I've recently got a new job and as such I'm anticipating having money burning a hole in my pocket in the not too distant future. This machine is getting on a bit (going to be 4 years old in January) and it's only had a little bit of upgrading done to it in that time. My current spec is as follows:

Athlon 2700+
ASUS A7N8X-D
1024MB Corsair 3200
Radeon 9600 Pro
NEC 3550A DVD-RW
Lite-On LTR-522465 CD-RW

I'm looking at throwing some more storage space in this current box (see here) and retiring it to be used as a file server.

So, the new machine I'm intending to be a very highly specced all round machine, very good CPU, mobo, RAM and graphics card in particular. It doesn't have to have much storage obviously. I'm reluctant to put a budget on it at the moment, but I'd like to have a decent amount of change left from £1000. I really want a good monitor, I'm not a big fan of TFTs (stuck in my ways I suppose) so I'd rather have a nice CRT at the moment, but I'm open to persuasion. I haven't built a PC since this one so I'm a little bit rusty but as long as things still go where I remember them I should be able to bung it together with only a few expletives and skinned knuckles.

So, please can you helpful people put together an example system intended to be used for very quick gaming and general use with a budget somewhere south of £1000 for the entire system (CPU, mobo, RAM, graphics card, PSU, ~500 gig hard drive, case, keyboard, mouse (I'm not bothered about the keyboard and mouse being fancy), optical drives etc.

Thanks in advance.

edit: Editing this post to put in actual components I've bought when I buy them. First up...the monitor.

BenQ FP241W - £437.99

Is LFS you're only gaming intrest? If you're heavily into "other" games, then the system will be a bit different than that of a LFS/light gaming rig.

It's my only gaming interest of the moment but I want a bit of future proofing built in in preparation for any new games I fancy a go of. It might be a better idea to buy a midrange card at the moment then in the future (6 months+) upgrade to what would then be midrange (and obviously should be quite a bit better than the current midrange cards). I've been out of the hardware 'scene' for a long time, so I'm totally open to suggestions.

Well, the best value for a card at the moment is the 8800GTS from nvidia. Unfortunately/Fortunately, an update for this card is due in November. This probably means slightly faster, slightly cheaper, slightly improved card will be out.

1000 pounds is quite a sum of money, ~$2,000 US anyway. I know prices are slightly higher across the pond, but still that would get you a helluva PC:

CPU: Intel Q6600 (2.4GHz Quad Core)/ E6850 (3.0GHz Dual) for $280
GPU: Nvidia 8800GTS 320MB $300
RAM: 2GB-4GB of DDR2-1066 $120/$240
MOBO: Nice Asus/Equivilent $200
Case: ATX Mid Tower, P180b $140
PSU: Nice Corsair/FSP/Equivilant 600 watt $140
OS: Vista 64bit Prememium (SP1 looking like a Q1 08 release): $110
OP: DVD+-R Sata Drive: $30
HDD: 2 x 320GB SataII drives : $160
Total ~$1,600 = ~800 pounds (direct) ~900 pounds given ~translation of electronics.

Sorry, this is without picking up a new CRT, I dunno where to find one of those, or what they cost.

You could easily knock $80 off and get a great CPU, $120 off for 2GB of RAM, $30 of the case, $30 off the PSU (500 watt = plenty), ~$260 less total, ~750 pounds while still having more GPU than LFS will (ever?) need.

Ok, thanks for the recommendations. I think I might just be forced into getting a TFT monitor (and no doubt I'll be very impressed by it). I'll have a look around based on your suggestions.

OK, I've been having a bit more of a think about the new system lately and this is where I'm going so far. Suggestions, advice, pointing out stupid mistakes welcome please.

