Spec check please for £700 game / CAD machine

Retsef

Retsef

Retsef

Associate
Joined
3 Jan 2006
Posts
171
Location
Tonbridge, Kent
Please could you take a look at below and make sure there are no conflicts on the components.(NooB alert...)

If you can think of changes to make it better, would be grateful. I'm at top of budget here so can't go much over and want a balanced machine, which will be solid and last me a couple of years.

GX-044-HT HIS Excalibur ATI Radeon X800 GTO ICEQII TURBO 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (RX800GTO-256ICEQT) (GX-044-HT)
£89.95 £89.95
MY-046-GL GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit CAS3 (GE2GB3200BDC) (MY-046-GL)
£99.95 £99.95
HD-025-SE Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 300GB ST3300831A ATA-100 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-025-SE)
£64.95 £64.95
MB-129-AS Asus A8R-MVP Crossfire (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-129-AS)
£69.95 £69.95
CD-026-NE NEC ND4551 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer LabelFlash ReWriter (Black) - OEM (CD-026-NE)
£27.95 £27.95
FG-000-AR Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940) (FG-000-AR)
£12.95 £12.95
CA-040-AN Antec Sonata II Piano Black Quiet Case - 450W Smart Power PSU (CA-040-AN)
£65.95 £65.95
KB-011-LG Logitech Internet Pro Keyboard (Black) - OEM (KB-011-LG)
£8.95 £8.95
KB-015-LG Logitech B58 Optical Wheel Mouse (Black) - OEM (KB-015-LG)
£6.95 £6.95
CP-152-AM AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+ (Socket 939) - OEM (CP-152-AM)
£159.95 £159.95
Subtotal £607.50
VAT £106.32
Total £713.82

ps. Do I need any other bits / pieces to make it all work ! I have OS, monitor, speakers. Aim to order tomorrow from OcUK.

Cheers Ant.
 
Swap the seagate for the Samsung SpinPoint 250GB is you can loose 50GB of space some reveiws say that the Samsung nearley beats the Raptor in loading time i think. Plus it's on offer from OCUK.
 
Will take a look at the spinpoint. Extra 50gb is pure greed on my part, probably never use it.

IS the Graphics card OK? I specced from other threads and am not sure how good it is for this system.
 
I'd be sure to swap the IDE hard drive for a SATA one, which one you swap it for is up to you.

The graphics card is fine and will play most games at reasonable settings however if you can afford it I'd suggest going for an X800 GTO16 maybe with the money saved by getting a smaller hard drive or even a cheaper motherboard as a Crossfire motherboard isn't really required here.
 
Can anyone recommend a motherboard that would suit this system. tbh, I thought the crossfire technology would go with the graphics card...I wouldn't mind dabbling in some mild overclocking if that helps with the choice of mobo.
 
Retsef said:
Can anyone recommend a motherboard that would suit this system. tbh, I thought the crossfire technology would go with the graphics card...I wouldn't mind dabbling in some mild overclocking if that helps with the choice of mobo.
Click to expand...

how about an epox board? not sure myself but i hear they are the next best thing to dfi and are around £60 or £70
 
Retsef said:
Can anyone recommend a motherboard that would suit this system. tbh, I thought the crossfire technology would go with the graphics card...I wouldn't mind dabbling in some mild overclocking if that helps with the choice of mobo.
Click to expand...

Motherboard is a good one in it's own right, especially as the sound is very good so you'll definatly not need a sound card ( cheaper mother board - which frankly might save you £15-20 tops won't sound as good and you may decide you want a sound card ).

Best saving is on the Case :-

CA-001-AR Arctic Cooling T2 Silentium Silent Midi Tower Case - 450W Seasonic Silent PSU (CA-001-AR)
£49.95 £49.95
GX-055-PC PowerColor ATI Radeon X800 GTO16 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-055-PC)
£104.95 £104.95

Same price and better graphics :)
 
BigDom said:
Motherboard is a good one in it's own right, especially as the sound is very good so you'll definatly not need a sound card ( cheaper mother board - which frankly might save you £15-20 tops won't sound as good and you may decide you want a sound card ).

Best saving is on the Case :-

CA-001-AR Arctic Cooling T2 Silentium Silent Midi Tower Case - 450W Seasonic Silent PSU (CA-001-AR)
£49.95 £49.95
GX-055-PC PowerColor ATI Radeon X800 GTO16 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-055-PC)
£104.95 £104.95

Same price and better graphics :)
Click to expand...

That looks like a good choice.
 
OK Have now ordered all from the OcUK shop. Final spec as follows:

MB-129-AS Asus A8R-MVP Crossfire (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-129-AS)
£69.95 £69.95
CP-152-AM AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+ (Socket 939) - OEM (CP-152-AM)
£159.95 £159.95
MY-046-GL GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit CAS3 (GE2GB3200BDC) (MY-046-GL)
£99.95 £99.95
HD-018-SA Samsung SpinPoint P SP2504C 250GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-018-SA)
£54.95 £54.95
KB-011-LG Logitech Internet Pro Keyboard (Black) - OEM (KB-011-LG)
£8.95 £8.95
KB-047-LG Logitech S96 PS/2 Optical Wheel Mouse Sea Grey - OEM (KB-047-LG)
£5.50 £5.50
GX-055-PC PowerColor ATI Radeon X800 GTO16 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-055-PC)
£104.95 £104.95
FG-000-AR Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940) (FG-000-AR)
£12.95 £12.95
CA-001-AR Arctic Cooling T2 Silentium Silent Midi Tower Case - 450W Seasonic Silent PSU (CA-001-AR)
£49.95 £49.95
Subtotal £567.10
Shipping (City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)) £12.95
VAT £101.51
Total £681.56

I managed to salvage an optical drive & floppy from another system. I have a doubtful copy of windows XP.

Wish me luck with the build. Will post when built.
Thanks for all your assistance so far OcUK'ers
 
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