The pc im going buy

[Gotrag]

[1] Area-51™

Operating System: Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition UK with SP2
Case: Alienware® Full-Tower Case with 480 Watt PSU - Lunar White
Power Supply: No Power Supply Upgrade
Processor: Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor 530 w/ HT Technology 3.0GHz 1MB Cache
Motherboard: Intel® D925XCV Desktop Board
Memory: 1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz - 2 x 512MB
Video Card: ATI RADEON™ X600 XT PCI Express 128MB DDR w/Digital and TV Out
Hard Drive: 120GB Seagate Barracuda Serial ATA 7200rpm w/ 8MB Cache - Quantity 1
Optical Drive One: 16/48x IDE DVD-ROM Drive - Black - w/Software MPEG-2 Decoder
Sound Card: Intel® High Definition 7.1 Audio
Network Card: Integrated High Performance Intel Gigabit Ethernet Adapter
Floppy Drive & Additional Storage: 1.44 MB Floppy Drive - Black
Keyboard: Logitech Internet Keyboard UK - Space Black
AlienInspection: AlienInspection - Exclusive Integration and Inspection - £50 Value - FREE!
AlienWiring: AlienWiring - Exclusive Internal Wire Management - £50 Value - FREE!
Free T-Shirt: Alienware® T-Shirt - Black - XL [UBER]
Warranty: 1-Year AlienCare Toll-Free 24/7 Phone Support

£942.00

Opinions?

 

[Sycho]

Video Card: ATI RADEON™ X600 XT PCI Express 128MB DDR w/Digital and TV Out

Change that immediatly :E

Perhaps to a geforce 6800 non ultra which is best card for around the £200 mark, if you can't spend that much extra then a 6600GT for £160 or a radeon pro 9800 128mb for £120(not sure if these are pci-express yet? maybe they are)

Personally i wouldn't order a pc from alienware, sure they are good but you can probably build a more powerful pc from another retailer in the uk for around the same price if you know how to build them or know someone who does.I would go with an athlon winchester socket 939 set up(agp supported motherboard+agp gfx card) too since pci-express seems not as good as agp in the current situation of benchmarks in games, perhaps because it's real new and hasn't reached it's true standards yet.

It's a great pc just that gfx card would need changing which i said about above.

 

[Gotrag]

[1] Area-51™

Operating System: Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition UK with SP2
Case: Alienware® Full-Tower Case with 480 Watt PSU - Conspiracy Blue
Power Supply: No Power Supply Upgrade
Processor: Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor 520 w/ HT Technology 2.8GHz 1MB Cache
Motherboard: Intel® D925XCV Desktop Board
Memory: 1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz - 2 x 512MB
Video Card: NVIDIA® GeForce™ 6800 Ultra PCI Express 256MB DDR3 w/Digital and TV Out
Hard Drive: 120GB Seagate Barracuda Serial ATA 7200rpm w/ 8MB Cache - Quantity 1
Optical Drive One: 16/48x IDE DVD-ROM Drive - Black - w/Software MPEG-2 Decoder
Sound Card: Intel® High Definition 7.1 Audio
Network Card: Integrated High Performance Intel Gigabit Ethernet Adapter
Floppy Drive & Additional Storage: 1.44 MB Floppy Drive - Black
AlienInspection: AlienInspection - Exclusive Integration and Inspection - £50 Value - FREE!
AlienWiring: AlienWiring - Exclusive Internal Wire Management - £50 Value - FREE!
Free T-Shirt: Alienware® T-Shirt - Black - XL
Warranty: 1-Year AlienCare Toll-Free 24/7 Phone Support

£1,121.00


Better?

