View Full Version : buying a new computer
Mechanicus
17-01-05, 17:45
im gonna buy a new computer from components and put em together myself, ive got these many parts sorted(either already have em or decided already) :
-gfx card 128MB Sapphire Radeon 9800 Pro
-sound card already got(SB audigy 2 ZS)
-ram already got(512mb ddr)
-processor AMD Sempron PR2600+
-mobo Epox EP-8RDA3IPro
-dvd drive already got
-rewriteable drive already got
-power supply akready got
getting these parts together will set me back £250 so i just need to get hold of these:
case(if i have money left over)
fans
heatsink
hard disk
i have arounf £100 to spend on these, could anybody give me and recomendations?
also im not sure if i've missed any parts, i have my whole old computer to pick from so i can probally take any cables and stuff i need from
thanks
im gonna buy a new computer from components and put em together myself, ive got these many parts sorted(either already have em or decided already) :
-gfx card 128MB Sapphire Radeon 9800 Pro
-sound card already got(SB audigy 2 ZS)
-ram already got(512mb ddr)
-processor AMD Sempron PR2600+
-mobo Epox EP-8RDA3IPro
-dvd drive already got
-rewriteable drive already got
-power supply akready got
getting these parts together will set me back £250 so i just need to get hold of these:
case(if i have money left over)
fans
heatsink
hard disk
i have arounf £100 to spend on these, could anybody give me and recomendations?
also im not sure if i've missed any parts, i have my whole old computer to pick from so i can probally take any cables and stuff i need from
thanks
Well, i dont know if i would go for a Sempron... It's pretty outdated, if it's a
S754 then i guess you could buy a A64 after a while... But I would rather save
up some more and go for a S939 and also a 6600GT, the 6600GT costs about
the same as a 9800Pro but it's better.
You can read alot of good reviews @ tomshardware.com
--- edit
--- edit #2, had wrong mobo
I would go for something like this
AMD Athlon 64 3000 32/64Bit CPU S939 Winchester 90nm Retail inc Heat Sink Fan & 3 Years Warranty
£101.40
128Mb Aopen Aeolus 6600GT DV128 Tv/DVI AGP
£139.83
Gigabyte GA-K8NS Ultra-939, nForce 3, ATX, DDDR400, Gbit Lan, USB 2.0, 1394, AC'97 Audio, SATA, Raid
£78.13
80Gb Western Digital ATA-100 (7200rpm,8MB,8.9ms) - PATA
£40.83
Total: £306.54
Carriage: £10
VAT: £52.91
--
Total: £371.93
That's £20 more then you had, and you can buy a better cooler later and some
more fans, new case etc... when you get some more money to spare.
Prices are from scan.co.uk, i'm sure you can find some other place that's
cheaper, but you get the general idea.
Ninjano2002uk
17-01-05, 17:57
get a X800xt PE Saph best Gfx card ever! :D
i agree with the above, id wait a lil while and save for a amd64, a64 will last you longer and u will love it more. ;)
I'd suggest you get a Intel chip if possible, AMDs are.... just bad :p on many levels i'm not going to go into. Even the 64 bit ones are slower than Intel's 32 bit Prescott offering and it's more expensive.
Disk drives- i've had good experience with Excelstor drives. Basically IBM drives with a new label, work great and ncie and cheap. Very reliable and quiet too.
Fans- you probably need about 2, 80mm, and just go to rswww.co.uk or whatever for those :) or get some nice light-up fans like me.
Heatsink/Fan, i'd suggest a Thermaltake. AMDs get ridiculously hot (See intel comment above) so you might want some Arctic Silver 5 too. I'm using a P4 2.8 EE/HT Prescott with AS5 and a Thermaltake Spark 7 P4, works wonders, around 50'c while gaming. But if you're really gonna buy an AMD.... get something meatier and more expensive because AMDs need buckets of cooling. Loads of fans is my reccomendation :p
AMDs get ridiculously hot (See intel comment above)
Not the S939s... They work like a charm, and with a nice Zalman cooler you
could go a long way on OCing them with air cooling.
