eksdee
FH is my second home
- Joined
- Feb 17, 2006
- Messages
- 4,469
my pc is dying on it's arse, and i'm due a £700 tax rebate. thus, i've been doing a lot of thinking on buying a new pc. frankly, i know jack about the tech side of things, but i know that i want something roughly future-proofed and that i can upgrade as times goes on, should it be necessary.
i've been looking at AMD based systems as i have gaming in mind, but i also plan to do a lot of painter, illustrator & photoshop work, a long with a little after effects, premiere, final cut etc in the future. thus about 2gb and 2-300gb hard drive is necessary.
in terms of a gfx card, i was thinking of something fairly mid-range as i imagine with the advent of DX10 in the new year, i'll be wanting a new card by next summer anyway.
so i got a few quotes off various web-sites and was basically wondering if people could give some advice - i.e, are these quotes toss, over-priced... should i be looking at other avenues? if not, which one should i go for?
come on nerdz, i need your advice.
onto the quotes:
all thoughts/advice massively appreciated.
i've been looking at AMD based systems as i have gaming in mind, but i also plan to do a lot of painter, illustrator & photoshop work, a long with a little after effects, premiere, final cut etc in the future. thus about 2gb and 2-300gb hard drive is necessary.
in terms of a gfx card, i was thinking of something fairly mid-range as i imagine with the advent of DX10 in the new year, i'll be wanting a new card by next summer anyway.
so i got a few quotes off various web-sites and was basically wondering if people could give some advice - i.e, are these quotes toss, over-priced... should i be looking at other avenues? if not, which one should i go for?
come on nerdz, i need your advice.
onto the quotes:
Code:
Case : - CoolerMaster Centurion 534 - Black with Silver Front
CPU : - ATHLON X2 4200 [2.2GHz / 2x 512K] - Dual Core
GRAPHICS 1 : - Geforce 7950GT 512MB DDR3 TVO/VIVO Dual-DVI
HDD 1 : - 250GB SATA 2 7200rpm
MEMORY : - 2.0GB (2x1GB) DDR2 PC5300 (667MHz) Kingston
OPTICAL DRIVE 1 : - 16x DVD-ROM
OPTICAL DRIVE 2 : - 16x DVD Writer - Dual Layer, Dual Standard + LightScribe
Power Supply : - 650w Silent *Recommended
from http://www.bban.co.uk - Price £703.00 (£826.03 Inc. VAT)
Code:
GA0601 M2N4-SLI - Gaming PC - AM2 Athlon X2 Dual-Core SLI
Processor: AMD64 Athlon X2 4600+ 1Mb cache AM2
Memory: 2.0GB DDR2 533mhz (2 x 1GB)
Hard Disk Drive: 300GB S-ATA2 3.0Gb/s 16MB buffer (Recommended)
Optical Drive: 16x Double-Layer DVD+/-RW
Graphics card: NVidia GeForce 7900GT PCI-E 256MB DDR3 Dual DVI/TV
Sound card: Onboard audio
Internet and Networking: Onboard 10/100 network card (Built-in)
Warranty: 3 Years Standard Warranty
Case: Coolermaster Cavalier 3
PSU: 600W Thermaltake Toughpower PSU
from http://www.goldenelectronics.co.uk £768.00 (incl. VAT)
Code:
Processor (CPU)
AMD ATHLON™ 64 X2 4200+ (2.2GHz) 2 x 512K L2 Cache (AM2 pin)
Memory (RAM)
2048 MB CORSAIR DDR2 667MHz - LIFETIME WARRANTY! (2x1GB)
Motherboard
ASUS® M2N4-SLI: DUAL DDR II, S-ATA II, 2 x x16 VGA, 2 PCI
USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS (4 REAR + 2 FRONT) AS STANDARD
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
250GB SERIAL ATA II HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st CD/DVD Drive
16x +/- DVD WRITER (8x +/- Dual Lyr) (Lightscribe) (40x CD-RW) (£23)
Graphics Card
256MB GEFORCE 7900GT PCI Express + DVI + DVI + TV-OUT
Sound Card
8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF. AUDIO (6 CHANNEL ON M2N4-SLI)
Network Facilities
2 x 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORTS (1 PORT ON M2N4-SLI)
Floppy Disk Drive
1.44MB - 3.5" FLOPPY DISK DRIVE
Case
Stylish Silver/Black Trident case + 2 front USB
Power Supply & cooling
500W (Peak) Super Quiet Dual Rail PSU + 120mm fan & CPU Cooler (£39)
Warranty: 1 Year Return-to-Base Warranty + 1 Month Free Collect & Return
Delivery: Next Working Day Insured Delivery on Completion of Order (Free)
£666.38 ex VAT.
£783 inc VAT and Delivery.
from http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk
Code:
CASE: NZXT Trinity Tower 400W Case w/ Side-panel Window (BLACK Color)
CPU: (Socket AM2) AMD Athlon™64 X2 4200+ Dual-Core CPU w/ HyperTransport Technology
MOTHERBOARD: (Socket AM2)Asus M2N-SLI Deluxe nForce 570 SLI MCP Chipset DDR2/800 MBoard w/ Dual PCI-Express
MEMORY: (Req.DDR2 MainBoard)2GB (2x1GB) PC6400 DDR2/800 Dual Channel Memory (Corsair Value Select or Major Brand)
VIDEO CARD: NEW!!! ATI Radeon X1900XT PCI-E x16 512MB VIDEO CARD
VIDEO CARD 2: NONE
LCD Monitor: NONE
Hard Drive: Single Hard Drive (250GB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 8MB Cache 7200RPM HDD)
Data Hard Drive: NONE
Optical Drive: SONY DUAL FORMAT 16X DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW DRIVE DUAL LAYER (BLACK COLOR)
Optical Drive 2: NONE
SOUND: HIGH DEFINITION ON-BOARD 7.1 AUDIO
£727.00 ex. VAT
£854.23 in. VAT
(before all applicable rebates)
this summary fails to mention i also went for the psu upgrade to an 'Enermax Noisetaker EG701AX-VE(W) SFMA 24P (ALL IN ONE) SLI Supports 600Watt Power Supply'
from http://www.cyberpowersystem.co.ukall thoughts/advice massively appreciated.
