Placing Order Tonight - Help Please?

chris_super1

chris_super1

chris_super1

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23 May 2009
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I have spent days and days working this out and getting into my budget! Finally ready to order tonight. Can you please have a look over these two builds and see if I have made any major errors?

Main PC Build
AMD Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition
Biostar TA790GX XE
Pioneer DVR-216DBK 20x DVD±R
CoolerMaster Elite 333 Black Case
Samsung SpinPoint F1 HD103UJ 1TB Hard Drive
CM eXtreme Power 460W PSU
Kingston 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 1066MHz/PC2-8500 HyperX Memory CL5 2.2V

HTPC
Intel Pentium Dual Core E5200 2.5GHz Socket 775
Asus P5N7A-VM
Crucial 4GB (2X2GB) DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 Ballistix Memory
Samsung SpinPoint F1 320GB 7200RPM S300 16MB
Antec NSK 2480 MATX Desktop Case Black & Silver
380W EarthWatts PSU
LG Electronics Blu-Ray/HD DVD-ROM COMBO
KeySonic Compact wireless keyboard with touch pad
Cyberlink Media Center Remote Control - With Mini USB IR Receiver

The total, with delivery, is about £820.

So, let me know if I need any final tweaks. Feels like a lot of kit for the money!
 
2mdqyp2.jpg
 
You'll need to upgrade the PSU in your main build if you ever want to add a decent GPU I think. And I would rather not put a Pentium in a system, I'd go for the full fat Core 2 Duo. It will still be fine though. If you could find another tonne you'd be sorted.

Chris.
 
I assume from your original workings you dont need a monitor and need a g card??

In which case, my thoughts would be:-

Main Pc (~£540):-
Intel Core 2 Duo E7400 LGA775 'Wolfdale' 2.80GHz (1066FSB) - Retail
Gigabyte GA-EP43-DS3 Intel P43 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
OCZ Gold Edition 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 PC2-8500C5 Dual Channel
Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4870 1024MB GDDR5 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI
OCZ ModXStream Pro 500w Silent SLI Ready ATX2 Modular Power Supply
Coolermaster Elite 335 Case - Black (No PSU)
Pioneer DVR-216DBK 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM

Media centre:-
£250+ PS3 with a couple of games depending where purchased

You can stream videos/music to the PS3 to watch on your tv/etc, and without knowing more about what you want to do, I cant advice if you would be better building a HTPC. But it does give you blueray/streaming/the option to play ps3 games???
 
Minimoke said:
You'll need to upgrade the PSU in your main build if you ever want to add a decent GPU I think. And I would rather not put a Pentium in a system, I'd go for the full fat Core 2 Duo. It will still be fine though. If you could find another tonne you'd be sorted.

Chris.
Click to expand...



Understood on the PSU. Its included with the case, so if I need to upgrade that later, thats fine.

As for the e5200 - its a recommend CPU for HTPC's?
 
DireEmblem said:
I assume from your original workings you dont need a monitor and need a g card??

In which case, my thoughts would be:-

Main Pc (~£540):-
Intel Core 2 Duo E7400 LGA775 'Wolfdale' 2.80GHz (1066FSB) - Retail
Gigabyte GA-EP43-DS3 Intel P43 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
OCZ Gold Edition 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 PC2-8500C5 Dual Channel
Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4870 1024MB GDDR5 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI
OCZ ModXStream Pro 500w Silent SLI Ready ATX2 Modular Power Supply
Coolermaster Elite 335 Case - Black (No PSU)
Pioneer DVR-216DBK 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM

Media centre:-
£250+ PS3 with a couple of games depending where purchased

You can stream videos/music to the PS3 to watch on your tv/etc, and without knowing more about what you want to do, I cant advice if you would be better building a HTPC. But it does give you blueray/streaming/the option to play ps3 games???
Click to expand...


With my requirements, a HTPC is required really. So, the £540 spend on the main PC is not an option.
 
e5200 is sound. Even if it does have pentium written on it, you wont miss the cache enough to justify the initial cost.

I'd change the psu in the first build to a more respected one, and the ram in the second to something not made by crucial. I think the peace of mind is worth it.

Well done for deciding to make two at once, I find assembling a single computer time consuming enough that I'd be nervous about taking on two at the same time.
 
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Minimoke said:
And I would rather not put a Pentium in a system, I'd go for the full fat Core 2 Duo.

Chris.
Click to expand...

err e5200 is pretty much a core 2 duo in many respects... it just has a bigger manufacturing process meaning it doesnt just make the cut as a C2D im sure that 5200 is wolfdale 65 nm and core 2 duo is wolfdale 45 nm and bears no reference to the pentium cores. 1,2,3,4 and D etc only by name.

still very overclockable though :D ;)
 
Shawreyboy said:
err e5200 is pretty much a core 2 duo in many respects... it just has a bigger manufacturing process meaning it doesnt just make the cut as a C2D im sure that 5200 is wolfdale 65 nm and core 2 duo is wolfdale 45 nm and bears no reference to the pentium cores. 1,2,3,4 and D etc only by name.

still very overclockable though :D ;)
Click to expand...


The e5200 is infact a 45nm wolfdale Core 2 Dual core with less RAM and a slower FSB. They are very good chips as they are relatively fast, very cool, only require 65W max and they overclock very well.

You are quite right that it only shares the name with previous pentium chips - it is just a re-branded core 2 duo.
 
E5200 is a good choice for an HTPC. Cheap, easily powerful enough, not much heat and economical to run.

I might lose the Ballistix RAM in the HTPC. That's just personal experience - my main rig has been through three sets of that stuff in 18 months. There's some OCZ on offer that's very cheap and pretty reliable.
 
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