Spec me a Windows 7 machine pls

[gib73]

Hi guys,

Would be grateful if you could spec me a new machine for Windows 7. Looking for everything except monitor, keyboard/mouse, and the budget is £500 including the OS.

It is really for general use, i.e. surfing the internet, but I would like a good quality machine that will last a while. Don't need a machine with a bias towards gaming machine just more of a good balanced spec machine. If I ever get round to playing games it will be older FPS games like COD world at war and modern warfare at lower resolutions, i.e 1440 x 900.

I'll be buying everything from OC as can't be bother shopping about for best prices.

 

[RJC]

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium - Retail (Full Version) £99.99
(£85.10) £99.99
(£85.10)

Patrtiot G Series 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Dual Channel (PGS34G1333ELK) £79.99
(£68.08) £79.99
(£68.08)

Gigabyte GA-MA770T-UD3P AMD 770 (Socket AM3) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard £74.99
(£63.82) £74.99
(£63.82)

Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4730 512MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £71.99
(£61.27) £71.99
(£61.27)

AMD Athlon II X2 Dual Core 245 2.90GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £47.99
(£40.84) £47.99
(£40.84)

Samsung SpinPoint F3 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD502HJ) £39.99
(£34.03) £39.99
(£34.03)

Corsair CX 400W ATX Power Supply (CMPSU-400CXUK) £37.99
(£32.33) £37.99
(£32.33)

Coolermaster Elite 334 Midi Case - Black £28.60
(£24.34) £28.60
(£24.34)

Sony Optiarc AD-7240S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £18.99
(£16.16) £18.99
(£16.16) Sub Total : £425.97 Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £11.25 VAT is being charged at 17.50% VAT : £76.51 Total : £513.73

 

[gib73]

Thanks RJC

Is it worth going for the OEM version of Windows 7 over retail ? Can the retail version be installed as 32 or 64 bit ?

 

[gib73]

How does the AMD Phenom II X2 Dual Core 550 3.10GHz Black Edition compare with the AMD Athlon II X2 Dual Core 245 2.90GHz. Is it worth the extra £14 that I could save by getting the oem version of W7 ?

 

[RJC]

Retail comes with both discs so you can install either depending on your system.

Retail will allow you to transfer to another system if needed at a later date, belongs it is unistalled from the the previous build.

 

[gib73]

Can oem not by installed on more than one machine (if licence allowed) ?

If mobo died and you had to get a replacement would you have to buy another licence ?

Sorry if this sounds like a silly question.

 

[RJC]

How does the AMD Phenom II X2 Dual Core 550 3.10GHz Black Edition compare with the AMD Athlon II X2 Dual Core 245 2.90GHz. Is it worth the extra £14 that I could save by getting the oem version of W7 ?

The main difference is the cpu cache, link below mY HELP:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/phenom-athlon-ii-x2.html

 

[RJC]

Can oem not by installed on more than one machine (if licence allowed) ?

If mobo died and you had to get a replacement would you have to buy another licence ?

Sorry if this sounds like a silly question.

OEM is tied to the board it was originally installed on, if the board fails and replaced by the manufacturer under warranty this is fine, but if want to change at a later date to new hi-spec board or the board fails and you buy another board then you will need to purchase a new license

 

[gibb]

OEM is tied to the board it was originally installed on, if the board fails and replaced by the manufacturer under warranty this is fine, but if want to change at a later date to new hi-spec board or the board fails and you buy another board then you will need to purchase a new license

Note that some people have managed to get a new license free from Microsoft by phoning up and explaining how their board broke.

 

[gib73]

Thanks for the link RJC, very interesting. Sounds like the 550 BE would be worth the extra for the slim chance of enabling the extra 2 cores, though I don't think that this is something I would want to attempt until a later date !

I think the W7 retail version would be the safe option though a quick search I can see it for £87 else where.

If I wanted to spend the full £500 what would be worth upgrading in the spec ?

 

[gib73]

How does the Patrtiot G Series 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Dual Channel (PGS34G1333ELK) compare with OCZ Gold 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 Low-Voltage Dual Channel (OCZ3G1333LV4GK) ?

I know the OCZ is out of stock but I haven't heard of Patriot before. Apologies for my ignorance !

 

[RJC]

Thanks for the link RJC, very interesting. Sounds like the 550 BE would be worth the extra for the slim chance of enabling the extra 2 cores, though I don't think that this is something I would want to attempt until a later date !

I think the W7 retail version would be the safe option though a quick search I can see it for £87 else where.

If I wanted to spend the full £500 what would be worth upgrading in the spec ?

Probably going with a slightly better gpu, ie the 4870 or the 5770.

How does the Patrtiot G Series 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Dual Channel (PGS34G1333ELK) compare with OCZ Gold 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 Low-Voltage Dual Channel (OCZ3G1333LV4GK) ?

I know the OCZ is out of stock but I haven't heard of Patriot before. Apologies for my ignorance !

I use Patriot memory in my i7 setup and have not regretted since , was originally using OCZ but had the original and the replacement faulty.

 

[gib73]

I think the 4870 and 5770 are too expensive.

Is there anything in between these and 4730/4770 from ATI or NVIDIA ?