Altros Gaming pc

[Lynx]

Budget £500
For MMO's and general Gaming.

https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Software/Operating+Systems/Windows+Vista+Ultimate+32bit+OEM+?productId=25912
( By the way 4GB of ram is useless on 32bit vista.)
http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Memory/DDR2/DDR2+800+%28PC6400%29/Patriot+2GB+PC2-6400+C4+Extreme+Performance+%282x1GB%29+?productId =26802
2GB of ram, you cannot use 4gb on 32bit strictly speaking. ( it works but limits overclocking threashold.)
https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Hard+Drives/Serial+ATA/250GB+Maxtor%2FSeagate+SATA2+?productId=28704
(thats a fine HD)
https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Graphics+Cards/PCI-E/ATI+Radeon+3000+Series/ATI+Radeon+HD+3850+256MB+-+PCI-E2.0+?productId=29975
A far better GFX card than your pick IMHO correct me if im wrong people.
https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/CPUs+%2F+Processors/Intel/Core+2+Duo/Intel+Core+2+Duo+E4500+2.2GHz+%28Retail+775%29+?pr oductId=28028
This cpu has a lot of headroom for overclocking so is a good buy and can easily be made do 3ghz.
https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Power+Supplies/500w+%2B/OCZ+500W+StealthXstream+PSU+?productId=29090
The downfall of most buyers is with the psu, here is a decent one that will deliver the right power and will protect componants rather than break them if any surges occur.

Total price for all of this is: £478.65 with 36.95 delivery, leaving you underbudget.

Whoops with case:
which is out of stock... Cases are personal in terms of design preference, just add one to put you upto your budget.
https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Cases/MIDI+Tower/Arianet+Transformer+-+Silver+MIDI+case+?productId=27727
In silver

Total £503.22
Shipping £ 8.47
about £511 with case.

[coiler]

What about the mobo? :redface:

[coiler]

Why are you going for Ultimate Vista Altros?

It has a movie editor high def thing (which you would buy dedicated software if you were doing this) and some kind of ghost backup thing (again you would get dedicated software) i'd go for home premium.

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Software/Operating+Systems/Windows+Vista+Home+Premium+32+OEM+?productId=25905



Id also upgrade the PSU to 600w with the saving,

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Power+Supplies/500w+%2B/OCZ+600W+StealthXStream+PSU+?productId=26933


and get the 8800gt 512 on WSS @ £119.95 with the saving.

http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials/Other+products/nVidia+GeForce+8800GT+512MB+PCI-E+?productId=29148



Case the gigabyte is very nice

https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Cases/Gigabyte+GZ-X2+-+Black+?productId=28080




oh and motherboard

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Motherboards/Socket+775+%28Intel%29/Gigabyte+GA-P35-DS3R+iP35+Express+%28775%29+Motherboard+?productId =29584


the rest as per lynxes.

I make the total £566 DOH! ive spent to much, but hey £60 for a monster gfx card, more PSU and mobo is a bargain.

[Altro]

Why are you going for Ultimate Vista Altros?


Everyone i talk to in the UK have Vista Home Basic or Home Premium and all i hear from them are complaints about how **** it is and how it doesn't work. Now i know a few people in the US, they all have ultimate and tell me how amazing it is.

You've made me a very happy man pointing out the 8800 GT in there, it was on my original wish list, but then again so was a intel quad core. Once i'd price checked everything i knew i needed to cut back and the processor and graphics card were the first 2 things that took a hit.

[coiler]

Yeah 8800gt should definetely stay on your list!

I really wouldn't bother with ultimate though, unless someone can correct me its the same as home premium with a few uneeded programs. Vista 32 Premium is fine. For ultimate compatability use your old harddrive with a clean XP install and use it as a second boot drive for incomaptible games etc.

