Help New PC

[JingleBells]

Looking at my current spec, it's time to get a new PC so I can play new games, I currently have the following:

Asus A8N-SLI Premium (nForce4 chipset)
AMD Athlon 64-Bit 3500+ @2200Mhz
1024 GB RAM (2x512 PC3200)
2 x NVIDIA GeForce 6600GT
2 x 80GB SATA HDDs (there's space for 4)
Antec 380W PSU
Thermaltake Silent Tower heatsync gizmo

Aside the HDDs, and perhaps the case, I don't really thing there's much worth keeping.

Now, I'm looking to spend anywhere between £500 and £800, but I have no idea what I want at all, I'm not a brand fanboy, I've used Intel/AMD and nVidia/ATi in the past, I just want a machine that can play the latest games on (CoD5 for instance is a bit lacking the in the GFX department it seems)

I've very tempted by some of the systems from Aria, as I really can't be bothered to build a PC (that and I've never build a whole machine before, so I've no idea what stuff I need relating to cables, heatsyncs, fans and "thermal paste").

I'm either looking for online to get delivered to home over the festive period, or for somewhere I can collect the bits from in the Manchester area.

Ideas?

 

[JingleBells]

Weevil suggested scan as they are based up in Notlob, and I've managed to configure something like:
3XS V3 Gamer - Updated Dec 08
* LN19302 4GB Corsair (2x2GB) TwinX XMS2, DDR2 PC2-6400 (800), 240 Pins, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 5-5-5-18
* LN19849 550w Corsair VX Series PSU, ATX, PS/2, 5 year Warranty - see specs
* LN22903 640GB Samsung HD642JJ Spinpoint F1, SATA II, 7200 rpm, 16MB Cache, 8.9 ms, NCQ
* LN9035 80mm Akasa Amber Case Fan, 3 Pin, 2 Ball Bearing, Ultra Quiet and Long Life
* LN25386 896MB XFX GTX 260, PCI-E 2.0, 2000MHz GDDR3, GPU 576MHz, 216 Cores, 2x DL DVI-I/ HDTV + FarCry 2
* LN11755 92mm Akasa Amber Case Fan, 3 Pin, 2 Ball Bearing, Ultra Quiet and Long Life
* LN25188 Acronis True Image Home 2009 HDD Backup & Restore Software - A Must! *Best Seller*
* LN15157 Ahead Nero v7 - Essentials Suite 1 *OEM for Data, Audio, Photo, Video and TV
* LN23694 Akasa 3.5" AK-ICR-01EB Black Internal Multi Memory Card reader, USB 2.0 Port (SDHC Compatible)
* LN21790 Asus V3-P5G31, S775, iG31, DDR2 667/800 MHz, PCI-E (x16), SATA II, On Board VGA, Black/Silver
* LN17224 Cyberlink Power DVD V7 *Oem - Movie/Audio Player & Decoder Software - Best Seller see specs
* LN23987 Intel Core 2 Quad Q9400, Yorkfield Core, S775, 2.66 GHz, 1333MHz, 6MB L2 Cache, 8x, Retail
* LN17167 Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1* 32Bit 1Pk OEM (DVD)
* LN17415 MS OFFICE 2007 25 Usage/60 Day TRIAL Basic,SBE & Professional
* LN24454 Pioneer DVR-216DBK 20x DVD±R, 12x DVD±DL, DVD+RW x8/-RW x6, SATA, Black, OEM - NEW!
* LN1272 Scan 3XS System - 1year Onsite Warranty (Mainland UK)
* LN176 Scan System Configuration

Grand total ~£900

Yes I know I could get all the bits and make it myself, but I really can't be bothered when I spend all day in an office writing code, rebooting servers, etc...

However, if I've made a grave error with something do say, I'd like to get an order in ASAP so I can collect it ASAP

 

[nath]

I think that sounds a bit pricey really. Building a machine is much easier than you might think and much cheaper. Those points aside, the issues I'd have with that build is unnecessary software - nero and power dvd - and the nvidia card. I think the general consensus is that ATI give much more bang for buck nowadays. Gunna check out ebuyer now and see how much you might need to spend on the parts.

 

[ford prefect]

I agree with Nath, seems quite pricey for what you are getting. Persoanlly I would build, you can probably come up with roughly the same spec and save at least £300 and not have a load of crap trial software to remove from the system at the end.

 

[nath]

Spoiler

Samsung SH-S223F 22X DVD±RW/RAM/DL Serial ATA Black Bare Drive - OEM 145450 114 in stock £14.99 £13.03

Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 (3.16GHz) Socket 775 Wolfdale 1333FSB 6MB L2 Cache Retail Boxed Processor 140428 23 in stock £159.03 £138.28

Samsung SpinPoint F1 HD103UJ 1TB Hard Drive SATAII *32MB Cache* - OEM 143288 846 in stock £73.37 £63.80

Sapphire HD 4870 Toxic Edition 512MB GDDR5 Dual DVI HDTV Out PCI-E Graphics Card 151335 14 in stock £234.44 £203.86

OCZ 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 800Mhz/PC2-6400 Memory GOLD DUAL CHANNEL Unbuffered CL5(5-5-5-18) 146049 333 in stock £43.99 £38.25

Akasa Infiniti ZOR 11 Bay Full Tower Gamers Case - No PSU 150412 2 in stock £72.42 £62.97

Enermax Pro82+ 625W PSU - 82+% Certified Efficiency, 4x PCI-E, ATXv2.3 144085 4 in stock £83.18 £72.33

(click if you have changed any details) Cart total inc vat: Cart total ex vat: £681.42

Guh, dunno how easy that is to read but I'm missing a motherboard and cables (so add another 100 ish for that lot). I don't really know what the best mobos are right now so hopefully others could help. But the above would be a pretty solid system. I only spent 2minutes compiling it though so no doubt room for improvement.



edit: Just realised, + 85 quid (inc VAT) for Vista home premium OEM. I think these prices I've found could be beaten though.

 

[Kryten]

Aye, priced up a similar system for JB on IRC, saving 100 quid on a more conservative graphics card (4850 or GTX260), going for a 100 quid coolermaster psu & case bundle and a slightly lesser specced e8400 - very little tweaking can go a long way when building up like this. Plus of course when building, assuming you can be arsed with it, you'll get parts warranties that can be up to or more than 10 times longer than you'll get with the whole system bought off the shelf.

If it comes down to it, I'd be going for the Scan kit over any Dell hardware at this range by a long shot.

 

[Jupitus]

I'm not really up to speed on recent hardware, but I do notice your list has Vista 32 bit - I'd suggest some thought about going 64 bit at this stage...

 

[Helme]

I agree with Jupitus, really no reason not to get it with new hardware, pretty much everything made in the last 2 years have 64bit drivers which was the main reason to avoid it before.

Going off naths list I'd suggest an Asus P5Q motherboard to go along with it