hole poking required

[Testin da Cable]

tdc is feeling an urgent need to buy a new computer. he's selected the following components, but as he's been out of the hardware loop for a while, he'd like you to have a look and offer your expert opinion please. thanks in advance!

t3h n00 p00t4, configuration v1:

• Intel Pentium 4 3,0GHz (800MHz FSB, Boxed) € 286,-
• Asus P4P800 Deluxe € 139,-
• 1024MB PC3200 DDR SDRAM Corsair TWINX ( 2 x 512MB LowLatency) Platinum Heatspead € 330,-
• Sapphire Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB DDR, DVI € 358,-
• Belinea 101920 19" TFT zwart/zilver € 659,-
• 2x Western Digital 36GB (Raptor WD360GD, 10.000rpm, 8MB, SATA) € 127,- each
• Asus DVD E616 IDE 16x48 Retail Black € 35,-
• floppydrive € 5,-
• Enermax SilentPlus 450 (EG465P-VE[FMA]) € 119,-
• innovaSet XD(478) Socket 478 watercooling set €268,90

• 
  
  things:
  

  [*]I'm not too sure about the watercooling thing. drives the price up a bit, and the zalman silent coolers rock as is (and are about €230 cheaper!)
  [*]I'm also not too sure about going Intel, but I'm a thrifty bast at times and the 3GHz PIV is cheaper than it's AMD counterpart it seems.
  [*]RAM. methinks I can save another €100 or so by getting Kingston hyperX ram. I have that now actually, and it's pretty good.
  [*]diskdrives. the two 36GB raptors together are cheaper than one 73Gb model. an IDE 80GB 8mb/7200rpm model is cheaper still at about €80 iirc

your thoughts?

 

[throdgrain]

Radion 9800 looks a bit dear m8

 

[Trem]

Impressive but whats the currency those prices are in? Is it some sort of crazy alien-nerd money, a bit like monpoly money but you can only spend it at a PC shop?

 

[Testin da Cable]

100 euro = 71 pound.

that Sapphire will cost about 254 squids incl vat. OCUK sell the same one for 280.24 incl vat.

sorry, I should have mentioned: all euro prices above are incl vat.

 

[Trem]

I know it is mate, I was just pulling your smooth Dutch/Scottish muscular leg. Mmmmmmmmm.














*cums*

 

[Testin da Cable]

errr...that's not my leg sailor

 

[Will]

I'd probably not go watercooling, and you can save a little by getting an OEM processor (retail comes with Intel heatsink). If you aren't going to overclock, I'd get the cheaper RAM. And I think 10,000rpm HDD are still way overpriced.

 

[Testin da Cable]

I couldn't find an 800Mhz bussed PIV that came OEM :/ other than that I agree. shall produce a new list after I've had a look at my server. biam heh

 

[Big G]

Can't go wrong with that setup, that'll be fab.

I'm running a 2700 + and 9800 Pro 128: everything flies along in crazy resolutions, so if it's games your wanting to play there will be nothing it can't handle.

The only crunch game is of course HL2/Doom3. Then again, i've seen the (mods feel free to scrub this bit) HL2 E3 tech demo on an athlon 2200+ (or was it a 2100...) and 9800 Pro and it was slinky smooth at 1280*960.

I'd prefer a much larger hard disk (e.g. WD Caviar 7200 rpm) than two, smaller, more expensive 10k rpm drives. Additionally, Zalman coolers would be a much cheaper and probably nearly as quiet solution.

G

 

[Testin da Cable]

ok, thanks for your advice I've taken it into consideration, and here's a new config for your hole-poking

n00 p00ta v2A:

• Intel Pentium 4 3,0GHz (800MHz FSB, Boxed) € 286,-
• Asus P4P800 Deluxe € 139,-
• 1024MB Kingston HyperX DIMM ( 2x512MB DDR PC3200 400MHz CL2) € 310,-
• Sapphire Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB DDR, DVI € 358,-
• Belinea 101920 19" TFT zwart/zilver € 659,-
• 2x Western Digital 80GB (WD800JB, 7200rpm, 8MB) € 164,-
• Asus DVD E616 IDE 16x48 Retail Black € 35,-
• floppydrive € 5,-
• CPU Fan Zalman CNPS-7000 ALCU S478/S462/S754 € 45

• 
  
  gotten the original total price down from ~2.4k euro to € 2001,- good stuff
  
  n00 p00ta v2B:
  

  [*]Intel Pentium 4 3,0GHz (800MHz FSB, Boxed) € 286,-
  [*]Asus P4P800 € 121,-
  [*]1024MB Dane-Elec NON-ECC DIMM PC3200 (2x 512MB) € 282,-
  [*]Sapphire Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB DDR, DVI € 358,-
  [*]Belinea 101920 19" TFT zwart/zilver € 659,-
  [*]Western Digital 120GB (WD1200JB, 7200rpm, 8MB) € 107,-
  [*]Asus DVD E616 IDE 16x48 Retail Black € 35,-
  [*]floppydrive € 5,-
  [*]CPU Fan Zalman CNPS-7000 ALCU S478/S462/S754 € 45

aaaaaaand we drop again to €1898,- Hmm, were I really harsh on the cash I could also save another 659EUR by not getting the TFT screen, but that TFT is exactly why I want to get a new system so the point is moot I guess.

 

[flownalk]

get the PowerColor Radeon 9800 PRO 128MB from komplett.co.uk tis 220quid so abit cheaper than the Sapphire... not sure how much that is in funny money tho

 

[Big G]

If you're gonna be gaming, maybe think about this for a display if the budget allows?

It has 1600*1200 at an all important 16 ms response time and:

From the picture above, you can see the 2001FP is not shy on inputs. From left to right, you can see inputs for power, composite video, S-Video, DVI, D-sub 15, Audio (for the AS500 sound bar, which was not included), USB 2.0 input, and 2 more USB outputs. The Genesis gm1601 chipset on the monitor is more than capable for these signals.

Might be worth a look.

G

 

[Testin da Cable]

hmm, atm 100.00 USD = 86.80 EUR. that 20" Dell lcd is priced at $899us, so it should run at ~780EUR, so more expensive than the Belinia but also larger and faster

I haven't been able to find it in stock online anywhere though, not even at Dell's place heh :/