Worth the money?

[Codename 47]

My current computer was built by my brother however this is going back 3+ yrs so I am looking to make the switch to 64 bit + dual core thus I would have to start from scratch if I were to build another one. I was wondering if this deal is worth the money: PC World
I would upgrade to the 19" monitor. Considering I haven't upgraded my own computer in a fair while I have no idea whether that graphics card is any good for gaming so could someone give me some guidance?
Would I be better off building my own with a core 2 duo processor? I would be on a budget of around £700.

 

[Tarrant64]

Overall it looks OK to me. If you have a budget of $700 and no more, then I would shy away from the Core 2 Duo setup. To get a fairly good setup out of that you are going to need a little bit more money. An option to the Pentium D setup there though is to build your own Athlon 64-bit X2 System. This can be done around $700 if not less. It's affordable and you'll more likely be able to spend a little more on a graphics card than with the Core 2 Duo setup.

What kind of gaming do you do? I think what people are moving towards now is a system with 2gb if possible. This will also set you up for when Vista comes out should you want to go that route. If not, the additional ram can always help. With the overall package of that setup from PC World though, and getting a 19" monitor, it's a fair deal. You could always buy that setup, and upgrade the video card yourself. I see nothing wrong with the Pentium D processors. They aren't as fast as the Core 2 Duo's but they get the job done just fine. I just it at work and it performs just fine. If you aren't into heavy gaming(max resolution and max settings for everything), then the x1550 should be fine. You could even opt to put in 2gb if you wanted, or as said, put money down on a better video card.

 

[naimcohen]

i have built a core 2 duo system for about £550.

here are the specs:

CPU: e6400 core 2 duo

Motherboard: ASUS P5V-VM DH

RAM: 2 x 1gb crucial 533 mhz

Graphics Card: onboard video ( can be upgraded )

PSU: Antec NEO HE500GB 500W Modular PSU With 80mm Low Speed/noise Fan 18db

Case: any you decide

Hard Drive: western digital 250gb

DVD Writer: LG Super Drive

all this was about 550 2 months ago.

as your budget is 700 you can get a much better graphics card if you decide you need a better one. or you can get a screen with that money.

hope this helps

 

[stogez]

@ Tarrant64 He said his budget is £700 (not $700 )which is about $1400. Thats more than enough for a nice C2D setup.
naimcohen's suggestion is pretty good. You could go with a E6300 and overclock that. I would go with PC6400 RAM though. As for graphics card, you can pick either to go with a nice DX9 card or see if its worth your money to get a 8800 card.

 

[Tarrant64]

Oh well then.

Go all out if you have $1400.

 

[brikis98]

i wouldn't spend that kind of money on that system. i was never impressed with the pentium D, the video card is nothing special and i can't tell what kind of monitor that is (might suck for gaming or general use). the prices where you are might be different, but here's a system i'd put together:

* Intel Core 2 Duo E6300: $180
* Gigabyte GA-965P-S3 LGA 775 Motherboard: $116
* G.Skill 2x1GB DDR2 800 RAM: $210
* Powercolor x1950 pro: $210
* Enhance ENP-5150GH 500W PSU: $69
* Seagate Barracude 7200.10 320GB 16mb Cache SATA HD: $95
* Lian Li PC-7A plus II Silver Aluminum ATX Case: $90
* NEC Silver DVD Burner: $30
* BenQ FP202W 20.1" LCD: $260

Total: $1260

This system should OC pretty well, although if you're not into that, you can save some money by dropping down to DDR2 667 or even 533... if you're a hardcore gamer, you could bump the video card up to an 8800gts...

 

[Codename 47]

^
Unfortunately those prices are in $ so its gonna be a little higher here in the UK, I looked on dabs and so far I've come up with:

Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Socket 775 2.4GHz £207.64
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 250GB S300 £53.46
Corsair Memory 2X 1GB 240DIMM XMS25400 UNBUFFERED C4 £181.84
Then for the graphics either:
Sapphire Technology Radeon X1950PRO 256MB DDR3 PCIE Dual DVI TVO £129.97
or
MSI Radeon X1950PRO 512MB GDDR3 PCIE Dual DVI VIVO £183.81
but I'm not sure if those two are all that good.
Leaning towards the Sapphire, don't really want to spend nearly £200 on a graphics card.

