Spec a PC for me please

andyfield · 14 May 2006 at 22:46

I've just been reading about the Intel D805 chip's and they seem to be cracking value for money. I'm upgrading from an Athlon 1200 so to be honest anything is an upgrade!

I'm looking to spend up to £600 or so, including graphics card, case, psu, cooler, ram etc. At the moment I only have EIDE disks but can buy SATA if necessary.

Most of my usage is internet / email, I'll be increasinly editing video (mpeg2) though so this is why I like the idea of the dual core 805. I'd also like to be able to play the odd game, battlefield 2 etc would be a bonus.

I saw this spec and was considering tweaking this setup (cheers Raikiri):

MB-116-AS Asus P5ND2 SLi nForce4 SLi (LGA775) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-116-AS)
£59.95 £59.95
CP-116-IN Intel Pentium 4 805 Dual Core "LGA775 Smithfield" 2.6GHz (533FSB) - Retail (CP-116-IN)
£73.95 £73.95
MY-000-PA Patriot Signature 1GB (2x512MB) PC5300 667MHz DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (PSD21G667K) (MY-000-PA)
£55.95 £55.95
HD-023-WD Western Digital Caviar Special Edition 80GB 800JD SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-023-WD)
£29.95 £29.95
CD-018-AS Asus DVD-E616P1 DVD-ROM (Black) - Retail (CD-018-AS)
£11.95 £11.95
CA-048-AN Antec SLK3800BUK Black Quiet Midi Tower Case - 400W SmartPower PSU (CA-048-AN)
£51.95 £51.95
GX-045-LT Leadtek WinFast PCX6600GT-TDH GeForce PCX6600 GT 128MB DDR3 TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-045-LT)
£69.95 £69.95
Subtotal £353.65
VAT £61.89
Total £415.54

Any ideas / thoughts welcome. I'm not in a huge rush to upgrade so if I'm better off waiting for another chipset line etc then just say. Cheers.

Raikiri · 14 May 2006 at 23:18

Looks good, although one of these:
Abit AW8 Intel 955X (Socket 775) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-083-AB) £64.95 + VAT

Would allow for higher overclocks and probably a little more stable for only £6 more, although the board you picked is a decent one (I have the Deluxe)

Edit: Just noticed the £600 budget, may as well get 2gb of the Patriot Ram and a 7600GT (much faster, get cheapest one you can).

Rednut05 · 14 May 2006 at 23:31

Battlefield 2 runs nicer on 2 gig and it seems you have a budget of £600, so wack another stick in there.

Arthalen · 14 May 2006 at 23:36

I like what you have listed - very nice.

If I could make two definite changes, it would be:

1) Motherboard -stay away from the Nforce chipset. I have the Asus P5WD2 basic and it works wonders.

2) Power Supply. If you are going to buy a high end PSU, buy something a bit more meatier. Say a HiperPower 580 Watt

Raikiri · 14 May 2006 at 23:44

Arthalen said:
I like what you have listed - very nice.

If I could make two definite changes, it would be:

1) Motherboard -stay away from the Nforce chipset. I have the Asus P5WD2 basic and it works wonders.

2) Power Supply. If you are going to buy a high end PSU, buy something a bit more meatier. Say a HiperPower 580 Watt

Theres nothing wrong with the Nforce4 Intel chipset apart from not working with the 820, the intel chips are better though.

That is the PSU and case for £51+VAT so it isnt that high end, although you are right maybe something like the Sonata 2 with a 450w PSU would be better for not a lot more.

andyfield · 14 May 2006 at 23:53

Which RAM would it be best to upgrade to if I wanted to go 2GB ? Everyone in agreement the Patriot stuff is good kit?

I'd like firewire as well so would probably get the deluxe motherboard, the upgraded graphics card makes sense as well, may as well get something decent when I upgrade

Are there any newer chips that are likely to be this good value or I should hook this in whilst its still available, these chips seem to be getting rave reviews!

Thanks for your help guys, any other pointers greatly appreciated!

andyfield · 16 May 2006 at 21:09

Raikiri said:
Looks good, although one of these:
Abit AW8 Intel 955X (Socket 775) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-083-AB) £64.95 + VAT

Would allow for higher overclocks and probably a little more stable for only £6 more, although the board you picked is a decent one (I have the Deluxe)

Edit: Just noticed the £600 budget, may as well get 2gb of the Patriot Ram and a 7600GT (much faster, get cheapest one you can).

Just checked out the spec of this motherboard and from what I can see it doesn't have firewire built in, do most of them not come with this as standard now?