spec my mate plz 700 quid, base unit and monitor

R B Customs

R B Customs

R B Customs

Soldato
Joined
22 Sep 2005
Posts
3,267
Location
Manchester
hey guys
my mate is after a spec for a PC
He wants a base unit and a monitor
(he said he wanted 17'' TFT... but im sure a crt will do if you start to struggle with the spec.

im thinking he will benefit from getting strong components which you dont realy upgrade often like psu and mobo. 160GB HDD plus ( just IDE as hes a new builder) the onbord sound will be fine too so no problems there

uses : gaming !
AMD or INTEL will be fine ( i cant spec AMD because i dont really know my way round an AMD rig :) )
cheers guys !!
Rick
 
Last edited:
FG-000-AR Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940) (FG-000-AR)
£14.50 £14.50
MB-129-AS Asus A8R-MVP Crossfire (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-129-AS)
£69.95 £69.95
CA-048-AN Antec SLK3800BUK Black Quiet Midi Tower Case - 400W SmartPower PSU (CA-048-AN)
£54.95 £54.95
MY-005-GL GeIL 1GB (2x512MB) PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit CAS2.5 (GE1GB3200BHDC) (MY-005-GL)
£49.95 £49.95
CP-131-AM AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Venice 90nm (Socket 939) - OEM (CP-131-AM)
£87.95 £87.95
HD-001-HI Hitachi Deskstar T7K250 NCQ 160GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (0A31637) (HD-001-HI)
£47.95 £47.95
CD-026-NE NEC ND4551 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer LabelFlash ReWriter (Black) - OEM (CD-026-NE)
£27.95 £27.95
MO-026-HY Hyundai ImageQuest B70A 17" LCD Monitor (MO-026-HY)
£139.95 £139.95
GX-055-PC PowerColor ATI Radeon X800 GTO16 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-055-PC)
£104.95 £104.95
Subtotal £598.10
Shipping (City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)) £10.95
VAT £106.59
Total £715.64


A few things: the motherboard will most likely come with a BIOS capable of handling SATA, so driver installation won't be necessary on installing Windows. 2GB of RAM would have been better, but under the budget, 1GB it is. The motherboard is about £20 overkill - but its a good quality board, so worth it. I would have liked to put in a 3700SD or a 3800X2, but personally I choose graphics over 400MHz on the processor - which could probably be made up with overclocking (hence the nice fan). The graphics card pushes it £15 over budget, but if its a tight £700 budget then pick and choose your X800GTO to fit.
 
hey man first of all thanks for the quick reply !
if theres 2 things i dont know about in the world of computers its AMD and ATI lol.
would you say thats a decent set up for the money ? ( what would that PFX card be a nvidia equiv' of ? )
personaly i was thiking the case is overkill maybe... but jsut readign its not as it comes with a PSU.
would he be better off getting a cheaper case and a better PSU say a tagan 430watt or something ? ?
also 1Gb ram is fine... it atleastleves scope for upgrading ! which hes bound to do ( dont think he will ever overclock it though !! )

would the 3500 AMD be a better compromise for the few extra quid ? i may be able to get him to settlre for a CRT monitor too :)
thanks again. ill work on that spec
 
Unfortunately I'm not very good with nVidia, but I'll stab a guess and say that that X800GTO would be as good as maybe a low end 6800GS. If he can afford it, a 3500 is always going to better than the 3200. And then the 3700SD would be the best of a budget; if, of course, he can afford it. A cheaper case and a good Tagan 420W PSU would probably be more expensive than the Antec case + PSU. And AFAIK, the Antec PSUs are perfectly fine. I wouldn't, however, buy a CRT in order to get better parts. Sure it's going to cost you an extra £100, which could be put towards an X2 3800. But It doesn't set him in good stead for a solid upgrade path, as eventually he'll be wanting a TFT. So you might aswell get one now :)



edit: the OEM 3700SD is only £144.47, so if you could twist his arm for an extra £50 on the budget, then it would be pretty much perfect.
 
Last edited:
okay heres what ive come up with

FG-000-AR Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940) (FG-000-AR) 1
£14.50 £14.50
CP-150-AM AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego 90nm (Socket 939) - OEM (CP-150-AM) 1
£122.95 £122.95
MB-129-AS Asus A8R-MVP Crossfire (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-129-AS) 1
£69.95 £69.95
MY-005-GL GeIL 1GB (2x512MB) PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit CAS2.5 (GE1GB3200BHDC) (MY-005-GL) 1
£49.95 £49.95
GX-055-PC PowerColor ATI Radeon X800 GTO16 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-055-PC) 1
£104.95 £104.95
HD-010-HI Hitachi Deskstar T7K250 160GB ATA-133 8MB Cache - OEM (0A31635) (HD-010-HI) 1
£45.95 £45.95
MO-006-HY Hyundai ImageQuest Q770S 17'' Perfectly Flat CRT Monitor - Black/Silver (MO-006-HY) 1
£64.95 £64.95
CA-007-TG Tagan TG430-U15 430W ATX2.01 Easycon SLi Compliant Modular Silent PSU (CA-007-TG) 1
£46.95 £46.95
CA-009-AS Asus TA-250 Series Midi Tower (Black) - No PSU (CA-009-AS) 1
£31.95 £31.95
CD-029-NE NEC ND4570 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Beige) - OEM (CD-029-NE) 1
£24.95 £24.95
Subtotal £577.05
VAT £100.99
Total £678.04

its based on your spec mate, just a few chnages... monitor for example... ill have to check that hes happy with CRT though !!
if the SATA is really N00B compatible ill change the HDD for a SATA one !!
theres about an extra 20 quid to play with there :)
 