Mechanicus
17-01-05, 18:44
ok ive dont some more research myself and i've come up with this:
dvd drive
already got
rewriteable drive
already got
power supply
already got
sound card
already got(SB audigy 2 ZS)
ram
already got(512mb ddr)
gfx card £138.63
http://www.cclonline.com/product-info.asp?id=295
processor £58.29
http://www.cclonline.com/product-info.asp?id=1575
mobo £51.82
http://www.cclonline.com/product-info.asp?id=2076
case £39.49
http://www.cclonline.com/product-info.asp?product_id=1842&category_id=54&manufacturer_id=0
fans x2 £6.26
http://www.cclonline.com/product-info.asp?product_id=1863&category_id=60&manufacturer_id=0
heatsink £6.19
http://www.cclonline.com/product-info.asp?product_id=335&category_id=98&manufacturer_id=0
hard disk £35.46
http://www.cclonline.com/product-info.asp?product_id=505&category_id=111&manufacturer_id=0
total £329.95
my total budget is £350 so that fits right in, is that everything i need a build a computer?
anything else i need please list, i can take stuff off my old computer also
thanks
ok ive dont some more research myself and i've come up with this:
dvd drive
already got
rewriteable drive
already got
power supply
already got
sound card
already got(SB audigy 2 ZS)
ram
already got(512mb ddr)
gfx card £138.63
http://www.cclonline.com/product-info.asp?id=295
processor £58.29
http://www.cclonline.com/product-info.asp?id=1575
mobo £51.82
http://www.cclonline.com/product-info.asp?id=2076
case £39.49
http://www.cclonline.com/product-info.asp?product_id=1842&category_id=54&manufacturer_id=0
fans x2 £6.26
http://www.cclonline.com/product-info.asp?product_id=1863&category_id=60&manufacturer_id=0
heatsink £6.19
http://www.cclonline.com/product-info.asp?product_id=335&category_id=98&manufacturer_id=0
hard disk £35.46
http://www.cclonline.com/product-info.asp?product_id=505&category_id=111&manufacturer_id=0
total £329.95
my total budget is £350 so that fits right in, is that everything i need a build a computer?
anything else i need please list, i can take stuff off my old computer also
thanks
Don't skimp on the cooling. Doesn't pay off in the long run/.
Mechanicus
17-01-05, 19:27
i didnt think i was :confused:
i just chose those because the site recomended them
how about this heatsink then
http://www.cclonline.com/product-info.asp?product_id=346&category_id=98&manufacturer_id=0
the fans all look the same price unless their gimmicked like leds and stuff, i presumed they were all pretty similer
I'm not going to say much, since it's your money and your cash, but, your
gonna be sorry in a year.
Mechanicus
17-01-05, 19:51
that depends how you look at it
if i wanted to have an absolute top of the range system that will blow every game away then i would be sorry
if i wanted a system that was reliable, fast enough for what im gonna do on it (play neocron and ultima online mainly :p ) and to be able to play some of the games which are gonna come out next year at an acceptable rate, as well as a work computer as im going to uni next year, then im not gonna be disapointed
that depends how you look at it
if i wanted to have an absolute top of the range system that will blow every game away then i would be sorry
if i wanted a system that was reliable, fast enough for what im gonna do on it (play neocron and ultima online mainly :p ) and to be able to play some of the games which are gonna come out next year at an acceptable rate, as well as a work computer as im going to uni next year, then im not gonna be disapointed
I'm not talking about top of the line, you have to be pretty stupid to buy the
best shit out there, really stupid or really rich, what i was talking about is that
Semprons are no longer being made, and if you save up an extra £20 you can
get a very good Socket939 system, and then you buy a 3000+ cpu wich is the
cheepeast one, but will run anything today, in a years time, when you feel the
urge to upgrade some more, you get e new processor and maybe some more/
better ram....
