Spec

Deonilin · 10 Aug 2007 at 18:56

Hi, im looking for a basic pc spec for a budget of £400. This is to include the box only.

The PC will be used for Sound recording and editing/encoding with casual gaming. Currently its more of a basic set up to build on, im looking to buy a good graphics card and soundcard when i have the budget so onboard sound will do for now along with a low spec card (counter-strike source is about the most resource hungry game for graphics i play at the moment). In the future i would look at a graphics and sound card each in the £200 mark but that wont be until christmas.

Any help would be apreciated

, the system will unlikly be highly overclocked so that isnt an issue but a quiter option would be considered if there isnt a massive performace hit due to the increase costs of passivly cooled componants.

Deonilin · 13 Aug 2007 at 19:11

i had a go at putting something togethers comments are apreciated

Deonilin · 13 Aug 2007 at 19:14

Sapphire ATI Radeon X1950 Pro 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail

Click image to enlarge
£84.99
£99.86 inc VAT

sorry posted wrong card

Duke · 13 Aug 2007 at 19:22

For encoding, you are better off going with a Core 2 Duo. They are better performing, quieter and offer huge overclocking potential. Something like the E6550 with 1333FSB would be good price/performance or you can get a cheaper chip and just clock it up anyway.

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/intel/showdoc.aspx?i=3012&p=4

MattJones2k6 · 13 Aug 2007 at 19:23

First spec is in budget:

Second is over budget:

Hope this helps

MattJones2k6 · 13 Aug 2007 at 19:24

LGA775 is the way to go if you are willing to go over budget btw

semi-pro waster · 13 Aug 2007 at 19:33

This is slightly over budget but should allow for a decent overclock and gives potential for further upgrades.

OcUK ATI Radeon X1950 Pro 256MB GDDR3 HDTV/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £59.99
(£70.49) £59.99
(£70.49)
Intel Core 2 Duo E2160 "LGA775 Conroe" 1.80GHz (800FSB) - Retail £49.99
(£58.74) £49.99
(£58.74)
Hitachi Deskstar T7K500 NCQ 320GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM £37.99
(£44.64) £37.99
(£44.64)
HP DVD 1035i 20x DVD±RW x12 Ram Dual Layer DVD-Writer (Black) - OEM £13.99
(£16.44) £13.99
(£16.44)
Antec NSK6500 Super Midi Tower Case - 430W PSU £59.99
(£70.49) £59.99
(£70.49)
Gigabyte GA_P35C_DS3R (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 & DDR3 Motherboard £69.99
(£82.24) £69.99
(£82.24)
OcUK 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C5 800MHz DDR2 Dual Channel Kit £51.99
(£61.09) £51.99
(£61.09)
Sub Total : £343.93
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 : £62.10
Total : £416.98

MattJones2k6 · 13 Aug 2007 at 19:35

semi-pro waster said:
This is slightly over budget but should allow for a decent overclock and gives potential for further upgrades.

OcUK ATI Radeon X1950 Pro 256MB GDDR3 HDTV/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £59.99
(£70.49) £59.99
(£70.49)
Intel Core 2 Duo E2160 "LGA775 Conroe" 1.80GHz (800FSB) - Retail £49.99
(£58.74) £49.99
(£58.74)
Hitachi Deskstar T7K500 NCQ 320GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM £37.99
(£44.64) £37.99
(£44.64)
HP DVD 1035i 20x DVD±RW x12 Ram Dual Layer DVD-Writer (Black) - OEM £13.99
(£16.44) £13.99
(£16.44)
Antec NSK6500 Super Midi Tower Case - 430W PSU £59.99
(£70.49) £59.99
(£70.49)
Gigabyte GA_P35C_DS3R (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 & DDR3 Motherboard £69.99
(£82.24) £69.99
(£82.24)
OcUK 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C5 800MHz DDR2 Dual Channel Kit £51.99
(£61.09) £51.99
(£61.09)
Sub Total : £343.93
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 : £62.10
Total : £416.98

thts a much better spec than mine actually

Explicit · 13 Aug 2007 at 19:44

Haven't done a spec for a while, but here you go

Edit: Too slow, very similar to semi-pro's

Deonilin · 13 Aug 2007 at 19:58

thanks certainly gives me a lot to think about, got a few questions tho.

> I have heard bad things about gigabyte hardware being unreliable is this just a few peoples bad experiances or a comman thing.

> would i get a beneficial performance increase from the E6550 over the E2160

DavidB · 13 Aug 2007 at 20:17

> I have heard bad things about gigabyte hardware being unreliable is this just a few peoples bad experiances or a comman thing.

The p35 gigabyte boards have actually got pretty good reviews, heard very few issues.

> would i get a beneficial performance increase from the E6550 over the E2160

A fair amount at stock speeds, if you overclocked them both to 3ghz or something then you wouldnt really notice the difference, but at stock the E6550 is a fair bit faster.

MattJones2k6 · 13 Aug 2007 at 20:19

Faster FSB, more enhanced overall...

My spec is quite decent but pricey and i left out S-ATA DVDRW

Most sound editing professionals will use faster hdds

sometimes SCSI 15k

But those are expensive ....

mine also had a 400GB hdd, you should maybe have a raptor 36GB (for sound editing etc.) then have 400GB for storage

but I could be wrong...

Deonilin · 13 Aug 2007 at 20:22

well currently its not for professional use as there will be studio access and the prices of getting professional kit is way beyond which i can currently afford.

As i will be running it at stock i have upped my budget and taking into consideration your comments have come up with this

does the clock speed or faster fsb make the bigger difference?