 

[Sycho]

Yeah but you might want to change the ultra to a geforce 6800GT and overclock it to ultra speeds, then you save an extra £80-100, can use an artic cooler too for it(£20 from overclockers) this will drop card temp from 15-25c depending on your case/environment/wiring inside pc)

 

[Sycho]

Ok since you told me through pm to make you an ultimate game's machine pc for £2000 mark, this pc can also have another 6800GT in it whenever you wish thus giving it good lastability, someone can probably make a better system on here, i couldn't use an athlon 3500 due to being out of stock so the athlon 4000 kind of makes the price a bit steep but never the less it's probably the best pc you can get or one of them:

DESCRIPTION QUANTITY PRICE COST REMOVE
Lian Li PC 65 Aluminium Midi-Tower (No PSU) (CA-003-LL)
£75.90 £75.90
Antec TruePower 550W PSU (CA-002-AN)
£82.03 £82.03
Asus A8N-SLi Deluxe nForce4 SLi (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-087-AS)
£159.95 £159.95
AMD Athlon 64 4000 (Socket 939) - Retail (CP-098-AM) (CP-098-AM)
£419.95 £419.95
Crucial 1GB (2x512MB) DDR PC4000 Ballistix Dual Channel Kit (MY-041-CR)
£154.95 £154.95
Western Digital Raptor 74GB 10,000RPM SATA 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-015-WD)
£103.95 £103.95
Leadtek GeForce 6800 GT 256MB DDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-049-LT)
£264.95 £264.95
NEC ND3500 16x DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter - OEM (CD-010-NE)
£38.70 £38.70
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS 7.1 THX Sound Card - Retail (SC-017-CL)
£59.95 £59.95
IIyama Vision Master Pro 454 19" CRT DiamondTron Monitor (MO-023-IY)
£206.00 £206.00
Arctic Cooling Rev.4 nVidia 5 (6800 Series) VGA Silencer (HS-009-AR)
£20.35 £20.35
Creative Inspire 7.1 TD7700 Speakers - Retail (SP-031-CL)
£160.00 £160.00
Subtotal £1,746.68
VAT £305.67
Total £2,052.35


That's all from www.overclockers.co.uk you could wait for them to get an athlon winchester 3500(socket 939) in stock then use that and save £250 or so and overclock it in future to 4000+ level using a thermaltake cpu cooler.So with a 3500 it would probably be £1780 mark or so.(wasn't sure what speakers you want either but those are 7.1 and fairly good, you can just check the site and mod the pc, but wait for more people's views aswell or ask some experts)

Also that's with a good monitor too, not sure if you had one.

 

[Sycho]

If you remove the monitor and change the speakers to 5.1 very good logitech ones:

DESCRIPTION QUANTITY PRICE COST REMOVE
Lian Li PC 65 Aluminium Midi-Tower (No PSU) (CA-003-LL)
£75.90 £75.90
Antec TruePower 550W PSU (CA-002-AN)
£82.03 £82.03
Asus A8N-SLi Deluxe nForce4 SLi (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-087-AS)
£159.95 £159.95
AMD Athlon 64 4000 (Socket 939) - Retail (CP-098-AM) (CP-098-AM)
£419.95 £419.95
Crucial 1GB (2x512MB) DDR PC4000 Ballistix Dual Channel Kit (MY-041-CR)
£154.95 £154.95
Western Digital Raptor 74GB 10,000RPM SATA 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-015-WD)
£103.95 £103.95
Leadtek GeForce 6800 GT 256MB DDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-049-LT)
£264.95 £264.95
NEC ND3500 16x DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter - OEM (CD-010-NE)
£38.70 £38.70
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS 7.1 THX Sound Card - Retail (SC-017-CL)
£59.95 £59.95
Arctic Cooling Rev.4 nVidia 5 (6800 Series) VGA Silencer (HS-009-AR)
£20.35 £20.35
Logitech Z-5300 THX® Certified 5.1 280 Watts Speakers - Retail (SP-007-LG)
£133.00 £133.00
Subtotal £1,513.68
VAT £264.90
Total £1,778.58

But i would use an athlon 3500 still....(be around £1450 or so then)

 

[Sycho]

If you want to spend less and go AGP route(this is my current pc by the way just some things are different brands):

