My pc finally went bust, now i need a new one for around a grand

indie_85 · 5 Apr 2006 at 02:32

Ok, so i've been out the loop as far as hardwares' concerned for awhile now and dont really have a good grasp as whats good and whats not. Been looking at the overclockers rigs, and was wondering which one around the grand mark would you guys consider the best. TIA

Monstermunch · 5 Apr 2006 at 07:40

Here ya go:

CP-152-AM AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+ (Socket 939) - OEM (CP-152-AM)
£169.95 £169.95
FG-000-AR Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940) (FG-000-AR)
£15.95 £15.95
MB-046-MS MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum nForce4 Ultra (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-046-MS)
£64.95 £64.95
MY-039-CS Corsair 2GB DDR XMS3200PT TwinX (2x1GB) CAS3 (MY-039-CS)
£109.95 £109.95
GX-048-HT HIS Excalibur ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-048-HT)
£279.95 £279.95
HD-018-SA Samsung SpinPoint P SP2504C 250GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-018-SA)
£53.95 £53.95
CD-026-NE NEC ND4551 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer LabelFlash ReWriter (Black) - OEM (CD-026-NE)
£25.95 £25.95
CA-012-TT Thermaltake VA3000BNA Tsunami Dream SuperMidi Aluminium Tower - Black (CA-012-TT)
£59.95 £59.95
CA-008-TG Tagan TG530-U15 530W ATX2.01 Easycon SLi Compliant Modular Silent PSU (CA-008-TG)
£59.95 £59.95
Subtotal £840.55
VAT £147.10
Total £987.65

Build it yourself, it's easier than you may think and we're here to help

semi-pro waster · 5 Apr 2006 at 10:57

What do you need in terms of hardware e.g. monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers or just the box itself? What will you be using the PC for? If it is mainly for gaming and you only need the box itself then Monstermunch has given you a good specification although I'd just buy the 2gb Geil Value kit and save £25 as it will perform about the same, the rest looks fine.

BigDom · 5 Apr 2006 at 11:31

I agree with Semi on the Ram, as usual I'd go for a Asus Crossfire board myself, Specifically the one in my sig. Also if budget is tight go Retail on the CPU and remove the cooler 64. The Default HSF is a pretty good one.

indie_85 · 5 Apr 2006 at 14:33

Sorry I should mentioned that, yeah its just the box im after. As for building it myself... well really I wouldn't trust myself with installing everything correctly. I think id want a pre-built rig, unless you really think nothing can go wrong, bare in mind i've done nothing like that in my life.
Oh and its for gaming.... with a little work on the side

semi-pro waster · 5 Apr 2006 at 15:03

Building a PC is really simple, as I've said in a few other threads if you can build a Lego model then you can build a PC. Now there really is only one way that anything should be able to go together.

Installing Windows etc is simple as well normally, all you need do is follow the prompts on the screen and that will see you through.

Tommy B · 5 Apr 2006 at 15:12

Could get someone else to build it for you. Offer them £50 or something.

indie_85 · 5 Apr 2006 at 15:24

Hmm my main concern was getting stuff like the cpu mounted properly with its heatsink/fan. Also connecting the PSU up with everything looks tricky, theres a lot of wires lol. Is there a really straightforward walkthrough somewhere? I guess I need to order these components first.

d4nth0m · 5 Apr 2006 at 15:28

Just read plenty of information on the web about building computer and use these forums. Thats the way I learnt and I expect thats what a lot of others did also. There is very little you can do wrong if you take your time and research it first imo.

This way is good also as you can pick all quality parts and built exactly what you are after.

lumocolor · 5 Apr 2006 at 16:55

Now that AMD use heatspreaders over the CPU core it's very difficult to damage anything when building a rig provided you don't do anything really stupid!!

I would buy an IBM/Hitachi hd over a Samsung anyday, far far better hd in every department tbh.
I would also get the Geil Value kit RAM instead as suggested.

However if I was spending £1k on a RIG I would certainly work a 10k Raptor into the spec, even if it meant getting a less expensive case.

