Hi all I haven't been here for a very long time, since my last PC build just a little under 2 years ago, so I am really out of the loop with hardware and stuff, so once more I have returned to ask for the help and support of those more technology-knowledgeable than I. Basically I start university on the 16th of September and will be moving away from home for the first time. After much consideration, and due to my limited budget I have decided to try and build a new desktop PC, rather than buying a cheap laptop. My budget is around £500 for the system and monitor, and due to limited desk space I will definitely need an LCD screen (19" maybe?): Primary Uses: - Listening to music, I am planning to purchase a set of 2.1 speakers and to use my PC as my main audio device instead of taking a hifi system down to university. - The usual sort of office stuff, word, excel, running together with IRC, MSN maybe and also the music playing together with any other background things (Makes me wonder if I need a dual core?). Secondary Uses: - I will likely watch movies regularly, in order to make use of the unlimited download bandwidth in campus in the first year. - I will probably play on a few games, but I'm not a big gamer and if I do play games they tend to be strategy games and the like, rather than first person shooters and stuff, so frame rate isn't a huge problem for me, but a nice looking screen would be good. As I will go very soon, this leaves me just a few days to decide upon what parts I want for my PC so that I can order them and get the system put together before I head off to university. Therefore I would really, really appreciate any support and advice any of you can offer on this subject... as to be honest I just don't know what combination, within my price range will give me the best performance for the above stuff? Thanks in advance to anybody who is willing to give me a helping hand! Kindest Regards John
At the moment, I don't think the price of going dual core would be worth it for you if you're not going to do heavy gaming or video edting etc. So a single core solution with a low-end/mid range graphics card should do. Even the low end cards now can handle a lot of the previous generation games nicely, especially graphically light games such as RTS. I'm going to give you some components that are socket AM2, AMD's newer socket for CPUs so should give you reasonable upgrade prospects in the future, as well as DDR2 capability. CPU: ebuyer.com - Components » Processors » AMD AM2 Athlon 64 / Sempron (Socket 940) » Product details £60.76 Mobo: ebuyer.com - Components » Motherboards » Socket AM2 AMD Motherboards » Product details £48.65 RAM: ebuyer.com - Components » Memory - Desktop » DDR2 MODULES - 1GB And Above » Product details 1GB RAM should give you enough for doing multitasking - £52.29 Graphics card: ebuyer.com - Components » Graphics Cards » nVIDIA GeForce 6 Series » Product details £63.95 PSU: ebuyer.com - Components » Power Supplies » Antec » Product details £58.24 Case: ebuyer.com - Components » Cases » Other Manufacturers » Product details £39.99 DVD writer: ebuyer.com - Components » Optical Drives » DVD-RW Drives » Product details - £25.38 19" TFT: ebuyer.com - PCs/Displays » Monitors » .TFT LCD Flat Panel 19" » Product details - £152.74 thats your budget just about done, and so theres not much more you need. Apart from keyboard/mouse and speakers which I don't really know what you want. Remember about postage though. Hope that helps.
Well thanks a lot for your response Addis. Here's a list of some of component options I am considering (I'll progressively update it): 1) CPU: [A] AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800 Dual Core (AM2) (£100) Intel Pentium D 805 Dual Core (S775) (£69) [C] Intel Pentium D 820 Dual Core (Second Hand) (S775) (£65) [D] Athlon 64 3800 (AM2) (£73) More Expensive (Likely out of range): - Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 (S775) (£123) - AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200 Dual Core (AM2) (£122) General thoughts: 2) Motherboard: [A] Asus M2V (AM2) (£46) ASROCK 775DUAL-VSTA (S775) (£36) [C] FoxConn K8M890M2MA-RS2H (AM2) (£37) General thoughts: -> S775: I'd most likely go with the above stated S775 motherboard if I followed this root, as it is really inexpensive but seems to have decent reviews. -> AM2: I'd probably go with the above model, as the more expensive URL="http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?rb=21428639703&action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X3NwZWNpZmljYXRpb25z&product_uid=112086"]model[/URL] is an extra £14 for an onboard graphics card and 7.1 surround sound, but as I will purchase a graphics and soundcard separately, there is no real advantage to it for me, especially as the onboard audio would likely be outdone by a cheap low-range soundcard anyway? 