Mechanicus
17-01-05, 20:08
hm, i presumed semprons were the generic amd chip now, as their the ONLY socket A chip listed on ccl
im sure i can strech to another £20, would you be able to recomend a motherboard that will run that kinda system?
i didnt go for socket 939 as i was told they were just expencive for not much gain, as there is no software which makes use of the extra bits it has
Mechanicus
17-01-05, 20:42
they renamed the athlon xp to sampron when they released thr new 64 bit athlons
from a source who i trust
hm, i presumed semprons were the generic amd chip now, as their the ONLY socket A chip listed on ccl
im sure i can strech to another £20, would you be able to recomend a motherboard that will run that kinda system?
i didnt go for socket 939 as i was told they were just expencive for not much gain, as there is no software which makes use of the extra bits it has
Semprons are pretty old, they are SocketA and i believe there are Socket754
Semprons aswell... Socket939 is the succesor of 754 and is the new standard
for AMD CPUs. Some 754s may still arrive, but they will cut production shortly
as people are moving on to 939.
Yeah, socket 939s are more expensive, although not as AGP... there was one
mobo @ scan.co.uk for like £50ish that was S939 nForce3. I dont know if it's
any good or not though, some brand I never heard of.
The problems you hear about are only associated with SLI. It has some, how
you say it, "childhood issues"... But it's nothing to do with hardware, and it's
nothing that cant be fixed with a flash update if you want to go for SLI, they
are expensive though as there is not many of them out yet, and there is a
pretty huge demand for the SLI mobos.
MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum, nVIDIA® NF3 , ATX, DDDR400, 2xGbit Lan, USB 2.0, 1394, 7.1Ch Audio, SATA,Raid
£88.70 @ scan.co.uk
Is a very popular mobo among the overclockers, but if you however dont plan
on doing so, any mobo will suffice.
Gigabyte GA K8NS-939
£54.10 @ scan.co.uk
That was the mobo I was talking bout. Direct Link (http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=166731)
Here is the link to the product @ gigabyte. Click Me (http://tw.giga-byte.com/MotherBoard/Products/Products_Spec_GA-K8NS-939.htm)
If you look at the supported CPUs you can see that it supports up to 4000+.
That means that in a year or so you can probably get those CPUs very cheap
and upgrade your system a bit.
---
Also Microsoft is comming out with a 64bit version of windows soon, it's free
to download atm but is a test version with poor stability from what i hear,
also lots of problems with drivers. But if you buy a 64bit CPU now, it will be
like upgrading your computer once you switch to an operating system that
takes full advantage of the CPU. Granted, not many applications make use of
this at the moment, but shortly after Microsoft releases their OS they will
probably be converting.
Running the CPU in 32bit mode will not give you a large preformance increase,
if any, but once you switch to 64bit you will see the difference. It also allows
you to do this, as the Sempron doesnt since it's pure 32bit.
Hope that helps
Yeah not bad for a budget system, though if you decide to go for Socket 939, wait a little while as the SLI boards are... how shall i put it, a little buggy atm. Dont bother with socket 754 as you do get far better perfomance from a socket 939 due to the fact the memory controller is CPU based rather than based on the mobo. If you do go for socket 939 make sure u get PCI express and that its an SLI board so you can slap in a couple of VGA cards (2x 6600's or 2x 6800's) but that totally depends on what you can afford and what your willing to spend.
The sempron CPU is basically the Celeron-D rival, its a northwood core with slighty less cache than the northwood, after checking a few hardware benchmarks on toms, it seemed that the sempron was slightly better than the celly -D for gaming.
