Yet another PC spec request...

FinBen

FinBen

FinBen

Associate
Joined
25 Jan 2009
Posts
11
Location
Oxford
I'm a student with an unfortunate gaming habit; I have an Xbox 360 but really miss decent RTS games, and I've always had a soft spot for PCs anyway. I've been agonising over a build with decent price/performance ratio for months, and given I'm moving in and out of college ever couple of months it needs to be relatively portable. Not looking to spend more than £600, so I'm wondering if you could advise me on my current choice:

Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4870 1024MB @ £166.74
DFI Lan Party JR P45-T2RS Intel P45 @ £109.24
OCZ StealthXStream 600w Power Supply @ £60.94
Intel Pentium Dual-Core E5200 @ £57.49
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 500GB @ £50.59
Corsair 4GB DDR2 XMS2 PC2-6400C5 TwinX @ £42.54
Coolermaster Elite 340 Micro-ATX Case @ £28.74
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler @ £20.69
LG GH22NS40 22x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter @ £16.09
Scythe Kaze Jyuni 1900RPM Slip Stream 120mm Fan x2 @ £13.78

All up, £578.31.

I'm a new member, so sorry for diving in immediately with requests for help but I thought you might be the people to ask! Thanks in advance :)
 
Hi and welcome to the forums.

A couple of things i would change. Ditch the terrible OCZ psu. They suffer from poor quality and high ripple. All the usual one's i would recommend are out of stock or overpriced at the moment but something in the 5-600w range from Zalman or Pc Power and Cooling would be good.

Swap the Seagate 7200.11 drive as they have been problematic. Go for a Samsung F1 or Western Digital AAKS series of 320Gb or 640Gb capacity. They both have 320Gb platters so those capacities are faster.

I would swap the very overpriced Freezer 7 Pro as well. The Akasa AK-965 is every bit as good as the Freezer 7 pro and a bit quieter. It's also only £12.65 but as with a lot of things on here it is also out of stock.

The cpu is very good but a bit unbalanced to go with a 1Gb 4870. It will be ok with it but a better choice would be a E7400 or even better a E8400 with it's 6mb of cache.
 
Thanks very much; I've found a PC Power and Cooling supply which will do fine and isn't too much more, similarly with the HDD and cooler. The problem with going for another CPU is the hike in price, I've promised myself that I won't go over £600 :-S Damn my principles (and student loan limits...)! The GPU is on offer at the moment, so I considered going for something a bit lower, like a 4850, to better match the CPU but it seemed too good to turn down. Damn, I'm going to have to agonise over whether to break my budget just that little bit for an E8400 now...
 
You could save yourself £30 on the board and just get the Gigabyte GA-EP43-DS3L which will do you just as well, just you wont be able to add a 2nd card in crossfire later, but you could put that £30 towards your CPU
 
pastymuncher said:
Hi and welcome to the forums.

A couple of things i would change. Ditch the terrible OCZ psu. They suffer from poor quality and high ripple. All the usual one's i would recommend are out of stock or overpriced at the moment but something in the 5-600w range from Zalman or Pc Power and Cooling would be good.
Click to expand...

but don't ocz own pc power & cooling?

so their PSU's are built on the same line?
 
S.A.S said:
but don't ocz own pc power & cooling?

so their PSU's are built on the same line?
Click to expand...

It's completely different. OCZ psu's are rubbish. They constantly get slated in reviews, something that has'nt changed even with the brand new Pro versions. PC Power and Cooling on the other hand are some of the finest psu's you can buy and always do very well in reviews.
 
its only a £20 odd difference, and the 4870 is a bit more future proof, if you do upgrade your monitor.
 
I have an OCZ GameXstream 600w and mine had been floorless! Very quiet and run at least 12 hours a day.

I would recommend it but looking at the market now i would go for PC Power and Cooling mate got one and there BRILLIANT

I am doing a new build, at its almost idnetical to yours and im in the same problem shall i spend that extra for a E8400 , but it would still leave me with a few hundred left in my bank, its my birthday in a month. Need to get a part-time job as well as college:(
 
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