Comments on this setup + hi!

[feenster99]

Lo all, my first post after a bit of lurking. I was going to post this over at Overclockers forum, but theyre a bit too hell bent on the best gear for my liking (and wallet!).

Ive been pricing up a new system. I want to get all the bits from CCL if i can, as theyre just up the road from me. OK heres what ive got on my list so far!: (all prices ex. VAT from CCL)

• Case- Silver Nokia Style, 350W.............. £22.25
• CPU- AMD Thoroughbred XP2600+ OEM............ £64.30
• RAM- 512MB DDR (PC2700) 333......... £44.55
• MOBO- Asus A7V8X-X, Sound, USB2, 8X AGP, 333 FSB, LAN.............. £42.49
• Fan- Arctic Cooler Copper Silent........... £7.18

Total Inc VAT= £212.41

The Hard drive, sound card, CDRW and Monitor i already have. What do you fine chaps reckon to that setup? Bear in mind that im not a gamer (maybe GTA3 once in a while), and not interested in overclocking - the system will be run on XP pro, and ill be mainly using it for Web development, programming etc......

The second question is what graphics card to get! Bearing in mind all the above, i dont want to get amazing 3DMark scores, i just want to run all my app's fast enough, and play a game once in a while. Any suggestions for around £60? (preferably from CCL)

Thanks for reading, i hope this is all clear! And thanks for any replies in advance....

Matt

 

[muckshifter]

Matt

Looks good, but ... buy two sticks of memory (256 or 512) ... you'll find the 2x256 a little cheaper but when you use the two blue slots the MB will perform that little bit faster.

I would also be tempted to get a 2500 Barton 333 ... as a matter of fact I'll be taking delivery on Tuesday of an Asus A7V8X-X + 2500 + 2x256 ... I'll let you know how it goes.

No Barton’s in stock till Monday. :roll:

If you've never tried one of those Arctic Coolers then be prepared for the unexpected ... the fan will NOT spin-up until it is needed at about 25c. Frightened the shit out of me when I first used one ... dam good HSF though with a bloody great lump of copper on the bottom. It has become my Std. HSF.

Mucks. 8)

Edit
Oh, Gforce 4 Ti4200 won't break the bank.

 

[feenster99]

Thanks Muckshifter! The 2 blue slots wont be used i dont think, so i may just stick with 1 stick of 512MB for future upgradability.

As for the Barton- what does it give that the thoroughbred doesnt? I know the L2 cache is 512kb on the Barton, but what would that realistically offer me performance wise over the Thoroughbred which is a faster clock speed?

As for the cooler- hmm sounds weird! Are they quiet? I do want as quiet as possible (on a budget of course!) but that spin up when needed stuff sounds a bit odd!!

Ill look into a GF4 Ti4200......Ive noticed a couple of places selling the GF3 Ti200 for £50, but ill look into the GF4

How about this:
GF3 Ti450 Golden Sample 64MB DDR

Matt

 

[1nteger]

Hi Feenster99 !
I would stick with the T'Bred if i were u...the Barton's don't pay any extra dividends at for the extra cash unless you want to increase FSB later. Your overall spec looks pretty good. I'd agree with Mucks on the vid at that price (whatever u do...don't get a GeForce4 MX!!!)...but if u go for an nVidia vid, you might consider the basic Asus A7N8X mnobo as opposed to the A7V8X. Using the nVidia rather than Via chipset, it might run a little smooother with an nVidia vid.

Sorry if i'm a bit late with this reply

 

[feenster99]

Thanks for the reply integer!

Well, i placed my orders today for all the bits. Ive ordered a Saphire Radeon 9100 128MB from Komplett - i have had many comments stating that the 9100 was faster than any of the cards i mentioned, and is on par with a GF4 ti200 - costs just £60 too, so im pleased with that.

I contacted CCL by phone to check stock levels as their site didnt update itself, and was told that i had to check the website to find out stock levels, and when everythings in stock then i could order. I decided that if they werent prepared to help me out, id look elsewhere.

I went to ebuyer, and ordered all the bits i wanted, and much more (network card and crossover cable, IDE and floppy cables, 400W PSU etc) and it came to £25 less than CCL including next day delivery! So hopefully tommorrow ill have a newly made PC!

Ill post back here when i get it up and running!

Matt

 

[floppybootstomp]

Good system for the price

Excellent choice of vid card as well, imo.

Good luck with the build.

Let us know how you get on with E-Buyer, I've had problems with them in the past, hopefully they've improved.

Their prices are certainly good, I just hope you never have to try and get an RMA number from them.

I didn't care much for CCL's attitude either, but they did do a very quick turnaround on a faulty sound card I had from them once.

 

[feenster99]

Thanks, its been 2 years since ive built a PC. Hopefully i wont make too many mistakes. I can guarantee that ill have forgotten to order some cable or other. I forgot to order the CPU cooler from Ebuyer, so have to make a trip to CCL tommorrow to get one.

The thing that annoyed me about CCL was that i rang to ask whether i could order my stuff, then come and pick it up. The bloke on the phone was very miserable and told me that i had to either order via the net and wait for them to contact me about the out of stock parts, or i had to watch the website to see if things came in stock THEN ring them back to order.

I waited from 9.30am to 2.30pm, checking stock levels and they never updated, so i ordered from ebuyer. Tough luck CCL

Matt

 

[1nteger]

Originally posted by floppybootstomp
Let us know how you get on with E-Buyer, I've had problems with them in the past, hopefully they've improved.
Their prices are certainly good, I just hope you never have to try and get an RMA number from them.

Me too...I haven't used them for a long time. Mainly I hate their ordering policy...I ordered most of the components for a PC and was told that I'd have to wait for all the items to be in stock before they would ship...that was fair enough. But, only one of my items was missing. When it arrived, I still didn't get the order and they didn't contact me. I phoned them and they told me that another item was now out of stock...I queried this as it had been available before. They said that someone else must have ordered it after me and their order could be filled so they got it. It took over two weeks to get my stuff, as other items kept going out of stock, and even then I had to switch half of the order to Overclockers (who I now use as my first choice supplier).

Unless they have changed their policy, E-Buyer are crap for orders of multiple components...that's why their delivery rates are so low compared to others.:angry:

 

[feenster99]

<me bangs head on desk whilst waiting for eBuyer "next day" delivery to arrive>

Matt