Right, new creditcard has arrived (but left it at home doh!) so I've spec'd up what I'm after. My budgets been reduced a tad (to ~£800) hence there may be a few comprimises but I think it should still be a pretty decent machine...

AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego 90nm (Socket 939)
Asus A8N-SLi Premium nForce4 SLi (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard
GeIL 1GB (2x512MB) PC3200 UltraX-BH5 CAS2
Antec Sonata II Piano Black Quiet Case - 450W Smart Power PSU
Pioneer DVR-110DBK 16 x 16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter - (Black)
BFG GeForce 7800 GT OC 256MB GDDR3 VIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express)

£747inc. all from Overclockers.

I'm reusing my H/D's, and going to utilise the onboard sound. Is there owt else I've missed?

 

I would recommend changing the 3700 for a X2 3800. Dual core CPU for only £60 extra. Well worth it IMHO

 

The on-board sound on the NF4 boards are sufficient to most needs (95% of userd).

I might be inclined to go for a single stick of 1GB RAM, as upgrading at a later date would be easier. I do appreciate that running a single stick wouldn't put you in dual channle - BUT when you can afford / need the second stick life would be easier.

 

Right changed to an X2 and blown the budget with 2Gb instead. Now up to £864 delivered...

 

The X2 3800 will be slightly slower for current single threaded games then the 3700+ would be, but a better all rounder if you do encoding (MP3 etc..) and other things at the same time. Plus side thou is the X2 will alleviate Norton/McAfee/other background tasks causing 'stuttering' in your game to some degree

The PSU in the Antec may not be suitable - is it ATX 2.x compat?

 

Yeah it's atx v2.01. No mention of SLI support but been as I'm not doing that just yet, didn't think it was much of an issue.
With dual core CPU's do you have to assign a task to each one or does it sort it all out for you? One thing I'd like is to get full res FRAPs movies of different games. At the mo I have to reduce the res in order to get a decent frame rate.

 

DESCRIPTION QUANTITY PRICE COST REMOVE
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+ (Socket 939) - Retail (ADA3800BVBOX) (CP-134-AM)
£199.95 £199.95
Asus A8N-SLi Premium nForce4 SLi (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-111-AS)
£109.95 £109.95
GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit CAS3 (GE2GB3200BDC) (MY-046-GL)
£124.95 £124.95
BFG GeForce 7800 GT OC 256MB GDDR3 VIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-010-BG)
£199.95 £199.95
Lian-Li PC-7 PLUS Black Aluminium Midi-Tower Case (No PSU) (CA-054-LL)
£65.00 £65.00
Enermax Noisetaker 535W EG565AX-VE(W) SFMA ATX2.0 SLI Compliant PSU (CA-023-EN)
£54.95 £54.95
Pioneer DVR-110DBK 16 x 16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter - (Black) OEM (CD-031-PO)
£24.95 £24.95
Subtotal £779.70
VAT £136.45
Total £916.15

 

WinXP home or Prof will auto manage the CPU load across dual core under SP2

 

PPS. the Antec may require a molex -> PCI-E power connector converter - not sure if the BFG ships with one.

The Noisetaker (above) includes 2x PCI-E dedicated power leads straight from the PSU.

PPS. you might want to consider ordering WinXP home OEM form OCuk at the same time...

 

You don't like the case I've spec'd then?

No need of an O/S. I'll use my XP Pro from my old PC (friend can sort out his own copy!)

 

i had the antec case - quiet, good looking and easy to put together but I did have a whining psu, so had to get a replacement. (in fact they sent two and I still have spare one in the loft) . The psu in the antec is specific to that case as it has only one fan (or it was for version I). Now I have got a shuttle I would not swap back a lot tidier and easier to move - the only thing I would review the gpu - the 7800gt is noisey - I am thinking of selling mine and getting a 7800gtx to make things quieter - either that or strapping a fanmate on !

I would also be cautious of the geil value memory - had to return some sticks of that in the past

 

Right, might drop back to 1Gb and get a posh case and PSU then.

 

LOL - no

Not a fan of those cases.
The lian-li has 1x120mm and 1x80mm fan by the looks of things, so should be ok cooling wise and not too loud (quieter fans can be bought if necessary).

Dave - I thought the BFG GT was quiet (ish)? Been getting good reviews.

OCuk do their own brand, which is infact PNY rebadged - s'posed to be ok, but I've not used them.

Personally I like the XFX cards, but again the GT may be noisey or may not - dunno And they're over priced really, XFX that is.

 

it is quiet compared to some but I have come from a antec quiet case, I used to leave my pc on all the time but know I hibernate it at night so it does not disturb the family. I made a big improvement by reducing the fan speed using rivatuner but I think I will replace the fan with the vf200 and\or a fanmate to make it better !

 

Have you seen the VF700 series yet? Some has put one on an X1800XL and got rediculous overclocks and its quiet...

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatal...of_Zalman.html

If the BFG GT's fan is like the BFG GTX's, it will be quiet enough for most people... But I know what you mean, I'm constantly aiming for 0dB..

 

Duh I meant the vf700 (with led ) - I am not aiming for 0 - just 1db

 

Only 1dB eh! good luck

Neanderthal - re the Sonata II, it would be an ok case to get, was a bit hard on it earlier, but there are definitely better you can get. But from a cooling point of view, on paper looks very good.

I've found the Gigabyte one for 85 quid now

 

Can't get the gigabyte one as it's too tall for the space it was going in.
Still undecided whether to get the X2 over the single core 3700.

 

do you multitask (or will you in the future) - ie encoding whilst playing games etc if so go for the x2 if not stick with the single

I can play bf2 and encode without a drop in performance

 

I don't do that much to be honest, hence why I'm pondering the purchase. £57 difference in price... my primary use for the PC is games, a bit of Photoshop, some CAD work and some premiere dabbling.

 

"Premiere Elements, which is a multithreaded application"

this will give you a better idea - which cad application that may have some benefits

http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NzY2LDM=

 

Cheers for the link. Most informative
Going for the X2, seems I'll be in better off in the future.
Now my mate's decided to haggle over the price of my base unit I'm selling him grrrrr

 

BTW BFG 7800GT has a new cooler, larger fan, s'posed to be a little quieter, noisey on initial boot, but once the fan speed management kicks in, quiet ish