PC advice

[Lash_sumthin]

I'm off to hook out some mags this morning thinking of a new build for about £400/£500(with gfx) need all the gubbins though new case/psu. Any suggestions as to what i should be looking at?

[Simon Pieman]

I'm off to hook out some mags this morning thinking of a new build for about £400/£500(with gfx) need all the gubbins though new case/psu. Any suggestions as to what i should be looking at?

Are you into top level gaming? Are you/will you be running vista in the near future?

Do you need hard drives and DVD drives?

I'd grab yourself a copy of PCFormat as they build a gaming system for £296 and tell you what to do if you have the extra dosh (in terms of graphics).

For £500 you could get something pretty tasty

[Simon Pieman]

It's also worth mentioning that since that magazine has been published, the new Intel CPUs have been released and look better and just as cheap as the old ones.

[Lash_sumthin]

gaming i have my 360 for so its a non starter in terms of that, need a new HD something about 250 as i have an external already. Need a dvd drive. Wanna go the black look thats about it... just off to grab me a copy now


its purely for my music/movie collection ripping/burning and internet. Noise is also an issue as this beast groans

[Peter Venkman]

I'm off to hook out some mags this morning thinking of a new build for about £400/£500(with gfx) need all the gubbins though new case/psu. Any suggestions as to what i should be looking at?

Are you into top level gaming? Are you/will you be running vista in the near future?

Do you need hard drives and DVD drives?

I'd grab yourself a copy of PCFormat as they build a gaming system for £296 and tell you what to do if you have the extra dosh (in terms of graphics).

For £500 you could get something pretty tasty

For £500 you can make a damn good spec PC with 8800 graphics and at least 500gb and 4gig memory.

What was the spec they made Si .. for £296 .. just out of curiosity, proc, mob and graphics wise?

[Simon Pieman]

Oh right - they were going gaming specific. As it's not for that then I wouldn't follow their advice. I'll have a look and see what I can piece together.

[Lash_sumthin]

suggestions on a post card then please. do they still have a buyers guide section at the back. Just getting it to get a feel of the new bits and bobs since i havent been into them for a couple of years now

[Simon Pieman]

I'm off to hook out some mags this morning thinking of a new build for about £400/£500(with gfx) need all the gubbins though new case/psu. Any suggestions as to what i should be looking at?

Are you into top level gaming? Are you/will you be running vista in the near future?

Do you need hard drives and DVD drives?

I'd grab yourself a copy of PCFormat as they build a gaming system for £296 and tell you what to do if you have the extra dosh (in terms of graphics).

For £500 you could get something pretty tasty

For £500 you can make a damn good spec PC with 8800 graphics and at least 500gb and 4gig memory.

What was the spec they made Si .. for £296 .. just out of curiosity, proc, mob and graphics wise?

They'd obviously not shopped around as I reckon you could make it a lot cheaper! I'll put the prices they suggested next to the gear:

Intel E4500 - £74.54
Asus 8600GT OC 256mb - £85.90
RAM  Crucial 2x1gb ddr2-4200 - £30.54
Asus P5PL2-E - £38.09

The memory is the stand out - you can do much better than that for the money!

They also suggested that for £15 more an ati graphics card would be better

[Simon Pieman]

suggestions on a post card then please. do they still have a buyers guide section at the back. Just getting it to get a feel of the new bits and bobs since i havent been into them for a couple of years now

Get CustomPC they have a buyers guide in the front. It's my favourite magazine, although you could probably do just as well by listening to people on here  

[Peter Venkman]

Yes I agree Si, the memory you can shave a bit from, the 8600gt graphics is what I am running in my PC currently and its average for games TBH and mine cost me £55, I would rather have an x3850 or x1950 pro for £80-90 anyday for a good 25% faster graphics.

I have never used the E4500 chip myself I would go for an Athlon 64 dual core 5000+ for a similar price but thats only as I personally prefer Athlons to Intel chips.

[Simon Pieman]

Yes I agree Si, the memory you can shave a bit from, the 8600gt graphics is what I am running in my PC currently and its average for games TBH and mine cost me £55, I would rather have an x3850 or x1950 pro for £80-90 anyday for a good 25% faster graphics.

I have never used the E4500 chip myself I would go for an Athlon 64 dual core 5000+ for a similar price but thats only as I personally prefer Athlons to Intel chips.

That's exactly what they said  

I'm running 2 x 7600GT fatal1ty editions in sli at the moment. Does the job as I've not been massively into games. I still think DX10 is the biggest con ever. Hopefully they will prove me wrong this year (pah!)

[Peter Venkman]

DX10 is a waste of time...at the moment, cant say what will happen in the future but then Microsoft being Microsoft will make sure that you NEED it for some forthcoming things hence forth making you buy a card with DX10 capability.

Wankers.

But then mine is DX10 capable so it doesnt bother me, and I dont play a vast amount of graphically intensive games but may do in the future so I think I will be going the 8800 route when the price halves to acceptable value levels....say about 6 to 8 months.

I avoid Nvidia card though as I have had a few compatibilty problems with some chipsets on mobos I have built but I never have those problems with ATI cards.....as yet!

[Simon Pieman]

Yeah I think the 8800 will be the way to go, or the new 9 series that will inevitably come out.

Lash - I am looking now

[jim]

suggestions on a post card then please. do they still have a buyers guide section at the back. Just getting it to get a feel of the new bits and bobs since i havent been into them for a couple of years now

Get CustomPC they have a buyers guide in the front. It's my favourite magazine, although you could probably do just as well by listening to people on here  

 :boring:

Its basically a TV - get a life you lot.

[Peter Venkman]

Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Fatal1ty
Kingston 4gb DDR2 800mhz/PC2-6400
AMD Phenom 9500 Quad Core AM2+ 4MB Cache 2200MHz  
MSI K9A2 CF-F Socket AM2+ 790X DDR2 ATX Motherboard
Seagate ST3500320AS 500GB Hard Drive SATA II 7200rpm *32MB Cache*
3dInno 256mb 8600GT graphics

That sort of spec is what I would recommend for the above applications.

4gb if using Vista...2gb if XP.

As fast a processor core as you can afford as music applications are very processor intensive.

A good dedicated sound card for the above reasons.

An average speed graphics card just as they are pretty cheap under £60.

And 500gb HD as you can never have enough room for files and the difference between 250gb and 500gb is negligable.

Nice easy build for you Si, about 2 hours work including installation of OS.....sweet.  

And all easily under £500