New PC

[TheCoolMagpie]

Well I need a new pc, I got a £700-750 budget. Anyway im looking to buy all the parts and build the pc myself. Here's what im thinking of getting atm:

Quantity Product Name Price
(ex VAT) Total

AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200 Retail AM2 2.60GHz, 1000MHz FSB, 1MB, 64 Bit CPUADA5200CSBOX £169.95 £169.95

ASUS M2N-E SLi nF500 Socket AM2 PCI-E SLi / Gb LAN / DUAL CH DDR2 / SATA(II) RAID / 7.1CH AUDIO / RAID / ATX MOTHERBOARD £51.95 £51.95

Windows Vista Home Premium 64 OEM Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64bit Edition - DVD - OEM. £63.95 £63.95

200GB Maxtor DMax+10 SATA2 7200 8MB 300Gb/s NCQ Replaces 6L200M0 and 6B200S0 £35.75 £35.75

ASUS 1608P3S 16x DVDRW/RAM Black Dual Layer / 8x DVD-RAM / Retail Boxed / DVD Movie Factory 4 SE / Nero v6.6.0.14d :. £21.95 £21.95

19\" Arianet Y-Series Widescreen TFT MW9K8, 5Ms, Black, Security Lock £97.95 £97.95

Arianet High Perf. 1GB DDR2 533 1GB DDR2 533 SDRAM PC2 4200 Life time warranty £60.95 £60.95

Asus GeForce 7600GS 512MB PCI-E DDR2 (DVI) - HDTV out SILENT/HTD Mfr# EN7600GS £80.44 £80.44

Nokia Style 7260 MIDI Tower Case CAS-338 Black £22.95 £22.95

Subtotal :
VAT : £605.84
£106.03 Total : £711.87 inc VAT
(excluding delivery - how much will it be?)

The delivery cost for your order depends on the weight of the order, as well as the delivery destination.
The prices here are only an estimate!

CityLink : £10.97 ( + VAT )

Delivery will prob put me to £740, I CANNOT go above £750, this pc is primarily for gaming and college work. All suggestions are welcome :). I mainly want to know if it's all compatible, since i'll be spending a large amount of money on it.

[Barley]

I'll be the first person to mention what everyone else is going to say, you should try for a Core 2 Duo system :) You also forgot a power supply :)

And welcome to the forums :)

[Barley]

Here's what I've just quickly knocked up.

the CPU is better, as is the RAM, the graphics card, the monitor, everything really :)

http://www.onlybarley.co.uk/pictures/sysbuild2.jpg

[TheCoolMagpie]

The case comes with a 450W power supply, im looking to get an amd really as they're supposed to be better at gaming.

[mac124]

They were 12 months ago, Core2 duo has seen to that though. Pound for pound C2D will kick and equivalent AMD cpu into touch. Oh and NEVER use the psu that comes with a case if you are building a pc with any kind of real power especailly with a case that costs £22 :roll:

[TheCoolMagpie]

I'll look into the setup posted. Would aria be able to assemble the computer for me for a charge? It would greatly help.

[Barley]

[quote:a702ea4ae4=\"TheCoolMagpie\"]The case comes with a 450W power supply, im looking to get an amd really as they're supposed to be better at gaming.[/quote:a702ea4ae4]

Yeah as Mac said, the Core 2 Duo systems are better than AMD for everything these days, and the supplied 450w PSU won't be anywhere near powerful enough for the system you want. you need to spend over £50 on a decent PSU these days for any good computer.

I think Aria assemble PC's, but it's going to probably cost more then the £20 that was left over in the system I came up with for ya. So you'd either have to increase your budget slightly, or downgrade some of the parts.

[TheCoolMagpie]

[quote:2bc6dfcd61=\"Barley\"][quote:2bc6dfcd61=\"TheCoolMagpie\"]The case comes with a 450W power supply, im looking to get an amd really as they're supposed to be better at gaming.[/quote:2bc6dfcd61]

Yeah as Mac said, the Core 2 Duo systems are better than AMD for everything these days, and the supplied 450w PSU won't be anywhere near powerful enough for the system you want. you need to spend over £50 on a decent PSU these days for any good computer.

