First build attempt (comprehensive breakdown inside)

[FONT=Verdana]Ok. I have £1000 with which to build a computer system. The system will be used for office applications, internet, and gaming. The majority of games that i play are strategy, such as Civilisations, C&C, Total war etc.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana]I want the computer to run DX10 and support Vista in 64bit mode. So, here is what i have come up with:[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana]CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+, £106[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/CPUs+%2F+Processors/AMD/Athlon+64+X2+Socket+AM2/AMD+Athlon+64+X2+Dual+Core+6000%2B+3.00GHz+%28AM2% 29+?productId=26636[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana]Motherboard: ASUS M2N-SLI DLX nF570, £67[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Motherboards/Socket+AM2+%28AMD%29/ASUS+M2N-SLI+DLX++nF570+Socket+AM2+Motherboard+?productId=2 3584[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana]Graphics card: nVidia Geforce 8600GTS, £103[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Graphics+Cards/PCI-E/nVIDIA+GeForce+8+Series/nVidia+GeForce+8600GTS+256MB+PCI-E?productId=26919[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana]Memory: Corsair 2GB PC2-6400, £94[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Memory/DDR2/DDR2+800+%28PC6400%29/Corsair+2GB+PC2-6400+C4+XMS2+DHX+%282x1GB%29+?productId=27053[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana]Hard drive 1: Weestern Digital 400GB caviar, £63[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Hard+Drives/Serial+ATA/400Gb+Western+Digital+Caviar+SATA2+16MB+?productId =26226[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana]Hard drive 2: Western Digital 36GB raptor, £69[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Hard+Drives/Serial+ATA/36Gb+Western+Digital+Raptor+SATA+16MB+?productId=2 3820[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana]PSU: Corsair 620W HX V2, £94[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Power+Supplies/500w+%2B/Corsair+620W+HX+V2+Series+Modular+PSU?productId=27 954[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana]Sound card: Creative X-Fi Xtreme gamer, £60[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Sound+Cards/Creative+X-Fi+Xtreme+Gamer?productId=26290[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana]DVD drive: Samsung 18x DVD/RW, lightscribe, £20[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/CD%2FDVD+Drives/DVD-R%2FRW+Writer/+Samsung+18x+DVDRW+LightScribe+Black?productId=245 51[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana]Heat sink: Xilence Icebreaker 64 Pro, £18[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Fans%2C+Heatsinks%2C+Coolers/Socket+AM2/XILENCE+Icebreaker+64+Pro+HEATPIPE+AMD+cooler?prod uctId=27938[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana]That comes to around £700. That leaves me £300 to buy a case (can anyone recommend one that is easy to work with but not stupidly big) and a monitor.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana]The only thing im not happy with is the price of software, i'm going to have to spend an extra £150 just to get Vista Home Basic!!![/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana]So, can people please comment on the system posted above. Will it work well together? Other recommendations? Anything overkill? etc etc.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana]Any help greatly appreciated.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana]Chris.[/FONT]

I've posted in your other thread regarding the cpu. But considering the games you're going to play need a lot of A.I it's a good choice.

The mobo's decent, the ram is decent, the card is ok but should you be gaming above 1280x1024 I'd be looking at a 320mb 8800GTS.

Why the 36gb raptor though? On a gig per pound it's the most expensive drive out there. You'd be better going for a single Samsung T166 500GB as it's faster than the 150gb NCQ Raptor at loading games, plus you'll save some money and have more capacity.

Decent PSU, I'd have preferred to have seen an Enermax Infiniti there, the 650w as it's proven to be more stable but it is a tad more expensive.

Very good soundcard, decent optical drive. But bin the cpu's hsf quoted and get a Arctic Cooling Freezer 64. Cheaper and much much better.

Thats pretty good spec.

You mentioned 150quid for Vista? Are you buying retail? If you are, don't. Buy OEM.

As for cases look for Antec cases, the p180, or the gamer 900.

Apologies, I missed the text about the case and monitor.

Yup, Antec 900 is an awesome case for the money, superb air cooling and rather cheap.



The P180 is even better and a lot cheaper nowadays. It's a similar price to the 900 (above).

But it can get rather tight inside when you add a large card and/or a lot of other components.

