Spec me a new system

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29 Aug 2008
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hi, i will be buying a new system in the next few days and i cant decide what to go for, so i want your ideas.

i only have a small budget of £350. i may be able to strech to £400 but not to sure as of yet.

i use my pc mainly for gaming but also many other uses.
i wont need a copy of windows vista.
ill be bulding the system myself

My last system was:
AMD athlon 64 X2 5600+ 2.8ghz
asus m2a-vm hdmi
2 x 1gb 6400 800mhz kingston
250gb hd
xfx nvidia 8600 gt

thanks
 
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any reason to buy a new pc when a simple graphics card change will be enough to make a major impact on your games?
 
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Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Leadtek GeForce 8800 GT ZL OC 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £69.99
(£82.24) £69.99
(£82.24)
Asus P5K EPU Intel P35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £57.99
(£68.14) £57.99
(£68.14)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 320GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (ST3320613AS) £34.99
(£41.11) £34.99
(£41.11)
Pioneer DVR-215DBK 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99
(£16.44) £13.99
(£16.44)
Antec Three Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case £29.99
(£35.24) £29.99
(£35.24)
Corsair VX 450W ATX PSU (CMPSU-450VXUK) £39.99
(£46.99) £39.99
(£46.99)
Intel Core 2 Duo E7200 LGA775 'Wolfdale' 2.53GHz (1066FSB) - Retail £74.99
(£88.11) £74.99
(£88.11)
OCZ 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 Dual Channel Platinum Revision 2 XTC Series DDR2 (OCZ2P800R22GK) £24.99
(£29.36) £24.99
(£29.36)
Sub Total : £346.92
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £12.95
VAT is being charged at 17.5% VAT : £62.98
Total : £422.85
its over budget but its will be hard to get a system that will give an improvement over your old pc with your budget
 
looks like a good atempt, but i would go for a better HDD, 2mb cache is going to slow your pc down a lot

also 250 and 320GB hdds are better value for money.
 
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What about this ?

Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient SLACR 95W Edition" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail £103.99
(£122.19) £103.99
(£122.19)
OCZ 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 Dual Channel Platinum Revision 2 XTC Series DDR2 (OCZ2P800R22GK) £24.99
(£29.36) £24.99
(£29.36)
Asus P5K SE-EPU Intel P35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £51.99
(£61.09) £51.99
(£61.09)
Maxtor Diamondmax 20 160GB SATA-II 2MB Cache - OEM (STM3160215AS) £23.99
(£28.19) £23.99
(£28.19)
Sony NEC Optiarc AD-7200S 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £12.99
(£15.26) £12.99
(£15.26)
Asus TA-863 Black Midi Tower Case - No PSU £17.99
(£21.14) £17.99
(£21.14)
XFX GeForce 8800 GT Alpha Dog 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (PV-T88P-YDF4) £74.99
(£88.11) £74.99
(£88.11)
Sub Total : £310.93
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £9.95
VAT is being charged at 17.5% VAT : £56.15
Total : £377.03


no need for a psu already have one
 
ok ill get a 320gb hd. im just not 2 sure on the card.
8800gt , 9800gt, 9600gt, 3850pro or could wait and
get the 3870xt or 4850
 
What PSU do you already have? You may need a new one if you go for a decent GPU.

Here is a spec with a PSU. Add to it an E5200 CPU, which has been released (a competitor has them, OCUK doesnt yet) which costs £55 and you are about a tenner over budget but it is a fantastic PC.

If you don't need the PSU, get the Antec 300 case instead of this one, and use the money you have saved to go for 4GB of RAM and an E7200.

Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Samsung SpinPoint F1 250GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD252HJ) £27.99
(£32.89) £27.99
(£32.89)
Antec Sonata III Piano Black Quiet Case - EarthWatts 500W PSU £69.99
(£82.24) £69.99
(£82.24)
HIS ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail £99.99
(£117.49) £99.99
(£117.49)
GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 800MHz Black Dragon DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GB22GB6400C4DC) £24.99
(£29.36) £24.99
(£29.36)
Abit IP43 Intel P43 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £59.99
(£70.49) £59.99
(£70.49)
Samsung SH-S223F/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £12.99
(£15.26) £12.99
(£15.26)
Sub Total : £295.94
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 : £53.71
Total : £360.60
 
nopee wont be needing psu and yes its powerfull enough :)
what about this ?

Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient SLACR 95W Edition" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail £103.99
(£122.19) £103.99
(£122.19)
OCZ 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 Dual Channel Platinum Revision 2 XTC Series DDR2 (OCZ2P800R22GK) £24.99
(£29.36) £24.99
(£29.36)
Asus P5K SE-EPU Intel P35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £51.99
(£61.09) £51.99
(£61.09)
Samsung SpinPoint F1 250GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD252HJ) £27.99
(£32.89) £27.99
(£32.89)
Sony NEC Optiarc AD-7200S 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £12.99
(£15.26) £12.99
(£15.26)
Asus TA-863 Black Midi Tower Case - No PSU £17.99
(£21.14) £17.99
(£21.14)
XFX GeForce 8800 GT Alpha Dog 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (PV-T88P-YDF4) £74.99
(£88.11) £74.99
(£88.11)
Sub Total : £314.93
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £9.95
VAT is being charged at 17.5% VAT : £56.85
Total : £381.73
 
You are overspending on the CPU. It is generally accepted that a dual core will not be significantly slower than a quad core in games. For just over £50 you can get an E5200 which can be clocked to around 4Ghz. This saves you £70 which can be used to get a far nicer case (that Asus looks way too small, and doesn't take 120mm fans) and, more importantly a 4850. The 4850 will absolutely dominate the 8800GT, even coupled with the slightly cheaper CPU.

Also, if you get the cheaper CPU you can get a much nicer mobo, which will be important for clocking the 5200!!! If you dont need a PSU I would go with:

Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Samsung SH-S223F/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £12.99
(£15.26) £12.99
(£15.26)
HIS ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail £99.99
(£117.49) £99.99
(£117.49)
GeIL 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-6400C5 800MHz Black Dragon DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GB24GB6400C5DC) £49.99
(£58.74) £49.99
(£58.74)
Abit IP43 Intel P43 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £59.99
(£70.49) £59.99
(£70.49)
Samsung SpinPoint F1 250GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD252HJ) £27.99
(£32.89) £27.99
(£32.89)
Antec Three Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case £29.99
(£35.24) £29.99
(£35.24)
Sub Total : £280.94
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 : £51.08
Total : £342.97

Along with the E5200. For under £400 that is simply fantastic, and will really outperform the spec you posted above. You get a better case, motherboard, more RAM, and a far better GPU without really losing out on the CPU.

EDIT: Spend the remaining few quid on an Akasa 965 heatsink. I got one the other day and it is far more efficient than the Intel stock cooler, and is quieter.
 
ok thanks for that.
just the gfx card. i believe the 3870xt has faster speeds
than the 4850 ??? this what i cant understand. also the 9600gt
has about the same clock speed as the 4850 ???


thanks
 
I'm not an expert on the ins and outs of computer technology, I just know what works fast and what doesn't. I believe that the 4850 is built on newer architecture which works more efficiently, but if you want an answer to the question as to why it is faster than the 3870 ask in the graphics card forum!

All I know is that it is considerably quicker than any of the cards which you have mentioned, and is almost on a par with the 9800GTX.

http://www.guru3d.com/article/amd-ati-radeon-hd-4850-review-force-3d--powercolor/11
 
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