I am 99% sure the SATA drive will work straight away with the ASUS board, so you might aswell get that. There is a performance increase from IDE to SATA. As long as he is OK with a CRT, then that spec is fine. And the NEC ND4551 is a better drive than the one you selected. It is found in the Labelflash/Lightscribe section. Get it in black to match the case :P
 
Last edited:
right been speaking to him,... :(
hes already got a DVD drive he wants to use so that leaves it at :

FG-000-AR Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940) (FG-000-AR) 1
£14.50 £14.50
CP-150-AM AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego 90nm (Socket 939) - OEM (CP-150-AM) 1
£122.95 £122.95
MB-129-AS Asus A8R-MVP Crossfire (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-129-AS) 1
£69.95 £69.95
MY-005-GL GeIL 1GB (2x512MB) PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit CAS2.5 (GE1GB3200BHDC) (MY-005-GL) 1
£49.95 £49.95
GX-055-PC PowerColor ATI Radeon X800 GTO16 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-055-PC) 1
£104.95 £104.95
MO-006-HY Hyundai ImageQuest Q770S 17'' Perfectly Flat CRT Monitor - Black/Silver (MO-006-HY) 1
£64.95 £64.95
CA-007-TG Tagan TG430-U15 430W ATX2.01 Easycon SLi Compliant Modular Silent PSU (CA-007-TG) 1
£46.95 £46.95
CA-009-AS Asus TA-250 Series Midi Tower (Black) - No PSU (CA-009-AS) 1
£31.95 £31.95
HD-001-HI Hitachi Deskstar T7K250 NCQ 160GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (0A31637) (HD-001-HI) 1
£47.95 £47.95
Subtotal £554.10
Shipping (City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)) £24.95
VAT £101.34
Total £680.39

i think the 3700 will be fine but it appears we could maybe get a bit more out of the budget for the graphics !

btw... how did you get the lower price shipping ?
 
Eliminos said:
I am 99% sure the SATA drive will work straight away with the ASUS board, so you might aswell get that. There is a performance increase from IDE to SATA. As long as he is OK with a CRT, then that spec is fine. And the NEC ND4551 is a better drive than the one you selected. It is found in the Labelflash/Lightscribe section. Get it in black to match the case :P
Click to expand...
Asus is 100% plug and play with the Asus Crossfire board. No drivers or setup required.
 
ive just been thinking,... maybe the extra money could go toward a 480 or 530 tagan... i think a decent psu is a very worthy investement... but im not sure how far 430watt would go ?
 
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+ (Socket 939) - OEM (CP-152-AM)
£187.94
Asus A8N-E nForce4 Ultra (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-088-AS)
£72.79
GeIL 1GB (2x512MB) PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit CAS2.5 (GE1GB3200BHDC) (MY-005-GL)
£58.69
PowerColor ATI Radeon X850 XT 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-037-PC)
£152.69
Hitachi Deskstar T7K250 NCQ 160GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (0A31637) (HD-001-HI)
£56.34
Antec Sonata II Piano Black Quiet Case - 450W Smart Power PSU (CA-040-AN)
£77.49
Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940) (FG-000-AR)
£17.04
Hyundai ImageQuest Q770S 17'' Perfectly Flat CRT Monitor - Black/Silver (MO-006-HY)
£76.32

Total inc VAT: £699.30

Edit: removed dvd writer, upgraded graphics card.
 
Last edited:
Took a slightly different line on this spec...

Decided to try to balance the Graphics/CPU better as X800 ( all be it a decent one ) combine with a 3700 SD seems a bit unbalanced. X850XT with a SD core Opty is a better balance.

MB-129-AS Asus A8R-MVP Crossfire (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-129-AS)
£69.95 £69.95
GX-037-PC PowerColor ATI Radeon X850 XT 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-037-PC)
£129.95 £129.95
HD-024-SA Samsung SpinPoint P HD160JJ 160GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-024-SA)
£48.95 £48.95
CA-001-AR Arctic Cooling T2 Silentium Silent Midi Tower Case - 450W Seasonic Silent PSU (CA-001-AR)
£49.95 £49.95
MO-026-HY Hyundai ImageQuest B70A 17" LCD Monitor (MO-026-HY)
£139.95 £139.95
MY-005-GL GeIL 1GB (2x512MB) PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit CAS2.5 (GE1GB3200BHDC) (MY-005-GL)
£49.95 £49.95
CP-141-AM AMD Opteron UP 144 San Diego 1.8GHz 1MB Cache (Socket 939) - Retail (CP-141-AM)
£114.95 £114.95
Subtotal £603.65
Shipping (City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)) £14.95
VAT £108.26
Total £726.86
 
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