View Full Version : Help req £600-£700 to spend on a new machine
Hi I am looking for a new machine and have about £600-£700 to spend on her however I am not to sure what to go for.
I was quite tempted by the trident vista http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Systems/Trident+Vista/+Gladiator+Trident+Vista+X2+4600+PC+System?product Id=26661 or http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Systems/Trident+Vista/+Gladiator+Trident+Vista+X2+5200+PC+System?product Id=26662 at a push as I would also want to get Vista ult aswell however I have been told to avoid the AMD chips and go for an intel core 2 duo as they are far better.
So I was hoping to get a machine with the E6600 http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/CPUs+%2F+Processors/Intel/Core+2+Duo/+Intel+Core+2+Duo+E6600+Retail?productId=23828 and at least 2 gb of decent memory and with all hopes a 500gb drive. I will be using the machine for gaming so a nice graphics card would be good.
Every time I start building it I end up with a machine costing more than my budget so can anyone help me put something together please
Are you comfortable with building your own system etc? If so, it really is the best way of getting value for money :)
So you'd like 2GB RAM, 500GB hard drive if possible, and a system that can handle gaming.
Do you need an OS, or do you have a copy of XP for example you can use?
I am comportable putting the parts together yeah, as for OS I do have XP home but I'd like to get vista ultimate oem for my new machine but if i can get something good I can go xp home on it for a month and then get vista
Right assuming you DON'T need an OS / monitor / keyboard / mouse then this is about as good as you are going to get, imho. You could go for a cheaper mobo if you wanted but i have one of these and it is rock solid and overclocks well (you WILL be overclocking as its the law if you have a C2D cpu :wink: )
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y1/mac124/ariaquote.jpg
If you need a monitor / os etc then you will need to do ALOT of cutting back to things like mobo and gfx and maybe cut it down to 1gb of memory and a smaller hdd but even then i doubt you will get a decent \"gaming\" setup for around £600.
Oh i didn't include a case as basically thats cosmetic so what i like you might not. DON'T buy a case with a psu and didtch the psu in my list as psu's supplied with cases aren't worth using for a powerful pc.
looks good - would you recommend changing the E4300 for a E6600 as for the price difference I am thinking that would be a better chip and also as I am over clocking I will prolly need a better heatsync than what ocmes with the proc or so i am reading.
Other than that the grx card is the one I was thinking about getting anyways and the memory seems an absolute bargain!
Edit** i do need a monitor but I have a sperate budget for that and OS I can wait a while for that if needed
Well the 6600 is a faster chip and can overclock to higher speeds plus has extra cache so if you can afford it then yes i would say go for that and a better than stock heatsink but it will probably add £70 to the overall price (£45 for the cpu and £25 for the cooler)
sorry another question: am i reading this correcly \"Memory 4 x DIMM, max. 8GB, DDR2 800 / 667 / 533 MHz, non-ECC, un-buffered memory, Dual channel memory architecture \" 4 slots so I could add another 2 of the \"1GB PC6400 Elixir DDR2 800 SDRAM \" at a later date?
If you wanted to yes you could add 2 more, though it wouldn't be worth it till you changed to vista, and then only if you changed to 64bit vista as 32 bit only sees a max of 3gb iirc. at the moment there is no real need for more than 2gb for 99.99% of users
Hate to burst the bubble, but I doubt that PSU is going to be powerful enough. to run a 8800GTS it's been proven in a number of places you're going to want a 500+ PSU. I know first hand that this is also the case :)
Popped the 8800GTs in with my Tagan 480w PSU, and it struggled to do anything. Changed to a 800w PSU, and it's happy days :)
Everything else Mac specced up is very nice though, but if you want to play games you're going to need that extra GB of RAM to take you to 2GB.
Few PSU choices for you, remember you only get what you pay for. Cheap PSU will be rubbish :)
http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Power+Supplies/500w+%2B/+OCZ+600W+SLI+Ready+GameXStream+PSU?productId=2458 6
http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Power+Supplies/500w+%2B/+Hiper++580W+TRUE+POWER++PSU?productId=24513
http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Power+Supplies/500w+%2B/+Seasonic+600w+S12+Power+Supply?productId=24287
Personally I'd go for the Seasonic.