I think Aria assemble PC's, but it's going to probably cost more then the £20 that was left over in the system I came up with for ya. So you'd either have to increase your budget slightly, or downgrade some of the parts.[/quote:2bc6dfcd61]

I can put some more money towards assembly if I can get it assembled. Im thinking on buying a similiar set up to the one you posted, but I will put the 7600gs instead of the 7900 since I think the 7600 gs will be able to do the job im only gonna play games like Wow and Guild Wars, and it will prob cost me like £30 more for the 7900. Also my friend said I will need a heatsync/fan for Core 2 duo, how much will this cost.

[Barley]

The Core 2 Duo retail comes with a heatsink and fan (I think), and the 7900GT I spec'd for your system is a lot faster than a 7600GS :)

[TheCoolMagpie]

I see, but im on a tight budget so Im not sure. Anyway why is the 7900gt only 256 ram? Sorry I dont know that much about GFX cards. If I did decide to go with the 7600gs would I be able to play games such as WoW and Guild Wars with minimal lag?

[Barley]

I've never played WoW, so can't really offer any advice on it. but I did used to own Guild Wars (terrible game), and on my 6600GT it didn't run very well. The 7600 should be better I guess, but it's always a sensible solution to get the best card you cam if you're not sure ;)

256MB is fairly standard on graphics cards. My 7800GT has 256MB RAM on-board, it seems enough for me.

[TheCoolMagpie]

[quote:039459742e=\"Barley\"]I've never played WoW, so can't really offer any advice on it. but I did used to own Guild Wars (terrible game), and on my 6600GT it didn't run very well. The 7600 should be better I guess, but it's always a sensible solution to get the best card you cam if you're not sure ;)

256MB is fairly standard on graphics cards. My 7800GT has 256MB RAM on-board, it seems enough for me.[/quote:039459742e]

Ic, well i'll go have a look at all the parts and see how much they'll cost.

[TheCoolMagpie]

This is what I have come up with:

Del. Qty. Product Name Price (exc. VAT) Price total

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ABit IL9 Pro Socket 775 £ 48.95 £ 48.95
1GB PC6400 Arianet DDR2 800 SDRAM £ 57.95 £ 57.95
16x Liteon SATA DVD±RW Beige £ 20.25 £ 20.25
160GB Maxtor D/Max+10 133/7200 8M £ 33.95 £ 33.95
Hiper 580W Modular PSU BLACK £ 47.00 £ 47.00
Windows Vista Home Premium 64 OEM £ 63.95 £ 63.95
ASUS VW192S 19\" TFT - Widescreen £ 114.88 £ 114.88
Asus GeForce 7600GS 512MB PCI-E £ 78.00 £ 78.00
Generic BLACK / SIL MIDI Tower £ 18.50 £ 18.50
Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 Retail £ 124.95 £ 124.95

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subtotal £ 608.38
VAT £ 106.47
Total £ 714.85
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Delivery Costs (The prices here are only an estimate!) Delivery Costs:
Citylink £ 9.64

Now is this all compatible, and is it any good?

[TheCoolMagpie]

Ic, I wish I wasn't such a noob with pcs :cry: .

[mac124]

[quote:7ad7e66e4f=\"TheCoolMagpie\"]This is what I have come up with:

Del. Qty. Product Name Price (exc. VAT) Price total

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ABit IL9 Pro Socket 775 £ 48.95 £ 48.95
1GB PC6400 Arianet DDR2 800 SDRAM £ 57.95 £ 57.95
16x Liteon SATA DVD±RW Beige £ 20.25 £ 20.25
160GB Maxtor D/Max+10 133/7200 8M £ 33.95 £ 33.95
Hiper 580W Modular PSU BLACK £ 47.00 £ 47.00
Windows Vista Home Premium 64 OEM £ 63.95 £ 63.95
ASUS VW192S 19\" TFT - Widescreen £ 114.88 £ 114.88
Asus GeForce 7600GS 512MB PCI-E £ 78.00 £ 78.00
Generic BLACK / SIL MIDI Tower £ 18.50 £ 18.50
Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 Retail £ 124.95 £ 124.95

