Spec me a PC

shine · 22 Apr 2006 at 12:13

I've decided I need a new PC. I'm not a hard core gamer but I do play so a decnet gaming spec is required. I have about £1000 to spend and do not need - monitor or memory.

Thanks

shine · 23 Apr 2006 at 10:38

Here's what I've come up with so far:

REFERENCE DESCRIPTION QUANTITY PRICE COST REMOVE
CP-134-AM AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+ (Socket 939) - Retail (ADA3800BVBOX) (CP-134-AM)
£183.95 £183.95
MB-046-MS MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum nForce4 Ultra (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-046-MS)
£64.95 £64.95
GX-048-PC PowerColor ATI Radeon X1800 XT 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-048-PC)
£199.95 £199.95
CD-026-NE NEC ND4551 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer LabelFlash ReWriter (Black) - OEM (CD-026-NE)
£24.95 £24.95
CA-040-AN Antec Sonata II Piano Black Quiet Case - 450W Smart Power PSU (CA-040-AN)
£69.95 £69.95
HD-001-HI Hitachi Deskstar T7K250 NCQ 160GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (0A31637) (HD-001-HI)
£44.95 £89.90
HS-015-ZA Zalman CNPS9500-LED Aero Flower (Socket 939/754/478/775) CPU Cooler (HS-015-ZA)
£27.95 £27.95
Subtotal £661.60
VAT £115.78
Total £777.38

Comments please...

semi-pro waster · 23 Apr 2006 at 10:42

Your specification will work, you don't need the additional cooler given you will get one with a retail CPU or alternatively save yourself some money and go for the OEM version.

You still have quite a bit of room in the budget though, what sort of Ram do you have as if you don't have 2gb then you might be as well replacing your current Ram and you could also either go for a faster CPU and/or X1900XT.

Monstermunch · 23 Apr 2006 at 10:47

What memory do you have?

Personally I would go for the OEM chip and use the Arctic Freezer 64 Pro instead.

shine · 23 Apr 2006 at 10:57

I've recently bought:

GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit CAS3 (GE2GB3200BDC) (MY-046-GL)

for my old machine before the motherboard started having problems hence looking at upgrading.

shine · 23 Apr 2006 at 10:58

Also the OEM 3800 is out of stock hence I went for the Retail one.

xirokx · 23 Apr 2006 at 11:02

HS-015-ZA Zalman CNPS9500-LED Aero Flower (Socket 939/754/478/775) CPU Cooler (HS-015-ZA

I am tempted to go for this HSF however I am hesistant now as the arctic pro 64 is just as good so I read and its around £20 cheaper.....

Although I have an arctic in my current system I may just go for the zalman and test them both to see which one is better...

xirokx · 23 Apr 2006 at 11:04

will you be overclocking? if yes then you will be limited with that mobo

MB-046-MS MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum nForce4 Ultra (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-046-MS)

Also what res do you game at?

wilders · 23 Apr 2006 at 11:07

Looks a decent spec, but yeah, make sure you got 2gb memory for sure

Monstermunch · 23 Apr 2006 at 11:50

xirokx said:
will you be overclocking? if yes then you will be limited with that mobo

Also what res do you game at?

What a load of tosh! The MSI board is nearly as gooder clocker as the DFI Ultra-D

semi-pro waster · 23 Apr 2006 at 12:07

Monstermunch said:
What a load of tosh! The MSI board is nearly as gooder clocker as the DFI Ultra-D

Little bit harsh perchance? Technically it is right, every motherboard(and CPU) has a finite limit to the overclockability

I don't know about the clocking abilities so the MSI might be great, in which case I don't doubt your superior knowledge but I'm just querying if 'tosh' is a tad too dismissive

Back on topic I hadn't realised the OEM was out of stock so going for the retail makes sense and the Ram is a good choice. If you are going to be overclocking then you could look at the Opteron 165 or maybe 170 depending on your budget as they have 1mb L2 cache rather than the 512kb of the X2 3800 and normally also clock well.

Monstermunch · 23 Apr 2006 at 12:24

semi-pro waster said:
Little bit harsh perchance? Technically it is right, every motherboard(and CPU) has a finite limit to the overclockability

I don't know about the clocking abilities so the MSI might be great, in which case I don't doubt your superior knowledge but I'm just querying if 'tosh' is a tad too dismissive

Perhaps you're right, but the MSI is a great board and extremely underused and underrated! In benchmarks it does perform similarly to the DFI and at only £76inc is a bargain IMO.

xirokx · 23 Apr 2006 at 15:09

Meow

http://www.hothardware.com/viewarticle.aspx

http://www.xbitlabs.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=8636&sid=44436ccd147291abccadbd1bab2de3bb

Im am not nor have I ever slated the MSI......everyone knows and its obvious the DFI boards are the best for overclocking.......

this is what I said:

will you be overclocking? if yes then you will be limited with that mobo

Your response

The MSI board is nearly as gooder clocker as the DFI Ultra-D

So you basically just confirmed what I said was correct in your response

nearly as gooder clocker

What a load of tosh!

LMAO.....

Monstermunch · 23 Apr 2006 at 15:22

Yea, but by stating what you said it could easily be mis-interpreted as not clocking well like the A8N for example!

What you're saying is obviously the same as me but it didn't come over that way. You said "limited", but compared to other boards the MSI isn't limited!

xirokx · 23 Apr 2006 at 15:37

rofl

shine · 23 Apr 2006 at 22:31

xirokx said:
Also what res do you game at?

gaming res = 1680 x 1050

Energize · 23 Apr 2006 at 22:38

xirokx said:
rofl

Actually I agree with him.