As for the epox board, good cheap reliable boards, great for anyone on a budget just make sure it has sempron support out of the box or you will find that you will need to grab a barton from someone to flash it. (Btw its the bartons that are now end of life not the semprons)
Spot on for any student on a budget, so thumbs up for me regarding semprons :)
Mechanicus
17-01-05, 22:47
ok retr0n i've taken your advice and put a different system together, this time with the latest expandability
AMD Athlon 64 3000 32/64Bit CPU S939 Winchester 90nm Retail inc Heat Sink Fan & 3 Years Warranty £101.40
Gigabyte GA K8NS-939 £54.10
128M Sapphire Radeon 9800 PRO DDR AGP VGA / TVO / DVI-I £135.24
CoolerMaster Centurion 5 Silver Case Black Body (Silver Trimmings) w/o PSU £38.78
Coolermaster Prostudio sound proofing Kit for Case £8.57
Coolermaster Internal Case Fan 80mm FAS-B83 £3.51
120mm Akasa Amber Case Fan, 3 Pin, 2 Ball Bearing , Ultra Quiet and Long life £11.15
80Gb Western Digital ATA-100 (7200rpm,8MB,8.9ms) - PATA £41.61
Net Total £335.62
Carriage £10.00
V.A.T. £60.48
TOTAL £406.11
it goes overbudget, but i can cut a deal with my parents
could you tell me if:
1. this system is all compatible
2. any of those pieces are bad or if there are better substitutes
3. if ive missed anything
thanks :)
I would get a sempron 3100+ with a 754 mobo. There is more room for overclocking, (if you are into that) more room for upgrading, and the 3100+ still has an onboard memory controller. The only problem is its not 64 bit, but hey if 64 bit turns out realy well you can always upgrade without getting a new mobo. Anyways it only goes for slightly more then what you are paying now, but it may pay off in the long run.
Like i saw mentioned somewhere else, you may want to go for a 6600gt instead. They are cheaper and perform better. Make sure your 9800pro isent the "lite" edition if you still want to get it. You could save some cash by just getting a 9700pro becouse they are basicly the same card.
Intel generaly cost more for what you get then amd. As for temperature, a 3100+ with a stock cooler runs very cold compared to the whole XP line before it.
The system looks good to me, i like the case, just ordered one of those myself :D
Anyway, It's kind of late, so I might remember something else tomorrow, but as
of now, I dont think I forgot anything.
The only thing you can check is the mobo specs to see if it's a 20pin or 24pin
power connection. 24pin is new, and is made because the connectors can melt
if it's to much power running through them, but that basicly only applies when
your running SLI (2x gfx) and overclocking at the same time, if it does have
a 24pin connection all you got to buy is a converter from 24 to to 20 and you
can use your old PSU.
I'll check back tomorrow and see if you got any other questions or if something
springs to mind.
---
@above: a winchester (0.09micro core - much cooler then 0.13) is far better
for overclocking then a Sempron 3100+ and even if he plans on running stock
speeds, it's still a better cpu then the Sempron.
Mechanicus
17-01-05, 23:21
oh another thing can anyone recomend a good silent brand or model of fans, ive been told that those ones are noisy
AMD Athlon 64 3000 32/64Bit CPU S939 Winchester 90nm Retail inc Heat Sink Fan & 3 Years Warranty £101.40
Gigabyte GA K8NS-939 £54.10
Double check on gigashites website that it supports the 90nm cpu's before you purchase it, otherwise u will have a rather expensive door stop, it may also be worth asking the supplier that it supports 90nm out of the box as some older stock may still be lying around with older bios revisions and as most suppliers will tell you, its up to YOU to sort any updates in regards to chip support etc.
And yes gigashite are known as gigashite for a very good reason, unreliable crap, get abit or asus if you want a half decent mobo.
Btw make sure you are using half decent PC3200 RAM in that machine, go for some corsair value select at least!! If you get that major brand crap, chances are yer gigashite board will either not boot or give you very pretty blue screens during windows installation, if you really wanna treat yerself, get some corsair twinX XLL duel channel RAM, but its not cheap. If u have some older ram, i.e PC 2700, whats the point? As you may as well got the sempron machine as its just gonna slooow u down :)
Also if u can afford a good PSU, get a tagen supply with the 24 pin ATX connector, make sure its at least 400-480 watts and has SATA power connectors on etc, you should get 3 years warranty with tagen products.