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subtotal £ 608.38
VAT £ 106.47
Total £ 714.85
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Delivery Costs (The prices here are only an estimate!) Delivery Costs:
Citylink £ 9.64

Now is this all compatible, and is it any good?[/quote:7ad7e66e4f]

It should all work but please i emplore you DONOT buy a graphics card base purely on amount of memory. A 7600gt with 256mb would eat that for breakfast and there was one (7600gt) available on Aria for around the same price last week.

*goes to check*

This (http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Graphics+Cards/PCI-E/nVIDIA+GeForce+7+Series/?x=12&p_d4t=on&p=cF9icmFuZD0mcF9kNHQ9b2ZmJnBfb3JkZXI9cHJpY2VfYXNj JnBfc3R5bGU9bGlzdCZwX3Byb2R1Y3RzUGVyUGFnZT0m#/Products/Components/Graphics+Cards/PCI-E/nVIDIA+GeForce+7+Series/nVidia+GeForce+7600GT+256MB+PCI-E?productId=24384) would offer alot more performance than the 7600GS 512mb you had chosen. The problem with the card you chose is, and no offence intended, people like yourself assume more memory is better but its not as the gpu in the 7600gs doesn't really have the power to run the resolution required to fully utilise the larger amount of memory.

[Barley]

I still think you'd be MUCH better off going with the 7900GT 256MB PCI-E card I mentioned previously. It'll make a huge difference over the 7600 in playing games like WoW, GW, Oblivion, FEAR, BF2 etc etc etc...

You'll get the 7600, and then realise it was a mistake, expensive mistake too. And like Mac pointed out, don't be fooled to go for a card just because it has 512MB RAM on it. Look for something with a good core speed.

Lastly, if you're adding Vista, cool, but it's still pre-order. Anyone know when it's going to be released? You don't want that holding up your entire order.

[mac124]

Is that an IDE hdd?

You may find that the motherboard only has one IDE port which, on some motherboards anyway, only supports optical drives?

[mac124]

[quote:44f684769d=\"Barley\"] You'll get the 7600, and then realise it was a mistake, expensive mistake too. And like Mac pointed out, don't be fooled to go for a card just because it has 512MB RAM on it. Look for something with a good core speed.

Lastly, if you're adding Vista, cool, but it's still pre-order. Anyone know when it's going to be released? You don't want that holding up your entire order.[/quote:44f684769d]

For the most part core speed is a good way of comparing graphics cards though not always, its ok when comparing cards from a similar range ie 7600's but a 7600gt running 560mhz core speed probably wont put up much of a fight against a 7950 running 500mhz core speed, i know those examples are a bit extreme but i wouldn't want to give TheCoolMagpie potentially dud info.

Isn't vista available to the public quite soon, end of next week or something like that?

[Barley]

The hard drive probably is, I only shoved it in there as an example of price, TheCoolMagpie would need to have a proper research and pick the hard drive he likes the most :)

As for Vista, I think it;s out pretty soon, but I don't know the official date.

[mac124]

Re the availability of vista

[quote:bb1f8993ae=\"Arias webby\"]Ordering this item will result in delay to your order.
Restock date: 29/01/2007 [/quote:bb1f8993ae]

Available monday then i assume?

[Biodoid]

Vista is on sale from 30th :wink:

[TheCoolMagpie]

Hmm, I will try to get a 7600 gt or 7900 into my budget, which harddrive should I get? Im not sure what's good or bad when it comes to a HD.

Im not looking to actually order the components for a week or 2 so this is just a rough set-up and hopefully vista will be in stock by then.

I read somewhere in another thread that for aria to build it for it is £45, ia this true and could you possibly provide a link to this.

Thanks people.

Edit:

There is Nvdia 7600gt for £71ish but it's a deal 4 today so I guessing when i will actually purchase the pc it will be around the same price as the 7600 gs, which is good and I will prob swap them around :).

