Shoutbox

Hey,

Well as you may know i have my dell inspiron 9400 and now want to get a desktop, i looked at dell and i can get:-

- AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual core processor 3600+
- Vista Home Premium
- 20" flat panel Moniter
- 2048MB of RAM*  (they give me the choice to have either four 512MB cards or two 1024MB cards...whcih is better?)
- 320GB (7200RPM) HDD
- Integrated nVidia GeForce 6150 LE graphics
- 16 X DVD +/- RW Drive
- multi-media keyboard and premium mouse
- Creative Inspire T7900 7.1 Speaker System

That is in the Dell C521

£544.07

BUT i do not like dell' s PC ( i do there laptop!) (because of cheap part and bad service) so i have decided to build my own

this is what i was thinking

case £85

Mobo £45  Asus m2n-mx

CPU (not sure!) AMD (budget = £40 - £65)

RAM £50 (DDR2 800)

Hard drive £55  320GB ATA 2

Tv tuner £30

Optical drive(s)  ~£20 per drive (one DVD RW and one lightscribe)

Standard CPU cooler £15

PSU 400w £13

Mointer to be decided, hoping dual screen ( i will be willing to change Mobo for one with dvi and vgd support if that one does not)

OS vista home premuim £80 OEM

Total £463 (not including monitor(s))

so what would anyone reccomend me change or ect...

hopeing to build it in Summer holidays ( june 28 - ~ August 27)



Thanks Everyone

P.Toye

quote:

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Originally posted by Ptoye
they give me the choice to have either four 512MB cards or two 1024MB cards...whcih is better?)

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2x1GB gives you expandability because almost all motherboards atm have only 4 ram slots. So 2x1GB gives you an option in the future to get more ram.
That's what you should go for

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CPU (not sure!) AMD (budget = £40 - £65)

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the 4200+ by AMD looked good. I was actually considering it until I got my hands on my E6600 about six months back

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Hard drive £55  320GB ATA 2

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ATA? SATA wins any day

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Optical drive(s)  ~£20 per drive (one DVD RW and one lightscribe)

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Or get a DVD-RW which has lightscribe capabilities like mine? I didn't even know what lightscribe was when I got this :x
The only thing I don't have is blue-ray read/write capabilities but those aren't as common yet so yay

Good luck with the new pc

quote:

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Originally posted by Ptoye
PSU 400w £13

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Buying a PSU that cheap is not at all recommended. Considering that the PSU is the component that powers the whole of your PC, I would definately up the wattage to say about ~600W (However, I don't know what you're using this PC for, but 600W would give you a good amount of power.) As for the price... you get what you pay for, £13 is not a lot at all so if you don't want your PC to fail due to the PSU, up the wager to something more "trustable" if you can, also go with a manufacturer that is well-known too.

quote:

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Originally posted by John Anderton
Or get a DVD-RW which has lightscribe capabilities like mine? I didn't even know what lightscribe was when I got this :x
The only thing I don't have is blue-ray read/write capabilities but those aren't as common yet so yay

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well i wanted two so that i could use it well like two drives...

quote:

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Originally posted by Knuckles
Buying a PSU that cheap is not at all recommended. Considering that the PSU is the component that powers the whole of your PC, I would definately up the wattage to say about ~600W (However, I don't know what you're using this PC for, but 600W would give you a good amount of power.) As for the price... you get what you pay for, £13 is not a lot at all so if you don't want your PC to fail due to the PSU, up the wager to something more "trustable" if you can, also go with a manufacturer that is well-known too.

