New build advice

AceCobra · 14 Aug 2006 at 18:40

Hello,

I'd rather not just ask for a spec to a price however I would like some advice as i've been out of the upgrade loop for a few years. The system i'm looking at is.

REFERENCE DESCRIPTION QUANTITY PRICE COST REMOVE
CA-052-AN Antec NSK4400 Mini Tower Case - 380W SmartPower PSU (CA-052-AN)
£43.95 £43.95
CD-049-SO Sony DWG120A 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM (CD-049-SO)
£20.95 £20.95
MO-017-OK OcUK Value Hanns-G HW191D 19" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Silver (MO-017-OK)
£107.95 £107.95
HD-113-MD Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 10 NCQ 320GB 6V320F0 SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD-113-MD)
£53.95 £53.95
GX-030-BG BFG GeForce 7900 GT OC 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-030-BG)
£199.95 £199.95
AC-000-AC Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound (3.5g) (AC-000-AC)
£5.50 £5.50
KB-015-SK Saitek PZ30AU Eclipse Illuminated Keyboard - Blue (KB-015-SK)
£24.95 £24.95
CB-000-OK OcUK Value Single Link DVI Cable 1m (CB-000-OK)
£6.95 £6.95
MY-058-GL GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC6400 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400UDC) (MY-058-GL)
£109.95 £109.95
MB-097-AB Abit KN9 SLi nForce 570 SLi (Socket AM2) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-097-AB)
£84.95 £84.95
CP-168-AM AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4200+ 2.20GHz (Socket AM2) - Retail (CP-168-AM)
£109.95 £109.95
FG-000-AR Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940) (FG-000-AR)
£13.95 £13.95
Subtotal £782.95
VAT £137.02
Total £919.97

Am I getting the best value for money? The pc will be used mainly for wow, cs and some home software development. I've read the new Conroe’s are top notch MHz for MHz but I’ll be honest the chipsets confuse me a little; the amds appear to have had a price drop so I guess it makes little difference. I guess this CPU has o/c potential but that’s not something I’d plan to do straight away. I’ve read that the 7900gt is quid’s up over the x1900xt but can someone confirm this? One thing I’m also a little confused about is the new itel chipsets not fully supporting sli, Am I really going to need 2 16x pci-e slots?

Advice welcome.

Martin.

AceCobra · 14 Aug 2006 at 19:00

I'm concerned now

Reading some more reviews and seems the x1900xt might be better. What about the Gigabyte ds3 and a e600 conroe as an alternitive?

Martin.

MattJones2k6 · 14 Aug 2006 at 20:01

AceCobra said:
I'm concerned now

Reading some more reviews and seems the x1900xt might be better. What about the Gigabyte ds3 and a e600 conroe as an alternitive?

Martin.

Guessed the first post would be something to do about changing to conroe

Go for conroe, thats all u'll hear anyway

AceCobra · 14 Aug 2006 at 21:29

I mean e6300 of course

Will the ram posted above be suitible? I'll be honest i'm not sure of the different ddr2 variants.

Cheers

Martin.

AceCobra · 14 Aug 2006 at 23:31

I know theres not been much feedback and it looks like i'm talking to myself but... This is what i'm just about to hit the buy button for. Could someone please please please please have a quick look over it and make sure everything is as it should be.

Cheers.

CD-049-SO Sony DWG120A 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM (CD-049-SO)
£20.95 £20.95
MO-017-OK OcUK Value Hanns-G HW191D 19" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Silver (MO-017-OK)
£107.95 £107.95
AC-000-AC Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound (3.5g) (AC-000-AC)
£5.50 £5.50
KB-015-SK Saitek PZ30AU Eclipse Illuminated Keyboard - Blue (KB-015-SK)
£24.95 £24.95
CB-000-OK OcUK Value Single Link DVI Cable 1m (CB-000-OK)
£6.95 £6.95
MY-058-GL GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC6400 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400UDC) (MY-058-GL)
£109.95 £109.95
MB-061-GI Gigabyte GA_965P_DS3 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-061-GI)
£89.95 £89.95
CP-135-IN Intel Core 2 DUO E6300 "LGA775 Allendale" 1.86GHz (1066FSB) - OEM (CP-135-IN)
£109.95 £109.95
HD-079-SE Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 250GB ST3250620AS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD-079-SE)
£52.55 £52.55
GX-112-SP Sapphire ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-112-SP)
£184.95 £184.95
HS-021-AR Arctic Cooling Alpine 7 CPU Cooler (Socket 775) (HS-021-AR)
£6.25 £6.25
CA-048-AN Antec SLK3800BUK Black Quiet Midi Tower Case - 400W SmartPower PSU (CA-048-AN)
£54.95 £54.95
OA-001-AK Akasa TIM Clean CPU & Heatsink Cleaner (OA-001-AK)
£5.95 £5.95
Subtotal £780.80
VAT £136.64
Total £917.44

Martin.

Burly · 14 Aug 2006 at 23:53

personally i would get a better case and PSU

MattJones2k6 · 15 Aug 2006 at 01:35

Lian-Li

semi-pro waster · 15 Aug 2006 at 05:18

If you haven't already bought I'd probably buy a slightly more expensive cooler, maybe the Arctic Freezer 7 or a Socket 775 Zalman cooler.

I'd probably consider changing the DVDRW for an NEC or Pioneer because I think they make better drives than Sony but as long as it works it probably doesn't matter hugely.

I'd agree that a slightly higher wattage PSU might be a good idea, the Antec Sonata II is only slightly more expensive but comes with a 450w PSU and some sound damping.

Other than that it looks pretty good.

AceCobra · 15 Aug 2006 at 07:42

Cheers guys,

decided to hold off until today so I could get some more feedback. I'm eager to keep the price as low as possible but if I need a new psu, I need a new psu. I take on board the cooler advice, I was looking to get a freezer 7 pro but they are out at the moment.

Cheers.

Martin.