Also, why go for a PATA drive? Im sure that mobo supports SATA hard drives and they are the same price if not cheaper!! And they run faster too, then u dont have fat cables in yer case thus better airflow and a cooler system.
Good luck!
Mechanicus
18-01-05, 01:03
ok would you be able to recomend a decent motherboard and a decent hard disk around 80 GB that would be compatible, im really clueless to what brands are god and which aren't
i looked up a few reviews of that motherboard and they looked good, plus i presumed it wasnt bad becauase retr0n recomended it
Double check on gigashites website that it supports the 90nm cpu's before you purchase it, otherwise u will have a rather expensive door stop, it may also be worth asking the supplier that it supports 90nm out of the box as some older stock may still be lying around with older bios revisions and as most suppliers will tell you, its up to YOU to sort any updates in regards to chip support etc.
I was not aware of this, so I guess you should do this. And if it for some reason
cant run the Winchester, he could get a Newcastle core (130nm). The
Newcastle is basicly a Sempron with 64bit support, so it's still better then a
SocketA Sempron.
And yes gigashite are known as gigashite for a very good reason, unreliable crap, get abit or asus if you want a half decent mobo.
He's not going to be overclocking, atleast he didnt state so, and it's a nice
mobo that fits his budget pefectly.
Btw make sure you are using half decent PC3200 RAM in that machine, go for some corsair value select at least!! If you get that major brand crap, chances are yer gigashite board will either not boot or give you very pretty blue screens during windows installation, if you really wanna treat yerself, get some corsair twinX XLL duel channel RAM, but its not cheap. If u have some older ram, i.e PC 2700, whats the point? As you may as well got the sempron machine as its just gonna slooow u down :)
He can still run the RAM @ 333 (166), it would not be as fast as 3200(400/200)
but it would not slow him down in that sence. They would run slower then
400 but it would not "slow him down". TwinX is pure bs, the only thing it's
good for is OCing, the timings mean nothing, between the worst timing and
the best there is only 3% performance gain (RAM performance gain, not the
whole system) TOPS. Value Select are nice & cheap.
Also if u can afford a good PSU, get a tagen supply with the 24 pin ATX connector, make sure its at least 400-480 watts and has SATA power connectors on etc, you should get 3 years warranty with tagen products.
Again, since he will not be overclocking, there is really no need for a Tagan
PSU. He might aswell run on his current one. Also the Watts mean nada, the
only thing that matters is the Amps. Also the 24pin ATX connector is for SLI
boards only iirc.
From the GA-K8NS-939 Specs: # ATX power connector and ATX 12V connector
Meaning a normal 20pin connector, 24pin is ATX 12V 2.0
Also, why go for a PATA drive? Im sure that mobo supports SATA hard drives and they are the same price if not cheaper!! And they run faster too, then u dont have fat cables in yer case thus better airflow and a cooler system.
The only thing I agree on here is that the cables are smaller, but there is
nothing wrong with PATA. And he can always buy a SATA later on.
Good luck!
Agree on that one :)
Mechanicus
18-01-05, 01:47
i was looking at some more expencive mobos, as their the core of the system and hard to upgrade later
there were 3 that looked good really,
the Asus A8V Deluxe
http://www.cclonline.com/product-info.asp?product_id=1764&category_id=252&manufacturer_id=0
and Abit AV8
http://www.cclonline.com/product-info.asp?product_id=2193&category_id=252&manufacturer_id=0
for the mobo, the abit looks better apart from VGA Support, the asus one has 1 x AGP 8x and the abit has 1 x AGP8X (1.5V only)
is that 1.5v only thing a big disadvantage or nothing worth bothering about really
or i could go with the MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum which is more expencive but looks better and is nforce3
http://www.cclonline.com/product-info.asp?product_id=1763&category_id=252&manufacturer_id=0
im liking the abit best personally
and i pretty much decided on this hard disk http://www.cclonline.com/product-info.asp?id=217
Jesterthegreat
18-01-05, 01:49
ugh...
