I'm looking to build a quiet new machine basically for a bit of surfing, game of WoW, watch a few HD movies/clips, Produce a few OpenOffice Docs... usual dull stuff. Haven't bought a high end game in years.
I seem to be bouncing between 2 different types of specs...
Spec 1 (mostly stolen from a spec posted by Masslac I think, thank you) is fairly all singing and all dancing and the more modest Spec 2
(the specs may not be the best possible and are just a couple of the specs I've been trying to figure out. 2 is missing thermal compund I've just noticed DOH! and could possible be even cheaper I guess)
Spec 1 appeals to my techy side, chance to play with some raid, big disk for backups etc. Spec 2 appeals to my hateful "sensible" side that thinks I could use the difference in price to fix the back garden/car/bit of decorating.
Both specs have the same monitors in, the Samsung because I want a decent monitor for myself and the Hanns to throw on my wife's machine as a sweetener for the amount of money I'll be spending
What I'm trying to decide is whether there is really £300ish more real world performance based on my requirements in Spec1 over Spec2.
Where is the sweet spot of spend/performance these days?
Spec 1
Antec P180 Advanced Super Midi Tower Case - No PSU (Black) £68.99
NINJA EDIT - ADDED
Gigabyte GA_965P_DS3 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
NINJA EDIT - ADDED
BFG GeForce 8800 GTS OC 320MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £174.99
NEC AD7170S Serial ATA 18x18 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £18.99
Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound (3.5g) £5.99
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 250GB ST3250620AS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM £46.99
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 500GB ST3500630AS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM £74.99
Logitech Cordless Desktop EX-110 - Retail £17.99
GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400UDC) £99.99
Intel Core 2 DUO E6600 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail £162.99
Samsung SM-226BW 22" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Silver/Black £229.99
Tuniq Tower 120 CPU Cooler £29.99
Corsair HX 520W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU (CMPSU-520HXUK) £59.99
OcUK Value Hanns-G HW191D 19" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Silver £104.99
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64-Bit Edition DVD - OEM - 1Pk (66I-00788) £63.99
Sub Total : £1,207.85
Shipping : £54.95
Vat : £220.99
Total : £1,483.79 + MB Cost
Spec 2
Antec Sonata II Piano Black Quiet Case - 450W Smart Power PSU £59.99
Intel Core 2 DUO E6600 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail £162.99
Asrock 4CoreDual-VSTA (Socket 775) PCI-Express/AGP DDR2 Motherboard £39.99
GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400UDC) £99.99
BFG GeForce 7900 GS OC 256MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £101.99
Tuniq Tower 120 CPU Cooler £29.99
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 500GB ST3500630AS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM £74.99
Samsung SH-W183 18x18 DVD±RW Serial ATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £21.99
Logitech Cordless Desktop EX-110 - Retail £17.99
Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition inc. SP2 - OEM - 1Pk (N09-01528) £49.99
Samsung SM-226BW 22" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Silver/Black £229.99
OcUK Value Hanns-G HC194D 19" LCD Monitor - Silver/Black £101.99
Sub Total : £991.88
Shipping : £24.95
Vat : £177.95
Total : £1,194.78
A lot of text but I'm not sure I've really asked a question after all that
I seem to be bouncing between 2 different types of specs...
Spec 1 (mostly stolen from a spec posted by Masslac I think, thank you) is fairly all singing and all dancing and the more modest Spec 2
(the specs may not be the best possible and are just a couple of the specs I've been trying to figure out. 2 is missing thermal compund I've just noticed DOH! and could possible be even cheaper I guess)
Spec 1 appeals to my techy side, chance to play with some raid, big disk for backups etc. Spec 2 appeals to my hateful "sensible" side that thinks I could use the difference in price to fix the back garden/car/bit of decorating.
Both specs have the same monitors in, the Samsung because I want a decent monitor for myself and the Hanns to throw on my wife's machine as a sweetener for the amount of money I'll be spending
What I'm trying to decide is whether there is really £300ish more real world performance based on my requirements in Spec1 over Spec2.
Where is the sweet spot of spend/performance these days?
Spec 1
Antec P180 Advanced Super Midi Tower Case - No PSU (Black) £68.99
NINJA EDIT - ADDED
Gigabyte GA_965P_DS3 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
NINJA EDIT - ADDED
BFG GeForce 8800 GTS OC 320MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £174.99
NEC AD7170S Serial ATA 18x18 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £18.99
Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound (3.5g) £5.99
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 250GB ST3250620AS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM £46.99
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 500GB ST3500630AS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM £74.99
Logitech Cordless Desktop EX-110 - Retail £17.99
GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400UDC) £99.99
Intel Core 2 DUO E6600 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail £162.99
Samsung SM-226BW 22" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Silver/Black £229.99
Tuniq Tower 120 CPU Cooler £29.99
Corsair HX 520W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU (CMPSU-520HXUK) £59.99
OcUK Value Hanns-G HW191D 19" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Silver £104.99
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64-Bit Edition DVD - OEM - 1Pk (66I-00788) £63.99
Sub Total : £1,207.85
Shipping : £54.95
Vat : £220.99
Total : £1,483.79 + MB Cost
Spec 2
Antec Sonata II Piano Black Quiet Case - 450W Smart Power PSU £59.99
Intel Core 2 DUO E6600 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail £162.99
Asrock 4CoreDual-VSTA (Socket 775) PCI-Express/AGP DDR2 Motherboard £39.99
GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400UDC) £99.99
BFG GeForce 7900 GS OC 256MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £101.99
Tuniq Tower 120 CPU Cooler £29.99
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 500GB ST3500630AS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM £74.99
Samsung SH-W183 18x18 DVD±RW Serial ATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £21.99
Logitech Cordless Desktop EX-110 - Retail £17.99
Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition inc. SP2 - OEM - 1Pk (N09-01528) £49.99
Samsung SM-226BW 22" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Silver/Black £229.99
OcUK Value Hanns-G HC194D 19" LCD Monitor - Silver/Black £101.99
Sub Total : £991.88
Shipping : £24.95
Vat : £177.95
Total : £1,194.78
A lot of text but I'm not sure I've really asked a question after all that
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