[Barley]

If you want something good and pre-built, you could just go for this?

http://www.ariabeta.co.uk/Products/Systems/Vista+Ready+Attitude+Gaming/#/Products/Systems/Vista+Ready+Attitude+Gaming/Vista+Attitude+Elite+System+++++++?productId=25873

[TheCoolMagpie]

Id prefer to have a Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 Retail though.

[Barley]

I can't find anywhere on the aria site to have the system pre-built for you, maybe one of the mods or someone else can point you in the right direction?

[TheCoolMagpie]

Vista Extreme Media Intel System

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 Retail
Memory: 2GB PC6400 Elixir DDR2 800
Hard Drive: 320GB Maxtor D/Max +10 SATA2
Motherboard: MSI P965 Neo-F Socket 775
Graphics Card: nVidia GeForce 7600GT 256MB PCI-E
Sound Card: OnBoard Sound
CD Drive: LiteOn DW165016x DVD-RW Black
Case: Coolermaster Centurion 5 Silver
Software: Nero V7 Essentials Suite OEM,
Floppy: 3½inch Black Floppy Drive
Extra!: 600W Super Silent ATX PSU Compro VideoMate DVB-T200 Cyberlink PowerDVD Wireless 54MB USB Adapter

That's the nearest i've found, is it any good?

[Biodoid]

looks good to me

[TheCoolMagpie]

It's called Vista Extreme Media Intel System but I can't see vista in the software, im guessing i'll have to buy vista seperate? If so I dunno if I can stretch my budget that far, taking in to account delivery cost :(.

[mac124]

if its a complete working system then i guess it would have vista installed already, that is an assumption though. Also if you want the 6400 give aria a call i am sure they are flexible and would upgrade if you paid the difference.

[TheCoolMagpie]

Who would be best to pm about whether the pc would have vista installed or not? I tried asking a question on the site but, it just saves it.

[Barley]

Yeah it looks like the bare PC, you'd have to pay for Vista, and a monitor as well.

[TheCoolMagpie]

[quote:1a236b8c3b=\"Barley\"]Yeah it looks like the bare PC, you'd have to pay for Vista, and a monitor as well.[/quote:1a236b8c3b]

Ic, guess I can't afford it then!XD.

[TheCoolMagpie]

[quote:d3f2ecab4d=\"TheCoolMagpie\"]This is what I have come up with:

Del. Qty. Product Name Price (exc. VAT) Price total

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ABit IL9 Pro Socket 775 £ 48.95 £ 48.95
1GB PC6400 Arianet DDR2 800 SDRAM £ 57.95 £ 57.95
16x Liteon SATA DVD±RW Beige £ 20.25 £ 20.25
160GB Maxtor D/Max+10 133/7200 8M £ 33.95 £ 33.95
Hiper 580W Modular PSU BLACK £ 47.00 £ 47.00
Windows Vista Home Premium 64 OEM £ 63.95 £ 63.95
ASUS VW192S 19\" TFT - Widescreen £ 114.88 £ 114.88
Asus GeForce 7600GS 512MB PCI-E £ 78.00 £ 78.00
Generic BLACK / SIL MIDI Tower £ 18.50 £ 18.50
Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 Retail £ 124.95 £ 124.95

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subtotal £ 608.38
VAT £ 106.47
Total £ 714.85
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Delivery Costs (The prices here are only an estimate!) Delivery Costs:
Citylink £ 9.64

Now is this all compatible, and is it any good?[/quote:d3f2ecab4d]

Im looking to change the 7600 gs with the 7600gt, any other advice?

[mac124]

[quote:55fc5a41d2=\"mac124\"]Is that an IDE hdd?

You may find that the motherboard only has one IDE port which, on some motherboards anyway, only supports optical drives?[/quote:55fc5a41d2]

Other than ^^ nope it should be a nice rig when you get it, oh and what about mouse and keyboard? Only cheapo stuff needed but if you don't have a spare set going it could delay things some what.

