Need a bit of expertise

baz123 · 19 Mar 2009 at 10:13

Hi Thanks for taking the time to read this

I am looking for a pc have seen a couple of towers on OC that fit my budget, have frankensteined a couple in the past so could build one if i have to.

Gave away my old faithfull PC in my divorce.

Would mostly be used for music (listening to), watching downloaded video content, photoshop, and some games (older stuff). Idea being it can be used as a media PC on a 24" monitor which i also need to buy. Max spend is £600 including the monitor so really £400 including keyboard & mouse. Need to sort it out fairly quickly as end of tax year is approaching.

I have xp pro knocking around somewhere so it will have to do as an OS.

Times have moved on since i last fiddled with a computer so i need some help these were the 2 i had looked at. But if i could get a better spec and build it myself i am open to suggestions, comments, derision etc

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-085-OK&groupid=43&catid=1078&subcat=

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-097-OO&groupid=43&catid=1343&subcat=

Many Thanks

Baz

alex24 · 19 Mar 2009 at 10:43

I would definitely recommend building your own. Better component choice and value for money. Although the two listed are ok, they will never be as good as your custom build.

You'll need a CPU, motherboard, power supply, RAM, optical drive, hard drive, gfx card, case.

I don't have the time to spec you up properly, hopefully someone later can, but i'd recommend the intel route, with 4GB RAM (for photoshop really), and get a low end processor that can be overclocked easily with a half-decent board.

Dont scrimp on the power supply either, it's important, especially if you want to upgrade in the future.

baz123 · 19 Mar 2009 at 12:08

Seem to have got a bit carried away, can anyone shave some money of this, suggest some alternatives or point out any stupid mistakes. The 24" monitor has to stay

Thanks

matthewhotdude · 19 Mar 2009 at 12:15

Could probabily save some on the motherboard

mp260767 · 19 Mar 2009 at 12:59

maybe drop the 5300 processor to the 5200 version, 4830 graphics card to a 4670, and the motherboard to a p43 version.

those changes are to save money, only option that i consider a valid change would be the graphics card, as u mentioned "older" games would think the 4670 will cope well with most games.

baz123 · 21 Mar 2009 at 12:28

Do you have to buy all the cables seperately or do they come with the motherboard etc?

Would i be better off buying a bare bones system and adding the rest?

baz123 · 22 Mar 2009 at 08:21

Just seen a deal on a prebuilt AMD Quad Core Phenom 9500 Quad Core Processor 2.2Ghz, would you still go for the intel dual or go with this?