PC specs

[Chris_huh]

My brother is looking at getting a new pc. I bought one back in october, using advice i got from this forum, and he's looking at getting one similar.

He's drawn up the following specs, do they look alright, are they going to work ok?

He's found the lowest prices from various shops (hence dabs, aria and ebuyer), he also doesn't need a monitor as he already has a good one.

They seem similar to mine (see this thread - https://www.pcreview.co.uk/forums/thread-3272734-4.php), and look ok. Just wanted to check if there was any major problems.

Oh, and thanks in advance

 

[Waynos_Face]

Hi mate,

It'll cost you 6 pound more, but instead of the lot from dabs, get it from scan.

4GB (2x2GB) Corsair TwinX XMS2, DDR2 PC2-6400 (800), 240 Pins, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 5-5-5-18 £58.33

ASUS 2014L1T 20x DVD±R, 8x DVD±DL, DVD+RW x8/-RW x6, x14 DVD-RAM, SATA, Lightscribe, Black OEM £18.32

250 GB Seagate ST3250620AS Barracuda 7200.10, SATA 300, 7200 rpm, 16MB Cache, 8.5 ms, NCQ £32.77

500 GB Seagate ST3500320AS Barracuda 7200.11, SATA 300, 7200 rpm, 32MB Cache, 8.5 ms, NCQ £52.75

512MB Gainward 8600GT SilentFx, PCI-E, Mem 1400MHz GDDR3, GPU 540MHz, 32 Streams, DL DVI/HDMI/£63.44

Carriage £6.49
TOTAL £233.23

Same RAM,
the lightscribe is SATA not IDE
250Gb HDD with 16Mb cache instead of 160Gb with 8Mb
Graphics card is twice the size with same speeds and 70p cheaper.
Makes the extra 6 quid worth it.

But just a suggestion

 

[Ian]

Sounds like a good suggestion Waynos_Face

If dabs have it all in stock, it will probably save quite a bit of hassle (plus that dabs graphics card is good value )

 

[Abarbarian]

If you are looking to play games with this pc you would be better of with only one HDD and spending the money saved on a decent graphics card .

 

[Chris_huh]

I don't think he wants to use it for many games. There may be a bit of use for some games, but nothing that should be too taxing on the system.


I think two HDDs are necessary. One for OS (Vista and Linux) and the other for storage (50GB of music, a load of documents, photos, videos etc).


I got a graphics card from a less known manufacturer (less known to the extent that i had never heard of it) and it was really loud. The fan wasn't very good, so the case was hot and noisy, and in the end i bought an extra graphics cooler. It was 512MB, 8600GT, but even in Vista's performance index thing it was quite low.

So i suggested getting a better graphics card, rather than focusing on getting a higher spec card.

Thanks Waynos_Face, they all seem a good suggestion. I meant to put a SATA dvd in (must have clicked the wrong one).

 

[Village]

Finally got my account set up, there seemed to be problems yesterday. Anyway I am Chris_huh's brother. He put the spec up for me. Thanks Chris.

I would like to keep the two HDD, as one is for Vista, Linux and programs, whilst the other will be storage.

The main questions I have are;
1. I picked the graphics card as it is a know make, I have also seen this one, which is £9 more, is it worth it?
ASUS EN8600GT SILENT 512MB GDDR3 HTDP Dual DVI HDCP HDTV out PCI-E Graphics - http://www.ebuyer.com/product/132310

2. I have picked what I know is a very fast processor, I could probably save myself a few pounds by going for a 2.66, but I guess the £25 extra will be worth it in a couple of years. Just need to check that the 3ghz processor isn't a 64bit one. The specs got me a little confused.

3. With the motherboard, I could save about £20 by going for the ASUS P5K-E/WIFI-AP AiLifestyle Series P35 Socket 775 Socket eSATA 8 channel Audio (http://www.ebuyer.com/product/129126) as opposed to the ASUS P5K Premium WiFi-AP iP35 Socket 775 8 channel audio ATX Motherboard. I'm not planning on using water cooling so what else dose the more expensive card offer?

4. Is the power supply going to cover what I am doing and be nice and quite?

Thanks for any advice, a very useful site!

Village

 

[Waynos_Face]

Hiya mate,

If you're gonna spend a bit more on a card, i personally don't see the point in spending it on a fancy cooling system (others may disagree), get one with more bang, bang, bang.

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?NOV-86GTS5

Plus it a pound cheaper,

The cheaper motherboard is still pretty awesome.

Save the 20 quid and upgrade somewhere else. Buy a 2nd Lightscribe so you're not hammering the same one all the time. Or try and get a bigger Modular powersupply.

Again just suggestions mate.

 

[Abarbarian]

Persoinaly I think the 8600 is a waste of money . See how it performs here ,

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/graphics-cards/warhammer-mark-of-chaos-v1-6,581.html

I recon these are a much better value buy , the 9600 especially .

