Looks Like I Need a New System

P20 · 12 Aug 2007 at 16:20

It looks like my desktop is dead. Freshly formatted and reinstalled, it freezes half way through installing certain drivers/updates, yet will install others....eventually.

So, did the Intel Core2 price drop happen? I remember reading about it months ago, but haven't seen if it took place. Don't want to spec a system and find out it bombs in price the following week. :rolleyes:

Tempted by the cheap Xp6000 chips, but fancy a return to intel. I take it they are worth the extra??

Cheers in advance.

stickroad · 12 Aug 2007 at 16:22

Yes the price drops have happened. It was only the Quads that were heavily affected. Also Intel brung out a few new Core 2 Duo chips.

How much are you looking to spend on the whole build and will you be needing a monitor, O/S, keyboard, mouse etc......

the shadow · 12 Aug 2007 at 16:28

yep quad entry is quite affordable now. ram is cheap as chips no pun intended.

P20 · 12 Aug 2007 at 16:29

Only need tower and gubbins. Speakers,keyboard,mouse,monitor all ok.
Don't need a powerful graphics,(would be happy with a cheapo card for now) as i'm not gaming any more. Do tend to run multiple applications though.
I spec'd a system awhile back with graphics,XP6000 chip and 4gb ram at about £800. Obviously can lose £150 with cheap graphics. Would like to spend about £450ish

P20 · 12 Aug 2007 at 16:59

Right i'm off to work. Its overtime though

just as well given the dead computer situation :rolleyes:

I'll try and log in at work, failing that i'll check up on this tomorrow.

Cheers guys

1337z0r · 12 Aug 2007 at 18:01

I would go Intel the Quad cores are cheap, and it means you won't have to upgrade your CPU for a while.

P20 · 12 Aug 2007 at 18:17

What about this set up??

I know its more than i originally budgeted for, but this always seems to happen when you start on this kind of thing

Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.67GHz (1066FSB) - Retail £159.99
(£187.99) £159.99
(£187.99)
HIS ATI Radeon HD 2400 PRO 1024MB DDR2 HDTV/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (H240PRHMF256-R) £32.99
(£38.76) £32.99
(£38.76)
Akasa AK-174BKT-B 120mm Auto Thermal Sensor Black Case Fan - 3 Pin £9.99
(£11.74) £9.99
(£11.74)
HP DVD 1035i 20x DVD±RW x12 Ram Dual Layer DVD-Writer (Black) - OEM £13.99
(£16.44) £13.99
(£16.44)
Antec Sonata III Piano Black Quiet Case - EarthWatts 500W PSU £60.99
(£71.66) £60.99
(£71.66)
Samsung SpinPoint T HD401LJ 400GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM £48.99
(£57.56) £48.99
(£57.56)
OcUK 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 PC2-8500C5 1066MHz Dual Channel Kit £69.99
(£82.24) £69.99
(£82.24)
Asus P5W DH Deluxe WiFi (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £99.99
(£117.49) £99.99
(£117.49)
Sub Total : £496.92
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £10.95
VAT is being charged at 17.5% VAT : £88.88
Total : £596.75

Reality|Bites · 12 Aug 2007 at 18:25

Would you not rather a Q6600 or an E6850?

mattyrigby00 · 12 Aug 2007 at 18:29

P20 said:
What about this set up??

I know its more than i originally budgeted for, but this always seems to happen when you start on this kind of thing

Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.67GHz (1066FSB) - Retail £159.99
(£187.99) £159.99
(£187.99)
HIS ATI Radeon HD 2400 PRO 1024MB DDR2 HDTV/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (H240PRHMF256-R) £32.99
(£38.76) £32.99
(£38.76)
Akasa AK-174BKT-B 120mm Auto Thermal Sensor Black Case Fan - 3 Pin £9.99
(£11.74) £9.99
(£11.74)
HP DVD 1035i 20x DVD±RW x12 Ram Dual Layer DVD-Writer (Black) - OEM £13.99
(£16.44) £13.99
(£16.44)
Antec Sonata III Piano Black Quiet Case - EarthWatts 500W PSU £60.99
(£71.66) £60.99
(£71.66)
Samsung SpinPoint T HD401LJ 400GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM £48.99
(£57.56) £48.99
(£57.56)
OcUK 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 PC2-8500C5 1066MHz Dual Channel Kit £69.99
(£82.24) £69.99
(£82.24)
Asus P5W DH Deluxe WiFi (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £99.99
(£117.49) £99.99
(£117.49)
Sub Total : £496.92
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £10.95
VAT is being charged at 17.5% VAT : £88.88
Total : £596.75

the e6700 is a rip off, the much better q6600 is about the same price and the equivalent e6750 is much cheaper. 8500 ram probably wont be needed, and youd be better off getting a p35 chipset board.

Growlingfish · 12 Aug 2007 at 19:13

Also I'm not sure that extra case fan is really worth it. At least not for that price; I got my Nexus fans for £5 each ... Every little bit helps

Nullvoid · 12 Aug 2007 at 20:12

I've tried to stick close to your original choices.

Case & Power Supply - Antec Sonata III
Motherboard - Asus P5K-E WiFi <- Their cheapest P35 board with built-in WiFi.
Processor - Intel e6750
RAM - 2gb Crucial Ballistix PC2-5300
Graphics Card - Asus 2400pro <- No fan so genuinely silent.
Hard-drive - Samsung Spinpoint T 500gb
Optical Drive - HP 20x dvd burner
Additional Fan - Akasa black with thermal sensor

That comes to £542.70.

If you wanted to splash out and go quad-core it would become £593.23 with a Q6600.

P20 · 12 Aug 2007 at 21:35

Cheers guys. I did this in a bit of a rush at work. Thought i had clicked Quad :rolleyes:

The wifi on the board isn't important, again just clicked on the Asus as i've had good experience with them.
Will certainly look into the specs mentioned.
Didn't have a clue about memory speeds either. Its been years since i played about with these things. The old system is an XP2600, so whatever i build will blow its socks off

Thanks again