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Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 (2.13ghz) Socket 775 FSB1066 2MB Cache Retail Boxed Processor 112708 740 in stock £118.93
MSI 975X Platinum-PE SKT775 Conroe ready DDR2 PCI-E SATA 7.1channel audio ATX 114960 16 in stock £97.65
Antec Basiq Power 500W ATX 12V PSU 114929 141 in stock £34.02
OCZ 1GB DDR2 900MHz/PC2-7200 SLI-Ready Edition CL4 - 2.1 V - unbuffered 116748 10 in stock £106.37
XFX 7900GS 450M core 256MB Dual DVI TVO PCI-E 121108 40 in stock £87.00
Cart Total: £443.97
Basically, being forced into upgrade (although I somewhat wanted to anyhow) as a result of a failure of probably graphics card, possibly also other things in my old box. Want to know if people think the above items are sensible choices (I've done a lot of reading over at http://www.tomshardware.com before picking this stuff). And if the prices seem good (note: all prices are exclusive of vat (17.5%), so the total actual price is about £520. The RAM is especially expensive as the Core 2 Duos are meant to be rather overclocking friendly and I intend to exploit this.
RogerRamjet
23-02-07, 20:41
More numbers and bigger price tag = better.
Thats how I go about my computer buying needs.
More numbers and bigger price tag = better.
Thats how I go about my computer buying needs.
If only it were that simple :P
RogerRamjet
23-02-07, 20:52
If only it were that simple :P
Luckily, I am that simple ;)
:D
Nice setup, personally I wouldnt go for an MSI board, Asus is your best bet imo but dont touch the Nforce 6 based chipsets as they have a few "issues" atm.
P.S a mate of mine has got his E4300 to 3ghz on both cores running at around 50 oc at 100% Load :D
Core2 ftw!
Yeah, I was reading about the overclockability of the Core 2s, including making the E6300 outperform the E6800 Extreme Edition with just the retail box fan. My previous board was an MSI that I wasn't too impressed with, but the group test of 975X boards at Tom's Hardware actually said that MSI had dealt with some of their historical issues, so I was prepared to give them a chance.
Roger - a quick glance at some benchmarks will quickly show that "bigger numbers" aren't always better. And as a student, I can't afford to go for the "more expensive" stuff.
Fair enuff, I was gonna say asus give a 3 year warranty on their mobos but I guess it means diddly squat as you will probably be upgrading in 2-3 years either way, MSI give a 2 year so you should be ok on that front.
If you can squeez more in your budget get yourself an 8800 GTS, I tihink the 320 meg version is pretty cheap now and it will see you well for DX10 games in the near future,
Anything in the 8800 range is beyond my budget really - I'm already spending more than I'd like to. Instead, I'm getting a card thats going for particualry good value at the moment, witht he mind that in 12-18months I'll probably replace it (seeing as its one of the easiest things to replace generally). Although it will be competeing with new HDDs and an extra gig of ram for upgrade prioirty.
Well the way its going now you can get a 320MB XFX 8800GTS, PCI-E (x16), Mem 1600MHz, GPU 500MHz, 96 Streams, 2x Dual Link/DVI HDTV for £159.88 ex VAT atm, which is well worth the jump, even more so if your slapping on Vista.
Im planning to go that route about summer time, you get a lot of chip for your cash atm.
Well the way its going now you can get a 320MB XFX 8800GTS, PCI-E (x16), Mem 1600MHz, GPU 500MHz, 96 Streams, 2x Dual Link/DVI HDTV for £159.88 ex VAT atm, which is well worth the jump, even more so if your slapping on Vista.
Im planning to go that route about summer time, you get a lot of chip for your cash atm.
Yeah but I'm paying half of that at the moment. I don't doubt its a better card, but I don't believe its quite twice the performance and I'm alraedy over my self-imposed budget limit. Still, will bear it in mind.
Everything you've picked is sound Mr. C.
You might fare better with your overclocking by having this motherboard (http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=518608) though.
More numbers and bigger price tag = better.
Thats how I go about my computer buying needs.Not if they are overprised. ;)
MuggleMind
24-02-07, 02:42
You don't mention which OS you will be using. While the spec of the PC looks good, just remember that it's almost pointless trying to watch or listen to "premium content" if you use Vista. If you have to stick with windows, it is probably better to use XP and wait and watch the developments with Vista.
Edit: you might want to change your "location" now, with paypal here! :p
All said stuff has arrived, working well mostly.
Very impressed with MSI so far, in complete contrast to my last board from them - this one came with a huge pile of cables for anything you may need, and seems to be working well. Can't use their overclocking tool though, because it sets off a constant audio alarm about how the CPU fan is going too slow. The damn thing is fucking huge, not suprised its slow.
Not so impressed with XFX. Came in a very sparkly package and all, but the manual has instructions that if followed, wouldn't make the card work (seriously, they were so old that only old PCI and AGP slots were mentioned, nermind PCI-E and the fact that they may need power). Also, the drivers on the provided disk actually refuse to install, until you first install some other drivers. Still, for someone with a fiar bit of experience it wasn't a problem, but its still not good service.
The E6400 is a very cool piece of silicon. It hasn't ventured above 40 degrees yet, currently sitting in the upper 30s. Haven't given it a real run out yet however.
Damn I need to upgrade soon too :P.
Dribble Joy
28-02-07, 00:52
It doesn't have a 5" floppy.
It is not l33t.
It doesn't have a 5" floppy.
It is not l33t.
I have a 5" floppy...but I can extend it to a 8" :D
Serious_Sam
01-03-07, 23:02
Hello Cmaster, glad to see you're actually doing something! You're system sounds nice, and for under 500 quid its rather decent. But like you said, you'll be replacing some parts in the near future, so why not get something a little under what you're going for? The extra RAM should theoretically make up for it in the short run.
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