Spec for £840 :)

Craig321 · 5 Jun 2007 at 22:34

Hi,

I just wondered what's the best I can get for £840?

Preferably 500GB+ HDD, 8800GTX, 2GB RAM (MUST!!)

I need CPU, graphic card, hard drive, motherboard, PSU, RAM, case.

It would also need to be future proof please. (e.g. quad core capable, a nice lot of SATA ports for RAID, SATA DVD drives etc)

EDIT

Oh, and I don't plan to overclock, but I'd like the option to be there please.

Thanks,
Craig.

Craig321 · 5 Jun 2007 at 22:40

Jay123 said:
For £840 forget quad core, Your very lucky to get a e6600 , 500gb hdd and a gtx for £840.

Im doing a spec now.. Bare with me

Nooooo I don't want quad core to start with, just a motherboard that could handle it for future upgrades (if possible)

Thanks,
Craig.

Craig321 · 5 Jun 2007 at 22:42

Jay123 said:
£840 the MAX?

At the moment, yeah.

I quickly put together one now: Gigabyte DS3, 2GB Corsair XMS, 500GB HDD, 8800GTX, 600W Seasonic for £826. It was just a quick one so they might not be best components. (That's why I asked here

)

Craig321 · 5 Jun 2007 at 22:47

supernova9 said:
I know it's £15 over, but it gives you a P35 motherboard with DDR2&3
support for future overclocking.

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f305/mrbrown1080/840spec.jpg[/IMG[/QUOTE]

Nice, I like the DDR2/DDR3 compatible board :)

The case is a bit cheap for me, but I guess I could go for a case like that to start & buy a better one in the future :)

EDIT

Ooh, I see you just changed it :)

Thanks,
Craig.

Craig321 · 5 Jun 2007 at 23:28

Ok guys, I give you permission to go to £900!

I got this with £889:

Intel Core 2 Duo E6600, Socket 775, 2.4 GHz, 1066MHz FSB, Conroe Core, 4MB Cache, Retail

768Mb Leadtek 8800GTX PCI-E (x16), Mem 1800 MHz, GPU 575 MHz, 128 Streams, 2 x Dual Link DVI HDTV

500 Gb Seagate ST3500630AS Barracuda 7200.10, SATA300, 7200 rpm, 16MB Cache, 8.5 ms, NCQ

2GB (2x1GB) CorsairTwinX XMS2, DDR2 PC2-6400 (800), 240 Pins, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 4-4-4-12, EPP

Gigabyte GA 965P-DS3P, iP965, S775, PCI-E (x16), DDR2 533/667/800, SATA II, ATX

Akasa Eclipse-62 Midi Tower Case - Hi-End w/o PSU

520W Corsair HX Series Modular PSU, ATX, EPS12V, whisper quiet, 5 year warranty

Some stuff may be improved by different manufacturers/components (I'm not sure)

Thanks,
Craig.

Craig321 · 5 Jun 2007 at 23:36

Jay123 said:
You Havent included a dvd-re writer. do you need an os ?

To be honest your better with a GTS ( My Opinion )

Let me know

I've got a DVD drive I can use which will do for now, I also have a spare XP

The DVD drive will be upgrading to a burner/reader after I've got the PC

Craig321 · 5 Jun 2007 at 23:39

Jay123 said:
Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Samsung SpinPoint T HD501LJ 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM £58.99
(£69.31) £58.99
(£69.31)
GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400UDC) £61.99
(£72.84) £61.99
(£72.84)
EVGA GeForce 8800 GTS SuperClocked 640MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (640-P2-E825-AR) £229.99
(£270.24) £229.99
(£270.24)
Corsair HX 520W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU (CMPSU-520HXUK) £61.99
(£72.84) £61.99
(£72.84)
Antec P180 Advanced Super Midi Tower Case - No PSU (Black) £68.99
(£81.06) £68.99
(£81.06)
Samsung SH-183LBEBN 18x18 DVD±RW Dual Layer Serial ATA Lightscribe ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
(£19.96) £16.99
(£19.96)
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail £125.99
(£148.04) £125.99
(£148.04)
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Basic 32-Bit Edition DVD - OEM - 1Pk (66G-00576) £47.99
(£56.39) £47.99
(£56.39)
Gigabyte GA_965P_DS3 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £59.99
(£70.49) £59.99
(£70.49)
Sub Total : £732.91
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £14.95
VAT is being charged at 17.5% VAT : £130.88
Total : £878.74

Looks good, but I'm not so sure about the GTS. I've heard the GTX series are quite a bit better?

Craig321 · 5 Jun 2007 at 23:49

truebluecfc said:
They are, although my 640GTS handles anything at the res 1680x1050 which you might want to think about, but yeh GTX is the best you can get.

That's true, if I did go for a 8800GTS it probably would handle all my games @ full... but it won't be as future proof as a GTX

Craig321 · 6 Jun 2007 at 00:11

truebluecfc said:
True but you dont want to spend money on something which dont need or use to its full potential, a 640GTS in most cases will handle anything you throw at it apart from silly high res's like 1900x1200. It is your money and you do have the budget to get a GTX so if you really want one, get one.

That's also true, but I really want this PC to be as future proof as possible... so a GTX would be best in my case I guess.

Thanks for trying to look after me though

Craig.

Craig321 · 6 Jun 2007 at 00:36

Sinny said:
gtx isnt future proof, a single one isnt anyway because their are no games out yet that uses the gtx in DX10 mode properly, even the crytek team said they will make it struggle.

