5punk

Right, ive finally got to the stage where I can actually get a new machine. However, ive been trying to spec the thing all evening (admittedly, after a glass or two of wine) and my brain is ready to dribble from my ears. Please! Help me!

Im looking at a max price (postage etc included) of £800 (and thats the absolute highest end). I want c2d, and preferably a couple of gig of ram. What I dont need is a dvd writer. and sound. and thats about it. I need case, main hd (I have a 250gig one for storage), rams, processor, graphics card (around the £150 mark ish), power and all the necassary gubbins. Oh, actually, i dont need a mouse or keyboard either. I may need a monitor

Preferably, I would like it to be easy for future small upgrades (adding an extra card for SLi goodness, for example), and the case should be nice and interesting looking, but not like a chavs car.

go! fetch me prices and specs! and places to buy it from! goe!

Okay, Attempt one:

OCUK

Abit Fatal1ty FP-IN9 SLi nForce 650* £82
Intel Core 2 DUO E6300 £120
Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2-5400C4 TwinX (2x1GB)** £111
Enermax Liberty 400W PSU £47
Hitachi Deskstar T7K500 NCQ 320GB OEM £63
Lian Li PC-A05B £75
OcUK GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB £192.

Total: £706

*No idea if this is any good, but it's cheap.
**Fairly sure it's fast enough, dunno

Have another.

Scan

Asus P5N-E SLI nForce 650 £76
Intel Core 2 DUO E6300 £113
Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2-5400C4 TwinX (2x1GB)** £111
Enermax Liberty 400W PSU £47
250 Gb Western Digital WD2500YS Caviar RE £53
Antec P180 Advanced Super Midi Tower Case £82
320MB BFG Technology 8800 GTS 320MB £192.

Total: £695.42

**Fairly sure it's fast enough, dunno


Edit: I'd buy this, as the P5N is a fairly well known mobo, if i was gonna put the remaining money anywhere, it'd be into the ram and saving for a monitor.

Also, cases on both are mid-range enthusiast affairs, should be fairly nice, mainly just put in for price.

For the money, I'd go with the second of berk's options (favouring the WD HDD, Asus mobo and BFG graphics) but with the case from the first.

You mentioned the case should be "nice and interesting looking", and although it's mostly down to personal preference, I think the whole "silver case with blue LEDs" thing has been rather overdone, so a nice matte black case with old-school red or perhaps orange LEDs would be my choice.

Dr. kitteny berk wrote:Have another.

Scan

Asus P5N-E SLI nForce 650 £76
Intel Core 2 DUO E6300 £113
Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2-5400C4 TwinX (2x1GB)** £111
Enermax Liberty 400W PSU £47
250 Gb Western Digital WD2500YS Caviar RE £53
Antec P180 Advanced Super Midi Tower Case £82
320MB BFG Technology 8800 GTS 320MB £192.

Total: £695.42

I vote this, the case is one I really like (thinking of that for my next build) the only things I'd possibly upgrade is the memory and processor but for the price that there is value for money

FatherJack wrote:For the money, I'd go with the second of berk's options (favouring the WD HDD, Asus mobo and BFG graphics) but with the case from the first.

That

That machine will also become my suggested spec of choice I think (as it'll handle XP and Fista fine with scope for upgrades when needed)

FatherJack wrote:You mentioned the case should be "nice and interesting looking", and although it's mostly down to personal preference, I think the whole "silver case with blue LEDs" thing has been rather overdone, so a nice matte black case with old-school red or perhaps orange LEDs would be my choice.

Also that

Though I prefer purple LEDs, mainly because I find them less annoying than the other colours

JOOSE, i have an E6300 Reatil (with cooler) and 2 gigs of Corsair RAM yours for 180 quid, ill pay recorded postage. Can be sent ASAP.

Dr. kitteny berk wrote: Asus P5N-E SLI nForce 650 £76
Intel Core 2 DUO E6300 £113


320MB BFG Technology 8800 GTS 320MB £192.

Just having a look back at this, and since I'll have a 6800GT (as of tmrw, I hope), would £200 worth of upgrades be better spent on a new mobo and CPU as above, or a 8800? Whichever one I get, its likely to be a few months after until I could get the other, so which would add the most to my PC?

Both will help a great deal, but i'd say probably 8800 first. (also worth remembering the cpu/mobo upgrade will need rams too)

I'd sort of assumed that my existing ram would be ok to stick in the new mobo, but is this definitely not the case? Will it flat out not work, or just reduce overall performance a bit?

Either way, 8800 is certainly the easiest upgrade, and I am a lazy man.

Lateralus wrote:I'd sort of assumed that my existing ram would be ok to stick in the new mobo, but is this definitely not the case? Will it flat out not work, or just reduce overall performance a bit?

Either way, 8800 is certainly the easiest upgrade, and I am a lazy man.

It's the whole DDR/DDR2 being totally incompatible thing that does it

Won't fit or work, so will hurt the performance a little.

Elsewhere, Lateralus just wrote:Assume a mild level of idiocy on my part when it comes to hardware.

for a cheapy upgrade, http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showprodu ... =CP-150-AM might be a good option, £35 and a fair bit faster than your current cpu

Hmmm, not a bad idea. That does seem really rather cheap too. Is it worth overclocking at all with the stock cooler, or will it make a fair difference regardless?

you'll probably get a bit of a boost on the stock cooler, should be a nice upgrade either way

It says its an OEM processor, so will it still come with a cooler?

nope, but the one you have already should be fine.

otherwise.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showprodu ... subcat=821

or

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showprodu ... subcat=821

You're a bastard berk, making me spend my money like this! I'll give it a go with my current cooler then maybe, and see how that goes. Inevitable next question is how easy is it to install cpus?

fairly easy.

http://www.amd.com/us-en/assets/content ... /31684.pdf

should cover it.

My main area of uncertainty is to do with the thermal compund gunk between the CPU and heatsink. Is it best to clean it all off and put new stuff on, or is it really as simple as just swapping the processors over? Mrs Lat suddenly has a graphics card, CPU and great big PSU box arriving at work this week on my behalf now!

Edit: I go past Maplins on the way home, do I need to pick up some of this?