Yeah have to admit i wasn't too sure about the psu i did a psu check on my 4300 system and with the 7300gt it came out at a little over 300 watt so i figured 480 should be ok but yes a 600watt seasonic would be an excellent choice (i have one in my gaming rig ;) )
Not sure if you noticed Barley but i did spec 2gb (2x 1gb sicks), albeit value but should allow a decent cpu overclock.
I reran my system with the psu calc (http://www.extreme.outervision.com/PSUEngine) but substituted 8800gts and power was calculated at 420 watts, bit close to the 480 watt psu i specced but it should still work.
Also an overclocked / overvolted X2 needs more power than an overclocked / oervolted 4300, apparently. :shock:
Ahh right, sorry mac, I didn't notice there was 2GB in there, I just saw the low price and assumed that was 1GB, nice find! :)
As for the PSU, there's a chance it could run it, but it'd be really depressing if he put the whole thing together, and it didn't :) I think these days anything that's a named brand in the 500-600w range is going to be a must have.
Your probably right as the calc thingy does seem to suggest it would be running balls out so to speak on full load which wouldn't be all the time but as a gaming rig it's possible it might be a fair percentage of the time.
@ JimC on reflection mate you may be better off say going for a 250gb hdd for now and upping the psu as Barley suggested to the Seasonic psu, it isn't cheap but it is a damn fine psu. You can easily add hdd's at a later date when you NEED that extra space.
hi again :)
would the following case and psu be sufficiant or would you still recommend opting for the Seasonic 600w?
Aria Gamer DarkStar 500w Case Quickcode: #24546:
http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Cases/MIDI+Tower/+Aria+Gamer+DarkStar+500w+Case?productId=24546
[Removed at the request of the author]
Agreed, that PSU will be rubbish, the case looks quite nice though :)
I am hoping the answer to this is a yes but, can you tell me if the mobo will come with all the cabling I am going to require to put this beauty together if not what will I need to pick up?
oh bugger just thought optical devices, I'm going to need a DVD writer with any old writer do or do I need a specifice type (thinking SATA/IDE)
In a word YES the mobo will come with the necessary cables. As to the DVDRW question just make sure it says \"Retail\" in the description and you should get a nice boxed version also complete with cables and software (oem DO NOT come with anything, cables or software etc).
That case looks ok but i would ditch the psu as previously mentioned.
Akasa Zen are VERY nice for the price, i reviewed one and it was great. http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Cases/Akasa+Zen+Silent-Cool+-+Black?productId=25262 AND you don't pay extra for a psu that you wont need. Don't let the price put you off they are quality cases.
[quote:9a1ee0dfc5=\"mac124\"]
Akasa Zen are VERY nice for the price, i reviewed one and it was great. http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Cases/Akasa+Zen+Silent-Cool+-+Black?productId=25262 AND you don't pay extra for a psu that you wont need. Don't let the price put you off they are quality cases.[/quote:9a1ee0dfc5]
Agreed 8)
TBH If I were you and had £700 to spend on a PC, I would go for some different parts.
Case: Antec Ninehundred Ultimate Gamer
*I can definately vouch for this case, i've got it, it's a brilliant cooling solution, very well made and it's not expensive. It comes with 2x120mm intakes (one specifically for hard drives), 120mm exhaust and 200mm top exhaust (which is near the CPU). This is the best case i've seen for the price.
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6320 Retail /w CPU COOLER: Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 PRO
*I definately recommend getting the latest Intel C2D chip, I have the E4300 and wish I had waited a few more weeks :| BUT the E4300 is great for overclocking, and definately out performs some of the other C2D CPU's.
MOBO:
-Abit Fatal1ty FP-IN9 SLi 775
-ASUS P5N-E SLi NF650i 775
*Both of these have 2 PCI-X slots so you can upgrade at a later date if you want to run 2x8800GTS in SLI and ofcourse they have the n650i chipset. As a personal preference I would go with the ASUS.
