Budget Machine Thread Of Joy™

[Dr. kitteny berk]

As this is getting asked a lot currently.

Don't build these

Nehalem is out, but fucking pricey, building a new machine from these specs is foolish as they won't be massively future proof, fine gaming machines, but you're better off waiting a few months if you can.



<strike>Cheapest:
Mobo:Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L (~£60)
CPU: Intel Pentium Dual-Core E2180 (£45)
Memory:GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 Or OCZ 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 (~£30)

(total ~£135)

Ideal:
Mobo:Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L (~£60)
CPU:Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 (~£120)
Memory:GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 Or OCZ 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 (~£30)

(total ~£210)

Fast:
Mobo:Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L (~£60)
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 G0 (slacr) (~£130)
Memory:OCZ 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-6400C5 (~£60)

(total ~£250)</strike>

Graphics:
Chicken: AMD 4870x2(~£350)
High end: Nvidia GTX280 (~£275)
Mid/High end: AMD 4870 (~£180)
Low/Mid: AMD 4850 (~£125)
Low: 8800GT (<£90)

Hard Drives:
Western Digital or Samsung, about £50 for 500GB

PSU:
Just spend £60+ on a 600W+ PSU, I like enermax and corsair, but choose what you prefer. - Modular is good if your budget can stretch to it.

I'd probably take;
Corsair TX 650W (not modular) (~£65)
Corsair HX 620W (modular) (~£95)
Enermax Modu 82+ 625W (modular) (~£100)


Cases:
Antec 300, Really cheap, Large, plain. (~£35)
Antec 900, cheap, large, fairly ugly. (~£75)

Obviously, any ATX case on the market is fine, but these are both 5punker approved.

Prices I've bothered with are from ocuk.

[MIkkyo]

[deject]

[Hehulk]

Hard Drives:
I'd suggest Western Digital, It's worth having a look on OCUK's b-grade section for bargains.

Any special reason why?

[Dr. kitteny berk]

Western Digital: Because the gonk has 8 in it with no issues

Mainly I suggest them because everyone I trust agrees that they're probably best/most reliable.

That's not to say other drives are less good, for example I've owned a lot of maxtors in the past with no issues. However, I've heard the least bad stuff about WDs, and given this is your porn collection, It may as well be safe


B grade: Because you'll get factory refurb drives (that is, as new) for a decent saving with only a minor warranty hit (as you get 3 months + remaining time from previous owner) as you'll usually be buying big drives, they'll be quite recent, which means they were more likely DOA, than dying of old age.

[deject]

I haven't heard of any Deathstar-level reliability issues in quite a long time, so I wouldn't worry overly much about it. I definitely would put size and speed well ahead in consideration.

[Dr. kitteny berk]

I haven't heard of any Deathstar-level reliability issues in quite a long time, so I wouldn't worry overly much about it. I definitely would put size and speed well ahead in consideration.

Kinda.

I've not heard of anything super-bad in a fair while, but I still like to be careful with my datas.

Also I can only recommend WD happily, as that's all I've bought and used properly in the last year or so.

Budget wise, I find the non-uber-fancy WD drives generally land mid-range, usually ~£10 more than the cheapest.

[HereComesPete]

QFT. WD have served me well for my hdd's.

I've had one shit itself on me, but that was a bot arm, soon after install, sometimes you get sudden failure after power up, the best machines in the world get it. I rma'd it, got another 2 days later by courier, who took mine in return. They agreed with my diagnosis, and gave me money off my next WD purchase, which was nice.

[cheeseandham]

I've not heard of anything super-bad in a fair while, but I still like to be careful with my datas.

What was that (cough... partition recovery...cough) Berk?

[Dr. kitteny berk]

What was that (cough... partition recovery...cough) Berk?

I still have an ~8 year old music collection and photos from the same time.

My important datas stay safe, the rest can fuckoff

[Dr. kitteny berk]

http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/ ... dates-ahoy might be handy for some

[Dr. kitteny berk]

Looks like the 8800GT will be the card to get.

http://forums.vr-zone.com/showthread.php?t=194951

[amblin]

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[deject]

Is that mobo going to be stable with DDR2? I've had issues with another Asus dual-memory-type (DDR & DDR2) mobo being a spazz and blue screening and/or random reboots with DDR ram... Reseating the memory fixed the blue screens, but not the reboots.

My other Asus on the other hand is stable as a rock, and that's just DDR. Both have corsair ram; stable one is XMS, the unstable is corsair valueRAM.

I've looked for GTs, can't find any on aria, misco, ocuk, scan or ebuyer - and I want to see prices dammit! I'll have to wait till they're released I guess...

MEMTest

/broken record

[Dr. kitteny berk]

Is that mobo going to be stable with DDR2? I've had issues with another Asus dual-memory-type (DDR & DDR2) mobo being a spazz and blue screening and/or random reboots with DDR ram... Reseating the memory fixed the blue screens, but not the reboots.

My other Asus on the other hand is stable as a rock, and that's just DDR. Both have corsair ram; stable one is XMS, the unstable is corsair valueRAM.

I've looked for GTs, can't find any on aria, misco, ocuk, scan or ebuyer - and I want to see prices dammit! I'll have to wait till they're released I guess...

memtest, I know of no boards that are unstable with working DDR2.


the GTs are due out at the end of the month, I think they'll be under £200, i'm hoping/expecting ~£150

[amblin]

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[amblin]

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[MrGreen]

I'd get the E6750 from Misco.co.uk or ebuyer, it'll save you roughly 1 orange box.

EDIT* Also, http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showprodu ... =MY-058-GL
It's on offer for now, seems like perfectly good ram.

[Lateralus]

Stuff

Looks good! Buy it, build it, and post it to me. I have a newish PSU and GFX card though, so you can keep those.

[amblin]

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