help with new pc specs pleez

markj

markj

Geek Trainee
Hi... i'm looking to build a new pc. I have a smallish budget & this is kind of what I'm looking for:

I dont' care too much about graphics or sound as I'm not into games, but I would like to be able to connect it to my hifi if poss.

I want a dvd/cdrw.

What's the difference between say a celeron and a pentium processor, or and AMD processor for that matter?

I mean what I really want is something that's fairly fast, decent memory, I can use windows XP, media player, msn messenger, use some charting software, excel & word files, and doesn't take anywhere between 2 & 5 minutes to boot up like my current laptop, which means I leave it on standby to avoid that (v.bad for the planet y'know).

And i'd like a decent looking case - not a space craft - but nothing cheap & nasty.

Plus a standard 17" monitor, keyboard & optical mouse would be fine

What kind of specs am I looking at?

As you can probably tell, I'm a bit of a novice at this, so any help much appreciated. :good:

Cheers
 
If you gave us an indication of your budget (an honest one), we'd be able to help you alot quicker.

As for your post, there are 4 basic processors available to you: for what you need:

Intel Celeron & AMD Sempron (The Budget Processors)
or
Intel Pentium 4 & AMD64 (or AMD XP)

Basically all these processors will do what YOU need perfectly, so i would go for the cheaper option and get a Celeron or Sempron (personally i'd get a Celeron).

Now you mention you want a DVD/CD-RW, for the price of one of these you might as well spend the small extra and buy a DVD-RW (with this you can copy/write any type of media, and they are great to backup work/files on.

Personally for what you've described i would go for a:
Case
Antec Sonata Piano Black Quiet Case - 380W TruePower Silent PSU
CPU
Intel Celeron D 320 2.4GHz (Socket 478)
Motherboard
Asus P4P800S-X (Socket 478) Motherboard (SATA/10/100Mbps Lan/AGP 8X)
Memory
GeIL 512MB (2x256MB) PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit
Graphics
Asus A9250/TD ATI Radeon 9250 128MB DDR TV-Out/DVI
Hard Drive(s)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 Plus NCQ 80GB ST380817AS SATA 8MB
Optical Drives
AOpen DUW1608 Chameleon 16x DVD±RW Dual Layer
Keyboard&Mouse
Microsoft Internet Keyboard // MS Intelli Optical Mouse
Floppy
1.44" Floppy Disk Drive.

That would roughly cost you about £405 Including vat + delivery

As for a monitor i would get a 17" from one of these manufacturers: Samsung/IIyama/Hyundai/Sony/VideoSeven

You'd be looking at Maximum £500 including vat & delivery

However, that system would be pretty much the Best for what your going to use, it would ensure it would last a good while for you.
 
Thanks for the advice on the DVD-RW ProcalX
In the end,this is what I got:
CPU 2.8 - AMD Athlon 'Barton'c XP2800+ 333FSB
Maxtor DiamondMax 80 GB SATA 8MB Cache
Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe Nforce 2 (socketA)
AGP8x, Dolby® digital 6-channel audio, onboard IEEE 1394,
serial ATA, dual-channel DDR 400 and a dual LAN design
- 3 x 184pin DDR-SDRAM ports (Supporting up to PC3200)
- 5 x PCI slots
- 1 x AGP Pro (4x/8x) slot
- Dual Channel DDR400 support
- 2 x UDMA133 (supports upto 4 device)
- Serial ATA150 Controller
- 6 x USB 2.0 ports
- Firewire IEEE 1394 ports
- Onboard dual Marvell Gigabit LAN & Nvidia 10/100 LAN
- Nvidia SoundStorm / Dolby Digital Audio
- Nivida Nforce 2 Chipset
- Asus Wi-Fi Slot
1x DDR 333 512 MB
Samsung TS-H492AWBAH 52x/32x/16x DVD-RW
17 inch Monitor
1.44 MB Floppy Drive
Asus V9520VS GeForce FX 5200 VideoSuite 128MB
And a Benz black super midi 400w case.
 
That's a good motherboard. I've had mine for over a year and it's been able to roll with the punches well.
 
Nice choice markj! That's one of the best socket A 'boards around (in my opinion). What you got should serve you very well. The 2800+ is also a very good buy, it's impressive what kind of performance you can get out of a chip that price, regardless of whether you intend to take advantage of all of it or not.
 
Thanks guys... Big B, how d'you post your reply with those graphics? Can I do it on my comp?
 
It's an image you host on an image server (like Photobucket) and use the
Code: 
[img] [/img]
tags in your signature. Depending on how you like it, you can make it with paint (but don't use a .bmp format---they're huge). We don't have an official size limitation, but we'd prefer not to see an image or combination thereof larger than 60kB and 250x650 pixels. You can also ask real nicely for some Photoshop guru on the forums to make you one too. Check the graphics design forum.
 
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