It'll be able to handle future games easier than a GTS though which would be nice

Craig321 · 6 Jun 2007 at 03:06

I really like the look of the P5WDH: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-152-AS

What are they like? Or is the DS3 better & more future proof?

Maybe I'd be better off finding a DDR3 compatible motherboard?

Craig321 · 6 Jun 2007 at 14:44

sh33p said:
Why would you get a C2D and not overclock it? o.O

I don't plan to overclock, but seeing at people get their C2Ds to 3.6GHZ+ fairly easily with a decent heatsink I think I'll probably end up doing it

Craig321 · 7 Jun 2007 at 01:02

supernova9 said:
It's the 975 chipset, which has now been superceded by the P35 chipset. If you're liking that board, I'd suggest the P5K Deluxe Wifi, which is positioned to be the same board in their P35 range.

If you want DDR3 Support, the best bet is a Gigabyte P35-DS3R (the DDR2 & 3 version), runs around £100, but it'll be a decent while before DDR3 comes mainstream - although it runs at higher clock speeds, the latencies are nowhere near as tight as for DDR2.

I'll probably go for the P35-DS3R, I've read a lot of good things about the board + it has support for DDR3 & quad core which is nice.

Thanks
Craig.

Craig321 · 7 Jun 2007 at 01:12

stickroad said:
Hey Craig, are you defiently after a GTX?

I sure am, why?

truebluecfc said:
Have fun with it, tell us how you get on.

Will do, thanks

I'll probably only be able to get it some time in July though!

Any other thoughts on this spec anyone?

I've been wondering about the 520w Corsair PSU... will it be enough?

Craig321 · 7 Jun 2007 at 01:33

stickroad said:
Here, slightly over but it gives you very good performance at stock and then when you do want to clock the system up a bit, you wont have any problem doing that either.

Intel Core 2 Duo E6420 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.13GHz (1066FSB) - Retail

Gigabyte GA_P35C_DS3R (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 & DDR3 Motherboard

Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 PC2-5300C3 667MHz Dual Channel Kit

Western Digital Caviar SE16 250GB 2500KS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM X2 in RAID0

Samsung SH-183LBEBN 18x18 DVD±RW Dual Layer Serial ATA Lightscribe

Leadtek GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express)

Scythe Ninja Plus Rev.B Heatpipe CPU Cooler

Corsair HX 520W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU

Lian-Li PC-7 PLUS Aluminium Midi-Tower Case - Black

Total : £949.22

The Corsair will be plenty.

Looks good, but I think I'd rather go for the E6600... only about £20 more for a bit of extra performance.

I put together the following going on some advice from you guys:

Intel Core 2 Duo E6600, Socket 775, 2.4 GHz, 1066MHz FSB, Conroe Core, 4MB Cache, Retail

768Mb Leadtek 8800GTX PCI-E (x16), Mem 1800 MHz, GPU 575 MHz, 128 Streams, 2 x Dual Link DVI HDTV

500 Gb Seagate ST3500630AS Barracuda 7200.10, SATA300, 7200 rpm, 16MB Cache, 8.5 ms, NCQ

520W Corsair HX Series Modular PSU, ATX, EPS12V, whisper quiet, 5 year warranty

Antec P180 Advanced Super Midi Tower Case, Black (no PSU) <-- this is not definite, I just added it so the price tag is there. I'll probably change the case to something else...

Gigabyte GA P35C-DS3R, iP35 Express, S775, PCI-E(x16), DDR2/3 1066/1333/800, SATA II, SATA RAID, ATX

Pioneer DVR-212BK 18x DVD±R, 10x DVD±DL, DVD+RW x8/-RW x6, DVD-RAM x12, SATA, Black, OEM

Geil Ultra DDR2 2.0GB PC6400 Dual Channel memory kit (2 x 1GB) 800MHz (4-4-4-12)

Total: £880

I'm still willing to take advice please

Should I be going for Crucial or Geil?

Also, Leadtek or BFG?

Craig321 · 7 Jun 2007 at 01:41

stickroad said:
The Crucial no dought about it.

As for the GPU, BFG have excellent customer service and you get a lifetime warrentery with that GPU.

Lifetime warranty with the BFG?

Craig321 · 7 Jun 2007 at 01:44

stickroad said:
Overclockers.co.uk said:

BFG GeForce 8800 GTX OC 768MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail
OcUK is now the cheapest in the UK for an 8800 GTX. Not only that but we've done it with the best brand that comes with lifetime warranty, buy now!!!

Click to expand...

Nice, £40 more though :eek:

- I guess it's worth it for lifetime warranty though

EDIT

No it's not £40 more, what am I talking about? :rolleyes:

Craig321 · 7 Jun 2007 at 01:49

Wouldn't I be better off going for 6400 Geil rather than 5300 Crucial? Remember, I don't plan to overclock

Thanks,
Craig.

Craig321 · 7 Jun 2007 at 01:51

stickroad said:
Oh, thought you said you were going to have ago at it?

HAHAHA , just messing with you.

I said maybe

So, Crucial 5300 or Geil 6400!?

Craig321 · 7 Jun 2007 at 01:55

stickroad said:
Crucial still, you will find it very hard to tell the diffrence between 6400 and 5300 Memory at stock, but you will be able to tell the diffrence between the Crucial and the Geli Ram if you do overclock in the furture.

Hehe Geli RAM

I'll check the Crucial out, thanks