Help me spec this Christmas £300 present!

MattC

MattC

MattC

Associate
Joined
29 Jan 2007
Posts
19
Hi All,

Firstly, thanks a lot for the help you've already given me, I've had a browse through this forum and it has already helped so much. Great forum!

I'm getting the old fella a new PC for Christmas on a budget of £300, not including the case.

He's going to get this case himself:
Antec Sonata III Piano Black Quiet Case - EarthWatts 500W PSU - £72.84 inc VAT

He doesn't play games and the most demanding thing he'll do is post processing images and scanning and manipulating old slides, movies etc.

So far I've come up with the following:

OCZ 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 Dual Channel Platinum Revision 2 XTC Series DDR2 (OCZ2P800R22GK) £29.99
(£35.24) £29.99
(£35.24)
Pioneer DVR-212DBK 18x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
(£19.96) £16.99
(£19.96)
Western Digital Caviar SE16 250GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (WD2500AAKS) £37.99
(£44.64) £37.99
(£44.64)
Intel Core 2 Duo E2180 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.00GHz (800FSB) - Retail £44.99
(£52.86) £44.99
(£52.86)
Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L Intel P35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £53.99
(£63.44) £53.99
(£63.44)
OcUK GeForce 8400 GS 256MB DDR2 HDTV/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £21.99
(£25.84) £21.99
(£25.84)
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64-Bit Edition DVD - OEM - 1Pk (66I-00788) £59.99
(£70.49) £59.99
(£70.49)
Sub Total : £265.93
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £8.95
VAT is being charged at 17.5% VAT : £48.10
Total : £322.98

I've chosen the Gigabyte because I already have a DS3R, the 'L' is a bit cheaper, what's the difference? Good choice?

I'll probably give him a mild overclock to get a bit more out of the E2180, but will keep it on the stock HSF. I wont be around to troubleshoot it, so dont want to do a serious OC.

I only picked the GPU as it is the cheapest I could find that supported DX10 and has HD playback for future, is this alright?

I've checked all of his existing peripherals/software and can't see any reason not to go for x64. I know he's not going to benefit a great deal from it right now, but I've just bought it and had no problems.

I'm looking to buy this for Saturday delivery, so I can build and test it in advance of Christmas.

What do you think, am I wide of the mark or will this do the job?

Cheers! :)

Matt
 
I think this would be better:
overclockersukyourbaskeho4.gif

The extra clockspeed should more thna make up for AMD's performance per cycle deficit. IMO it's more rig for the money. This HDD is faster as well. The graphics on this board are surprisingly good for normal desktop use including movies since it's a board intended for use in HTPCs. I'd get the 64 bit version.
 
Thanks for the quick responses guys!

Billy, that spec looks great, particularly the onboard GPU.
I kind of thought that an AMD would be better value at this price, but he is really keen on a Core 2 Duo. Can you come up with a C2D spec on a similar budget or do you really think it's not worth it and AMD is the way forward?

Thanks hp and aj, I think I will go x64 for the ram.

Thanks again,
M
 
Thanks again for your efforts Billy.
I'll try and persuade him to go for the AMD. I've also squeezed in another 2GB of RAM. I know it's overkill, but I'm sure he'll appreciate it in Photoshop.

How does this look:

Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Abit AN-M2 Micro ATX (Socket AM2) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £39.99
(£46.99) £39.99
(£46.99)
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4800+ 2.50GHz (Socket AM2) - Retail £53.99
(£63.44) £53.99
(£63.44)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 250GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (ST3250410AS) £38.99
(£45.81) £38.99
(£45.81)
Corsair 2GB DDR2 Value Select PC2-5300C5 Dual Channel Kit (2x1GB) (VS2GBKIT667D2) £24.99
(£29.36) £49.98
(£58.72)
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64-Bit Edition DVD - OEM - 1Pk (66I-00788) £59.99
(£70.49) £59.99
(£70.49)
Samsung SH-S203NBEBN 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer Lightscribe ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
(£19.96) £16.99
(£19.96)
Sub Total : £259.93
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £8.25
VAT is being charged at 17.5% VAT : £46.93
Total : £315.11

If the above is OK, I'll order today. Looks like compared to my original spec, he now has a faster CPU, faster HHD and +2GB RAM and still cheaper!
:)

Matt
 
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