Spec up a £500 pc please :)

[Guru]

Please spec this up for my friend

She has 500 quid to spend and would like me to build her a rig from a spec I'm hoping u guys can provide as I know u like to

She wrote this as her minimum requirements...

AMD athlon64 3200/2500+
1gb ram, preferably 2 x 512mb
ATI 256mb
DVD r +/- rw
A pretty case (but preferably matching the monitor)
my room gets really hot so need sumin better than average to cool it down too, and possibly sumin that i can see the temp inside...

headset, mouse and keyboard she already has.

She is thinking about this monitor...

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/17_Inch_LCD_Monitors.html

OcUK Gamer Extreme 178GP 17" LCD Monitor - Black (MO-016-OK)

Anyone got it? know if its any good? It's in this week only at the moment so am I right in thinking she has till next thursday before it goes up in price?

She wants to be able to play HL2 CS:Source etc.

Cheers all

G

 

[GhostRider]

MO-016-OK OcUK Gamer Extreme 178GP 17" LCD Monitor - Black (MO-016-OK) 1
£93.95 £93.95
MY-030-GL GeIL 1GB (2x512MB) PC5300 667MHz Value DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX21GB5300DC) (MY-030-GL) 1
£54.95 £54.95
CP-164-AM AMD Athlon 64 3500+ 2.2GHz (Socket AM2) - Retail (CP-164-AM) 1
£66.95 £66.95
MB-071-MS MSI K9N Neo-F nForce 550 (Socket AM2) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-071-MS) 1
£49.95 £49.95
FG-000-AR Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940) (FG-000-AR) 1
£14.95 £14.95
HD-051-SE Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 80GB ST3808110AS SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-051-SE) 1
£29.50 £29.50
CD-078-SA Samsung SH-S182D 18x18 DVD±RW ReWriter (Black) (CD-078-SA) 1
£21.95 £21.95
GX-026-BG BFG 3DFuzion GeForce 7600 GS 256MB DDR2 TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-026-BG) 1
£67.95 £67.95
CA-052-AN Antec NSK4400 Mini Tower Case - 380W SmartPower PSU (CA-052-AN) 1
£34.95 £34.95
Subtotal £435.10
Shipping (City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)) £12.95
VAT £78.41
Total £526.46

A bit over budget.

The CPU comes with a decent fan. I reackon that would do really but i've added one of the most popular cooling fans for the 64 since i'm not sure how hot your firends room gets. What does she do in there to get it so hot ?

For the budget i think an Nvidia card is best. This would allow HDR lighting in CS-Source.

Edit: instead of buying something to monitor and display the temp on the case tell her to use this free program - Speedfan http://www.almico.com/sfdownload.php

 

[ACESHIGH]

OcUK Gamer Extreme 178GP 17" LCD Monitor - Black (MO-016-OK)
£110.39 Including VAT

AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego 90nm (Socket 939) - Retail (CP-121-AM)
£93.94 Including VAT

Gigabyte K8N51GMF-9 nForce 6100 Micro ATX (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-042-GI)
£49.29 Including VAT

OcUK Value 1GB (2x512MB) PC3200 184pin DDR Memory Dual Channel Kit (MY-004-OK)
£58.69 Including VAT

HIS Excalibur ATI Radeon X1600 XT ICEQ Turbo 256MB DDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (RX1600XT-256ICEQT) (GX-051-HT)
£99.82 Including VAT

Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 10 NCQ 80GB 6V080E0 SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-095-MD)
£31.67 Including VAT

Antec SLK2650BQE Black Quiet Mini Tower Case - 350W SmartPower PSU (CA-051-AN)
£38.72 Including VAT

Liteon DRW-6S160P-05C 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM (CD-059-LO)
£21.44 Including VAT

Total = £503.96

The CPU is probably the best value arround at present, hence its probably overspecced in that regard, but it will definitely last you. And if required you can upgrade graphics at a later date. If the monitor is not included in the budget then you could get the above spec but also get a better card like the HIS Excalibur ATI Radeon X1800 GTO ICEQ3 SILENT TURBO 256MB