Spec me a £650 system

tyrian · 21 Apr 2007 at 01:13

Hello,

Could you kind folks help spec me a £650 pc base unit (the lower the price the better though - I work for a living!). I'll be using it for moderate to light gaming (FPS mostly - want to play Stalker), and work (office apps plus maths & simulation software). This has to include everything including Windows Vista. I've already got a monitor, keyboard, mouse and floppy drive.

I'll also want to overclock it as well to max out my investment .

Comments on this (prices from overclockers)?

Vista Home Premium 32bit £75.19
OcUK 2GB PC2-6400 800MHz £82.24
Asus ATI x1950 £117.49
Asus P5B £82.24 (Can I overclock on this or do I need the delux model?)
Hitachi Deskstar £T7K500 43.46
Asus TA-210 £25.84
Core2Duo E6420 £129.24 (is this matched with the graphics card?)
OcUK Huntkey 550W PSU £44.64

Shipping 12.95
Total 615.55

Big.Wayne · 21 Apr 2007 at 05:10

tyrian said:
Could you kind folks help spec me a £650 pc base unit

Welcome to the forums

Not including the O/S but this is 'roughly' what your looking at. Add a tiny bit more and get a e6400/e6420, maybe change the memory to your prefered 'brand' (oc.co.uk memory isn't really a brand), perhaps try and source a Radeon X1900GT for £90 quid'ish , choose the performance heatsink of your choice (althought the Ultra-120 is very good). The P5B-Plus is meant to be good but you can also get the P5B-Deluxe for a little extra (if you need the extras such as wifi etc)

Your laughing though, that is a great system for £650 smackers

supernova9 · 21 Apr 2007 at 07:45

How about this? Has an 8800GTS...

[edit] Ok, mine doesn't include an OS. In which case, drop the 8800 down to a Sapphire 1950 Pro and use the savings to get Vista Home Prem.

tyrian · 21 Apr 2007 at 08:10

Thank you!

Hello,

Thank you for taking the time to reply. All recommendations are taken on board and gratefully received

T

tyrian · 21 Apr 2007 at 11:04

1950pro or 8800gts

I'm on the verge of ordering, but I can't decide between the 1950pro and 8800gts. Would the 1950pro give a reasonable experience in Crysis, or should I spend more and go for the GTS?

T

supernova9 · 21 Apr 2007 at 11:23

tyrian said:
I'm on the verge of ordering, but I can't decide between the 1950pro and 8800gts. Would the 1950pro give a reasonable experience in Crysis, or should I spend more and go for the GTS?

T

If you've got the extra cash, spring for the 8800GTS. It'll do much better than the 1950Pro, and it's DX10 compliant, which makes it better future-proofing wise. The best bang-for-buck card out at the moment.

Big.Wayne · 21 Apr 2007 at 13:19

tyrian said:
I'm on the verge of ordering, but I can't decide between the 1950pro and 8800gts. Would the 1950pro give a reasonable experience in Crysis, or should I spend more and go for the GTS?

supernova9 said:
If you've got the extra cash, spring for the 8800GTS. It'll do much better than the 1950Pro, and it's DX10 compliant, which makes it better future-proofing wise. The best bang-for-buck card out at the moment.

I don't agree that the 8800GTS is the best bang-for-buck gpu, it costs nearly double what the X1950Pro/X1950GT costs and doesn't offer double the performance.

Also its generally a bad idea to buy a card for a game that isn't released yet not to mention there will be a bunch of new cards appearing very soon, spend wisely and enjoy

Cupra · 21 Apr 2007 at 13:22

but buying what you can afford is always the way to go as it will cost you more in the long run changing cards

Big.Wayne · 21 Apr 2007 at 13:57

paul_64l said:
but buying what you can afford is always the way to go as it will cost you more in the long run changing cards

Yeah there is some sense in that but at the moment its just not a smart move paying £200 on an upper midrange card with 'new' GPUs just about to be released.

I just bought a brand new X1950 GT for my kinsman for £90 (X1950GT is 99% the same as the X1950Pro) so he has a very good card 'now' and in theory still held back £110 towards a good DX10 card when (and if) he needs one.

He is absolutley BLOWN-AWAY by the 'real-world' performance this card offers for £90. Strangely Overclockers.co.uk don't stock the X1950GT

tyrian · 21 Apr 2007 at 14:03

Thank you to everyone who replied.

Money's tight (especially in the same month that I've paid my car insurance!) so I've gone for the ATI 1950pro

All the kit is ordered from Overclockers.

T

Big.Wayne · 21 Apr 2007 at 14:11

tyrian said:
Thank you to everyone who replied.

We do try

tyrian said:
Money's tight

Yeah I know the feeling, I wish I had one of the money trees that a lot of other forum posters appear to own

Your gonna have some fun building that system and remember to place two pieces of clear-tape over your eyes before you load any games or 3D, it will prevent them from popping out when you see the visuals