DESCRIPTION QUANTITY PRICE COST REMOVE
AMD Athlon 64 3500 Retail / MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum / 1GB Crucial Ballistix PC4000 Dual Channel Kit - Bundle (BU-031-OK)
AMD Athlon 64 3500 (Socket 939) - Retail (CP-086-AM) 1
MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum (Socket 939) Motherboard (MB-027-MS) 1
Crucial Ballistix PC-4000 BL6464Z505 512MB DDR (MY-016-CR) 2
£391.90 £391.90
Western Digital Caviar Special Edition 200GB 2000JD SATA 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-013-WD)
£63.95 £63.95
Sparkle GeForce 6800 GT 256MB DDR3 TV-Out/DVI (AGP) - Retail (GX-009-SK)
£235.00 £235.00
Lian Li PC 65 Aluminium Midi-Tower (No PSU) (CA-003-LL)
£75.90 £75.90
Enermax Coolergiant 480W EG485AX-VHB(G) SFMA Power Supply (CA-010-EN)
£65.13 £65.13
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS 7.1 THX Sound Card - Retail (SC-017-CL)
£59.95 £59.95
Arctic Cooling Rev.4 nVidia 5 (6800 Series) VGA Silencer (HS-009-AR)
£20.35 £20.35
Logitech Z-5300 THX® Certified 5.1 280 Watts Speakers - Retail (SP-007-LG)
£133.00 £133.00
NEC ND3500 16x DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter - OEM (CD-010-NE)
£38.70 £38.70
Logitech Internet Navigator Keyboard Special Edition (Black) - Retail (KB-006-LG)
£19.50 £19.50
Logitech MX510 Performance Optical Mouse - Retail (KB-024-LG)
£25.20 £25.20
Subtotal £1,128.58
VAT £197.51
Total £1,326.09

That's without monitor though, so add another £200 or so for a 17 inch, 19 inch £250 more.Will not post anymore pcs but those 3 specs i just gave are basically:

-First is for serious gaming, also has the potential to last you ages due to it having a SLI board.
-Second is without monitor and cheaper speakers.
-Third is my current pc which fucking flies, is the AGP route which can still last long and play games easy at full settings.Also can be overclocked in future whenever you wish.

There hope that gives you an indication of some pc components to go for, you may find them cheaper elsewhere.

 

[Vermin]

I take it you don't need a monitor then? Also how much you want to spend? the ones sycho done are great but a bit expensive really, and also stick with your ddr2, it's alot better then crucial ddr.

And u wont really need an arctic cooler unless you're gonna overclock it alot.

And audigy 2 is great but u can get a decent soundcard for alot less money then that. And the speakers you can get very cheaper since u pay logitech alot for the design

Also the
Western Digital Raptor 74GB 10,000RPM SATA 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-015-WD)
£103.95 £103.95
isn't really worth the money

I agree with sycho about the Athlon 3500, 4000 is great but costs ALOT.

 

[Xeanor]

MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum nForce4 Ultra (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-046-MS)
£109.95
AMD Athlon 64 3800 Newcastle 130nm (Socket 939) - Retail (CP-088-AM)
£369.95
Connect3D ATI Radeon X800 XT PE 256MB DDR3 VIVO TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-024-CO)
£315.00
OCZ 1GB (2 x 512MB) PC3200 Dual Channel Platinum Series EL-DDR REVISION 2 CAS2 (MY-048-OC)
£177.50
Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 200GB SATA 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-016-SE)
£71.95
Logitech Z-5300 THX® Certified 5.1 280 Watts Speakers - Retail (SP-007-LG)
£133.00
NEC ND3500 16x DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM (CD-012-NE)
£38.70
Zalman CNPS7700-CU Ultra-Quiet CPU Cooler - Retail (HS-010-ZA)
£35.00
Antec NeoPower 480W PSU (CA-022-AN)
£70.95
Coolermaster Centurian 5 - Black/Blue (CA-076-CM)
£39.95
Arctic Cooling Rev.4 ATI 4 (X800 Series) VGA Silencer (HS-001-AR)
£14.95

Total: £1,617.86 (VAT included)

 

[frogster]

If you remove the monitor and change the speakers to 5.1 very good logitech ones:

