Spec me a £1500 system please!

Paul -C- · 27 Mar 2006 at 01:35

I've got £1500 to spend on a good rig + monitor.

I'd like the NEC MultiSync® LCD20WGX2 20.1" Widescreen LCD Monitor.
A Dual core CPU would be good too, as would an X1900-XT, 2 gigs ram and lots of HD space.

I'd need everything except keyboard, mouse and speakers.

System would be mainly used for multi-tasking programs like Photoshop and Dreamweaver, as well as some gaming.

Thanks!

bliss · 27 Mar 2006 at 02:06

This is ever so slightly over bugdet but it's a really good setup for the money.

Shopping Cart (Prices in British Pounds)
REFERENCE DESCRIPTION QUANTITY PRICE COST REMOVE
MO-009-NE NEC MultiSync® LCD20WGX2 20.1" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Black/Silver (MO-009-NE)
£334.95 £334.95
CA-027-AN Antec SLK3000B Midi Tower Case - No PSU (CA-027-AN)
£29.95 £29.95
CP-127-AM AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4400+ (Socket 939) - Retail (ADA4400CDBOX) (CP-127-AM)
£279.95 £279.95
MB-129-AS Asus A8R-MVP Crossfire (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-129-AS)
£64.95 £64.95
MY-046-GL GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit CAS3 (GE2GB3200BDC) (MY-046-GL)
£94.95 £94.95
CD-038-PO Pioneer DVR-111DBK 16 x 16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter - (Black) OEM (CD-038-PO)
£23.95 £23.95
HD-015-WD Western Digital Raptor 74GB WD740GD 10,000RPM SATA 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-015-WD)
£93.50 £93.50
HD-048-WD Western Digital Caviar Special Edition 200GB 2000JS SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-048-WD)
£49.95 £49.95
GX-048-HT HIS Excalibur ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-048-HT)
£279.95 £279.95
CA-002-SK FSP Sparkle FX600-GLN Epsilon 600W ATX2.0 PSU (CA-002-SK)
£69.95 £69.95
Subtotal £1,322.05
Shipping (City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)) £14.95
VAT £233.98
Total £1,570.98

If the £70 is a little too above budget you could always drop the X1900XT for a X1800 card as you say it'll mainly be used for Dreamweaver and Photoshop.

ACESHIGH · 27 Mar 2006 at 02:37

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4400+ (Socket 939) - Retail (ADA4400CDBOX) (CP-127-AM)
£328.94
Asus A8R32-MVP Deluxe Crossfire (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-131-AS)
£129.19
Western Digital Caviar SE16 320GB 3200KS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD-070-WD)
£86.89*
GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit CAS3 (GE2GB3200BDC) (MY-046-GL)
£111.57
Sapphire ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-112-SP)
£305.44
Philips SPD2400BM 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM (CD-006-PH)
£25.79
Thermaltake VB1000BWS Soprano SuperMidi Tower - Black (CA-015-TT)
£50.47
FSP Sparkle FX600-GLN Epsilon 600W ATX2.0 PSU (CA-002-SK)
£82.19
NEC MultiSync® LCD20WGX2 20.1" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Black/Silver (MO-009-NE)
£393.57

Total inc VAT: £1514.05

xirokx · 27 Mar 2006 at 13:34

why does he need a

Thermaltake VB1000BWS Soprano SuperMidi Tower - Black (CA-015-TT)
£50.47??? hmmmm

when he is getting a 600w PSU ....

he could get a cheaper case.....like the one bliss suggested...

I would change the mobo to DFI due to recent issues with Asus A8R32-MVP Deluxe Crossfire

and a opty 170 CPU especially if overclocking....

I am hesitant but would stick with the x1900 as it would perform best at high resolutions which I am sure you will be running especially with that 20 inch monitor...

good luck

Paul -C- · 27 Mar 2006 at 18:08

Thanks for the suggestions!

I built a computer for my girlfriend last week using the Antec SLK3000B, so I'd be happy to use that again. Once I figured out that the front of the case came off, allowing me to slot in the dvd drive it was plain sailing. If the manual had told me I had to remove the front of the case it would have saved me an hour of head scratching mind!

What can an Opty 170 generally clock to?