3) RAM: [A] 1GB Corsair Value Select DDR2 PC5300 (£55) Kingston Value Ram 1GB 533MHz DDR2 (£55) [C] Corsair 1GB DDR2 533Mhz (£58) General thoughts: -> I'll probably go with the first option, as it is basically the same price for PC5300 as it is for the next step down. I don't think this RAM would be limited by any speed bottleneck in my system, so it would be worth paying an extra few pound more (including delivery) for this item , right? This also leaves me open for an easy future update to double my system memory (probably near Christmas). 4) HDD: [A] Maxtor DiamondMax 10, 300GB SATA (£57) Western Digital Caviar, 250GB SATA (£52) General thoughts: -> I'll probably go with the first option for a few pound extra, which is nothing for the extra £50 drive space. Unless somebody would strongly direct me towards the second WD Caviar option, if the extra speed or quietness of the drive would be worth taking a 50GB hard space drop for? 5) Graphics card: [A] XFX 7600GS 256Mb (£71) XPERTVISION 256MB GeF 7600GS (£63) [C] BFG GeForce 7300 GT OC 256MB GDDR3 (£58) [D] XPERTVISION 256MB GEFORCE 7600GT (£87) General thoughts: -> After reading this review and various others, it seems that the 7600GS slightly outperforms the X1600XT as well as being considerably quieter and of course cheaper. I'm not a big gamer so will likely avoid the 7600GT for this reason, as my main use will probably be movies and TV rather than any intense gaming. -> However I am now unsure whether or not to choose above linked 7300 GT 256mb DDR3 or the 7600 GS 256mb DDR from the above respective links, can anybody help me out with this choice? 6) Soundcards: [A] TRUST 5.1 SOUND EXPERT DIGITAL SURROUND (£12) Sumvision PCI 5.1 (£6) General thoughts: -> I will be using this system in university mostly, and will use my PC as my sound system, probably hooking up some 2.1 speakers (Maybe the Logitech Z-2300s). My only concern is that the card offers high quality for CD and MP3 playback, as long as sound quality wise I will lose nothing performance wise over the more expensive cards (using these 2.X setups) I will be more than happy. -> The trust 5.1 comes with a digital coxial output and the lead, so maybe this is a major advantage? But would this coaxial output be connectable to the Logitech-Z-2300s for example and would I notice any sound difference when mainly playing mp3s? :S 7) DVD Drives: [A] LG GSA-H10NBAL 16x16DVD±RW (£23) NEC ND-4570 16x DVD±RW/RAM (£23) [C] LiteOn SHM-165P6S-09C 16x DVD±RW/RAM (£23) General thoughts: -> They all seem to be very reliable drives for basically the same price, but I will probably go with the LG, as I generally think their goods tend to be of high quality and the drive has the most positive ratings on the ebuyer site. I doubt there is any real difference in noise levels between the drives? If so, that would be something which would help me choose between the three. 8) Cases: [A] NZXT Trinity Silver (Ebuyer.co.uk) (£39) NZXT Trinity Black (Shiny Hardware LTD) (£41) [C] Jeantech G-Max (PC world Case) (£25) General thoughts: -> I am strongly leaning towrads the NZXT Trinity silver atm, as it seems that the case is a popular one, with numerous positive reviews online, and I also like the temperature feature, as I have always been curious about the temperature disparity between lengths of use and also between the annual weather seasons lol. I doubt I could get a better case for this price anyway, seems like an absolute bargain? 9) PSU: [A] Sansun Arctic 500w Modular (£35) Q-Tec Triple Fan 650W (£28) [C] Sansun Black 600W (£18) [D] Ebuyer 550w ATX Silent Neon (£22) [E] Sansun True 450W (£25) General thoughts: -> I know that good power supplies are essential. However due to my budget, I am thinking about taking a hit on going for an inexpensive power supply for now and updating probably before or at christmas when I have some more cash to a higher quality PSU. -> I am leaning towards selecting the aforementioned [A] PSU model, as the reviews seem really strong. But of course, I wonder if I would be ok with one of the cheaper models listed above, especially as I am planning to update my PSU in the near-future anyway? -> Out of general interest, what sort of power supply will I need to run this system? At least 500W I would assume? Maybe I could get away with the Sansun True at 450W maybe if not? Seems like a nice model. 10) Monitors: [A] HANNS G HW191D 19" Widescreen LCD (Which seems to be 5ms according to this site?) (£130) General thoughts: -> This monitor simply seems to be much better than any of the alternative near-priced competitors, and the reviews are also very positive across the board. I suppose widescreen will be useful for watching movies, TV and for office tasks, i.e. providing me with extra width when using word or excel? -> If somebody has a better monitor to suggest around this range, or maybe some strong condemnation against widescreens (bear in mind I've a passive gameplayer) then of course please do let me know! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ On an additional note, newegg.com seems to be a nice site to get user ratings on almost all hardware products, so I will try and use that to help me get an idea of how good certain products are or aren't. I just need some help choosing the best component combination from the above I suppose! Any help will be really appreciated.
