Machine speccing needed pls. £1000

Makaveli · 10 Mar 2006 at 15:28

Hi,

Need some help spec'ing a machine as my main one is getting old. GFX has to be ATI, AMD based. Dont need sli. Gonna have a raptor HDD as OS hdd. Dont need a monitor. Will require keyboard and mouse. Will be mainly a FPS gaming machine, so need a good gaming mouse. £1000 budget!

cheers!

semi-pro waster · 10 Mar 2006 at 15:36

You could go for something like this and overclock the Opteron to get a very nice machine.

KB-069-LG Logitech G5 Gaming-Grade Laser Mouse (KB-069-LG)
£31.95 £31.95
KB-011-LG Logitech Internet Pro Keyboard (Black) - OEM (KB-011-LG)
£8.95 £8.95
CA-040-AN Antec Sonata II Piano Black Quiet Case - 450W Smart Power PSU (CA-040-AN)
£65.95 £65.95
MB-088-AS Asus A8N-E nForce4 Ultra (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-088-AS)
£61.95 £61.95
CD-026-NE NEC ND4551 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer LabelFlash ReWriter (Black) - OEM (CD-026-NE)
£27.95 £27.95
GX-046-CO Connect3D ATI Radeon X1900 XT-X 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (3055) (GX-046-CO)
£294.95 £294.95
CP-151-AM AMD Opteron UP 165 Dual Core San Diego 1.8GHz 2MB Cache (Socket 939) - Retail (CP-151-AM)
£224.95 £224.95
MY-000-MK Mushkin 2GB DDR XP4000 Extreme Performance Dual Channel Kit (2x1GB) CAS3 (991483) (MY-000-MK)
£144.95 £144.95
Subtotal £861.60
VAT £150.78
Total £1,012.38

KizZ · 10 Mar 2006 at 15:56

That spec looks quite good to me

Makaveli · 10 Mar 2006 at 15:58

whats the idf between opeteron dual and normal X2's?

Explicit · 10 Mar 2006 at 16:05

X2 = desktop dual core processor
Opty = Server dual core processor (overclocker's dream)

Do you need the raptor or have you already got it?

semi-pro waster · 10 Mar 2006 at 16:05

Makaveli said:
whats the idf between opeteron dual and normal X2's?

Opteron dual cores have 2mb L2 cache, the X2 3800 and 4200 both have 512kb, the X2 4400 has 1mb L2 cache. The Opterons are clocked lower at stock for an equivalent price usually but they are meant to overclock very nicely.

Makaveli · 10 Mar 2006 at 16:07

Explicit said:
X2 = desktop dual core processor
Opty = Server dual core processor (overclocker's dream)

Do you need the raptor or have you already got it?

I need the Raptor and an extra HDD 300gb+.

Makaveli · 10 Mar 2006 at 16:08

semi-pro waster said:
Opteron dual cores have 2mb L2 cache, the X2 3800 and 4200 both have 512kb, the X2 4400 has 1mb L2 cache. The Opterons are clocked lower at stock for an equivalent price usually but they are meant to overclock very nicely.

ahh, sounds good

Cheers guys!

Explicit · 10 Mar 2006 at 16:27

Makaveli said:
I need the Raptor and an extra HDD 300gb+.

The above spec is good, but doesn't include any hard drives. The raptor and 300GB drives eat up the best part of £200 which has a big impact on the budget.

AMD Opteron UP 165 Dual Core San Diego 1.8GHz 2MB Cache (Socket 939) - Retail (CP-151-AM)
£264.32
Asus A8N-E nForce4 Ultra (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-088-AS)
£72.79
OcUK Value 2GB (2x1GB) PC3200 184pin DDR Memory Dual Channel Kit (MY-006-OK)
£105.69
PowerColor ATI Radeon X1800 XT 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-048-PC)
£252.57
Western Digital Raptor 74GB WD740GD 10,000RPM SATA 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-015-WD)
£110.39
Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 NCQ 300GB ST3300831AS SATA 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-021-SE)
£79.84
NEC ND4551 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer LabelFlash ReWriter (Black) - OEM (CD-026-NE)
£32.84
Antec SLK3800BUK Black Quiet Midi Tower Case - 400W SmartPower PSU (CA-048-AN)
£61.04
Logitech G5 Gaming-Grade Laser Mouse (KB-069-LG)
£37.54
Logitech Internet Pro Keyboard (Black) - OEM (KB-011-LG)
£10.52

