First draft

[[GCA]Tim270]

I have been looking to get a new pc around xmas for some time, however i need to keep this budget low, very low so i am aware that some of the items i chose are not from reputable brands and may not be my best choice, but they are cheap. £500 is my highest limit, im look in the 300-450 atm as i not building some future proof monster something simply that i can OC to a nice speed and will be able to play DX10 games for a while.


Asus P5K-E WiFi Intel P35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £84.99 / http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...odid=MB-241-AS

OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) PC2-6400C4 800MHz SLI-Ready Edition Low Latency Dual Channel DDR2 £44.99/ http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...odid=MY-090-OC



Intel Core 2 Duo E4400 £74.60 //ntel Core 2 Duo E6600 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail -£124.99


Western Digital Caviar SE16 250GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (WD2500AAKS) - £38.99 / http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...odid=HD-133-WD


Coolermaster RC-690 Dominator - Black (No PSU) Case http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...odid=CA-145-CM

£42.99


Scythe Katana 2 Heatpipe Quiet CPU Cooler / http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...odid=HS-010-SY

£18.79



580W HiperPower / http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...odid=CA-009-HP
£39.99


I am yet to decide on a graphics card and i still need to get a new moniter and sound card.

[camper.]

Re: First draft

8800GT for graphics, no questions there.


If you can skip on virtualisation (VMWare and crap are accelerated by the VTx extensions on Intel CPUs, and you can't emulate Windows otherwise IIRC) then an E2180 will be decent, overclocked, that is (it has a 10x multiplier). That saves around £80. You can save £30 by moving to a Gigabyte P35-DS3L motherboard as well.


I suggest Scan.co.uk, has cheaper prices in most cases, and a complete PC still has only £10 delivery charge. You're getting absolutely raped to the core on that CPU, it's available for £50.

Try:

E4600 - http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=632058 - £86

P5K-SE - http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=656141 - £66

2GB Corsair TwinX XMS2 DHX, PC6400-800MHz - http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=585722 - £54

730W HiperPower Type M - http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=465735 - £76

Scythe Katana 2 - http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=613815 - £18.79

WD 250GB Caviar, 16MB cache - http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=256891 - £42

Total = £340 including VAT & P&P

There's a hell of a lot of room to adjust here.

Oh, and:

20m Cross Over (X-Over) CAT-5e RJ45 Cable Snagless 10/100/GbE - http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...roductID=34796 - £5

[[GCA]Tim270]

Re: First draft

8800GT for graphics, no questions there.


If you can skip on virtualisation (VMWare and crap are accelerated by the VTx extensions on Intel CPUs, and you can't emulate Windows otherwise IIRC) then an E2180 will be decent, overclocked, that is (it has a 10x multiplier). That saves around £80. You can save £30 by moving to a Gigabyte P35-DS3L motherboard as well.


I suggest Scan.co.uk, has far cheaper prices, and a complete PC still has only £10 delivery charge. You're getting absolutely raped to the core on that CPU, it's available for £50.

Thanks for the advice ill check out scan now, and £10 sounds great for the delivery charge, but i still don't trust royal fail to get it here on time :p

[camper.]

Re: First draft

They don't use Royal Fail, they use Initial City Link which has been superb for me, at least (I've had around 20-40 packages done by them, not a single delay).

[=98=]

Re: First draft

Here is the review of the Scythe Katana 2 in Custom PC magazine:

Scythe Katana 2 - 21%

The newest Katana wasn't too bad in our Athlon 64 X2 test PC, but when it was confronted by the heat from a quad-core Intel chip, it had no good answers

Go for the Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro

[TheSpark29]

Re: First draft

Why the E4600? Isn't it the same as a E4300 but with a higher multiplier? Why not save the money and OC the difference? I honestly don't think a E4600 will OC much higher than a E4300.

PSU is overkill. Corsair VX-450. Only £46. You won't even reach half its capacity.

I'm not really liking the Katana. For about £7 more, you could get a Thermalright Ultima 90/ SI-128/ Ultra 120. I think those three options will be much better than the Katana.

[offtopic]Do you guys have a £ symbol on your shift+4 key?[/offtopic]

[=98=]

Re: First draft

£= "Shift + 3"
$= "Shift = 4"
€= "Shift + alt + 4"

[TheSpark29]

Re: First draft

£= "Shift + 3"
$= "Shift = 4"
€= "Shift + alt + 4"

So where's your # symbol? Shift+alt+4 doesn't do anything for me.

[=98=]

Re: First draft

If you want to know come on Xfire and i'll tell you the secrets of a foreign keyboard.

[camper.]

Re: First draft

Why the E4600? Isn't it the same as a E4300 but with a higher multiplier? Why not save the money and OC the difference? I honestly don't think a E4600 will OC much higher than a E4300.

PSU is overkill. Corsair VX-450. Only £46. You won't even reach half its capacity.

I'm not really liking the Katana. For about £7 more, you could get a Thermalright Ultima 90/ SI-128/ Ultra 120. I think those three options will be much better than the Katana.

[offtopic]Do you guys have a £ symbol on your shift+4 key?[/offtopic]

Multiplier is everything on a low budget system. It means, less strain on RAM and northbridge, more stability, the works.

As for PSU, there isn't a GFX card in yet, so it depends on that really.

[megawhompertoo]

Re: First draft

agree tehshark29^^^^ re: air cooling.

if i'm spending almost $40 on a cooling solution, it ought to say thermalright on the box. i use a si-128 on my e6600, the large wingspan helps keep the caps cold. the si-128se is an even better (small) improvement. downside: i almost had to take my mobo out of the case to get the thing bolted down right--and you DO NOT want this thing tumbling down onto your gpu. a little off-topic: INTEL YOUR MOUNTING CONFIGURATION SUX!

also used an ac freezer 7 pro, and nothin' but happy with that one for half the price of the high-end ones.