Getting refund from major pc manuf and have £1200 to spend - what to buy??

spiki

spiki

spiki

Associate
Joined
18 Oct 2005
Posts
917
I bought an XPS 630 in April this year - a solid enough machine but beset by numerous software problems, well documented and a heavily modified but limited 650i mb. I am in the process of completing my refund/return as permitted by the manufacturer to those customers who feel they were mislead by marketing info and am ready to go for a self build like I should have done originally.

This is what I have specced myself but need some advice on compatibility, esp mobo, psu and ram. My absolute budget is £1200 including delivery. System will be primarily for gaming but also general purpose things like dvd encoding, working with photos. Sli is not important to me but need advice on whether the gtx 260 will fit this case. I just want the best possible machine I can get for the money. Slightly over budget here, so any advice where I can shave off a few pounds would be appreciated.

Apologies if I have violated any forum rules here, will happily amend

Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (66I-01939) £58.99
(£69.31)
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775) £14.99
(£17.61)
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 LGA775 'Yorkfield' 2.66GHz 12MB-cache (1333FSB) Processor - Retail £169.99
(£199.74)
Samsung SM-226BW 22" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Glossy Black £164.99
(£193.86)
Samsung SpinPoint F1 750GB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD753LJ) £52.99
(£62.26)
Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound (3.5g) £3.99
(£4.69)
Logitech Media Keyboard 600 (920-000031) £13.99
(£16.44)
BFG GeForce GTX 260 OC 896MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £169.99
(£199.74)
Lian-Li Black Aluminium Card Reader £19.99
(£23.49)
Samsung SH-S223F/RSMN 22x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Beige/Black/Silver) - Retail £16.99
(£19.96)
OCZ 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-8500C5 1066MHz Reaper HPC Edition Dual Channel DDR2 (OCZ2RPR10664GK) £74.99
(£88.11)
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Gamer 7.1 Sound Card - Retail £51.99
(£61.09)
Thermaltake ToughPower 850W Modular Power Supply £89.99
(£105.74)
Asus P5Q-E Intel P45 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £84.99
(£99.86)
Lian-Li PC-A17B Aluminium Midi-Tower Case (Black) £84.99
(£99.86)

Sub Total : £1,090.84
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £14.95
VAT is being charged at 17.5% VAT : £193.51
Total : £1,299.30

Already have G9 mouse and Z10 speakers. Any advice/guidance would be really appreciated. Thanks.
 
The q9550 for a bit more is probably worth it as well. An 850w psu is probbaly overkill since you cant sli on the p45 board (unless you go amd). Might want a better cpu cooler if you want to stretch that q9450/q9550.
 
Last edited:
Slight error on pricing - should be £1279.34

Which brand to go for with 4870? Is it worth holding on for 1G card rather than 512?
 
Last edited:
Its very minor unless you play on silly high resolutions on massive monitors (like 30").

A single 4870 is more than enough for most games at decent settings currently. And also depends on the maturity of the SLi/Crossfire drivers.
 
£4 over

Capture-72.jpg
 
Above is a good spec as well, and gives you the option of adding a second 4870 if you ever wanted to.
 
fergie128 said:
Its very minor unless you play on silly high resolutions on massive monitors (like 30").

A single 4870 is more than enough for most games at decent settings currently. And also depends on the maturity of the SLi/Crossfire drivers.
Click to expand...

i max out 512mb on BF2 at 1920*1200

actually for me VRAM is full after a few minutes, though there is no drop in performance, but still it was saying that using 600mb lol :S
 
Thanks for all the replies everyone.

Being doing loads of reading on the 4870 and various mobos. I agree that the 4870 seems to be a wise purchase but still confused about the variations in mobos. I am a complete novice when it comes to OC but I would like the option. To keep on budget its not gonna be an x48 board but how do you choose from all that variety?

Here's a couple of contenders. Would appreciate any views:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showp...P35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showp...P45 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showp...-AS&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1155&name=Asus P5Q-E Intel P45 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showp...-AS&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1155&name=Asus P5Q Deluxe Intel P45 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard

I have no brand loyalty but from doing my research, the bios options and user friendly software, Asus seems to be the one.
 
I'd pursuade one of the people on this forum with a 10% voucher code to send it to you as well.

£120 saved or another £120 to spend :D
 
** initial choice of P5Q-E comes well recommended by many and p45 is better for overclocking quads, also difficult t see the benefit of the Deluxe over the E.

If ** not planning on x-fire/sli at the time of purchasing the setup i cant really see the point in going x48 as by the time u do/if u decide to x-fire there will be a single card solution out that would beat the 2 cards u would have in x-fire. Also the 4870 is perfect at the moment for 22" monitors or less.
 
Greebo said:
I'd pursuade one of the people on this forum with a 10% voucher code to send it to you as well.

£120 saved or another £120 to spend :D
Click to expand...

That sounds good. Wasn't aware such a thing existed here. Who would one approach to discuss?

Just waiting for Hell to contact me to arrange the return and process the refund. Other unhappy customers had a two week turn around, but my new spec is coming along well and virtually settled on all but the mobo so very eager to settle everything.
 
Just by coincidence I received a discount voucher in my inbox this evening.
Two other things - the Asus P5Q-E supports 7.1 HD audio - does this mean I could do without a dedicated sound card?

Also what about the Geil Black Dragon ram - is it a good choice with this set up?

Thanks:)
 
Dedicated sound cards sound awesome (i just got a d2x and love it over onboard sound) but its more about personal preferance (and creative get a good bashing at the mo after the driver fiasco)

Id get the pc6400 version of that ram and save a little as ddr2 generally clocks nicely (gell are a good brand too)

With the money saved push for a 24" screen (screen real estate is always worth going for as a 4870 is still rather competative at 1900x1200) :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom