31)
Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000.C 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (0F10383) £44.49
(£37.86) £44.49
(£37.86)
Antec 300 Three Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black £41.99
(£35.74) £41.99
(£35.74)
Titan TTC-NK85TZ/V2 Fenrir CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/LGA775/LGA1156/LGA1366) £32.99
(£28.08) £32.99
(£28.08)
LG GH22NS50 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
(£12.76) £14.99
(£12.76)
Sub Total : £721.23
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £19.10
VAT is being charged at 17.50% VAT : £129.56
Total : £869.89

Which is £847.45 with free shipping. :) (kinda the same as what Michael said)
Click to expand...

I like the look of this, is that GPU much better than what I was looking at previously? So basically for £100 much I'd be getting a much better PC? Is there any major advantages over tri channel instead of duel channel ram or is duel channel perfectly adequate for my needs?
 
For tri channel you'll need a tri-channel capable motherboard (ie i7 - 1366) which will add a lot to your build cost, it's also excessive for your needs.

'Much better' is obviously somewhat subjective, but yes if you want a quad core (and you probably do if you're into gaming and want to try some new releases!) then it's best to just buy one, rather than buying a 555 and hoping it'll unlock.
 
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