New system

[S-Gray]

Well its that time of the year, roughly around every year i buy a new computer just to (attempt) to keep above it all...

I created a shortlist of what i would like, i priced it all up and it comes to roughly £430, but i havent included other stuff like Fans, Floppy drive etc so it may come just under £500.

All products shown are from ebuyer, because i like to use them as a guide because its easy to use on their site.

MSI Nforce K7N2 Delta-ILSR Motherboard <- £98
AMD ATHLON XP2600+ 333MHz FSB - Thoroughbred - OEM <- £77
Liteon 48x24x48x16x Ide Retail Kit <- £49
Leadtek Winfast Geforce FX5200 8x AGP 128MB DDR TV-Out DV <- £69
256mb PC2700 DDR PC333 *2 <- 53
Maxtor Diamondmax Plus 8 30Gb UDMA 7200rpm Disk Drive *2 <-£63


the nForce mobo is apparently a very good one, i did actually want to go for the lower version of it which is something like £40 cheaper... but thats still open to discussion, the cheaper one is the "MSI K7N2 Delta SKT A 8xAGP DDR400 Nforce2 Motherboard" priced at £66

I like to post what i need here seen as tho i trust you lot ()

 

[lovedaddy]

Sounds like a good, cost effective, mid-range system. I was thinking of something not too dis-similar for myself.

MSI motherboard, very nice. nForce 2's are quite tasty (personally, I prefere the onboard sound solution over SBLives). Also supports 400fsb (should you upgrade to a 3200 in the future).

The only thing I'd for sure get different.
120 GB Seagate Barracuda Serial ATA 7200rpm 8MB cache HDD - Inc_VAT_GBP_106.93. (taken from Microdirect).

I'd probably also consider getting a ATI 9600 over the nVidia, simply cos I prefere the 2d quality on the ATIs.

 

[Jonty]

Hello

Sounds like a nice system But may I suggest you consider a couple of revisions?

Firstly, I think I'd personally go with a AMD AthlonXP 2500+ Barton CPU. I know it's technically clocked lower, but the new architecture means it probably outperforms a 2600+ Thoroughbred (it also comes in at around £7 cheaper than the CPU you've selected).

Secondly, and this is minor, but is there any reason you need to two physical hard-drives? It's just Western Digital do a great 80Gb special edition hard-drive with 8Mb cache for only £5 more than the two drives you've selected.

Other changes are really just down to preference, so I'll refrain from saying anything With regards lovedaddy's comments about the graphics, I'd stick with what you've got. The 5200 non-Ultra, as I'm sure you know, isn't designed for gaming like the, say, Radeon 9600 Pro. However, 2D performance and quality are very good, and because the 5200 is passively cooled (i.e. no fan) it's completely silent If you do want a gaming card, however, just say.

With regards prices, MicroDirect are having a special weekend where they're selling everything at their trade prices. Not everything works out cheaper, but there are some savings to be had. The only catch is having to order by Monday morning at the latest, and having to pay £8 for special courier. Anyway, with that in mind, here are what I'd expect to pay for your kit.

• Motherboard : £84.32 (Komplett)
• CPU (2500+ Barton) : £69.33 (Retail from MicroDirect) or £70.44 (OEM, but not a time-limited offer, from OverclockersUK)
• Optical Drive : I didn't track down that specific drive, but it seemed a little expensive compared to it's OEM counterparts.
• Graphics Card : You're price seems good.
• RAM : Seems like a good price, but MicroDirect offer that kind of RAM for £42.30. The only downside is that it's simply stated as 'Major Brand', so it's down to the luck of the draw. I recently chose this option and ended up with Geil RAM, which is a pretty good make, but things may have changed since then.
• Hard-Drive : Your price seems good for the two 30Gb drives, else you're looking around £68 (MicroDirect) or £72 (OverclockersUK, but not a time-limited offer) for that 80Gb Western Digital Drive.

Hmm, didn't intend to write that much In short, the parts you've chosen seem great. Personally speaking, I'd go for the 2500+ Barton and the 80Gb hard-drive. The rest is just down to preference, so as I said before, I won't post any of that. With regards prices, some things seem a little expensive that you've chosen, but not drastically. Whilst I may have found some more reasonable prices (not necessarily the absolute lowest) I appreciate that ordering from different companies often increases postal costs. As such, it may work out cheaper sticking to just one or two suppliers, even if they're not the cheapest, thus avoiding paying postal costs over and over again.

Kind Regards

 

[.Cask]

Don't neglect your interface

Decent monitor, mouse and speakers can make all the difference imo if you're building it mainly for gaming.

 

[S-Gray]

Well i already have a Ratpadz/Logitech MX500/Good Monitor and Headset so that isnt gonna be a problem...

I may also check Computer Shows, as they're always cheaper than places on the net, but its the fact that they have the stuff there and whether i trust that its all working.

I wanted to go for the 2 Hard Drives mainly because of backing up purposes

 

[Happy Go Lucky]

I'm not sure but the cheaper MSI nf2 board is without the Nvidia soundstorm chip so I would get the more expensive one.

I know what you mean about backing up, even if you don't run a RAID 1 , having one boot hdd with windows and apps, and other hdd with important data is a good idea, and performance is better as after a while the hdd slows down having too much stuff on it.

I'm deciding myself whether do get a 2nd hdd to store important work, or spend a bit more and get a serial ata raid card and two of the new 10rpm sata drives.

 

[S-Gray]

I think i have decided to actually go down to Bolton to Scan, instead of ordering it online so to speak, so it cuts out the delivery time and cost...

It works out around £10 cheaper, dunno if its worth doing that but only time will tell