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i can get a 650W for an extra £12


thanks both of you

quote:

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Originally posted by John Anderton
ATA? (Smilie) SATA wins any day (Smilie)

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serial ata is ata too

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Originally posted by Ptoye
- AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual core processor 3600+

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get a core2 duo

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Originally posted by ShawnZ
quote:

Originally posted by John Anderton
ATA? (Smilie) SATA wins any day (Smilie)




serial ata is ata too

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sorry i ment serial ata

quote:

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Originally posted by ShawnZ
quote:

Originally posted by Ptoye
- AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual core processor 3600+




get a core2 duo

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to costly

quote:

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Originally posted by ShawnZ
serial ata is ata too (Smilie)

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When did he say serial ata? Other than the post above this of course

I've not seen any ATA disc above 80GB. Don't think they exist or are in use mainly

Anyway, as Knuckles said, 600W PSU should be enough. That's what I have Got mine for 7 pounds though I never said UK was the cheapest place to buy things

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Originally posted by ShawnZ
get a core2 duo

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Not everyone has a gold mine under their house like our (not so) little shawnzy

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Originally posted by Ptoye
to costly (Smilie)

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*too
Its cheaper now than it was back then. Quite a lot cheaper

Same things what the others already said, and:

quote:

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Originally posted by Ptoye
case £85

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Buy a big enough case. Space is everything. It isn't a laptop so it shouldn't matter if the case is a bit bigger than otherwise. More space means better air circulation, means more lifetime. It also means you can more easly expand and put more cards in it if needed.

I would look for a full sized case...

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CPU (not sure!) AMD (budget = £40 - £65)

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try to get a dual core2

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RAM £50 (DDR2 800)

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speed depends also on your motherboard, make sure both are compatible.

Also go for two sticks if your motherboard supports dual channel memory.

Don't get more than 3GB, more than 3GB is totally useless.

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Hard drive £55  320GB ATA 2

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two HDDs of like 200GB are better than 1 of 400GB. Even when you partionate the one big HDD into 2, it will run slower than when you have two physical seperate HDDs.

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Optical drive(s)  ~£20 per drive (one DVD RW and one lightscribe)

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see if it supports all formats. Starting with +RW, -RW, DVD-RAM, etc. But also DAO (most important if you are going to write discs), TAO, digital input, etc. Try to get a dual layer supporting drive.

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Standard CPU cooler £15

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By cooler do you mean a passive element or a fan? Best is to have both.

Also, besides a CPU cooler you should invest in an extra fan for the case. Prefereable two (one to get air in, one to get air out)

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PSU 400w £13

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most likely this is a crap PSU... 400W is enough, but the price isn't... Go for a higher price range. Never cut budget on the PSU!

If you buy one and you can choose between a few, get the one that is the heaviest. This indicates in almost all cases a very decent quality.

Look if there are plugs to put the power of your monitor in (very handy; though in that case get a PSU with a bit more wattage).

Also see: http://shoutbox.menthix.net/showthread.php?tid=51...d=551342#pid551342

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Mointer to be decided, hoping dual screen ( i will be willing to change Mobo for one with dvi and vgd support if that one does not)

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That mostly depends on your graphics card, not your motherboard.

Get a decent graphics card which supports dual view (not all do! some only support clone view), and one with two DVI connectors (not one with one VGA and one DVI).

quote:

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Originally posted by Ptoye
RAM £50 (DDR2 800)

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You will only get about 1GB 667 For that price..

quote:

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Originally posted by Ptoye
case £85

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For the specs that you want and how much money you have, get a cheaper case that is around £50.

quote:

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Originally posted by Ptoye
Standard CPU cooler £15

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The stock cooling is good enough IMO.

quote:

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Originally posted by Ptoye
PSU 400w £13

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Like other people have said, get around 600w.

quote:

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Originally posted by Ptoye
Mointer to be decided, hoping dual screen ( i will be willing to change Mobo for one with dvi and vgd support if that one does not)

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Seeing as youre not going to be gaming, as you said in your previous post, get a nVidia 7300 GS. I used to have that and it ran dual screens fine.

Well, i got bored so I went to overclockers.co.uk and set some up..

You would have to get a bigger budget for what you want..

AMD setup

Core 2 Duo setup


If i was you, i would save up some more and get the c2d setup..


You could save money by taking stuff out of your old PC, like DVD drives, etc. if possible.

You should try and get a smaller monitor and you'll get the package cheaper, or of course get a better graphics card or something. The biggest screen anyone needs is 17", which is 1280x1024. Which is, in my opinion the best resolution for games etc.