[coiler]

Also the cheaper E2140 goes like a rocket

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/Intel-Pentium-Dual-Core-E2140-overclocking,review-29816.html

[Altro]

I think i'm going to go over budget and get a better CPU. Final build loooks something like this.

Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R iP35 Express (775) Motherboard
https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Motherboards/Socket+775+%28Intel%29/Gigabyte+GA-P35-DS3R+iP35+Express+%28775%29+Motherboard+?productId =29584

Intel Core 2 Duo E6550 2.33GHz (Retail 775)
https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/CPUs+%2F+Processors/Intel/Core+2+Duo/Intel+Core+2+Duo+E6550+2.33GHz+%28Retail+775%29+?p roductId=27971

nVidia GeForce 8800GT 512MB PCI-E
https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Graphics+Cards/PCI-E/nVIDIA+GeForce+8+Series/nVidia+GeForce+8800GT+512MB+PCI-E+?productId=29148

OCZ 600W StealthXStream PSU
https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Power+Supplies/500w+%2B/OCZ+600W+StealthXStream+PSU+?productId=26933

Patriot 2GB PC2-6400 C4 Extreme Performance (2x1GB)
https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Memory/DDR2/DDR2+800+%28PC6400%29/Patriot+2GB+PC2-6400+C4+Extreme+Performance+%282x1GB%29+?productId =26802

250GB Maxtor/Seagate SATA2
https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Hard+Drives/Serial+ATA/250GB+Maxtor%2FSeagate+SATA2+?productId=28704

Arianet Transformer - Silver MIDI case https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Cases/MIDI+Tower/Arianet+Transformer+-+Silver+MIDI+case+?productId=27727

[marsey99]

i would try and stretch it a bit further and get a wolfdale not a kentsfield, the 8200 is only £12 more than the 6550 and this will give you alot more performance from its extra lv2 cache and a hell of a lot more headroom for overclocking.

[Altro]

how long will i be waiting for those wolfdales to come in stock?

[cleggypdc]

March, Intel have found major problems for them

[Altro]

So i got all my components and have assembled my PC. Booted first time without issue. YAY.

Then i come to trying to get into BIOS and installing an OS. I was getting no input from my keyboard and mouse, but then i am using USB devices with PS/2 adaptors. Thought that would be the issue so i got hold of a "natural" PS/2 keyboard and mouse from friends. Now i have input from my mouse but only limited input from the keyboard. Keypad works as does the arrow keys and a handful of letters but thats it. Managed to get Vista installed without entering the product key and tried install keyboard drivers. still the same.

Anyone have any ideas. i would like to get this system running before crysis arrives.

[mac124]

Sorry if this sounds obvious but have you tried your original keyboard in the usb ports on the mobo?

[Altro]

yep, and thats how i've gotten it to work, USB keyboard wouldn't function until i had vista installed so i had to install vista without the product key and put it in later once the keyboard drivers loaded. but i'm still screwed on getting into BIOS, keyboard doesn't work until vista starts.

[marsey99]

check to see if a newwer bios revision supports usb in dos and then flash to it from windows.

or find a ps2 kboard in a skip somwhere and use it to set your bios so that is supports legacy usb devices.

[Altro]

Got it sorted, had some fun with BIOS. to begin with it wouldn't accept my overclock settings. just kept defaulting. I think i had something to do with my RAM settings, as soon as i changed those the overclock settings stuck.

So i've overclocked my E6750 2.66GHz CPU up to 3GHz and the CPU is running at a temp of 50 C under load. That seem a little high?

[mac124]

If that is whilst priming / orthos with both cores @ 100% load then its fine, quite good infact, plenty of head room to push further.

[GM8]

just a note m8 , 4GB does not nessesarily limit your OC threshold. I have managed to run 4 sticks of pc6400 @ 934mhz 4,4,412 timings

[iKettles]

March, Intel have found major problems for them
I haven't heard about these problems? Is it that after a considerable voltage increment they need higher voltages to do their previous clocks?