Please help me choose a system

[PowerMad]

Hi all, I would like some help to put together a PC for my Daughter and her Partner preferably Intel.
They have a budget of £450-£500 max and will be using it for Browsing, DVD transcoding and Office work. I already have 4 GB of OCZ DDR2 PC2-6400 Titanium for them if that will help and would like to Overclock the system later. They are not bothered about playing games as they have other dedicated systems for that.
Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

 

[SfnX]

amd cpus are great for officework and require less power depending on the cpu obviously.

also doy uo need an OS keyboard/mouse etc?

this is just the system: Product Name Qty Price Line Total
AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 965 Black Edition 3.40GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £143.98
(£122.54) £143.98
(£122.54)
OCZ Obsidian 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 Dual Channel (OCZ3OB1600LV4GK) £79.98
(£68.07) £79.98
(£68.07)
Asus M4A77TD Pro AMD 770 (Socket AM3) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard £69.99
(£59.57) £69.99
(£59.57)
Samsung EcoGreen F2 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103SI) £62.99
(£53.61) £62.99
(£53.61)
Corsair CX 400W ATX Power Supply (CMPSU-400CXUK) £38.99
(£33.18) £38.99
(£33.18)
Asus GeForce 210 512MB DDR2 PCI-Express Graphics Card £35.99
(£30.63) £35.99
(£30.63)
Asus TM-261 Case - Black/Silver £26.56
(£22.60) £26.56
(£22.60)
Samsung SH-S223C/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
(£15.31) £17.99
(£15.31)
Sub Total : £405.51
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £11.75
VAT is being charged at 17.50% VAT : £73.02
Total : £490.28

 

[Atrox Moris]

Isn't the 965 slight overkill for an office machine that does a bit of DVD transcoding? In my opinion a 545 or 720 would be more than enough for the average home user. An 810 if you want to go Quad.

 

[PowerMad]

Thanks SfnX for the quick reply. They don't need a Monitor, Keyboard or mouse but require an OS, Windows 7 was mentioned. Still prefer Intel system though!

Would the Intel Core 2 Q8400 with the Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3LR and the memory mentioned in my first post be a good start? Or is that crazy going that way?

Cheers

 

[Atrox Moris]

Thanks SfnX for the quick reply. They don't need a Monitor, Keyboard or mouse but require an OS, Windows 7 was mentioned. Still prefer Intel system though!

Would the Intel Core 2 Q8400 with the Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3LR and the memory mentioned be a good start? Or is that crazy going that way?

Cheers

I'm running a Q8400 myself and can't fault it. Originally I was going to go for a Q9400, but I think it was at the time I bought it like £20 for 2MB more L2 cache. I play (a lot) of WoW (see the WoW upgrade thread for specs), watch DVDs and do coursework on my machine and it runs great. I can't comment on the board as I'm using an Asus barebones system myself (I'm an Asus fanboy)

 

[PowerMad]

Would this system be ok? Don't laugh though, please!!!


Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Intel Core 2 Quad Q8400 LGA775 'Yorkfield' 2.66GHz 4MB-cache (1333FSB) Processor - Retail £132.99
(£113.18) £132.99
(£113.18)
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-00599) £81.99
(£69.78) £81.99
(£69.78)
Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3LR Intel P45 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £79.99
(£68.08) £79.99
(£68.08)
OCZ StealthXStream 500w Silent Power Supply £48.99
(£41.69) £48.99
(£41.69)
Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (WD5000AAKS) £37.99
(£32.33) £37.99
(£32.33)
XFX ATI Radeon HD 4650 1GB TV-Out/HDTV/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail £36.99
(£31.48) £36.99
(£31.48)
Coolermaster Elite 335 Case - Black £31.67
(£26.95) £31.67
(£26.95)
Sony Optiarc AD-7241S 24x DVD±RW SATA Lightscribe Optical Drive (Black) - OEM £19.99
(£17.01) £19.99
(£17.01)
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev 2 CPU Cooler (Socket 939 / AM2 / AM3 / 775 / 1156 / 1366) £16.99
(£14.46) £16.99
(£14.46)
Sub Total : £414.96
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £11.75
VAT is being charged at 17.50% VAT : £74.67
Total : £501.38

Thanks

 

[Atrox Moris]

You could reduce the size (and price) of the PSU to around 460w. Personally I have the Coolermaster 460w powering the Q8400, 4GB RAM, an Asus HD 4670 and an old 80GB HDD. Ticks along nicely.

Again, sorry I can't help you more in regards to the board I don't know if you would require more power for it. I suppose if you're planning on overclocking it in the future 500w is a better bet.

 

[PowerMad]

Has any of you guys had experience of the Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3LR and Intel Core 2 Quad Q8400 combination and is that Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro bang for buck, as I hear it's a bit tricky fastening it to the motherboard?
Also would a Corsair CX 400W ATX Power Supply be up to the job of powering that combination of components with overclocking in mind?
Or am I up the wrong street totaly?

Cheers