Phube Posted February 2, 2008 Share Posted February 2, 2008 I want a PC for normal stuff (internet, music, photos etc) plus some gaming (Orange Box, GTA4 (if it comes out on PC) etc.) . I have a total budget of £750 (but ~£150 of that will have to be a new monitor!) This is from PCSpecialist; £639. It seems okay to me (Apart from the graphics card but I can't stretch to the 8800GT.) But I have no idea about motherboards, PSU's, cooling etc... Intel® Core™2 Duo E6750 (2 X 2.66GHz) 1333MHz FSB/4MB L2 Cache 2GB CORSAIR XMS2 800MHz - LIFETIME WARRANTY! (2x1GB) ASUS® P5K SE: DDR2, SATAII, PCI-e x16, 2 PCI, 3 x PCI-e x1 WINDOWS® VISTA Home Premium (inc Genuine CD & License) (£59) 8 x USB 2.0 PORTS (6 REAR + 2 FRONT) AS STANDARD 400GB SERIAL ATA II HARD DRIVE WITH 16MB CACHE (7200rpm) 20x Dual Layer LightScribe DVD Writer ±R/±RW/RAM 512MB GEFORCE 8600GTS PCI Express + D-SUB +DVI + HDMI 8 Channel Realtek ALC883 High Definition Audio (P5K-SE) ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (READS XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) Stylish Silver/Black Sigma case + 2 front USB 500W (Peak) Quiet Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£25) SUPER QUIET 19 dBA INTEL CPU COOLER (£14) Logitech® Cordless Internet Pro Desktop Keyboard & Mouse (Black) (£16) LOGITECH S120 2.0 BLACK SPEAKER SYSTEM (£5) Any help!? Please... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slaggis Posted February 2, 2008 Share Posted February 2, 2008 Try PCoption.co.uk , they are a really great company, and cheap too. I'd recommend using them over PcSpecialist (after having experience with both). You can make a pc for about £643 (Minus delivery which makes it about £660) with the 8800GT. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AshMat Posted February 2, 2008 Share Posted February 2, 2008 Get rid of the 8600 already, bump to an 8800 of some sort. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McPhee Posted February 2, 2008 Share Posted February 2, 2008 You don't sound like you really need an 8800GT, but something a bit better than the 8600GT would be a good idea. Try this from PC Option: Intel E4400 Processor 2GB DDR2 800Mhz RAM Asus P5KPL ATI 3850 512MB 320GB Hard Drive DVD Writer Vista Home Premium 64-bit £493.87 In terms of power it's similar to my machine, but with a slightly less powerful graphics card. I can run pretty much anything around on High - Max settings and get decent frame rates, so this should serve you well. The only exception is Crysis, where this will probably get you to medium settings. It's also £100 below budget, which can't be bad Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phube Posted February 3, 2008 Author Share Posted February 3, 2008 You don't sound like you really need an 8800GT, but something a bit better than the 8600GT would be a good idea. Try this from PC Option: Intel E4400 Processor 2GB DDR2 800Mhz RAM Asus P5KPL ATI 3850 512MB 320GB Hard Drive DVD Writer Vista Home Premium 64-bit £493.87 In terms of power it's similar to my machine, but with a slightly less powerful graphics card. I can run pretty much anything around on High - Max settings and get decent frame rates, so this should serve you well. The only exception is Crysis, where this will probably get you to medium settings. It's also £100 below budget, which can't be bad PC Option are only 30 miles away and could be an option (no pun intended). Just a few questions: Why 64bit Vista, I thought nothing actually ran with it yet? Would it be worth getting a slightly better processor as my buget can really go to £600 easily? Motherboards? Still don't understand the differences!?? But thanks for the replies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RoadKill Posted February 5, 2008 Share Posted February 5, 2008 64 bit Vista runs almost everything your 32 bit Vista will run. The major only concern is driver support, but as long as you stick to decent brand, new hardware, almost everything will have a 64 bit Vista driver. If you have a half decent motherboard you can overclock your Core 2 Duo to save a shitload of money with ease. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phube Posted February 5, 2008 Author Share Posted February 5, 2008 64 bit Vista runs almost everything your 32 bit Vista will run. The major only concern is driver support, but as long as you stick to decent brand, new hardware, almost everything will have a 64 bit Vista driver. If you have a half decent motherboard you can overclock your Core 2 Duo to save a shitload of money with ease. This is my point: What is a 'Decent' motherboard... I've tried to read around the subject, visit ASUS's website etc. no-one really tells you in layman's terms! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McPhee Posted February 6, 2008 Share Posted February 6, 2008 A 'decent' motherboard is one that is of good build quality and that contains all the features you need. It's like with anything, you have to look at reviews to find out if it's any good. Some do everything under the sun but perform badly (the motherboard can have more of an effect on performance than any other product) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phube Posted February 6, 2008 Author Share Posted February 6, 2008 So is the 'Asus P5K SE DDR 1066' any good?? Or is the 'Asus P5K C' worth £16 more (PC Option)!? Or the 'Asus P5K PL' 'good enough' for £18 less?? Soo confused! :? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McPhee Posted February 6, 2008 Share Posted February 6, 2008 So is the 'Asus P5K SE DDR 1066' any good?? Or is the 'Asus P5K C' worth £16 more (PC Option)!? Or the 'Asus P5K PL' 'good enough' for £18 less?? Soo confused! :? The SE is a slightly stipped down P5K. The P5KC is a P5K with Crossfire support. The PL is shitty budget one. I'd say the C is worth the extra if you can spare it. If not then get the SE. E6550 P5KC 3850 512MB 2GB DDR2-800 DVD-RW 320GB HDD Antec 900 Case (if you like the look of them) Vista Home Premium x64 That lot comes to £607 which is pretty good value. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RoadKill Posted February 7, 2008 Share Posted February 7, 2008 Just to notify everyone, if you're interested in overclocking at all, Wolfdale is available and cheap. http://www.ebuyer.com/product/139967 6MB of cache as opposed to 4MB for Conroe, 45nm as opposed to 65nm, this shit runs cooler and overclocks better than ever. I'm tempted to swap one into my PC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Jordan Posted February 7, 2008 Share Posted February 7, 2008 Yeah... only £106. I recently overclocked Letty's PC. She has a Core 2 Duo (although technically Pentium D) E2200. 1MB Cache, 2.2ghz. Got it up to 2.94ghz with no issues. Anything over was unstable, but still... pretty damn quick chip. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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