highland man Posted October 17, 2005 Share Posted October 17, 2005 This is the spec for the pc i am hoping to get this Christmas and i would appreciate some opinions from the technical minded people out there. Thanks in advance. Intel Pentium 4 processor 650 (3.4GHz, 2MB cache, 800MHz) supporting Hyper-Threading Technology Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition Intel 915P chipset motherboard with PCI Express, 1Gb LAN, dual channel DDR & Hyper-Threading support 1GB DDR2 533 250GB Serial ATA hard drive with 8MB buffer 256Mb ATI Radeon X800GT PCI Express graphics 19" Viewsonic VX912 pure digital DVI TFT monitor (12ms response) DVD-ROM (16x) drive Multi Format Dual Layer DVD Writer (16x) / CD Writer drive Sound Blaster compatible 6 channel audio Creative Inspire P5800 5.1 speakers Microsoft cordless keyboard and cordless optical tilt mouse v92 56k modem Xpider tool free case (453x222x495mm) HCI 5 star Bundle Desktop i've attached a pic also The whole pc and screen will cost me £800 Thanks again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew Posted October 17, 2005 Share Posted October 17, 2005 Looks like a very good spec to me... Uber fast P4, plenty of RAM, fast hard disk, powerful graphics, decent monitor, and the rest looks good too. £800 seems like a pretty good deal. Only thing I'd moan about is the on-board sound, because I'm obsessed with audio quality. If you want to get the most out of those speakers, consider a better sound card - I reccommend either an Audigy2 ZS (£40) or X-Fi (£100). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
highland man Posted October 17, 2005 Author Share Posted October 17, 2005 ok, thanks i'm pretty good at understanding these things usually but haven't been keeping up with components lately and just wanteda to make sure there were no poor components listed, i'll try and get a better sound card. anyone used the graphics card b4? opinions? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Jordan Posted October 17, 2005 Share Posted October 17, 2005 Hmmmm... the X800GT is the worst version of the X800. Its really not going to last you that long and to be honest its not going to keep up with the CPU. The X1800 will be out soon, huge amounts of power and the 7800GTX (GeForce) is already out and its not that expensive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew Posted October 17, 2005 Share Posted October 17, 2005 A mate of mine has an x800 (AGP version) and it's fantastic, can't go wrong with that chip. Edit: the GT is a cheaper version of the x800. It might be possible to softmod it to higher speeds and unlock some pipelines to get more out of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Posted October 17, 2005 Share Posted October 17, 2005 Thats a good rig, id possibly suggest a faster gpu like an x850. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sanchez Posted October 17, 2005 Share Posted October 17, 2005 Graphics card is fast and fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Twozzok Posted October 17, 2005 Share Posted October 17, 2005 i have the p4 3.4ghz, and i'd reccomend getting a better heatsink/fan :P though that might just be me obsessed with keepiung my cpu sub-40 C Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
christophicus Posted October 17, 2005 Share Posted October 17, 2005 The X-Fi sound card is supposed to be a major leap in technology over the audigy 2 ,its supposed to sound amazing. with the x800gt if you get a card that used to be an x850 then you should be able to get an amazing overclock out of it,it can be a really good card. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Jordan Posted October 17, 2005 Share Posted October 17, 2005 It maybe be a huge leap (and yes it damn well is, even MP3's and normal sounds... sound even better.) but are you really willing to pay £150 for one? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Posted October 17, 2005 Share Posted October 17, 2005 On an slightly off topic note, can some one explain to me how crossfire works. What card is the master etc. Looking at the product specs on overclockers.co.uk it goes on about the new cards needing a master one to function in crossfire. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RoadKill Posted October 17, 2005 Share Posted October 17, 2005 Why do you need two DVD drives? The graphics card isn't too bad, but if you can, swap it out for an X800XL, it will cost pennies more but will be much better. JonSt, don't worry about CrossFire, it's the poor cousin of nVIDIA's SLI, and honestly isn't worth pursuing under ANY circmustances in its current state. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
