Ginger_Chris Posted February 19, 2008 Posted February 19, 2008 Yea, sorry about this guys I really didn't want to make another one of these threads, but I do want you advice. Maybe one day we'll have a single thread that's stickied with a bunch of PC's for different prices that we can alter as time goes on. Anyway, I've got about a grand to play with. Don't need Keyboard, mouse or speakers so just the box and monitor. So far I have this: Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3P iP35 Socket 775 8-channel audio ATX Motherboard £90.82 Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 2.66GHz 1333FSB Socket 775 4MB Cache Retail Boxed Processor £116.99 2 * OCZ 2GB Kit (2x1GB) DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 CL 4-4-4-15 PLATINUM XTC with LIFETIME WARRANTY £34.98 (£69.96) Inno3D 8800GT (G92) 512MB 256bit GDDR3 Dual DVI HDTVOut PCI-E Graphics card £158.88 Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi Xtreme Gamer Soundcard - Retail Boxed £57.45 Western Digital WD5000AAKS 500GB SATA II 7200RPM 16MB Cache - OEM £64.99 Samsung SH-S203B 20X DVD±RW/RAM / DL Serial ATA Black Bare Drive - OEM £18.50 Antec Nine Hundred - Gaming Case with 200mm Top Fan - No PSU £68.46 Antec NEO HE500GB 500W Modular PSU With 80mm Low Speed/noise Fan 18db £63.08 Samsung Pebble SM2232BW 22" TFT Monitor Widescreen 1680x1050 3000:1 300cd/m2 2ms VGA/DVI Gloss Black 3 Years Warranty £210.06 Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium - Licence and media - 1 PC - OEM - DVD - 64-bit - English £57.80 total= £993 inc delivery Is this fairly balanced? Any problems you see with it? Anyway I could save money/massively improve performance cheaply? Thanks in advance.
Apple_NdiB Posted February 19, 2008 Posted February 19, 2008 That's nigh-on identical to my system, must be a ewe thing
Fandango Posted February 19, 2008 Posted February 19, 2008 Looks pretty good, the only thing I can think of right now is to wait for the E8400, coming out in March I think, only around a tenner more then the one you have there. http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=4YCZ&SearchType=1&SearchTerms=e8400&PageMode=3&SearchKey=All&SearchMode=All&NavigationKey=0
Problematique Posted February 19, 2008 Posted February 19, 2008 Just a couple of minor points: I'd prefer a Seagate over Western Digital (7200.11), roughly same price. Also the Corsair HX series PSUs are the best on the market at that power. The Corsair HX 520W should be around 60 quid. Other than that it looks good...although give the E8400 some thought: it's a 3GHz @ 45nm jobby as well as having more instruction sets than the E6750. And it's only a teeny bit more, so if you can find one then it's probably be the better choice. Other than that, it looks pretty sound. Good choice on the 8800GT (although the fan settings need tinkering on RivaTuner I hear...) Have fun with the build!
DCK Posted February 19, 2008 Posted February 19, 2008 Isn't the X-Fi 'Xtreme' series not just a filler sound card with no hardware sound processing (in other words, waste of cash)?
McPhee Posted February 19, 2008 Posted February 19, 2008 Theres not a lot to say really, it's a pretty complete system! Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3P iP35 Socket 775 8-channel audio ATX Motherboard £90.82 - The ASUS P5K Premium Wifi and ABIT IP-35 Pro are worth a look too. The Gigabyte is good though. Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 2.66GHz 1333FSB Socket 775 4MB Cache Retail Boxed Processor £116.99 - The E8400 is quite a bit better for basically the same money 2 * OCZ 2GB Kit (2x1GB) DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 CL 4-4-4-15 PLATINUM XTC with LIFETIME WARRANTY £34.98 (£69.96) - Good Inno3D 8800GT (G92) 512MB 256bit GDDR3 Dual DVI HDTVOut PCI-E Graphics card £158.88 - Good Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi Xtreme Gamer Soundcard - Retail Boxed £57.45 - Good, although not necessary unless you have half decent speakers Western Digital WD5000AAKS 500GB SATA II 7200RPM 16MB Cache - OEM £64.99 - Great HDD, supposed to be the most silent on the market! Samsung SH-S203B 20X DVD±RW/RAM / DL Serial ATA Black Bare Drive - OEM £18.50 - No complaints Antec Nine Hundred - Gaming Case with 200mm Top Fan - No PSU £68.46 - I've got this case and it's pretty good. Got a couple of niggles that i'll jot down if you want to hear them. Antec NEO HE500GB 500W Modular PSU With 80mm Low Speed/noise Fan 18db £63.08 - Good PSU, cables are designed specifically for the 900 too which should be a bonus. Samsung Pebble SM2232BW 22" TFT Monitor Widescreen 1680x1050 3000:1 300cd/m2 2ms VGA/DVI Gloss Black 3 Years Warranty £210.06 Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium - Licence and media - 1 PC - OEM - DVD - 64-bit - English £57.80 total= £993 inc delivery I've popped down a few notes, nothing needs changing though.
