Need help to shave off some £££ of my 2 builds

Dancer

Dancer

Dancer

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Ok, time has come for me to upgrade me and my wife's computer. I was going to around new year but finances got in the way. So round two.

I already have most bits, so I can concentrate on getting the most bang for the buck. I plan to give my 8800 GT to my wife and the ATI x2 as she'll mostly use it for WoW, Sims 2 and browsing (hey I'm getting her the 24" monitor which she wants), and I only need one HD. I'm quite happy with what's in my basket right now, but I might have to shave off a few £££ to get it "approved". Also, I'd like to hear it if you think you can do better and the same or lower price.

Edit: I noticed I put the wrong CPU, her's should be AMD Phenom II X2 Dual Core 550 (£71.99) of course, not 545 at a higher price.

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Good selection of bits. Maybe get the OEM version of windows 7 to save a few quid.

Also on the CPU, you could go for a dual core 550 black edition, get a motherboard that wil allow you to unlock it to a quad, then overclock it to bout 3.6GHz per core, its a monster once you've done that.
 
Good suggestions, I think yes on the RAM and windows, but I'll keep the HD... maybe... I went with retail Win 7 because I thought it might prove useful in future if I want to upgrade the OS or install it on a new machine instead, but I managed just fine with XP OEM all these years. Will I be able to upgrade to for example windows ultimate with the OEM? Thanks.
 
I've overclocked my 940 to 3.6GHZ on a Corsair H50, pretty safely if you get a decent air cooler..
 
I would get this hard disk instead:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-081-SA

The Samsung F3 500GB is one of the fastest 500GB hard disks currently available AFAIK.

I would look at this HD5770 1GB:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-131-OK&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1515

VTX is part of the same company as PowerColor.

If you want a three year warranty I would look at this HD5770 1GB:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-219-AS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1515
 
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IIGAZI360II said:
Good selection of bits. Maybe get the OEM version of windows 7 to save a few quid.

Also on the CPU, you could go for a dual core 550 black edition, get a motherboard that wil allow you to unlock it to a quad, then overclock it to bout 3.6GHz per core, its a monster once you've done that.
Click to expand...

unlocking does not mean the cpu will be stable
 
Here is my updated spec based on suggestions here and some further research. I've decided to downgrade my CPU to dual core as I can't justify the extra cost for the x4. I like the idea of having four cores, but honestly I don't see that it will make a big enough difference. If you think differently then I'd like to hear why. I've added a new mouse as my 5 year or so old MX300 is very worn (but works a charm still!).

Also, added a PSU because one reason I'm upgrading my wife's PC is that her system occassionally reboots and wow crashes at random intervals claiming file corruptions, and I've been unable to find the cause (I've swapped the HD, memtest has run for hours-on-end with no errors).

157p004.jpg
 
There is always the X3 720BE for around £100:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-238-AM

Edit!!

The motherboards you have listed are DDR2 ones.

I would consider doing two separate builds - a DDR2 one for your wife and a DDR3 one for you.

This is what I would look at getting for the DDR2 based build:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-180-GI&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1482

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-192-CS&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=817

For the DDR3 based build I would get the following:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-244-GI&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1481

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-041-GS

You may also want to consider this motherboard as it has VRM cooling and integrated graphics:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-355-AS&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1481

I would also consider this PSU:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-017-CS

According to Hardware Secrets it should be consider a 450W unit:

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/750
 
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that mouse is ok, dont really know why im saying this because its done me proud for over 5 years, but today i got a mx revolution wireless mouse for £35.. deffo worth the extra couple of quids esp if its going to give me 5 years like the 518 did
 
I would suggest going for 64bit windows 7. 32 bit won't allow you address all your RAM.

Also, that motherboard is an AM2 board - so it doesn't support DDR3 RAM. I would suggest going for something like this instead.

As for a PSU, if the system is running an AMD dual core and a 5770 then this PSU will run it happily. It is also much higher quality than the OCZ and cheaper.
 
CAT-THE-FIFTH said:
There is always the X3 720BE for around £100
Click to expand...

True, but that inches the price up rather than down. :)

What I might do is skip the PSU and hope that the current PSU is not the cause of the system instability and can be re-used. The money I save with that "bet" is enough to get a x4. Will it really make a big difference to have two extra processors though (I don't do any video encoding or anything like that, only some gaming, browsing, photo editing with Paint.net and open office writing).
 
Dancer said:
True, but that inches the price up rather than down. :)

What I might do is skip the PSU and hope that the current PSU is not the cause of the system instability and can be re-used. The money I save with that "bet" is enough to get a x4. Will it really make a big difference to have two extra processors though (I don't do any video encoding or anything like that, only some gaming, browsing, photo editing with Paint.net and open office writing).
Click to expand...

If you look at the changes I have suggested it should only cost you £10 more.
 
cmndr_andi said:
I would suggest going for 64bit windows 7. 32 bit won't allow you address all your RAM <snip>
Click to expand...

Well spotted. I rushed this a bit it seems as I did intend to go for 64 bit and yes I also missed the fact that the board didn't support DDR3, I was hypnoticed by that it supported AM3... The PSU you suggest may be good, but as we have 500 watt ones now a 400 watt would seem like a downgrade. I do understand that it isn't really if we're not using all of it anyway, but still.
 
I like the savings I gain by ordering a DDR2 system and DDR3 system, but I then lose interchangeability which is nice when there are problems and I need to swap parts to test.
 
Dancer said:
Afaik the difference between Gigabyte GA-MA770T-UD3 MA770 and Gigabyte GA-MA770T-ES3 MA770 is that the first support 16GB of RAM and the latter 8GB at a premium of £6. Correct?
Click to expand...

Also you are losing the 8+2 phase VRM on the more expensive motherboard which limits you overclocking ability with higher TDP processors and of course a 4+1 phase VRM will be nearer its limits with a 125W TDP or 140W TDP CPU.

I would also go for a 22" monitor too:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/productlist.php?&groupid=17&catid=949&sortby=priceAsc
 
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