Total inc VAT: £1027.54

or

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+ (Socket 939) - OEM (CP-152-AM)
£193.82
Asus A8N-E nForce4 Ultra (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-088-AS)
£72.79
GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit CAS3 (GE2GB3200BDC) (MY-046-GL)
£129.19
PowerColor ATI Radeon X1800 XT 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-048-PC)
£252.57
Western Digital Raptor 74GB WD740GD 10,000RPM SATA 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-015-WD)
£110.39
Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 NCQ 300GB ST3300831AS SATA 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-021-SE)
£79.84
NEC ND4551 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer LabelFlash ReWriter (Black) - OEM (CD-026-NE)
£32.84
Antec SLK3800BUK Black Quiet Midi Tower Case - 400W SmartPower PSU (CA-048-AN)
£61.04
Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940) (FG-000-AR)
£15.22
Logitech G5 Gaming-Grade Laser Mouse (KB-069-LG)
£37.54
Logitech Internet Pro Keyboard (Black) - OEM (KB-011-LG)
£10.52

Total inc VAT: £995.76

semi-pro waster · 10 Mar 2006 at 16:39

Makaveli said:
I need the Raptor and an extra HDD 300gb+.

From the wording of your first post I thought that you already had the Raptor or at least didn't need it included in the specification. Since you do I'd go with Explicit's top specification

Makaveli · 19 Mar 2006 at 18:22

Just ordered this

CA-040-AN Antec Sonata II Piano Black Quiet Case - 450W Smart Power PSU (CA-040-AN) 1
£59.95 £59.95
CD-038-PO Pioneer DVR-111DBK 16 x 16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter - (Black) OEM (CD-038-PO) 1
£24.95 £24.95
KB-069-LG Logitech G5 Gaming-Grade Laser Mouse (KB-069-LG) 1
£31.95 £31.95
CP-151-AM AMD Opteron UP 165 Dual Core San Diego 1.8GHz 2MB Cache (Socket 939) - Retail (CP-151-AM) 1
£221.95 £221.95
MB-088-AS Asus A8N-E nForce4 Ultra (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-088-AS) 1
£59.95 £59.95
HD-015-WD Western Digital Raptor 74GB WD740GD 10,000RPM SATA 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-015-WD) 1
£93.50 £93.50
GX-046-CO Connect3D ATI Radeon X1900 XT-X 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (3055) (GX-046-CO) 1
£264.95 £264.95
MY-000-MK Mushkin 2GB DDR XP4000 Extreme Performance Dual Channel Kit (2x1GB) CAS3 (991483) (MY-000-MK) 1
£139.95 £139.95
Subtotal £897.15
Shipping (City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)) £9.95
VAT £158.75
Total £1,065.85

What do u guys think? Glad i waited a week, took advantage of the new OC prices, managed to squeeze the HDD in

. £1100 for a PC, I must be mad, lets hope CS:S runs without a glitch

, I want 100fps constant

KizZ · 19 Mar 2006 at 18:28

Makaveli said:
...I want 100fps constant

Errr with my spec I play CS:S maxed out at 1280x1024 and I get 80fps+ framerates. Enjoy it

Makaveli · 21 Mar 2006 at 22:08

sorry to revive this post, but have a quick question. The motherboard doesnt recognise the Opt 165, neither does windows XP Sp2. Both say AMD Processor Model Uknown. Any ideas?

stvmor · 21 Mar 2006 at 22:24

Makaveli said:
sorry to revive this post, but have a quick question. The motherboard doesnt recognise the Opt 165, neither does windows XP Sp2. Both say AMD Processor Model Uknown. Any ideas?

Update BIOS but does it matter? Does it run ok and what have you set the timings at?