Thatd bring it to £572.88/£626.75 leaving £127.12/£73.25 for a motherboard, fan and case (probably about £15)....I'll stick with my crappy monitor for now. As for a DVD-RW I have a dual layer in the one I'm using so I'd just transfer that.
Not sure if the E6600 is worth it, is the E6300 speed good enough to play all the new games? There is an E6300 on that site for £123.82 and an E6400 for £151.56.
Also as far as RAM goes, is the DDR2 533 substantially less adequate than the 667 and 800? I'm not a hardcore gamer but what I do play tends to be fairly new, I'm not too bothered about having the best system out there but I want a decent system, the one I have now has lasted me ages with no upgrades apart from the odd HD change and an extra stick of 256 in it, I'm looking for the same kind of thing with the new one.

If anyone knows of a cheaper UK website that would be great, I plan on checking the prices against the computer show that visits here every so often just to be sure.

 

[brikis98]

if you OC, the E6300 can give you all the performance you need at a bargain price. if you aren't OCing, I'd prob. go with the E6400 for better stock performance. the main disadvantage of slower RAM (533 or 667 instead of 800) is that it will typically limit you much more if you OC. also, if (when) future intel CPU's go to a higher FSB, the slower RAM would limit your upgrading abilities. if you aren't going to OC, however, it may be worth saving the money and getting 533 or 677 RAM.

if you want to game, you should invest more money in the GPU and less in the CPU, as most games today are far more GPU limited. get the best GPU your budget allows. also, what PSU are you using?

 

[Codename 47]

I'll probably OC, this one I'm on now is OC'd.
That'd save me almost £80.
PSU I have no idea about, I dont know which one on dabs is any good, same with the motherboards. I'd appreciate it if you could have a look on there and recommend some.
Which GPU would you recommend, are either of the ones I chose any good?

And another thing, are the AMD dual cores in general better than the intels or the other way around? Nm, I just checked out that OC link you gave, the E6300 seems like its pretty good value for money.

 

[brikis98]

with the core 2 duo series, intel is definitely the dual core king at the moment, especially with OCing. one of these mobos should be good:

* gigabyte 965P
* Asus P965

a note about the RAM: you should get decent ddr2 800 RAM to get the best overclocks, as slower RAM can really limit you. however, make sure to read about RAM compatability with the mobo you choose: c2d mobos can be very picky with RAM in terms of brands, voltage, timing etc, so do you reading - check the manual and the numerous posts on this message board about that.

for a PSU, i highly recommend this one: Seasonic S12-500. Seasonic is known for very high quality, quiet, durable PSU's that'll last you for a long time. I believe this Enermax and this Antec are decent too.

The video card depends on how much money you want to spend. Check the numbers here and pick the card that gets performance acceptable to you. Here are some possibilities:

* nvidia 7900GS: a budget gamer's card - one of the cheapest cards you can get that still gets decent performance in games
* ATI x1950pro: ATI's budget gamer's card, probably the best value overall
* ATI x1950xt: a higher end ATI card
* nvidia 8800gts: a card for a hardcore gamer, second fastest on the market only to the 8800gtx... very expensive, but gives awesome performance, supports dx10, great image quality, etc...

 

[Codename 47]

^ Hmmm....that should just fit in the budget, probably go with the Asus and the Enermax.

The RAM I linked to is 800mhz so thats ok then right?

Eh, to stick within budget I think I'll end up going with the ATI x1950pro, I shouldn't have to change that for a while. It would run something like Oblivion with decent results wouldn't it? I've played that with the card I have on this computer Geforce 5600 FX and it lags like hell.....still played it to the end though.

Comes to a total of £641.67, probably £661.67 with a case. What about a sound card?

I plan on building it in January or so, by then I should have enough money and the prices will probably be lower. Will probably make another topic around then to make sure of my choices but so far it looks doable on the cost front.

 

[Codename 47]

Seeing as that RAM costs £181.84, would I not be able to buy two sticks of this instead?
Its still 800 mhz

Kingmax 1GB 240-Pin DIMM PC2-6400 Non-ECC CAS 5 £75.91 each

Or is the Corsair a lot better?

Also what about the PSU's on here: http://www.thesystemworks.co.uk/

 

[brikis98]

the Corsair XMS RAM is likely to be much faster (that is, allow for a much better OC) than the kingmax, which is a fairly unknown brand to me... by january prices will be lower and there might be other products out by then that would be a better bang-for-the-buck. you can read the power supply section in this thread for general PSU info. moral of the story: stick with the quality brands, such as Seasonic, PC Power & Cooling, Fortron, Silverstone, etc, or you might pay the price of losing all your components.

 

[Codename 47]

Ok thx, don't want to risk losing all the components so I'll go with one of the PSU's you recommended. What about a sound card? I'm not sure how much that will cost.