Opinions on choice for £1500 PC

Axil

Axil

Axil

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Joined
22 Apr 2006
Posts
580
Location
Port Talbot
I tend to build myself a new PC every 2 years and it's that time again. Unfortunately in the last few years or so I've not really kept in touch with the PC scene so I've spent the last couple of weeks trying to catch up as the last time I was near state of the art knowledge was back when I wrote for the now defunct BXBoards.com site (anyone remember them ? lol). I've chosen the components below and would really like some opinions on the choice ( aiming to OC the opty up to FX60 levels 2.6-2.8 ghz if possible)

MB-019-DF DFI LanParty UT CFX3200-DR RD580 Crossfire (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-019-DF)
£149.95 £149.95
CP-148-AM AMD Opteron UP 170 Dual Core San Diego 2.0GHz 2MB Cache (Socket 939) - Retail (CP-148-AM)
£274.95 £274.95
HD-046-WD Western Digital Caviar SE16 250GB 2500KS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD-046-WD)
£54.95 £109.90
GX-053-HT HIS Excalibur ATI Radeon X1900 XT ICEQ 3 SILENT Heatpipe 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-053-HT)
£289.95 £289.95
HS-004-GI Gigabyte G-Power Pro (Socket A/754/939/478/775) Cooler (GH-PDU21-MF) (HS-004-GI)
£22.95 £22.95
CA-001-SK FSP Sparkle FX700-GLN Epsilon 700W ATX2.0 PSU (CA-001-SK)
£96.95 £96.95
CA-039-AN Antec P180 Advanced Super Midi Tower Case - No PSU (Silver) (CA-039-AN)
£73.95 £73.95
MY-058-OC OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) PC4000 Dual Channel Platinum Series EB-DDR CAS3 (OCZ5002048EBPE-K) (MY-058-OC)
£179.95 £179.95
CD-001-BQ BenQ DW1650 16x16 DVD RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM (CD-001-BQ)
£21.95 £43.90
CB-000-WD Western Digital Secure Connect Serial ATA Cable (CB-000-WD)
£4.95 £9.90
HD-001-OK OcUK Value Floppy Drive - Black (HD-001-OK)
£5.95 £5.95
CB-022-GE Akasa Rounded Floppy Cable (0.45m) - Yellow (CB-022-GE)
£1.95 £1.95
CB-002-GE Akasa Rounded Ultra ATA133/100/66 IDE Cable (0.9m) - Black (CB-002-GE)
£5.50 £11.00
AC-000-AC Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound (3.5g) (AC-000-AC)
£5.95 £5.95
Subtotal £1,277.20
Shipping (City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)) £12.95
VAT £225.78
Total £1,515.93

Thanks in advance for any opinions
 
If you aren't thinking about going Crossfire then the motherboard is very expensive, someone earlier on today was complaining about the noise generated by the FSP PSU but that might not be a problem for you or it might have been an isolated incident. A Seasonic 600w should provide enough power and be quiet enough for almost any use if you consider changing.

Do you need 2x DVDRWs? NEC and Pioneer do make good DVDRWs as well.

It does overall look like a good PC but then you are spending £1500 on it so it should do :)
 
Chose the DFI as I'm definitely planning to go crossfire in near future - sorry should have posted that :)

On the DVD front I actually do a lot of DVD authoring - I use 4xBenQ DW1640s on my current machine ( and nope I'm not copying DVD's except my own animation stuff) - i chose the BenQ's as They have bit-setting which I know for a fact the current pioneer 111 doesn't support yet
 
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not sure about the cpu cooler you've chosen, most people go for the Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro CPU Cooler, but other than that it looks to be a really good spec
 
The gigabyte is over-rating IMO- Go for a Scythe Ninja, Zalman 9500, SI-120 or Artic Freezer 64 Pro.

The case is hit and miss, I would reccomend a AKASA ECLIPSE 62, read up some reviews!

The IDE cables are provided with the motherboard, I doubt its worth buying some more. Rounded does not do much. Same with SATA. Espically if your were considering a case with no window :)

What about monitor? You better not be running that system on anything smaller than a 19inch tft!
 
Was thinking about the freezer 64 - will swap over to that :) - thanks for the tip
case wise - the choise was between the asaka or the p180 but i just seem to prefer the looks of the p180. as for monitor my primary PC atm uses a Dell 2405 - and my back up uses a 19 tft so this will be the new main and my current will be the back up - I've chosen the 1900xt over a 7900 series as I've heard that the IQ is better which is important for the type of stuff I do (plus the occasionaly game playing).- any comments?

EDIT : had a look at the Asaka case again - starting to think it made be a better option for me just for installation reasons -(not as dexterous as I used to be) - would asaka amber fans be a good choice for cooling fans (want to keep the noise level down if possible - my current Chieftec Dragon case is as noist as a gale).
 
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Akasa Amber 120mm would be perfect when paried with that case.

If they are too loud still then get a fan controller (nexus)

Akasa is a really really good case and I would reccomend it over the P180
 
Money better spent I think!:

CP-148-AM AMD Opteron UP 170 Dual Core San Diego 2.0GHz 2MB Cache (Socket 939) - Retail (CP-148-AM)
£274.95 £274.95
HS-003-SY Scythe Ninja Plus Heatpipe CPU Cooler (Socket 478, 754, 939, 940, LGA755) (HS-003-SY)
£26.95 £26.95
MB-014-DF DFI LanParty UT NF4 Ultra-D (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-014-DF)
£79.95 £79.95
MY-058-OC OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) PC4000 Dual Channel Platinum Series EB-DDR CAS3 (OCZ5002048EBPE-K) (MY-058-OC)
£179.95 £179.95
GX-052-HT HIS Excalibur ATI Radeon X1900 XT-X ICEQ 3 SILENT Heatpipe 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-052-HT)
£324.95 £324.95
HD-002-HI Hitachi Deskstar T7K250 NCQ 250GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (0A31636) (HD-002-HI)
£56.50 £113.00
CD-033-NE NEC ND4571 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer LabelFlash ReWriter (Black) - OEM (CD-033-NE)
£24.95 £24.95
CA-005-AK Akasa Eclipse-62 Aluminum Case (CA-005-AK)
£69.95 £69.95
CA-006-AK Akasa Window Side Panel for Eclipse 62 Case (CA-006-AK)
£8.95 £8.95
CA-002-SS Seasonic S12 600W Silent ATX2.0 Power Supply (CA-002-SS)
£87.95 £87.95
Subtotal £1,191.55
Shipping (City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)) £12.95
VAT £210.79
Total £1,415.29

£85ish left for fans etc
 
Looks good, but swap the HD for a SAMSUNG SPINPIONT, they are quieter. Also get the 1900XT, not XTX, the XT can be overclocked easily right?

Thanks.

EDIT- Also with that setup just get 3x Akasa Ambers (2x case, 1x cpu cooler) and your sorted.

The DFI chipset cooler might annoy you also, if it does go for a ATI chipset board.
 
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