Please could someone(s) spec me a £200 machine

Count_Zero99uk · 14 Aug 2006 at 13:47

Obviously it wont be too powerful but its for my dad, he plays a bit of fable a bit of Dungeon and a lot of Civ 4.

So it dosnt have to be too powerful.

The only reason im looking for a new one is that the i noticed *** fan int eh middle of the board has stopped going round, i dont know if its the north or south bridge chip ASUS AN7 uGuru board.

If there are any AGP boards still available that would be great as the 6600GT is great for him.

Thanks in advance.

Tetras · 14 Aug 2006 at 13:48

You just need a mobo and CPU, is that right?

The $6m Dan · 14 Aug 2006 at 13:51

Have you not thought about getting a replacement cooler for the north bridge instead.
(I assume it's a northbridge, as south bridges rarely, if ever, have a cooler on them)

Zalman do a couple of fanless coolers. Here

Count_Zero99uk · 14 Aug 2006 at 14:04

Tetras said:
You just need a mobo and CPU, is that right?

Yer i think so, i have allthe HDs and Mem and an AGP graphics card.

But i look hard and couldnt see an AGP MOBO in the OC store

pastymuncher · 14 Aug 2006 at 14:44

I have just built a new pc for my sons for £250 ish. Nice little machine too.

AMD A64 3000+ (754) £26
Abit NF8V motherboard £15
1Gb PNY pc3200 £32
XFX 6800XT 256mb DDR3 £103
Samsung 16x DL DVDRW £11
Samsung Spinpoint 160Gb hdd £28
Irock case with 400W psu £23
Fans, rounded cables £18

All components were brand new in sealed boxes bought from auction apart from the GFX card, cables and fans. Nice little machine actually and for the price you can't do better really. The 6800XT is XFX's eXTreme DDR3 version clocked at 350/1000 instead of 300/700. Overclocks like a good un too. I have had it up to 476/1300 and still stable. Cpu and memory overclocks well too. It easily hits 2.4ghz (10x240) 1:1 with the cpu. I really like this PNY pc3200. It is supposed to run at 3-4-4-8 1T at 200mhz but my 2GB will happily run at 2.5-3-2-5 1T @200mhz. For clocking ait will do 240 @3-3-3-5 1T with no voltage increase. Same goes for the same stuff in my sons £250 pc.
Gets quite good scores for the price too.
Aquamark3 @ stock=48018
[email protected] + gfx @ 476/1.3=62549

3Dmark01 @ stock=17137
[email protected] + gfx @ 476/1.3=21235

3Dmark03 @ stock=7713
[email protected] + gfx @ 476/1.3=10028

3Dmark06 @ stock=3177
[email protected] + gfx @ 476/1.3=4234

Not bad for £250 ish.

Count_Zero99uk · 14 Aug 2006 at 15:15

thanks for that i will have a look on some auction sites when i get in. seems AGP boards are becoming rocking horse doo-dad.

The $6m Dan · 14 Aug 2006 at 15:22

There's the Asrock motherboard that has both AGP and PCI-E. It's under £60 from here, could be a good choice, as it'll allow you to go PCI-E in the future.
Add another £60 for an A64 3000 (or an AM2 3000 if you'd prefer, but you'll need DDR2 for that) and you're good to go.

Edit - It looks like the AM2 option requires an extra add on board. Not sure about the meomry for that. But it definately takes a socket 939 chip with DDR1.

Count_Zero99uk · 15 Aug 2006 at 10:46

OOO thanks dan, id prefer new stuff to auction worries. This may be the answer i was looking for, do you have the product code?

The $6m Dan · 15 Aug 2006 at 12:02

Here they are.

There's a choice of three to choose from, but I'm not sure what the differences are.
This thread here should have the info you need, but it is a huge thread at 130 pages.

I also noticed that the A64 3200s are the same price as the A64 3000s