Spec help

hibeesmad · 10 Feb 2008 at 11:49

Hi, I am going to build my friends PC for the first time. He has a budget of around £500 for a gaming PC. No monitor or keyboard and mouse required.
He would like the Antec Sonata III case and Vista home premium and will be gaming at 1680 x 1050.

Any suggestions?

Thanks.

semi-pro waster · 10 Feb 2008 at 11:52

This might be suitable, the case is still out of stock but it is the one that your friend wants so I guess he'll just have to wait for the moment.

Intel Core 2 Duo E2180 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.00GHz (800FSB) - Retail £45.99
(£54.04) £45.99
(£54.04)
OCZ 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 Dual Channel Platinum Revision 2 XTC Series DDR2 (OCZ2P800R22GK) (Deal Product) £25.99
(£30.54) £25.99
(£30.54)
Antec Sonata III Piano Black Quiet Case - EarthWatts 500W PSU £66.99
(£78.71) £66.99
(£78.71)
Gigabyte GA-P31-DS3L Intel P31 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £44.99
(£52.86) £44.99
(£52.86)
PNY GeForce 8800 GT 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £129.99
(£152.74) £129.99
(£152.74)
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64-Bit Edition DVD - OEM - 1Pk (66I-00788) £59.99
(£70.49) £59.99
(£70.49)
Samsung SH-S203D 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
(£17.61) £14.99
(£17.61)
Hitachi Deskstar T7K500 250GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (0A33423) £35.99
(£42.29) £35.99
(£42.29)
Sub Total : £424.92
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £10.95
VAT is being charged at 17.5% VAT : £76.28
Total : £512.15

hibeesmad · 10 Feb 2008 at 11:55

Thanks. Will that power supply be ok for that spec?

BENdage · 10 Feb 2008 at 11:58

You could try this, its quite a tight budget really, but it can be made to work. If he can stretch to about £50 more you can get one of the new wolfdale processors instead which will make it a lot more potent

hibeesmad · 10 Feb 2008 at 11:58

What do you think about this?

Intel Core 2 Duo E2200 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.20GHz (800FSB) - Retail
Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L Intel P35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2-6400C4 TwinX (2x1GB)
Western Digital Caviar SE16 320GB SATA-II 16MB Cach
PowerColor ATI Radeon HD 3850 Pro Extreme 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI
Antec Sonata III Piano Black Quiet Case - EarthWatts 500W PSU
Pioneer DVR-215DBK 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 32-Bit Edition DVD
Total : £502.75

BENdage · 10 Feb 2008 at 12:00

hibeesmad said:
What do you think about this?

Intel Core 2 Duo E2200 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.20GHz (800FSB) - Retail
Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L Intel P35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2-6400C4 TwinX (2x1GB)
Western Digital Caviar SE16 320GB SATA-II 16MB Cach
PowerColor ATI Radeon HD 3850 Pro Extreme 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI
Antec Sonata III Piano Black Quiet Case - EarthWatts 500W PSU
Pioneer DVR-215DBK 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 32-Bit Edition DVD
Total : £502.75

Quite nice, but the graphics card is weaker than in the other specs

semi-pro waster · 10 Feb 2008 at 12:03

hibeesmad said:
Thanks. Will that power supply be ok for that spec?

The PSU is easily fine for that sort of system, the 8800series isn't all that power hungry considering how good they are.

As BENdage says your specification is fine but it isn't quite as good if your friend is a gamer.

Any particular reason for Vista 32bit?

hibeesmad · 10 Feb 2008 at 12:04

BENdage said:
Quite nice, but the graphics card is weaker than in the other specs

Yeh, but will there be a noticable difference in fps? He will not play Crysis, just games such as Call of Duty 4, CSS and PES.

Thanks for all the advice guys, appreciate it,

Johnny.

hibeesmad · 10 Feb 2008 at 12:05

semi-pro waster said:
The PSU is easily fine for that sort of system, the 8800series isn't all that power hungry considering how good they are.

As BENdage says your specification is fine but it isn't quite as good if your friend is a gamer.

Any particular reason for Vista 32bit?

Well to keep costs down. There will be no point in getting 64 bit if he is not going to use over 2gb RAM. What benefits are there over 32 bit?

Thanks again.

semi-pro waster · 10 Feb 2008 at 12:10

hibeesmad said:
Well to keep costs down. There will be no point in getting 64 bit if he is not going to use over 2gb RAM. What benefits are there over 32 bit?

Thanks again.

Not entirely sure of the benefits but then I'd probably just buy XP if there is never going to be more than 2gb Ram installed, it is still a very solid OS with most of the kinks worked out and it is slightly cheaper still than Vista 32bit.

hibeesmad · 10 Feb 2008 at 12:20

Which graphic card would you recommend? The 8800GT 256mb or the 3850 512mb?

semi-pro waster · 10 Feb 2008 at 12:26

I'd really aim for the 512mb 8800GT but if that isn't an option the 256mb 8800GT is the more powerful of the two.

hibeesmad · 10 Feb 2008 at 12:34

Thanks. Its hard when the budget is tight. Do you know if the 8800GT will fit into that case and if that PSU has the required power connector?

semi-pro waster · 10 Feb 2008 at 12:40

I'm pretty sure that it fits into the case but you may want to wait for further confirmation, the PSU does have all the required connectors though.