Spec needed - Budget £500

[fred_easey]

Ok mate of a mate needs a new PC.

He will be using it for:

WoW
Playing Poker
"browsing the internet" *cough*
etc

Budget is £500. He already has a pretty nice screen (some widescreen Dell job), OS, Keyboard + mouse etc, so all he really needs is the box itself.

He is pretty technophobic, so probably won't be overclocking too much.

Any advice would be much appreciated,

Cheers,

Fred

 

[semi-pro waster]

This is a bit under the budget but should be more than capable of everything required of it.

Corsair 4GB DDR2 XMS2 PC2-6400C5 TwinX (2x2GB) £59.99
(£70.49) £59.99
(£70.49)
Asus P5K Intel P35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £59.99
(£70.49) £59.99
(£70.49)
Intel Core 2 Duo E7200 LGA775 'Wolfdale' 2.53GHz (1066FSB) - Retail £75.99
(£89.29) £75.99
(£89.29)
Samsung SpinPoint F1 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD502IJ) £39.99
(£46.99) £39.99
(£46.99)
Antec Sonata III Piano Black Quiet Case - EarthWatts 500W PSU £69.99
(£82.24) £69.99
(£82.24)
OcUK GeForce 8800 GT 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £89.99
(£105.74) £89.99
(£105.74)
Samsung SH-S203D/BEBN 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99
(£16.44) £13.99
(£16.44)
Sub Total : £409.93
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 : £73.65
Total : £494.53

 

[bennyboy2606]

Firstly what OS has he got? Is it 32 bit or 64 bit?
What res will he be using?

 

[mp260767]

i'd go with most of spw's spec, but i'd change the mobo for the gigabyte p31, memory for the gskill 6400 2x2gb kit, use the money saved off that to up the gfx card to the BFG GeForce 8800 GT OC.

 

[fred_easey]

OK I'm going to move the goalposts a bit (thanks for spec SPW btw)

Apparently he'd quite like to get a laptop, so same budget and requirements, but laptop instead.

I'm thinking Vostro, but how could he use it with his big TFT, would he need a docking station or something?

 

[fred_easey]

Actually scratch the laptop idea (he is being indecisive).

Can someone do a similar spec for £400?

 

[semi-pro waster]

Just about on the budget, I've changed to the G.Skill that mp267067 suggested - I would have used it earlier but it was and is still out of stock.

Intel Core 2 Duo E2180 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.00GHz (800FSB) - Retail £38.99
(£45.81) £38.99
(£45.81)
Gigabyte GA-P31-DS3L Intel P31 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £39.99
(£46.99) £39.99
(£46.99)
OcUK GeForce 8800 GT 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £89.99
(£105.74) £89.99
(£105.74)
Antec NSK 6580 Super Midi Tower Case - 430W Earth Watts PSU £57.99
(£68.14) £57.99
(£68.14)
Samsung SH-S203D/BEBN 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99
(£16.44) £13.99
(£16.44)
G.Skill 4GB DDR2 PQ PC2-6400C5 (2x2GB) CAS5 Dual Channel Kit (F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ) £51.99
(£61.09) £51.99
(£61.09)
Samsung SpinPoint F1 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD502IJ) £39.99
(£46.99) £39.99
(£46.99)
Sub Total : £332.93
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 : £60.18
Total : £404.06

 

[lunarwolf]

Just about on the budget, I've changed to the G.Skill that mp267067 suggested - I would have used it earlier but it was and is still out of stock.

Intel Core 2 Duo E2180 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.00GHz (800FSB) - Retail £38.99
(£45.81) £38.99
(£45.81)
Gigabyte GA-P31-DS3L Intel P31 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £39.99
(£46.99) £39.99
(£46.99)
OcUK GeForce 8800 GT 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £89.99
(£105.74) £89.99
(£105.74)
Antec NSK 6580 Super Midi Tower Case - 430W Earth Watts PSU £57.99
(£68.14) £57.99
(£68.14)
Samsung SH-S203D/BEBN 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99
(£16.44) £13.99
(£16.44)
G.Skill 4GB DDR2 PQ PC2-6400C5 (2x2GB) CAS5 Dual Channel Kit (F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ) £51.99
(£61.09) £51.99
(£61.09)
Samsung SpinPoint F1 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD502IJ) £39.99
(£46.99) £39.99
(£46.99)
Sub Total : £332.93
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 : £60.18
Total : £404.06

+1

NB only go for 4GB of RAM if Vista x64, otherwise 2GB should be more than enough

 

[fred_easey]

Thanks guys, this spec looks awesome!