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?NOV-3850P

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?NOV-96GT

But if you must have a 8600 have a look here ,

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/products/a852x1y0z1p0s0n0m0

The PSU you have chosen is very very quiet and is certainly powerful enough for the parts you have chosen .

 

[Waynos_Face]

I sort of agree with Abarbarian,

I wouldn't say its a waste of money, as it depends how far your budget will stretch, also it will play most games on medium settings, wouldn't try Crysis though.
Also Village, your brother was concerned that getting a card from a lesser known manufacturer might result in it being noisy.
I could be wrong but i don't think you will hear it, as the case you are going to purchase has 2 x 120mm fans and they don't exactly put good ones in a £25 case. I'm not trying to be rude but a decent 120mm fan is about £15.

If you can afford it then get a 9600GT, if not and you're happy with a 8600GT then get one of those, but at least try and get the most powerful one you can. As the stats that Abarbarian posted show it ain't that good.

 

[Phaeton]

If you can, wait for the tech waves.
Nvidia and ATI are releasing new cards in a month or two (or so the rumours go) expect price cuts all round.
E.g 8800 GTS (new version) is barely more expensive then 8800GT's now, I was planning to get an 8800GT as the GTS was about £200 a week or two back, now its like £150.

The next one is the P45 Intel motherboards. Expect the P35, X38 and X48 prices to fall slightly aswell.

Waiting for these can be good for the wallet. But you must make a decision when you buy because there are always tech waves but if ht next one is soon, might as well wait a little longer.

However I must say that the 9600GT is a solid choice.

 

[floppybootstomp]

Another vote for the 9600GT, 8600GT was never a rated card.

Buying from 3 suppliers is odd, unless you opt for free postage options where available (which means somebody being at the delivery address for up to three to five days to take delivery) you're going to have to pay three delivery charges, which kinda negates any savings.

Imo two HDD's is a good idea. The 160Gb size isn't a good idea though. Must be the worst size to buy for value for money. For another few pounds you could go for the 250Gb flavour, much better value.

Video cards and motherboards are going to be coming down in price but I do sympathise if what you want is NOW, I recently bought a 9800 GTX card, cos I wanted it yesterday

Which, incidentally, I think are good value anyway, as video cards go, mine cost a little over £200.00.

Consider buying all components from E-Buyer, cos when you add the VAT to Aria's prices and any delivery charges to all 3 suppliers, I think you'll find the ker-fuffing about between three suppliers not worth it.

 

[crazylegs]

I would agree with flopp's here with the kerfuffing around with different suppliers, as any savings made will be eaten up elsewhere..

 

[Abarbarian]

I'm not trying to be rude but a decent 120mm fan is about £15.

I just got these a few weeks ago when they were on special offer and they are whisper quiet .

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Comp...lence+Red+Wing+Case+Fan+12cm+?productId=19866

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Comp...t+120mm+Fan+with+PWM+control+?productId=30573

The Nexus was a steal at about £4 and is very very quiet and shifts shedloads of air .

 

[Village]

To summerise:

1. Will go for the 25gb HDD, as it is much better value for money

2. Will probably stick with the very fast 3ghz procesor, it will be more future proof

3. Will try and get all the parts from the same supplier. Although as I am shipping to my office it won't make too much difference as people will be there all day.

4. Unless I am wrong the more expensive motherboard can support water cooling, other than that it is the same as the cheeper one, (please correct me if I am wrong). So might as well go for the cheeper one to save some pounds.

5. Power supply is fine, but I will look to replace case fans, those 4 pound ones look ok.

6. Graphics cards. As I said I am not planning on doing any real high end gaming, defo not overcloocking to the highest framerate. The cheepest 9600GT card is 100 pounds for an XFX one, I might consider this, but it is more than I was expecting. At the very least I will go for a 512 8 sereies card. I would want to keep with known brands given previous experiences. as you get what you pay for.

Any comments welcome,

I am looking to buy soon, and not wait for the next wave as now is a good time to transfer files and sort it out before I start to get busy again, and I would only save about 30 pounds by waiting anyway

Village

 

[Abarbarian]

I would see how loud or quiet the fans are on the case before buying any extra ones . I only posted to show that you do not have to spend top dollar to get good parts .

 

[Chris_huh]

Thanks for the info.

I bought a £25 case which came with two 120mm fans, and they are fine. I can't hear them over my HDDs. The graphics card i got made much more noise than the fans did, so this is why i suggested getting a better make graphics card.

So everything seems to look fine, just a decision on the graphics card and maybe the mobo and processor.

Other than that do you think everything will work together ok. It seems that compatability between components has become less of a problem (with different parts becoming more likely to work together), but i wanted to check that they would work.

The 8600Gt i have does seem like it may be a bit lower in ability than i expected, but then i don't overly use high graphics much.