GFX:
-EVGA GeForce 8800GTS 320MB GDDR3 PCIE DUAL DVI
-XFX GeForce 8800GTS 320MB XT
*TBH I would suggest getting a BFG branded 8800GTS, but if you wanna buy from ARIA then I guess you cant, otherwise XFX or EVGA. Another solution would be to go for the 8600GTS if you wanted to save some money, but I would go for the best tech out at the moment, and thats the 8800
RAM: OCZ DDR2 PC2-6400 NVIDIA SLI Ready Edition
*If you buy the motherboard suggested above, then you've got room for expansion to run in SLI. This ram will be great for just one card anyway. And since you want to run Vista, i'd recommend at least 2GB of ram. Or if you wanna spend a bit more i'd recommend the OCZ FlexXLC
PSU: Hiper 670W TRUE POWER PSU EPS 12v
*Dont get a nonbranded or unknown brand PSU because 99% of the time they suck.
Total cost of all that:
Total £ 684.67
EDIT - damn I just forgot a hard drive, the one i'd buy is the 500GB Samsung Spinpoint. You can include the HDD by getting the Hiper 530W PSU but then if you wanted to buy another 8800GTS then you'd need a new PSU. Another thing you could do is change the CPU to the E4300 which would save you like 40quid.
[quote:73ce5ab14e=\"jayeshpp\"]
RAM: OCZ DDR2 PC2-6400 NVIDIA SLI Ready Edition
*If you buy the motherboard suggested above, then you've got room for expansion to run in SLI. This ram will be great for just one card anyway. And since you want to run Vista, i'd recommend at least 2GB of ram. Or if you wanna spend a bit more i'd recommend the OCZ FlexXLC
[/quote:73ce5ab14e]
is that 1gb or 2gb Looking at the description on aria I cant see which lol
OCZ DDR2 PC2-6400 NVIDIA SLI Ready Edition #26805
Antec Nine Hundred Ultimate Gamer #25541
Abit Fatal1ty FP-IN9 SLi 775 #26569
Asus GeForce 8800GTS 320MB PCI-E #26540
Hiper 670W TRUE POWER PSU EPS 12v #24515
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Retail #23828
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 PRO #20729
ASUS 1608P3S 16x DVDRW/RAM Black #24179
52 in 1 Card Reader Black with USB #24902
500GB Samsung HD501LJ SATA2 # 25162
A little over what I wanted to spend but still looks nice
hmmm
Its personal choice but from my experience i would steer clear of 650 / 680 chipset its flakey as **** (couldn't get my review Abit IN9 max 32x past 400mhz fsb) Also again personal choice but why use 2 mid range cards and all the hassle of sli / crossfire. If / when the 8800gts becomes bogged down flog it and upgrade is my suggestion by then the 12000gtx or whatever will be out. Antec 900 is a decent enough case, like i said cases are personal choice and i was trying to stick to the £600 buget.
thanks to all for your helkp thus far. i think iam going to build something around the two suggested machine specs, with the aska zen case, i love the other case however money is going to be an issue here so if i get the lower priced memory, the original mobo and the gts rather than the gtx that i want :p i can always upgrade when i have alittle more to spend
Well as long as you buy a half decent PSU, my work here is done :D
Either way I hope the system rocks!! :wink:
Im sure you wont be disappointed with it 8) .
When speccing stuff up for people i generally try to get them the best mobo and psu as these are, imho, the most important parts. The other stuff, gfx, memory, hdd and even cpu etc can easily be upgraded at a later date.
If you prefer the case you chose, get it and buy a smaller hdd :D you can always increase the number of hdds but changing cases is a pain.
I do really like the antec 900 case just for the extra cooling with the large fan on top and the front and rear fans but I think I am going to get the cheeper one, it looks just as good and the cooling options are virtually the same.
I now know that to get what I want for what I want to pay is impossible, I should have known in the first place, but I am going to split some of the cost this month and some next, I need a monitor too I was planing to spend about £150 but I will try and get one for £100 to save a lil bit :)
Make sure you get a decent monitor, otherwise the entire system will be going to waste :)
[Removed at the request of the author]
Powered by vBulletin® Version 4.1.10 Copyright © 2012 vBulletin Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved.