Updated Spec £1100

Pookie Bear

Pookie Bear

Pookie Bear

Soldato
Joined
28 Jun 2006
Posts
5,248
Location
Newcastle upon Tyne
Hi all,

A few weeks ago I posted, asking for help on a new spec and I got loads of good advice (thanks again :)). I'm not big on overclocking, but I'd be prepared to give it a go...

Using some of that advice, I've drawn up a new spec and would greatly appreciate any comments or advice that might be on offer:

CP-128-IN Intel Core 2 DUO E6600 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail (CP-128-IN) 1
£214.95 £214.95
MB-061-GI Gigabyte GA_965P_DS3 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-061-GI) 1
£94.95 £94.95
MY-014-GS G.Skill 2GB DDR2 NR PC2-6400 (2x1GB) CAS5 Dual Channel Kit (F2-6400PHU2-2GBNR) (MY-014-GS) 1
£114.95 £114.95
GX-047-CO Connect3D ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (3056) (GX-047-CO) 1
£219.95 £219.95
HD-078-SE Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB ST3320620AS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD-078-SE) 1
£62.95 £62.95
CD-015-SO Sony DDU-1615 DVD-ROM (Silver) - OEM (CD-015-SO) 1
£12.00 £12.00
CD-046-LO Liteon SHM-165P6S-02C 16x DVD±RW/RAM (Beige/Black/Silver) - Retail (CD-046-LO) 1
£24.95 £24.95
CA-038-LL Lian-Li PC-7 PLUS Silver Aluminium Midi-Tower Case (No PSU) (CA-038-LL) 1
£47.95 £47.95
CA-007-TG Tagan TG430-U15 430W ATX2.01 Easycon SLi Compliant Modular Silent PSU (CA-007-TG) 1
£46.95 £46.95
Subtotal £839.60
Shipping (City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)) £18.45
VAT £150.16
Total £1,008.21

I currently have a 17" TFT, a decent keyboard and a MX518 mouse. I do have a full set of backup peripherals, such as a 17" CRT, mouse and keyboard.

I've toyed with the idea of a new 19" WS monitor as well. Is the graphics card overkill, or just future-proofing my new machine (my upgrades don't happen very often!).

I currently have two machines at home - a duel processor (hehe, not dual core) Athlon with a 9800Pro and a gig of RAM which is my current setup and a backup/browsewhileplaying/shutthebirdup machine, a P3-800 (or something around there - I've forgotten!) with an old Geforce3 card in it and 784 mb of RAM. Both have 80gig HDs. The duelproc PC is far louder than the older machine - I can hardly hear the old machine when it's on.

I'd also really like to hear any suggestions on what to do with the other machines once my new build is in operation. If I was to spend the £1000 odd on the above, I'll have maybe £100/150 left to play with in my budget.

Should I buy some new stuff and turn one into an HTPC with a new big HD in it? Maybe I should turn my network wireless (currently cables all over the show!)? Maybe I should flog one of my machines for peanuts and get myself a cheap second-hand laptop for while I'm watching the telly (I always think, "maybe I should look that up" when I see something interesting on TV but always forget!)?

Apologies for the long post, but looking forward to any responses.

Skid
 
You'll need more than a 430W PSU, get the 530W. If you're getting a 19" monitor then drop the X1900XT down to an X1800XT. Any reason you've got two DVD drives?
 
BillytheImpaler said:
That's a killer spec, way overkill for a 17" CRT. :)
Click to expand...
Yup, will be a real shame running even a X1800XT on that. Invest in a new monitor, useful guide here.

To help keep it in budget, go for X1800XT as suggested & maybe change the E6600 to a E6400? That chip has been making the A64 FX62 look bad, see here!

PSU, good choice on the Tagan. But, Watt's are a-bit low. Try squeeze for the TG530-U15 or any of these...
  • Tagan TG480-U01 480W ATX2.0 SLi Compliant Silent PSU (CA-000-TG) £50.50
  • FSP Sparkle AX500-A Blue Storm 500W ATX2.0 PSU (CA-005-SK) £49.95
  • Enermax Noisetaker 485W EG495AX-VE(G) SFMA ATX2.0 PSU (CA-007-EN) £49.95
:cool:
 
Thanks for the comments, fellas, much appreciated.

fenderbass86 said:
Any reason you've got two DVD drives?
Click to expand...

Call me strange, but I like having two optical drives. Maybe it's because I bounce from one game to another, or I'm just too lazy to change them all the time, but I just prefer having two drives. I wish my reason were more spectacular than "I'm weird like that".

hp7909 said:
To help keep it in budget, go for X1800XT as suggested & maybe change the E6600 to a E6400? That chip has been making the A64 FX62 look bad
Click to expand...

The only reason for going X1900 and E6600 was purely as a means of (somewhat) future-proofing my machine. I don't upgrade often, as you can tell from my old systems, so I'd rather get something now which is going to keep me going longer. Unfortunately, the "spend less now and use it later" idea doesn't seem to work with my bank account. I suppose downgrading to an X1800 (as suggested by a few!) would be an ok idea as the one thing I don't seem to mind upgrading between systems is the graphics card but I thought getting a better CPU now would stand me in good stead for a while? Any comments on that?

Anyone got any suggestions on what to do with my two old systems?
 
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