CPU: Intel E6700 - £194.26
Mobo: Asus P5N32E - £105.14
RAM: 4GB Corsair DDR2 800MHz (2x2GB) - £190.41
Graphics Card: nVidia 8800GTS 640MB - £221.21
PSU: Corsair HX 620W - £88.98
Case: Antec P180 Black - £79.99
DVD-RW: Pioneer K06 - £32.07
OS: Don't know yet, probably Vista - About £100
OS HDD: WD Raptor 74GB - £87.99
RAID HDDs: 6 x Western Digital 750GB SATA-II - £704.94
RAID Controller: Not sure, been tentatively looking at Adaptec SAS (8 port) but open to suggestions. Intending to run the RAID HDDs in RAID5 config. - About £300-400
Monitor: Probably 22" TFT - About £150
Keyboard: Labtec Ultraflat - £7.37
Mouse: Dunno, something comfortable for left handers - about £15-20

Total: ~ £2332.36

Why not use 2x RAID0'ed drives for the OS?

I'd swap the 8800GTS for a 2900 Pro.

Having a RAID0 across 2 drives for the OS could be an idea, but I probably wouldn't notice much of a gain from it. There'll already be a lot of things in the case so I don't know if it's worth putting in another drive taking up space, creating heat and taking more power (though that PSU should cope with little fuss).

Graphics card is totally subject to change and I might just end up going low-mid range to save a bit of cash since it's not really going to be a huge gaming box.

Yikes, that E6700 is a big Red Flag. E6750 should be as fast/faster & 1/2 the price.

The 620watt PSU is nice no doubt, but is overkill for anything less than SLI/Crossfire. I have the 520watt, works great.

I'd keep the 8800, I keep buying ATI and getting frustrated. 2-for-2 RMA's, and this one needs a manual add-on to enable AA/AF.

Motherboard - How does that thing like oc'ing quads Jakg?

CPU cooler?

Why get that mobo?

I'd rather get the P5K (the P5K-E has RAID, but if your getting a RAID card you won't need it) as it's a better overclocker/takes newer CPU's.

Ditch the E6700 for either an E6850 or a Q6600, i'd take the latter

The P5N-E 32-thingy is pretty rubbish for OC'ing Quad's on because the 680i chipset just doesn't seem to like Overclocking Quad's.

So for future-proofing stay away from that chipset. I'd actually think about going Pentium E2160 OC 100% and dropping a new CPU when 45nm comes out in January... uggg, geek speak...

Nothing is set in stone just now and I'm really just looking at getting numbers together. I won't be buying any bits 'til the new year probably, so there's plenty of time to change things about (I suppose I'm probably getting ahead of myself too). If I was going to RAID two drives for the OS I'd want a board that supported it but I'm not sure about that either. I'm not going to overclock the system at all so that's not a worry, but obviously I still want to get the best value for money out of all the components. The only reason I was thinking along the lines of going overkill on the PSU was because I wanted to have plenty in reserve, but maybe it's too much. Something I've been considering was to go for an external enclosure for the storage array rather than internal with the RAID controller. If I go for 6 (or even 8) drives in the storage array, I'll have a total of 10 or 11 drives + 1 DVD drive (I'm going to put the terabyte drive I bought for this current box last month into the new box). The P180 has space for a total of 11 drives (using 5.25" to 3.5" brackets for the 3 5.25" drive bays left after the DVD-RW drive is in there). I'm not sure how the cooling would be with that many drives...

I totally forgot about a CPU cooler but that's not a big deal to think about.

I appreciate the replies guys, the more information you can give the better

Quote from srdsprinter :

So for future-proofing stay away from that chipset. I'd actually think about going Pentium E2160 OC 100% and dropping a new CPU when 45nm comes out in January... uggg, geek speak...

E2180 is $5 more and can run a lot hotter (85° iirc) and overclocks a little more than a E2160

So far the only 1337 Overclockz0r to touch a 45 nm CPU has got 5.5 GHz out of a Penryn, with the aid of LN2 of course - this single chip (a Quad) smashed both the 3DMark06, 3DMark05 and SuperPi (1m = 8.x seconds. :schwitz

The prices of the Q6600/X3210's are set to fall as the 2.66 GHz, 6 MB Penryn Quad are $266 per thousand, same as what the Q6600 is now.