highland man Posted October 17, 2005 Author Share Posted October 17, 2005 i'm not a heavy pc gamer, so i'll see how the gpu goes for a while, thanks for the tips everyone. I'm going to take your advice on the sound card tho. Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Choze Posted October 17, 2005 Share Posted October 17, 2005 Audigy 2 ZS is great value. X-fi is overpriced for what it is IMO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RoadKill Posted October 17, 2005 Share Posted October 17, 2005 I wouldn't have bought an extra sound card; but that's up to you. I use my onboard sound, and my speakers are awesome. My secret? Optical out. Doesn't matter how dirty and sux the analogue circutry is, my sound is crisp and pure since my speakers have a built in decoder for almost everything. They rock. For reference my speakers are Logitech Z-680's, and anyone who has met me and witnessed them will tell you that they want them. Infact from: http://www.bit-tech.net/review/266/5 that page: Pros: All around amazing sound quality. Decoder/Control console unit gives you full control and input options. Remote Control is a huge plus, especially when using these as a home theatre configuration. Design of the satellites make them versitile and easy to install. Cons: Price (expensive but worth it) Made the UPS man mad at me, because of their weight, you could pay big money for shipping. Hehe, same happened to me, the guy from City Link made me carry out of the back of his van myself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The-Ironflame Posted October 17, 2005 Share Posted October 17, 2005 I've read that the pentiums are slower than the Athlon 64's and they run hotter. The X800 GT is a mid range card to compete with the Nvidia 6600 GT and it does run fine at around 1280x as long as you have a good CPU if you want something slightly more expensive and if it's available there's always the X800 (non Pro) which I think is only slower in terms of Core speed and Memory Speed. DDR 2 I've heard is poor and not a big advantage over normal DDR. I know all this because I've been researching on a new PC aswell :p Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Haver Posted October 17, 2005 Share Posted October 17, 2005 Build your own! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RoadKill Posted October 17, 2005 Share Posted October 17, 2005 I've read that the pentiums are slower than the Athlon 64's and they run hotter. The X800 GT is a mid range card to compete with the Nvidia 6600 GT and it does run fine at around 1280x as long as you have a good CPU if you want something slightly more expensive and if it's available there's always the X800 (non Pro) which I think is only slower in terms of Core speed and Memory Speed.I know all this because I've been researching on a new PC aswell :p You could have just asked us, or at least me. Yeah, Prescotts suck, and Athlon 64's are by the fastest CPUs at gaming. The Pentium 4 could beat the Athlon 64 in certain things, like video encoding. Uh, until they released the Athlon 64 X2, which is by far the best single CPU system you could purchase. X800XL is the best price/performance X800 series card. X800 Pro and X800 don't have the same number of pipelines as the X800 XT. The X800 XL has the same number of pipelines as the X800 XT, but often costs less than the X800 Pro. It's the better buy. Seriously. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Offerman Posted October 17, 2005 Share Posted October 17, 2005 The P4 - Athlon war has been raging for ages, and it was pretty tight, until the X2 was released. Its now a landslide and even the P4 Extreme Edition, (which admittedly has fizzled out) cannot come close to the processing ability of the Athlon 64 X2. The tables have also turned for heat disippation. The Intel P4 Northwood came out when AMD launched their XP series in 2001. The P4 had only one core with one codename, the Northwood, AMD however had the Palomino, the T-Bred, and the Barton. All three suffered from heat problems, even the Barton, which was made to combat these problems. As such the early P4's where still favoured because of that. However as 2004 came around, Intel launched the Prescott and as Piro says its a dog. It drinks power, and is horribly dirty and inefficent. AMD's 64 Bit processers absolutly eat it up, and surprisingly AMD's on-the-fly load throttleing doesnt account for all of its efficency. Alot of work and RnD on the die side of things has ensured that AMD stay well ahead for the future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ipaul Posted October 24, 2005 Share Posted October 24, 2005 Wow. That seems very good for £800. Any anti-virus software with it? Also have you considerd an imac? Just a suggestion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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