Ginger_Chris Posted February 20, 2008 Author Posted February 20, 2008 Cheers for the advice everyone, I'm definitely going to get the E8400. I was looking at the corsair PSU originally but I saw there might be problems with it and the case. What niggles did you have with it McPhee? My speakers are Logitech Z4's, keyboard; Logitech G15 (old style) and mouse; razer diamondback.
Sanchez Posted February 20, 2008 Posted February 20, 2008 Just a couple of minor points: I'd prefer a Seagate over Western Digital (7200.11), I used to agree with this but now I choose samsung or WD over seagate whenever possible as they are vastly quieter. I have 4 of the hard drives he's getting and none have failed me.
Problematique Posted February 20, 2008 Posted February 20, 2008 I used to agree with this but now I choose samsung or WD over seagate whenever possible as they are vastly quieter.I have 4 of the hard drives he's getting and none have failed me. Apparently the 7200.11 series have eliminated the noise problems from the 7200.10. In the end it doesn't make a vast difference I guess.
McPhee Posted February 20, 2008 Posted February 20, 2008 Cheers for the advice everyone, I'm definitely going to get the E8400. I was looking at the corsair PSU originally but I saw there might be problems with it and the case. What niggles did you have with it McPhee? My speakers are Logitech Z4's, keyboard; Logitech G15 (old style) and mouse; razer diamondback. The Corsair PSUs work fine with the 900, i've got one installed. But anyway, the 900: 1. You can't turn the case lights off. Can be a pain in the arse if the PC is in you're room and you like to leave it on overnight. Solved by replacing the fans with ones that have switchable LEDs. 2. No dust filters. The whole thing can get a little dusty, i've done 2 cleans in 6 months! 3. Nowhere to stash cables, so it's all a bit messy (even after tying everything up to the case walls). 4. The cables for the front headers (headphone, USB etc) are a little short, they only just reach the correct places in my motherboard. 5. Fan speed controls are inside the case. Not a big deal, but i'd rather have had dials on the back of the case like on the P182. All in all the case is fantastic, im being really quite picky coming up with this stuff.
Raining_again Posted February 20, 2008 Posted February 20, 2008 The Corsair PSUs work fine with the 900, i've got one installed. But anyway, the 900: 1. You can't turn the case lights off. Can be a pain in the arse if the PC is in you're room and you like to leave it on overnight. Solved by replacing the fans with ones that have switchable LEDs. 2. No dust filters. The whole thing can get a little dusty, i've done 2 cleans in 6 months! 3. Nowhere to stash cables, so it's all a bit messy (even after tying everything up to the case walls). 4. The cables for the front headers (headphone, USB etc) are a little short, they only just reach the correct places in my motherboard. 5. Fan speed controls are inside the case. Not a big deal, but i'd rather have had dials on the back of the case like on the P182. All in all the case is fantastic, im being really quite picky coming up with this stuff. I can't agree more with this post. But the quality of the case is superb. No nasty sharp bits on it
Ginger_Chris Posted February 21, 2008 Author Posted February 21, 2008 I'll see if I can put any mesh or something near the fans to prevent dust. messy cables and lights don't bother me (I have a usb plasma globe, mouse and keyboard lit up all night usually anyway). Put my order in just now, have to wait a bit for the E8400 though
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