PCI extreme > AGP
anything > ATI
:edit:
almost anything > sempron too
Mechanicus
18-01-05, 01:52
heh i've always used geforce in the past but on a recomendation i decided to try an ati, and that saphire one has some good stuff written about it
decided against sempron too now, going athlon64 :)
and all the cards for pci extreme/express/whatever are waaay out of my range
Jesterthegreat
18-01-05, 01:54
heh i've always used geforce in the past but on a recomendation i decided to try an ati, and that saphire one has some good stuff written about it
decided against sempron too now, going athlon64 :)
and all the cards for pci extreme/express/whatever are waaay out of my range
heh ill be getting parts for my new PC on a monthly basis...beats saving up.
nd i will be using a GeForce PCI card :p
Mechanicus
18-01-05, 01:59
which chipset is better VIA K8T800 Pro or nforce3 and is one better by a lot or no real difference?
also will any of those boards support pci express?
found some chips i can afford
He's not going to be overclocking, atleast he didnt state so, and it's a nice
mobo that fits his budget pefectly.
Again, its not a matter of over clocking, its a matter of quality, Gigabyte are horrid board,s I do assure you of this, I work for a reputable supplier in the dreaded Tech and RMA section, compared with say Asus or Abit, we RMA a hell of a lot of Gigashite than anything else
He can still run the RAM @ 333 (166), it would not be as fast as 3200(400/200)
but it would not slow him down in that sence. They would run slower then
400 but it would not "slow him down". TwinX is pure bs, the only thing it's
good for is OCing, the timings mean nothing, between the worst timing and
the best there is only 3% performance gain (RAM performance gain, not the
whole system) TOPS. Value Select are nice & cheap
Again as i stated get corsair VS, dont go for generic crap, if he can afford it get Duel channel memory and yes it DOES make a difference in gaming. Dont waste yer time bottle necking yer system with PC 2700 RAM.
Again, since he will not be overclocking, there is really no need for a Tagan
PSU. He might aswell run on his current one. Also the Watts mean nada, the
only thing that matters is the Amps. Also the 24pin ATX connector is for SLI
boards only iirc.
From the GA-K8NS-939 Specs: # ATX power connector and ATX 12V connector
Meaning a normal 20pin connector, 24pin is ATX 12V 2.0
Again from a future proofing point of view, a good qaulity PSU is ALWAYS better than a cheapo passive one, if he ever does decide to run his system with a 6800 he will want the extra power, plus its always nice to have the extra power for pure system stability when running under heavy load. Its also nice to know that Tagans come with the 24-20 pin power converter ;)
The only thing I agree on here is that the cables are smaller, but there is
nothing wrong with PATA. And he can always buy a SATA later on.
I never said there was, however why go PATA when SATA is there for him? SATA is faster, piss easy to setup and again better airflow as the cables are nice and small :)
Btw ive not looked over his hardware in the same sense you have, I've spotted the components and thought about what may be better 12 months down the line, I for one think that if you wait a little longer and save some more cash, then get a nice PCI express board, doesnt even need to be SLI.... again future proofing your hardware without costing you too much more. :)
which chipset is better VIA K8T800 Pro or nforce3 and is one better by a lot or no real difference?
also will any of those boards support pci express?
found some chips i can afford
If memory serves both boards sport only AGP, its the nforce 4 you really wanna be pushing for. You might wanna check out www.tomshardware.com as they tend to show easy reading reviews on mobos and performances vs the chipset types etc.
Mechanicus
18-01-05, 02:16
i couldnt even find a disk labled as having SATA
which chipset is better VIA K8T800 Pro or nforce3 and is one better by a lot or no real difference?
also will any of those boards support pci express?
found some chips i can afford
Well nForce3 is better then the VIA chipset, atleast the majority of gamers
feel that way. I wouldnt beat myself about it if I was you, since you are not
aiming at a top-end system anyway, it doesnt really make that much of a
difference.
