PC for a mate

[Tommy B]

A mate of mine has £650-700 to spend on a PC. His parents are paying and will not let him or myself have a stab at building it. Thus, we have decided to look at OCUK's systems as they're much better value than other competitors.

Asus VW192S 19" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Black
Titan AMD Athlon 64 3800+ 2.4GHz SILENT DDR2 System - Vista Premium
+ Any standard keyboard and mouse is about £650

My question is, how will this perform:
- AMD Athlon 64 3800+ 2.40GHz (Socket AM2)
- ABIT KN9 Ultra (Socket AM2) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
- GeIL 1GB (2x512MB) PC5300C4 667MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit
- NEC 7170 18x18 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Black)
- OcUK GeForce 7900 GS 256MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express)
- Western Digital 250GB SATA-II 16MB Cache
- Antec NSK4400 Case
- Antec 380W PSU
- Microsoft Vista Premium

He isn't really bothered by graphics, much more into game play, and probably less demanding games such as the latest C&C. I suggested to go for a nice sized lcd too.

What you guys think?

 

[phi1]

Ahh you must build it..!! if you could build it you could get such a better system for the money..

 

[Zefan]

I'd try to pursuade them, when they see the actual difference in performance/price they should sway, otherwise they're stupid!

 

[Tommy B]

As mentioned above, it's not an option.

For starters he knows absolutely nothing whatsoever about computers, and I have never built one myself and so there's no way I'm gambling with someone else's money.

How could you beat that system for £650 anyway? Maybe a better graphics card? It already looks great value to me.

 

[Zefan]

hate seeing that sort of waste. Suppose it can't be helped.

That looks great for his needs, that graphics card should be more than fine for the resolution, going by what you said about not minding low/medium detail on the most demanding games.

It's RAM I'd worry about, although that is stupidly simple to upgrade at a later date. 2GB is pretty much a must.

 

[Tommy B]

Would OCUK quote me for 2 gigs of ram in it then?

Or do they have a strict policy regarding their custom built rigs.