Quote from Jakg :

The prices of the Q6600/X3210's are set to fall as the 2.66 GHz, 6 MB Penryn Quad are $266 per thousand, same as what the Q6600 is now.

I would hope, but E6600's didn't drop after E6750's came out...

On Topic, you're going to want to be getting a Penryn if you wait till next year. (45nm C2D architecture)
http://www.overclock.net/hardw ... cpus-price-list-quad.html

insted of the E6700...go for the Q6600

You should get a X64 bit OS for 4Gb RAm

You should also get the Asus P5K...much better board, got latest P35 stuff on it

good luck mate

RAID HDDs: 6 x Western Digital 750GB SATA-II - £704.94

6x 750GB .... thats like 1/3rd of ur computer price.


Could someone make a list like u maked for him for me for a 800€ computer?
(pls include price of housig, monitor (not mouse and keyboard) and all cables, addapters power stuff...)

well that websites for England...you can't order from other countries, so im not sure how to do it

Often you can order from most people (even if it involves using a drop-ship service), but to order from the UK would be prohibitively expensive - it would only really be worth it from the US.

</pendantic>

i dont want computer from UK. or USA or anywhere else.

could someone juwst make a build that comes for around 800€ ? (with 19'' LCD includet)

ok...!9" widescreen? how much is 800euro in pounds? (£)...for gaming? want an OS in it? how about keyboard and mouse? case? DVD writer? etc. etc. just tell us what its gonna be used for and what you want

€800 = £560.

Everything is a little more expensive in Europe - do you have any retailers in mind?

meh, just take advice from who you think knows best.

19'' not wide screen , housing-box, dvd writer-ROM , no mouse and keyboard ..no OS

whats that ... retailers

i just want fully functional PC witthout OS on .. or is it better to buy it?



I saw in some advertisment-paper :
AMD 64 x2 5000+ dualcore 2.6 GHt RAM 2048 MB DDR2 667 MHz ,hard drive 500 GB SATA2 8MB , DVD rw , ATI RADEON 2600 PRO 512MB DDR" , + LCD 19'' + mouse and keyboard , + card reader
750€

OR

INTEL Core 2 Dup E6550 Dual core 2,4 GHz 4MB cache FSB 1333 MHz , RAM 2048 DDR2 667 mhz , Hard drive 400 GB SATA II 8MB, DVD RW, nForce En8600 GT/2HTD/256MB, + card reader,+ LCE 19'' + mouse & keyboard
800 €

or should i just make my own build?


oh , btw it is not for LFS only , LFS runs just fine on my pre-aincent PC 512 RAM xD , 128 MB ATi 9600 ... ---my PC is 4 Years old :P
i want things like suprem commander and battlefield to run nice on it. Coz right now i must play them on minimum specs.

Quote from blackcarmafia :

19'' not wide screen , housing-box, dvd writer-ROM , no mouse and keyboard ..no OS

whats that ... retailers

i just want fully functional PC witthout OS on .. or is it better to buy it?



I saw in some advertisment-paper :
AMD 64 x2 5000+ dualcore 2.6 GHt RAM 2048 MB DDR2 667 MHz ,hard drive 500 GB SATA2 8MB , DVD rw , ATI RADEON 2600 PRO 512MB DDR" , + LCD 19'' + mouse and keyboard , + card reader
750€

OR

INTEL Core 2 Dup E6550 Dual core 2,4 GHz 4MB cache FSB 1333 MHz , RAM 2048 DDR2 667 mhz , Hard drive 400 GB SATA II 8MB, DVD RW, nForce En8600 GT/2HTD/256MB, + card reader,+ LCE 19'' + mouse & keyboard
800 €

or should i just make my own build?


oh , btw it is not for LFS only , LFS runs just fine on my pre-aincent PC 512 RAM xD , 128 MB ATi 9600 ... ---my PC is 4 Years old :P
i want things like suprem commander and battlefield to run nice on it. Coz right now i must play them on minimum specs.

anyone ?? what do u think of those 2 thingies?