DESCRIPTION QUANTITY PRICE COST REMOVE
Lian Li PC 65 Aluminium Midi-Tower (No PSU) (CA-003-LL)
£75.90 £75.90
Antec TruePower 550W PSU (CA-002-AN)
£82.03 £82.03
Asus A8N-SLi Deluxe nForce4 SLi (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-087-AS)
£159.95 £159.95
AMD Athlon 64 4000 (Socket 939) - Retail (CP-098-AM) (CP-098-AM)
£419.95 £419.95
Crucial 1GB (2x512MB) DDR PC4000 Ballistix Dual Channel Kit (MY-041-CR)
£154.95 £154.95
Western Digital Raptor 74GB 10,000RPM SATA 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-015-WD)
£103.95 £103.95
2 X SLI Leadtek GeForce 6800 GT 256MB DDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-049-LT)
£264.95 £264.95 (x2)
NEC ND3500 16x DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter - OEM (CD-010-NE)
£38.70 £38.70
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS 7.1 THX Sound Card - Retail (SC-017-CL)
£59.95 £59.95
Arctic Cooling Rev.4 nVidia 5 (6800 Series) VGA Silencer (HS-009-AR)
£20.35 £20.35
Logitech Z-5300 THX® Certified 5.1 280 Watts Speakers - Retail (SP-007-LG)
£133.00 £133.00
Subtotal £1,513.68
VAT £264.90
Total £1,778.58 + 264.95

But i would use an athlon 3500 still....(be around £1450 or so then)

Edited for sheer uberness :O

 

[Vermin]

Asus P5AD2 Premium 925X (LGA775) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-070-AS) £158.57

Corsair 1GB DDR2 XMS2-4300 TwinX Low Latency (TWIN2X1024-4300C3) (2x512MB) (MY-071-CS) £270.19

Intel Pentium 4 550 "LGA775 Prescott" 3.4GHz (800FSB) with HT Technology - Retail (CP-059-IN) £190.94

LG GCC-4521BB 52x/32x/52x/16x CD-RW/DVD Combi Drive - OEM (CD-020-LG) £28.43

CoolerMaster Centurion 2 - Black (No PSU) (CA-053-CM) £39.29

Antec TrueControl 550 Watt ATX12 power supply w/ front control panel (CA-018-AN) £91.80

Logitech Internet Keyboard (White) - OEM (KB-012-LG) £6.82

Logitech MX510 Performance Optical Mouse - Retail (KB-024-LG) £29.61

Voyetra Turtle Beach Riviera 5.1 PCI Sound Card (SC-002-TB) £33.13

Hitachi Deskstar 7K250 160GB SATA 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-020-IB) £62.22

Creative 5.1 SBS 560 Speakers - Retail (SP-042-CL) £41.36

MSI NX6800GT-T2D256E GeForce 6800 GT 256MB DDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-050-MS) £328.94

Total Price including VAT= £1280

Sounds pretty good to me, i'm not a fan of buying newest things since after a month they aren't newest anymore and price will be alot lower.

 

[Vermin]

Sorry just spoke to bro and he had some things to say to, I think you'll like this one:

MSI 915P Neo2 Platinum (LGA775) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-025-MS) £103.40

Corsair 1GB DDR2 XMS2-4300 TwinX Low Latency (TWIN2X1024-4300C3) (2x512MB) (MY-071-CS) £270.19

Intel Pentium 4 550 "LGA775 Prescott" 3.4GHz (800FSB) with HT Technology - Retail (CP-059-IN) £190.94

Coolermaster Centurian 5 - Black/Blue (CA-076-CM) £46.94

Tagan TG480-U01 480W Silent PSU (CA-000-TG) £66.09

Logitech Internet Keyboard (White) - OEM (KB-012-LG) £6.82

Logitech MX510 Performance Optical Mouse - Retail (KB-024-LG) £29.61

Western Digital Caviar Special Edition 160GB 1600JB ATA-100 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-005-WD) £56.34

Creative 5.1 SBS 560 Speakers - Retail (SP-042-CL) £41.36

MSI NX6800GT-T2D256E GeForce 6800 GT 256MB DDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-050-MS) £328.94

Total Price including VAT= £1139

Soundcard is built in motherboard as is internet adapter.

