How many questions can I ask about my proposed

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Deleted member 68110

Deleted member 68110

£650's my utter limit.

  • Antec Sonata 3 Super Black Mini Tower Case with 500W aPFC PSU - £78.60
  • Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro - P4 up to 4.4GHz - S775 Dual/Quad Core Ready - £14.79
  • Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L, iP35 Express, S 775, PCI-E (x16), DDR2 1066/667/800, SATA II, ATX - £59.81
  • Intel Core 2 Duo, E8400, Wolfdale Core, S775, 3.0 GHz, 1333MHz, 6MB Cache - £139.81
  • 2GB (2x1GB) Corsair TwinX XMS2, DDR2 PC2-6400 (800), 240 Pins, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 4-4-4-12 - £32.89
  • Asus GeForce 9600 GT 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - £113.96
  • 22" Samsung Monitor SM-226BW V2 Black Widescreen LCD, 1680x1050, 3000:1, 300 cd/m2, 2 ms, VESA UK - £210.31

TOTAL £650 - Does that seem like a decent build?

And I've left out the OS. So I need to squeeze £60 for Vista Home Premium OEM.

I don't want to compromise on the screen. Is there something as good cheaper?

The case seems like a bargain, with a decent PSU included, but it has an annoying door at the front. Is there another similarly priced solution?

The processor's hard to find - I might have to go for the Intel Core 2 Duo E8200 2 x 2.66Ghz 6Mb Cache 1333 FSB Dual Core Processor for £125.67 instead. Is that a big drop in performance? At least it saves me £15.

Lastly and as if that wasn't enough - I'd love to squeeze a bit more cash out of the rest of the spend to get 4GB of RAM. Worth it?
 
Nothing wrong with that build, the monitor will be one i'm getting asap.

Two notes though:

Note sure ont he build quality of the case, but the PSU supplied with it is £40-50 worth on it's own, so it's a bargain.

The CPU cooler is a favourite of a lot of people here for it's price, but i'm personally not a fan of push-pin installation, it's a pain and i prefer screwed in clips w/ brackets.
 
Heh, i need to quieten my Raptor down, it's like a woodpecker playing the drums, why i wasted £90 on it for 74gb i don't know.
 
Thanks for the replies.

The prices I quoted weren't from OC, and their price for the E8400 was significantly cheaper - I guess they can do that when they don't have any in stock!

If I order everything from OC then I'll probably go for the E8200 and the OCZ RAM:-

SpecList.jpg


2GB RAM and a 2.66Ghz processor seem like a compromise now, but I guess they'll still blow away my expectations after so long with an old machine...
 
Here's what I managed to throw together for you. There really is no need to get the Samsung @ £211.49 as your paying a premium for an identical monitor but with a 2ms response time. In the real world of gaming and movies, your not going to see any difference at all compared to the one below.

As your saving on the monitor, you can go a little further on the GFX, Case & PSU. The Dominator case is solid, big, cool and a quality build with rave reviews. Also it gives you some spend to get the extra stream processors on the GFX and with a 22" monitor, you will need them.

The Thermaltake Toughpower is a solid PSU with plenty of amps on the rails to give you headroom for overclocking, plus its a modular.

Even with the better upgrades, you have the extra £60 for the OS.

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Thanks a lot Wiggins - very useful info.

What you say about the monitor makes a lot of sense and I think I'll take your advice. I take it it's worth paying for the sumsung name - their screens seem to get rave reviews.

The Sonata seems like a great case, just possibly a bit small - I didn't think it would be a problem for what I was building. Also the PSU that comes with it also gets good reports. Is the Coolermaster and the Thermaltake Toughpower definitley worth the extra £30.

The graphics cards are different by £4. Is the 8800GT better than the 9600 GT? This looks like a straight either-or.
 
The 8800GT is the better card, the sonata is a good case for the money. Its quiet and ive got a e8400 with a 8800GT in there at 4Ghz and temps are fine. Just depends whether you are penny pinching or not

Lee
 
garnett said:
The graphics cards are different by £4. Is the 8800GT better than the 9600 GT? This looks like a straight either-or.
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Ignore that - I was comparing the ex VAT price of the 8800GT with the inc VAT cost of the 9600GT. :o
 
While I'm on my penny-pinching quest... Is there anywhere in the UK that sells the Xeon 3110? Might be a cheaper option for me.
 
Wiggins said:
Stick with the Wolfdale.

Even drop down to the E8200. You will still easily get 4Ghz out of it.
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Cheers. I think I'm going to have to drop down to the E8200 because the places that stock the E8400 have it for a fair bit more than I initially thought.

The Xeon 3110 is apparently exactly the same as the E8400. It's Wolfdale too. It seems impossible to find in the UK though.
 
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