[TheCoolMagpie]

[quote:5d12d9040b=\"mac124\"][quote:5d12d9040b=\"mac124\"]Is that an IDE hdd?

You may find that the motherboard only has one IDE port which, on some motherboards anyway, only supports optical drives?[/quote:5d12d9040b]

Other than ^^ nope it should be a nice rig when you get it, oh and what about mouse and keyboard? Only cheapo stuff needed but if you don't have a spare set going it could delay things some what.[/quote:5d12d9040b]

Im not really sure which Hdd to get, I have a mouse and keyboard already ;).

[Anonymous]

Just make sure its SATA2 and it will be good, i reccomend nothing under 100gbs for modern machines.

[TheCoolMagpie]

nVidia GeForce 7600GT 256MB PCI-E £ 61.00 £ 61.00
1GB PC6400 Arianet DDR2 800 SDRAM £ 57.95 £ 57.95
Generic BLACK / SIL MIDI Tower £ 18.50 £ 18.50
Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 Retail £ 124.95 £ 124.95
Windows Vista Home Premium 64 OEM £ 63.95 £ 63.95 Out of Stock Item!
Hiper 580W Modular PSU BLACK £ 47.00 £ 47.00
ASUS VW192S 19\" TFT - Widescreen £ 114.88 £ 114.88
16x Liteon SATA DVD±RW Beige £ 20.25 £ 20.25
ABit IL9 Pro Socket 775 £ 48.95 £ 48.95
200GB Seagate Barracuda9 SATA2 £ 39.98 £ 39.98

Subtotal £ 597.41 VAT £ 104.55 Total £ 701.96

Delivery Costs (The prices here are only an estimate!)
Delivery Costs: The delivery cost for your order depends on the weight of the order, as well as the delivery destination. City link £ 10.64

I have added in the 7600 GT and another hdd, is the hdd any good?

[mac124]

Yep i think seagate will get the thumbs up and the rest all looks good too :D

[TheCoolMagpie]

I have one more question, does it matter if the case has a fan or not? The C2D has a Heatsink and Fan, and the PSU has Cooling System 120 mm Long Life Chromed Blade Fan with LED, 80 Long Life Chromed Blade Fan with LED and Power-Off Component Protection design. I dont know much about cooling so will I need another fan for the case or not? Thanks.

[mac124]

Ideally yes you would need at least 1 case fan, at the rear usually, as the psu fans usually are temperature controlled, ie slow when the pc is idleing and not using much power so the psu is cool and the psu fans speed up as more power is required.

Have you got a linky to the case as its quite unusual if a case doesn't come with at least one fan, i have only experienced 1 case, an expensive media case, that wasn't supplied with a fan.

[TheCoolMagpie]

In the title it says with blue fan, but in specs it says no fans but someone replied and said it has a blue led, what's that? Here's the link http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Cases/MIDI+Tower/Generic+BLACK+%2F+SIL+MIDI+Tower?productId=21963#/Products/Components/Cases/MIDI+Tower/Generic+BLACK+%2F+SIL+MIDI+Tower?productId=21963 , I can spend up to £30 on the case if it's not suitable.

[Barley]

If in doubt buy yourself a couple of good high quality quiet fans :)

[mac124]

[quote:6225376f57=\"TheCoolMagpie\"] I can spend up to £30 on the case if it's not suitable.[/quote:6225376f57]

In that case, no pun intended, get yourself one of these, Clicky >> Akasa Zen (http://www.aria.co.uk/#/Products/Components/Cases/Akasa+Zen+Silent-Cool+-+Black++?productId=25262) << Clicky. I have owned one and they are VERY good for the money, and you only pay for the case as no psu is included, none needed as you are buying a good one anyway, comes with 2x 120mm fans also.

