Time for a new PC...£1500 is what I have to play with

miracleboy · 12 Mar 2006 at 16:52

My current 4 year old PC needs a replacement and I'm not really up on current hardware...I'm vaguely aware of dual core, 64 bit and SLi but don't really know what these mean in real terms.

I don't need a monitor, as I already have a 17" widescreen flat panel.

I would prefer to buy a full unit, but don't mind building it myself as have built a couple in the past.

I want a case that looks really nice, i.e. not standard PC ugliness!

I think I prefer AMD, but stand to be corrected.

The PC will be mainly for gaming, but also for general use - Office, photo, iTunes, downloading, email, web etc.

Welcome some ideas - or even full purchase list if you like.

I am planning on getting the Razer Copperhead, and the Saitek keyboard that lights up blue (can't remember model) - what do you think of these?

Thanks in advance!

miracleboy · 12 Mar 2006 at 17:40

Thanks for spending the time to put that together. I am looking around for a case - the Antec Sonata II looks okay, or the Coolermaster curvy silver one.

I was hoping to get Windows MCE also - then I can stream HD content from the PC through the Xbox 360 to the TV.

Would it be better to go for an SLi capable MB then I could add a second card later on if I needed to? How much better is SLi than a single card?

Also might want to go for a larger drive, or maybe 2 large drives in a RAID-0 configuration for performance?

miracleboy · 12 Mar 2006 at 19:44

I've read about the AMD FX57 - how far apart is this chip from those you have specced?

miracleboy · 13 Mar 2006 at 14:41

I'm not planning to overclock, so would I be better off going with one of the X2 range rather than the Op (from what I've been reading)?

miracleboy · 14 Mar 2006 at 13:26

Thanks - that looks like a great spec you have with a lot of the same components I chose - what do you think of these?

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+ (Socket 939) - Retail (ADA3800BVBOX) (CP-134-AM) 205.57
DFI LanParty UT RDX200CF-DR Crossfire (Socket 939) Motherboard (MB-017-DF) 146.82
GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit CAS3 (GE2GB3200BDC) (MY-046-GL) 117.44
ATI Radeon X1900 ***Crossfire Edition*** 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-045-CO) 352.44
Western Digital Raptor 150GB WD1500ADFD 10,000RPM SATA 16MB Cache - OEM (HD-069-WD) 198.52
Antec P180 Advanced Super Midi Tower Case - No PSU (Silver) (CA-039-AN) 93.94
Hiper HPU-4K580-MK Type R 580W Modular ATX2.2 PSU - Black UV (CA-005-HP) 62.22