The PCI-E version is nForce4, and those mobos are a bit more expensive now
since there is a huge demand on them, but, if you decide to go PCI-E get a
good mobo, ASUS A8N SLI is a nice one, and get yourself a 6600GT costs just
as much as a 9800Pro but you can later on put in another one.
IMO You should go with the stuff you wrote a few posts back, it should be
a good enough system to play on and do some upgrading in the future, it's
not a top-end system by far, and you will not be overclocking, so it's should
suit you just fine.
There is no real reason to buy expensive stuff, because if you dont use all
of the features on them, it's a waste of money, and new stuff comes along
all the time, so there is very little you can do.
What you can do, and have done, is get yourself a 64bit processor, wich will
be like an upgrade once you get the 64bit OS, a nice gfx card wich you will be
able to play games on for atleast a year more.
That system should be just fine, but if you want a better mobo, the
MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum is a very good one.
Again, its not a matter of over clocking, its a matter of quality, Gigabyte are horrid board,s I do assure you of this, I work for a reputable supplier in the dreaded Tech and RMA section, compared with say Asus or Abit, we RMA a hell of a lot of Gigashite than anything else
Again as i stated get corsair VS, dont go for generic crap, if he can afford it get Duel channel memory and yes it DOES make a difference in gaming. Dont waste yer time bottle necking yer system with PC 2700 RAM.
Again from a future proofing point of view, a good qaulity PSU is ALWAYS better than a cheapo passive one, if he ever does decide to run his system with a 6800 he will want the extra power, plus its always nice to have the extra power for pure system stability when running under heavy load.
I never said there was, however why go PATA when SATA is there for him? SATA is faster, piss easy to setup and again better airflow as the cables are nice and small :)
Btw ive not looked over his hardware in the same sense you have, I've spotted the components and thought about what may be better 12 months down the line, I for one think that if you wait a little longer and save some more cash, then get a nice PCI express board, doesnt even need to be SLI.... again future proofing your hardware without costing you too much more. :)
Some nice points there, although, i disagree on one thing only, the future
proofing part, there is no such thing with computers, the only "future proof"
option he has is to get a 64bit cpu wich will do him good few months down
the line.
Also, I was going from his budget stand point of view, there is really only
little you can get for £350, I just ordered my new system 2 days ago and
it has cost me £650 so far, but that's with the following:
ASUS A8N SLI PCI-E
AMD64 3000+ Winchester
MSI 6600GT PCI-E SLI
Western Digital Raptor 36GB
2x512 Corsair
400W ATX12 2.0 PSU (35Amps @ 12v)
+ case, cooling, fans, etc etc
And the following month it will be upgraded with another 6600GT, and a
Raptor 76GB...
And that is by far not a top-end system. But it all depends on your needs, if
all he really wants is a good system to play some games on that it's a descent
system.
Some nice points there, although, i disagree on one thing only, the future
proofing part, there is no such thing with computers, the only "future proof"
option he has is to get a 64bit cpu wich will do him good few months down
the line
Very true :) Lets just hope the new ATX and PCI express standards stay standard for the next couple of years :)
Mechanicus, get a serial ATA hard drive matey, have a good scan through some suppliers, you will find them just as cheap :) Only difference is some boards require you to hit the F6 key during windows installation to install SATA drivers (which are usually located on yer mobo CD and u have to bring to floppy) other than that its pish :)
Hope you get a kick ass system for yer cash anyway mate!