[Barley]

[quote:5c0c702e94=\"mac124\"][quote:5c0c702e94=\"TheCoolMagpie\"] I can spend up to £30 on the case if it's not suitable.[/quote:5c0c702e94]

In that case, no pun intended, get yourself one of these, Clicky >> Akasa Zen (http://www.aria.co.uk/#/Products/Components/Cases/Akasa+Zen+Silent-Cool+-+Black++?productId=25262) << Clicky. I have owned one and they are VERY good for the money, and you only pay for the case as no psu is included, none needed as you are buying a good one anyway, comes with 2x 120mm fans also.[/quote:5c0c702e94]

Yeah I saw that case the other day, looks really good for the money :)

[TheCoolMagpie]

[quote:007f02a81b=\"Barley\"][quote:007f02a81b=\"mac124\"][quote:007f02a81b=\"TheCoolMagpie\"] I can spend up to £30 on the case if it's not suitable.[/quote:007f02a81b]

In that case, no pun intended, get yourself one of these, Clicky >> Akasa Zen (http://www.aria.co.uk/#/Products/Components/Cases/Akasa+Zen+Silent-Cool+-+Black++?productId=25262) << Clicky. I have owned one and they are VERY good for the money, and you only pay for the case as no psu is included, none needed as you are buying a good one anyway, comes with 2x 120mm fans also.[/quote:007f02a81b]

Yeah I saw that case the other day, looks really good for the money :)[/quote:007f02a81b]

Im liking the look of that case, adding it into my set up now! Im gonna get some opinions from my Stepdad's IT friends and will possibly order it in a week :), can't wait!

One thing though \" the lack of a removable motherboard tray\" it says that in the review, what does that mean?

[mac124]

A removeable motherboard tray is something you only tend to find (mostly) in real top end cases and it just makes building the pc a little easier. Basically you build the pc then fit it in the case with a removeable motherboard tray.

[TheCoolMagpie]

Ic, \" It has a major design flaw though. Once you eject the drive, the flip down cover will obscure the open/close button on most drives meaning you have to physically push the drive back in or use windows to close it.\" this was also said in the review. Since you have owned one, can you tell me what the problem is?

[mac124]

It sounds like you are reading the review i wrote lol??

When the stealth panel opens it covers the eject button on said stealth panel so the only way to close the drive is to physically push the tray back in, which i personally don't like doing, or use windows to close it.

[TheCoolMagpie]

Ic, btw this is the review I was reading; Review by Ryles on Monday, December 18, 2006. Apart from this flaw, is it still a good choice?

[mac124]

Nope not my review then but the chap thinks the same as i do. Yes i still definately recommend this case, other than the stealth panel blocking the eject button i couldn't fault it for the money.

You don't have to use the stealth panel just drop the optical drive to the second from top position in the case.

[TheCoolMagpie]

[quote:0b4c493c02=\"mac124\"]Nope not my review then but the chap thinks the same as i do. Yes i still definately recommend this case, other than the stealth panel blocking the eject button i couldn't fault it for the money.

You don't have to use the stealth panel just drop the optical drive to the second from top position in the case.[/quote:0b4c493c02]

Ok, thanks for the advice! I think im all set, just gotta get some opinions of IT people my stepdad knows and i'll hopefully order soon.

I just got my broadband upgraded from 2mb to 8mb today also.

Im gonna go from a 256 ram, 64mb integrated gfx card, some crap processor I dont know - damn dell, and 2mb broadband. To having this awesome pc ( for me) and 8mb broadband, I will actually be to play 3d games lmao!

[mac124]

LOL you might just about be able to notice the performance upgrade then :shock: :wink: .

Should be a very nice rig when its all done, enjoy. 8)

[TheCoolMagpie]

[quote:ca608a5c5b=\"mac124\"]LOL you might just about be able to notice the performance upgrade then :shock: :wink: .

Should be a very nice rig when its all done, enjoy. 8)[/quote:ca608a5c5b]

I just found what I was looking for as well; \"Do you want a completely custom ARIA system? Add all components for your new computer to the shopping cart and then click the buy link below – this adds the labour charge for assembly of your system. In case of any problems or incompatible components, we will contact you.\" Looks like im all set :D, it costs £52 but oh well :D.

Edit: How do I post a comment on a particular component? I want to ask when some components will be back instock, but when I write it and click save nothing happens. Am I doing something wrong?