ACESHIGH · 28 Mar 2006 at 00:18

Well case choice comes down to personal preferance. So whatever.

The Opty 170's do about 2.5 / 2.6 afaik.
but you need a cooler like the Freezer 64

Monstermunch · 28 Mar 2006 at 00:29

Check this... £100 over but you could drop down to the opty 170 in place of the 175, and the x1900xt instead of the xtx, which would then bring you to about £1500. But IMO this rig would be better VFM

CP-153-AM AMD Opteron UP 175 Dual Core San Diego 2.2GHz 2MB Cache (Socket 939) - Retail (CP-153-AM)
£319.95 £319.95
FG-000-AR Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940) (FG-000-AR)
£12.95 £12.95
MB-014-DF DFI LanParty UT NF4 Ultra-D (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-014-DF)
£79.95 £79.95
MY-057-OC OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) PC3200 Dual Channel Platinum Series EL-DDR CAS2 (OCZ4002048ELDCPE-K) (MY-057-OC)
£139.95 £139.95
HD-002-HI Hitachi Deskstar T7K250 NCQ 250GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (0A31636) (HD-002-HI)
£56.50 £56.50
GX-047-HT HIS Excalibur ATI Radeon X1900 XT-X 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-047-HT)
£304.95 £304.95
CD-026-NE NEC ND4551 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer LabelFlash ReWriter (Black) - OEM (CD-026-NE)
£25.95 £25.95
CA-026-TT Thermaltake VC2000BNS Mambo SuperMidi Tower - Black (CA-026-TT)
£27.95 £27.95
CA-008-TG Tagan TG530-U15 530W ATX2.01 Easycon SLi Compliant Modular Silent PSU (CA-008-TG)
£59.95 £59.95
MO-009-NE NEC MultiSync® LCD20WGX2 20.1" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Black/Silver (MO-009-NE)
£334.95 £334.95
Subtotal £1,363.05
VAT £238.54
Total £1,601.59

Paul -C- · 28 Mar 2006 at 03:30

The only thing holding me back from ordering is this thread on the NEC monitor: http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17535077

Anyone know any other good widescreen TFTs?

Monstermunch · 28 Mar 2006 at 07:47

Why, the NEC I specced for you is the best 20" TFT on the market!

The other 20" Widescreens all seem to have a few problems, like bleeding for the belinea, and the BenQ panel is a TN panel and not IPS which means it crap for watching movies etc.

Look here:

http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/guides/nec_20wgx2.htm

Paul -C- · 28 Mar 2006 at 09:59

I know it's the best, that why I wanted it

But after reading through the thread I posted it seems like there's loads of reported problems with bleeding. Last thing I wanna do is spend £400 then have to send it back.

Monstermunch · 28 Mar 2006 at 10:09

Paul -C- said:
I know it's the best, that why I wanted it

But after reading through the thread I posted it seems like there's loads of reported problems with bleeding. Last thing I wanna do is spend £400 then have to send it back.

The TFT central review says it doesn't suffer from any bleeding, are you sure you're not getting it confused with another model?

*Edit* Just read the thread in the monitor forum, but it only seems like a temporary thing. My advice would be one of two things:

Either:

1 Buy it and hope for the best, if there are problems report it to NEC and wait for them to sort it

2 Buy the rest of your rig and then in a week or two when the problems are sorted buy the monitor then.

I'm sure this is only a temporary thing, unfortunately there don't seem to be any other monitors around that compare with the spec and general peroformace of the NEC.

nightwish · 28 Mar 2006 at 10:16

Nah, he's not. Read the thread on it. It is the best, but that doesn't mean it's perfect unfortunately. It seems to be next to impossible to find a 20" widescreen without faults atm...

BigDom · 28 Mar 2006 at 11:01

Not sure why guys are speccing over budget given getting in budget isn't hard

.

Excellent 1meg cache dual core CPU, quality graphics card ( XT-X is poor value for money as you can pretty much guarantee running at XT-X speeds and anyway the performance gap is very small ), solid quiet modular PSU, 2gig quality Ram, my favourite motherboard. All in all a solid reliable high performance system with £80 left over for whatever.

