New build £700

Ross1234 · 29 Apr 2007 at 21:31

Thinking of this as a complete build, any ideas of cutting costs/improving?
Costs £712

BFG GeForce 8800 GTS OC2 320MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) -
Creative X-Fi Xtreme Audio 7.1 Soundcard - OEM7.1 Soundcard - OEM
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 32-Bit Edition DVD - OEM - 1Pk
OcUK Value Hanns-G HW173D 17" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Silver/Black Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 160GB ST3160815AS SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4200+ 2.20GHz (Socket AM2) - OEM Akasa AK-ICR-01 Internal Card Reader
Cherry G83-6105 PS2 Keyboard - WhiteSamsung SH-183LBEBN 18x18 DVD±RW Dual Layer Serial ATA Lightscribe ReWriter (Black) - OEM
Antec NSK6500 Super Midi Tower Case - 430W PSU Antec NSK6500 Super Midi Tower Case - 430W PSU £58.99
Asrock ALiveSATA2-GLAN (Socket AM2) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
OcUK 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400 800MHz DDR2 Dual Channel Kit

FrannoBaz · 29 Apr 2007 at 21:49

i wouldnt go down the AMD route.... i would go for a Core 2 Duo System, Way more bang for the buck.

Ross1234 · 29 Apr 2007 at 21:51

Will amd not pick up pace soon?

VeNT · 29 Apr 2007 at 21:52

Ross1234 said:
Will amd not pick up pace soon?

tbh if you're buying now go core 2
if you're gonna buy in 6 months or whenever AMD bring out a new one then why ask now?

Ross1234 · 29 Apr 2007 at 21:53

I was thinking more for future proofing for having an am2 slot

semi-pro waster · 29 Apr 2007 at 21:53

You would at least need a CPU cooler for the above system, removing the spaces doesn't exactly aid clarity but it appears you have picked an OEM CPU.

This system below might be suitable and should overclock nicely, I haven't put in the keyboard, mouse or card reader but you can pick the ones you want.

Antec NSK6500 Super Midi Tower Case - 430W PSU £58.99
(£69.31) £58.99
(£69.31)
BFG GeForce 8800 GTS OC 320MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £154.99
(£182.11) £154.99
(£182.11)
OcUK Value Hanns-G HW173D 17" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Silver/Black £74.99
(£88.11) £74.99
(£88.11)
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64-Bit Edition DVD - OEM - 1Pk (66I-00788) £63.99
(£75.19) £63.99
(£75.19)
Hitachi Deskstar 7K160 NCQ 160GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM £29.99
(£35.24) £29.99
(£35.24)
LiteON DH-20A1P-45C 20x DVD±RW x12 Ram Dual Layer DVD-Writer (Black) - OEM £14.99
(£17.61) £14.99
(£17.61)
Gigabyte GA_965P_S3 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £59.99
(£70.49) £59.99
(£70.49)
Intel Core 2 Duo E4300 "LGA775 Allendale" 1.80GHz (800FSB) - Retail £65.99
(£77.54) £65.99
(£77.54)
Crucial 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 PC2-5300C5 Dual Channel Kit (CT2KIT12864AA667) £49.99
(£58.74) £49.99
(£58.74)
Sub Total : £573.91
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £12.95
Vat : £102.70
Total : £689.56

stickroad · 29 Apr 2007 at 21:53

If your not overclocking go AMD

Ross1234 · 29 Apr 2007 at 21:56

Is that a powerful processer, 1,8ghz does not sound it

Ross1234 · 29 Apr 2007 at 21:58

Thanks for spending the time to reply though

stickroad · 29 Apr 2007 at 21:58

To be honest GHZ mean nothing these days. The Core 2 Duo chips are for overclocking. You wouldn't buy the E4300(1.8GHZ) if you were not overclocking.

If your not oveclocking stick with AMD if you are go to Core 2 Duo.

Ross1234 · 29 Apr 2007 at 21:59

I have no idea about overclocking so i think i will go amd

VeNT · 29 Apr 2007 at 22:01

overclockings REALLY easy

Ross1234 · 29 Apr 2007 at 22:01

Can you quickly run me through it?

semi-pro waster · 29 Apr 2007 at 22:11

Ross1234 said:
Can you quickly run me through it?

Ok, with that CPU you have a 9x multiplier and Ram that is guaranteed to run at 333mhz as a minimum, combine the two and you get 2997mhz or 3ghz, near as damnit which is knocking on for 100% overclock. Now there are no guarantees with overclocking but it seems that nearly everyone has had good results with Core2Duo. There are further guides in the Overclocking sub-forum and in the Motherboard sub-forum there is a massive thread on the Gigabyte DS3 which is essentially the same motherboard but with solid capacitors so you could use that thread as a guide.

For reference, at stock speeds a Core2Duo at 1.8ghz is somewhere around an X2 4200 but has much more headroom for overclocking.

Ross1234 · 29 Apr 2007 at 22:15

Is overclocking just a case of increasing cooling and voltage?

semi-pro waster · 29 Apr 2007 at 22:42

Ross1234 said:
Is overclocking just a case of increasing cooling and voltage?

All you will need to do to overclock in the first instance is to increase the FSB (Front Side Bus) as that controls what speed the CPU will run at, Ram speeds are best matched to it (in fact for the S3 they have to be). You can adjust voltages and various other timings but to begin with the FSB is all you should need to worry about. Here is a basic generic guide to overclocking that Jokester (one of the Dons) put together which explains more terms and as I mentioned before there is a big thread on the DS3 in the Motherboards sub-forum which contains a few settings to check and a lot of advice. I can't guarantee you would reach 3ghz on stock cooling or even that the chip would be capable of it but it far from unheard of if I can put it like that.

Egosh · 29 Apr 2007 at 22:59

overclocking isnt as simple as some people make it out to be...its only simple if you know exactly what youre doing...there are a lot of consequences if things go wrong such as completely ruining some of youre components. if youre not 100% sure of what youre doing then i wouldnt bother.

that being said i would still get a core 2 duo processor as they are a lot faster then amd ones..

VeNT · 29 Apr 2007 at 23:13

Egosh said:
overclocking isnt as simple as some people make it out to be...its only simple if you know exactly what youre doing...there are a lot of consequences if things go wrong such as completely ruining some of youre components. if youre not 100% sure of what youre doing then i wouldnt bother.

wrong

as long as you follow instructions and don't do anything stupid (like setting voltages too high) then you'll be fine.
99% of current hardware has thermal protection so if it is getting too hot it slows down anyway

Azza · 29 Apr 2007 at 23:19

VeNT said:
wrong

as long as you follow instructions and don't do anything stupid (like setting voltages too high) then you'll be fine.
99% of current hardware has thermal protection so if it is getting too hot it slows down anyway

Or automatically shuts down if it gets too hot.

Egosh · 29 Apr 2007 at 23:31

many small details that need to be known in order to overclock its not just a matter of reducing multiplier and then upping the fsb as im sure you'll know...ram timing dividers voltages and even gettin around the bios and finding all these options without messing everything up may not be the simplest of task for some of us..some of us may not even be willing to take the risk since it maybe the pc this person is buying is something he saved up for months and doesnt want to risk it all by making a mistake overclocking...

my point you shouldnt really encourage people to overclock if they arent 100% sure of what needs to be done and all the small bits and bobs that you need to know