For a monitor you can't do better than the Samsung 226BW at the 1680x1050 resolution of a 20" tft. But the Samsung, as the model number suggests, is a 22". Normally this would mean that the picture wasn't as good due to the slightly large pixels but it really is superb.

Cheers for the help guys.

I'll looking at using a different HD now. As for the graphics card, would you recommend this one:
http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Compo...roductId=26494

For your operating system Vista Ultimate OEM is £113.00 and Home Premium is £71.00 at Aria. You don't need to go for the retail version.

Vista Home Premium OEM is only £56 from Ebuyer, so i'll be getting it from there. Any other software i can get through 'other means'.

I've slightly altered the system with the recommendations above, im shocked at how much the PSU's cost to be honest, £130! Seems alot when the motherboard is only £60ish. I have gone slightly over budget (by £80), but i'd rather do that than purchase items that i'm not 100% happy with.

I'll post up the revised system this afternoon for your thougths.

Ok people, here is my revised system:
[FONT=Arial]CPU - AMD Athlon X2 64 6000+[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial]£115[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial]Motherboard - ASUS M2N NF570[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial]£64[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial]Memory - 2GB Corsair PC2-6400[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial]£95[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial]Hard drive - 500GB Samsung Spinpoint[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial]£61[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial]Graphics card - XFX Geforce 8800GTS[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial]£193[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial]Sound card - Creative X-Fi Xtreme gamer[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial]£50[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial]Heatsink - Arctic cooling freezer 64 Pro[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial]£11[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial]DVD drive - Samsung 18x DVD/RW[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial]£19[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial]PSU - Enermax 720W Infiniti[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial]£130[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial]Case - Antec 900 Ultimate gamer[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial]£65[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial]Monitor - Samsung SM226BW[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial]£225[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial]Vista 64 Home premium OEM[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial]£56[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial]I have changed the hard drives for a single 500GB unit as I have been told that this is infact faster than the Western Digital raptor, and so this removes the need for the 2 Hard drives from before.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial]The graphics card has been upgraded as I felt this was a weak spot in the system.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial]The monitor has been chosen by a recommendation and it is able to match the resolution available from the graphics card.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial]The PSU is a bit on the expensive side, but I have been informed that this is a very good unit.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial]As you can see this system comes to £1084, which is slightly over budget but I would rather do that than buy components that im not 100% happy with.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial]My only concern now is the Ram. For the same price I can purchase 2GB OCZ PC2-8500 Reaper module, the only problem being that this runs at 1066Mhz and so the motherboard will need to be changed.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial]So, thoughts?[/FONT]

All looks good.

Regarding the ram. Socket AM2's memory controller doesn't support (as far as I'm aware) pc8500 ram.

The highest speed supported is pc6400.

You're not, even if it was supported, going to lose much anyway and considering rest of the build spec the Corsair you've quoted will suit the system fine.

Thinking about if you know, you're not going to require a 720w psu (I think i quoted you around the 650 Infiniti?)

This would do you nicely. Spec'd from the same site you're looking at.

Save some money in the process.

So if i use the 650W PSU does it look like i have a pretty impressive system selected?

I just want to play stragety games without it slowing down everytime someone uses a slightly large gun.

Go for the 620w I quoted in my last post.

I'd prefer to see a 640mb GTS considering the resolution of the Samsung tft. That extra ram will come in very useful.

But if you can't stretch to that the one quoted should be ok, considering it's overclock over and above the reference speeds.

Such as this one:
http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Compo...roductId=25554

With the money saved from the PSU i can stretch to this, if i will see significant improves with it.

Thats the 3rd graphics card that has been selected for this system now :D

Yeah, looks good.

Also, apologies regarding the re-quoting of the graphics card. I got to thinking over tea and toast.

lol.

I'd just like the say thanks in advance, you have been a great help so far.

Although i've posted the same spec list on another computer forum and the general concensus on there is that i should be running an Intel system as opposed to an AMD one, namely running the E6750, this will obviously require a different Motherboard. A user posted up a comparison chart showing the Intel vs the 6000+ in a variety of different tasks, and to be honest the intel was 10-30% faster on average, which kinda throws everything back into question again, oops.

I've also been advised to use a 400GB western digital drive as opposed to the Samsung.

Any thoughts on the above comments?