Monstermunch · 5 Apr 2006 at 17:16

BigDom said:
I agree with Semi on the Ram, as usual I'd go for a Asus Crossfire board myself, Specifically the one in my sig. Also if budget is tight go Retail on the CPU and remove the cooler 64. The Default HSF is a pretty good one.

I just wanted to ask why people keep spec'ing crossfire boards when they seem to be troublesome? I am constantly reading threads in the forum regarding high volume of RMA's and problems with ram spedds and bios etc.

Monstermunch · 5 Apr 2006 at 17:21

lumocolor said:
However if I was spending £1k on a RIG I would certainly work a 10k Raptor into the spec, even if it meant getting a less expensive case.

Overhyped and a complete waste of money, raid0 sata2 drives are faster, quieter and cheaper!

indie_85 · 6 Apr 2006 at 17:50

Okay just about to order it all, just finally confirmation that i should get the nforce4 over the asus crossfire mentioned? Also should i go with the retail x2 3800+s or the oem version and the arctic cpu cooler (and is it easy to install)? Cheers

Monstermunch · 6 Apr 2006 at 17:54

indie_85 said:
Okay just about to order it all, just finally confirmation that i should get the nforce4 over the asus crossfire mentioned? Also should i go with the retail x2 3800+s or the oem version and the arctic cpu cooler (and is it easy to install)? Cheers

Go for the MSI neo4 nF4 Ultra Mobo and the X2 OEM with the Arctic cooler. The MSI is a good board, crossfire boards are good on paper but seem troublesome with a lot of RMA's etc. You DON'T need an SLI mobo with a single gfx card, get a good nF4 Ultra Mobo and put the spare money towards better ram or something else!

djjuk · 6 Apr 2006 at 19:14

Monstermunch said:
Overhyped and a complete waste of money, raid0 sata2 drives are faster, quieter and cheaper!

Yep agree totally..

Good spec you have been given there! The satisfaction of building it yourself is great too :cool:

RoboCod · 6 Apr 2006 at 20:51

Building your own rig is easy, I did it with most advice obtained from this forum. Just take your time and follow the guides step by step. Its easier now than ever, everything is designed to fit exactly meaning you cant fit components into eachother incorrectly without actually forcing them. Its all designed to fit i.e. molex cables cant be put in upside down and the cpu has a big arrow pointing to where it goes.

Follow the specs suggested as they are guaranteed to be compatible. Any problems just ask away, someone will almost always reply and you'll spend the same amount of money and create a much better setup more suitable to your needs.

TooNice · 6 Apr 2006 at 21:12

Monstermunch said:
Overhyped and a complete waste of money, raid0 sata2 drives are faster, quieter and cheaper!

Poor value? Sure. There is a premium to be paid for premium component. Louder? Not necessarily - perhaps for seeking. Even SPCR members would say that you could do far worse than a Raptor when noise is an issue. Slower? Sure, in applications that benefit heavily on sequential read/write. That includes... Booting into Windows (perhaps there is a point if you shut down your machine often), video editing (how many really do this?), page files (buy more RAM), benchmarking programs that stresses sequential read/write. The rest? You are looking closer to 10% performance increase over a single drive... and you better make sure your backup habbits are tip top, since a drive failure will be particularly painful in a RAID-0 setup.

For my money, I would go for a Raptor + Large data drive. RAID-0, been there, done that, not that interesting (even if you go with the two identical route, I still would not suggest it).

indie_85 · 7 Apr 2006 at 16:31

Ok, just ordered it all, should arrive monday

No doubt i'll be needing you guys to help us out, think i should be ok until the wiring stage, all the guides iv read seem to rush through this bit even though theres loads of wires to connect to everything. Only changed the spec by upping the tagan to 580W one.
Also with the MSI motherboard i notice from the pic its got a fan on its northbridge compared to other makes which have heatsinks. Brings back bad memories as thats the thing that started a catalyst of all my other stuff breaking -the fan on northbridge Abit mobo. Im guessing MSI dont have such troubles?