 

[Boni]

Scrap the logitech rubbish, that stuff lasts about a month and feels like it was made from a cereal box. Replace with Microsoft keyb+mouse.

 

[Sycho]

Scrap the logitech rubbish, that stuff lasts about a month and feels like it was made from a cereal box. Replace with Microsoft keyb+mouse.

Not really, my microsoft mouse only lasted one month or so due to faulty wiring so i am going for logitech this time hoping it will be better.

 

[frogster]

MX510 is a great mouse.I love mine :O

 

[Vermin]

keyboard wise microsoft is ok, but when it comes to mice u can't compare microsoft with logitech, microsoft is a big joke compared to logitech mice

 

[Boni]

Not really, my microsoft mouse only lasted one month or so due to faulty wiring so i am going for logitech this time hoping it will be better.

Good luck, each to their own, I used logitech for about 2 years, went through 3 keyboards and a similar number of mice, but my MS stuff hasnt faltered once.

 

[Boni]

keyboard wise microsoft is ok, but when it comes to mice u can't compare microsoft with logitech, microsoft is a big joke compared to logitech mice

How so? Microsoft mice are widely regarded as one of the best makes going, so much so I know many people will not use a mouse that isnt MS. Where as logictec are well known for filling the bottom end of the market with very cheap equipment.

(p.s. I hate sticking up for a MS product, I hate their monopoly and you could get me to swear about any software they write.. but their mice are good).

The only logitech product I still use is a wireless trackball, and its a complete bastard to get the batteries in, requires continous cleaning and the slightest vibration causes the ball to pop out and go flying across the room.

 

[Vermin]

You have quite obviusly never tried mx510

 

[Boni]

You have quite obviusly never tried mx510

You got me there, my knowledge of logitech is 6+month old, I guess they might have improved, ill check it out when my crappy trackball expires

 

[Xeanor]

Scrap the logitech rubbish, that stuff lasts about a month and feels like it was made from a cereal box. Replace with Microsoft keyb+mouse.

I've had one of the first Logitech products, it wasn't exactly good.

But when i changed from a IntelliMouse Explorer to a MX500, my god that was a BIG improvement.

Right now i have a 5 year old iTouch keyboard that still works PERFECT, and I have a MX1000 which is probably the best mouse ever, and in my eyes it is.

Oh, and the Logitech speakers are really good, my guess is you have never tried any of them, they absolutely pwn. The new creative series are quite crappy in my eyes, apart from the GigaWorks line.

 

[Boni]

Right now i have a 5 year old iTouch keyboard that still works PERFECT, and I have a MX1000 which is probably the best mouse ever, and in my eyes it is.

Oh, and the Logitech speakers are really good, my guess is you have never tried any of them, they absolutely pwn.

You would be wrong in your guess there, ive used both iTouch and logitech speakers and have only bad things to say about them.

Im sure no one in their right mind really recommends logitec speakers for quality do they? Isnt that just something you end up with when you get a crappy OEM deal or want to save a few quid?

 

[frogster]

http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/products/details/GB/EN,CRID=2177,CONTENTID=9486

Looks pretty spangly to me!

 

[Llixeraxu.]

its okay.. alien ware are a rip off though.

I could make you up a PC for half the price just as good. Or for same price twice as good.

With pcs its not about the spec so much as using good parts together.

Unless you got AMAZING hearing as well ... you wont need the audoligy.

 

[Llixeraxu.]

If you wanna add me to your messenger sambonumber9@hotmail.com I can have a chat with you about a good sytem.

your call

 

[Boomeruk]

got a mx700 when they first came out,(£80!!111) forever ago, still working a treat, my best mouse ive ever used (ive used every microsoft optical/wireless mouse, almost all logitech, razer boomslang etc etc)

mx 700 = win xD

 

[Escape]

I prefer MS mice myself, Logitech ones are too light and small

I'm building a new PC in a couple of weeks, just need to decide if I'm sticking with AGP or making the change to PCI-E. The only advantage I see for PCI-E is the graphics card will have future potential.

 

[Lumikki]

XP pro.