My new sub-£400 system

SourChipmunk

SourChipmunk

SourChipmunk

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Joined
9 Nov 2003
Posts
9,515
Location
The Motor City
I haven't had a new PC since 1996. Everything I've had since then has been hand-me-down parts and diddly upgrades. So I finally stepped up to more modern times with a new system that I hope will get me by for a few years.

I didn't spec it for gaming, but more desktop publishing use. I had a $500 budget and came in at $555, so not too bad.

case-1.jpg

XION Solaris XON-401 Black with Green LED Light Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 450W Power Supply

motherboard.jpg

XFX GeForce 8200 AM2+ mATX Motherboard

cpu.jpg

AMD AMD® Boxed Phenom II X3 Triple-Core Processor 720 Black Edition

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OCZ Technology Vista Performance 4GB DDR2-1066 (PC-8500) DIMM Memory Kit

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Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 7,200RPM Serial ATA-300 Hard Drive x2

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Samsung OEM LightScribe 22x DVD±RW Burner with Dual/Double Layer Support OEM

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Cyber Acoustics CA- 3550 Power Pro 3 Piece Speaker System
- What amazing sounding little speakers for the price! I've never heard of this brand before, but I really like them.

This to go along with the monitor that I already had:

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Acer X223Wbd - 22" - widescreen TFT active matrix Flat panel display


All in all, I'm very happy with it. I'm running Microsoft Windows Vista 64-Bit Ultimate on it, which was given to me as a gift before my dad learned I had a lame old system and couldn't run it. Now I'm glad I didn't exchange it for anything.

Comments?
 
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What kind of comments are you looking for mate, by the sounds of it you have brought it and it up and running with no problems, for your needs it should do fine :D
 
Heh heh. Not really sure what comments I'm looking for. I've heard the manufacturer actually encourages overclocking the AMD CPU, and with standard cooling has run it at 3.4GHz. I'm not sure I'd get any benefit out of that, though.

Also, where does the onboard video stand compared to high-end video cards these days? Surely it will be adequate for my current needs, but if I ever pick up Crysis will it run ok?
 
Woo hoo! Just found out that a few of the parts I bought Thursday went on sale today! The store has a 30-day price guarantee, so I have about $100 coming back! Might just chuck that toward a GFX card.

Will the Nvidia NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GT 512MB GDDR3 PCIe 2.0 Graphic Card work for me?
 
It looks like a good fast build. The only thing that concerns me is are you running that with the power supply that came with the case ?
Power supplies that come with the case are generally of the very lowest quality. If you can afford £40 for a quality 400w power supply from a reputable brand like Antec, Akasa, FSP, Corsair, Silverpower etc then I really would do. Even if it means waiting for the graphics card.
Otherwise, great build.
 
That's part of the reason we went with this case as opposed to something cheaper. It came with a Corsair VX450W 450w ATX Power Supply, which I think is supposed to be pretty decent.
 
Yes, the Corsair is a very good power supply, no problems there.
In order of graphics card speed in that budget range, it's roughly
9600GT > 4670 > 9600GSO.
The GSO has the highest power consumption of the 3, despite being the slowest. The 9600GT is the one to go for if it isn't too much more than the 4670, which is also a good card.
 
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