CP-127-AM AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4400+ (Socket 939) - Retail (ADA4400CDBOX) (CP-127-AM)
£279.95 £279.95
MB-129-AS Asus A8R-MVP Crossfire (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-129-AS)
£64.95 £64.95
MY-046-GL GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit CAS3 (GE2GB3200BDC) (MY-046-GL)
£89.95 £89.95
GX-060-PC PowerColor ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-060-PC)
£269.95 £269.95
HD-018-SA Samsung SpinPoint P SP2504C 250GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-018-SA)
£53.95 £53.95
CD-026-NE NEC ND4551 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer LabelFlash ReWriter (Black) - OEM (CD-026-NE)
£25.95 £25.95
CA-027-AN Antec SLK3000B Midi Tower Case - No PSU (CA-027-AN)
£29.95 £29.95
CA-008-TG Tagan TG530-U15 530W ATX2.01 Easycon SLi Compliant Modular Silent PSU (CA-008-TG)
£59.95 £59.95
MO-009-NE NEC MultiSync® LCD20WGX2 20.1" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Black/Silver (MO-009-NE)
£334.95 £334.95
Subtotal £1,209.55
VAT £211.68
Total £1,421.23

volt9291 · 28 Mar 2006 at 11:10

BigDom said:
Not sure why guys are speccing over budget given getting in budget isn't hard .

Excellent 1meg cache dual core CPU, quality graphics card ( XT-X is poor value for money as you can pretty much guarantee running at XT-X speeds and anyway the performance gap is very small ), solid quiet modular PSU, 2gig quality Ram, my favourite motherboard. All in all a solid reliable high performance system with £80 left over for whatever.

CP-127-AM AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4400+ (Socket 939) - Retail (ADA4400CDBOX) (CP-127-AM)
£279.95 £279.95
MB-129-AS Asus A8R-MVP Crossfire (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-129-AS)
£64.95 £64.95
MY-046-GL GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit CAS3 (GE2GB3200BDC) (MY-046-GL)
£89.95 £89.95
GX-060-PC PowerColor ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-060-PC)
£269.95 £269.95
HD-018-SA Samsung SpinPoint P SP2504C 250GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-018-SA)
£53.95 £53.95
CD-026-NE NEC ND4551 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer LabelFlash ReWriter (Black) - OEM (CD-026-NE)
£25.95 £25.95
CA-027-AN Antec SLK3000B Midi Tower Case - No PSU (CA-027-AN)
£29.95 £29.95
CA-008-TG Tagan TG530-U15 530W ATX2.01 Easycon SLi Compliant Modular Silent PSU (CA-008-TG)
£59.95 £59.95
MO-009-NE NEC MultiSync® LCD20WGX2 20.1" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Black/Silver (MO-009-NE)
£334.95 £334.95
Subtotal £1,209.55
VAT £211.68
Total £1,421.23

Yeah i vote for this rig + its in your budget

NeptuneUK · 28 Mar 2006 at 11:14

that will rock. a lot

hp7909 · 28 Mar 2006 at 12:48

500GB

NEC ND4570 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM (CD-030-NE) 1 £24.95
NEC MultiSync® LCD20WGX2 20.1" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Black/Silver (MO-009-NE) 1 £334.95
GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit CAS3 (GE2GB3200BDC) (MY-046-GL) 1 £89.95
Asus A8N-E nForce4 Ultra (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-088-AS) 1 £59.95
Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 10 NCQ 250GB 6V250F0 SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD-088-MD) 2 £105.90
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4400+ (Socket 939) - Retail (ADA4400CDBOX) (CP-127-AM) 1 £279.95
HIS Excalibur ATI Radeon X1900 XT-X 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-047-HT) 1 £304.95
Antec Sonata II Piano Black Quiet Case - 450W Smart Power PSU (CA-040-AN) 1 £59.95
Subtotal £1,260.55
Shipping (City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)) £14.95
VAT £223.22
Total £1,498.72

Paul -C- · 30 Mar 2006 at 14:27

Thanks for all the specs guys!

I think I'll be going with BigDom's spec...

If it wasn't for the troubles with the NEC monitor over in the monitor forum I'd probably have ordered and actually be on the new rig now.

Just gotta play the waiting game now to find out what's gonna happen with the monitors.