Mechanicus
18-01-05, 02:41
ok i upped the price a little more, and upgraded the components a little more
gfx card 128MB Sparkle GeForce 6600GT £147.03
http://www.cclonline.com/product-info.asp?id=2238
processor AMD Athlon 64 3000+ £106.89
http://www.cclonline.com/product-info.asp?id=2030
mobo MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum £91.29
http://www.cclonline.com/product-info.asp?id=1763
case CoolerMaster Centurion 5 £39.49
http://www.cclonline.com/product-info.asp?id=1842
hard disk 120GB Western Digital Caviar SE £58.42
http://www.cclonline.com/product-info.asp?id=1206
total £443.12
i'm pretty sure now that these are good enough parts, the ram could do with an upgrade, but it'll do a good enough job untill i can afford to buy some more!
now i just need to know: what extras do i need for those?
what i know is:
AMD heatsink
80x80x20 fan
120x120x25 fan
power supply: tear off old comp
cables: tear off old comp
dvd drive: tear off old comp
rewritable drive: tear off old comp
soundcard: tear off old comp (SB audidgy 2 something)
is there anything else?
Yes, make sure that PSU is at LEAST 350WATTS, dont go for less matey. You will end up fucking yer VGA card in the long run just to save you 40 quid. Other than getting a SATA :p hard disk that should be fine :)
(note, again double check on MSI's website that the board sports winchesters out of the box, always best to be 100% with newish technology)
Mechanicus
18-01-05, 02:45
http://www.cclonline.com/product-info.asp?product_id=1206&category_id=112&manufacturer_id=0
that a good hard drive?
Btw, have a look at www.scan.co.uk, reason being....
AMD Athlon 64 3000 32/64Bit CPU S939 Winchester 90nm Retail inc Heat Sink Fan & 3 Years Warranty £86.30 £101.40 (+VAT)
Save the pennies ;)
The hard disk should be fine, though i'd opt for a seagate barracuda, as ive had shit experience with western digis :)
Mechanicus
18-01-05, 02:55
heh everybody i know has had some kind of shit experiance with some company, if i blacklisted all those companys i'd end up with no computer at all :p
yeah scan had better prices but i couldnt find anything there, CCL has an interface like 10 bazillion times better/easier
i'll prolly look around to see wheres cheapest but im gonna pic my parts on CCL
is the stuff i listed all i need to build the thing?
i'll be pissed off if i put it all together and theres something missing i gotta drive out for :p
Damn, I'm such a forum whore tonight....
Yeah that should be fine, if you do get that SATA drive, make sure you have a floppy drive :p or else you wont be able to install the bugger.
Good luck with that mate!
Mechanicus
18-01-05, 03:02
haha bingo, i would forget the simplest thing :lol:
i'll probally rip that outa my old comp too but ty for reminding me :)
No worries, should only cost u 3 quid anyway ;) Well let us know how your build goes, good nite :)
Mechanicus
18-01-05, 03:08
nighty night,
cant find anything about supporting winchesters specifically but it meets the reqs so i'll chance it
http://www.msi.com.tw/program/products/mainboard/mbd/pro_mbd_detail.php?UID=607
Mechanicus
18-01-05, 03:36
ok i HOPE this is final, i've decided to save/borrow some more and buy this:
AMD Athlon 64 3000 32/64Bit CPU S939 Winchester 90nm Retail inc Heat Sink Fan & 3 Years Warranty £101.40
CoolerMaster Centurion 5 Silver Case Black Body (Silver Trimmings) w/o PSU £38.78
120Gb Western Digital Caviar 1200JD-FDB (7200rpm,8MB) - SATA £56.87
MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum,Nforce4 ultra, socket 939,dual ddr 400,pci x,sata raid,Gb lan £128.08
128M Asus PCI-E EN6600GT-TD Tv/DVI Retail £148.05
120mm Akasa Amber Case Fan, 3 Pin, 2 Ball Bearing , Ultra Quiet and Long life £11.15
80mm Akasa Amber Case Fan, 3 Pin, 2 Ball Bearing, Ultra Quiet and Long Life £5.51
420W Tagan Whisper aPFC UltraQuiet 21db 12v EPS/SATA/XEON 3 Years Warranty ATX/BTX £53.92
Net Total £462.77
Carriage £10.00
V.A.T. £82.73
TOTAL £555.51
that way i wont need to do a total upgrade like im doing now for a loooooooong time
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