How does this sound:-

Msi PT880-FSR Socket 478 Mainboard
Onboard 5.1 Channel Audio
4 DDR Ram Dimm, 1 AGP, 5 PCI Slots
Onboard Gigabit Lan
Onboard Serial ATA Raid
Full ATX Form Factor

Pentium 4 3.0Ghz Prescott 1MB Cache
800FSB Socket 478 CPU
Heat Sink and Fan

512MB DDR400 Ram Dimm
£239.95 inc. Vat

+MSI GeForce FX5500-TD256, 256MB DDR, TV-Out, DVI
£63.51 inc. Vat

+Maxtor Diamond Max Plus 10 200GB IDE 8MB 7200RPM 8.5MS
£70.50 inc. Vat

+LiteOn SOHW-1653S Dual Layer 16x+/12x 4 -DVD Writer Retail
£49.94 inc. Vat

I am getting a mate who has built some before as pc world are so expensive.
I will be running xp as well..

What do you thing??? Any comments are appreciated..

Cheers nick

 

It'll play games and stuff but it will be crap for things like atmospheric modelling or earth simulation.

 

I'd bump the memory up to 1GB if i specifying the machine. It'll probably perform better with 2x 512MB sticks in then if you upgraded it to 1GB at a later date.

If you are going to be playing 3D games, it'd be worth spending more on the graphics card. If it's for general use, that one should be fine.

John.

 

So 1 gb of mem would be better.. What is atmospheric modelling or earth simulation???
And also which graphics card would you recomend? My old machine is running a nvida tnt 32........ So as you can see i am not up on the graphics side of things..
Cheers nick

 

Also what do you think of the prices?? cheers

 

Your memory is expensive
Not a bad price though for a budget system
Considering that i spent on my motherboad what you probably spent on your board and chip you should have a good system, though i think your taste in graphics cards is a little outdated (for not much more than that you could have got a 6600GT card, approx 130 quid) which would have lasted you longer, it seems pretty reasonable but thats about the only thing id change (plus extra memory).

Tony

 

I'm not sure I'd go for a VIA chipset there can be USB issues sometimes, also there's no auto overclocking thingy, I prefer the MSI Intel chipsets. I recently built my wife a pc much like your spec for £500. I used the MSI 865PE Neo, Enermax PSU, 1gb Kingston dual ch RAM, same chip, 128mb version of your graphics card, Samsung SATA drive, Coolermaster case.

Remember to buy 2 equal sticks of RAM to use dual channel mode. You haven't spec'd your PSU, it's very important not to underestimate how important this part is to the system.

What is your budget & what sort of stuff do you use your pc for?

MSI have an excellent support forum here:
http://forum.msi.com.tw/index.php?sid=

PSU calculator here: http://www.adecy.com/psu/

My own system:
MSI 875P Neo-FIS2R BIOS v2.4 | Pentium 4 3.2gHz/800 HT | Zalman CNPS7000A-AlCu | Kingston PC3200 1GB dual ch | MSI FX5900XT VTD128 | Terratec DMX 6fire 24/96 | Samsung 120GB SATA | MSI CR52 CDRW | Globalwin Sapphire Super Silent 19dBA 450W +3.3v=28a, +5v=45a, +12v=22/24a | CoolerMaster Praetorian - Silver | Windows XP Pro SP2

 

Nice system Nick
Just spent 750 on my new system (and poss another 100 on memory tomorrow)

Abit Fatal1ty 925 chipset board
Intel p4 3.4ghz 775 chip
Corsair DDR2 5400 memory (256x2)
SATA Maxtor 160gb hdd
Radeon X600XT 128mb pci-e card (500mhz core clock speed and 736mhz mem speed )
420w PSU (a little overkill probably but..... )
(there is also a case, fans and fan controller in there too )

Tony

 

Thats pretty handy! is there one thats more updated as they dont have my chip on there (though it does say i need 460w with 191w output, i have a 420w with a 220w output though i have added a few bits extra to that that i dont have, just for expansion purposes )

Tony

 

Hi Tony

How are you finding the 925 chipset? I did toy with giving my wife my motherboard & then buying a 925 for me, but I couldn't really justify the money as they don't seem to be *that* much quicker than socket 478s just yet. Much more upgradable though of course! I'd defo go with 1gb RAM though (assuming you're running XP). How do you find the PCI-Express card?

Might be worth a little SIS Sandra comparison?

 

It wont be up and running until tomorrow Nick, ive got to tie all the cables in the case yet, but with the very high speed DDR2 memory (667mhz) and the M/B it should go like a rocket (plus i may go out and buy that extra memory tomorrow, plus a 90mm fan for the back of the case).
I'll post more tomorrow when alls running

Tony

 

You could try here: http://www.casemodgod.com/psu_calculator.htmThe RAM selection is a bit iffy though....

Also, you can try this: http://takaman.jp/D/?english

 

Good luck with the installation. It would be an interesting comparison as the RAM should remove a lot of the bottleneck for the processor.

 

Hopefully Nick
The FSB on this board is 1066/800 also, though without a processor with a 1066 fsb its not going to benefit me that much

Tony

 

What i realy want the machine for is internet and games.. Whaic sort of graphics card should i be looking for?

 

What sort of games mate?

 

If you like the Nvidia cards then a 6600 series one, they are pretty cheap nowerdays (a basic one is around 85 quid) and its better than the 5500.
I was going for one of these (a 6600gt) but ended up with an ATi X600XT (pci-e though) which has a higher core clock speed (500mhz) and memory access speed, this one was 130ish quid though, but you need to look at the core clock speed, this is how quick the card is, ill try to find something out about the card you have named there (clock speed etc) and hopefully point you towards a better card for your needs (and keep the price reasonable at the same time )

Tony

 

Cheers taht would be great.. i have been going to a local shop have a look.. cheers nick

www.refreshcomputers.com

 

Here are some links to online shopping places that i buy from:-
Some of the links have specifications, ill point out what you want to look for

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=131949

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=163402

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...roductID=78351

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...roductID=82220

http://www.microdirect.co.uk/Product...849&GroupID=27

http://www.microdirect.co.uk/Product...822&GroupID=27

This last one is 105 quid, check out the specification, look at the core clock speed and the memory speed, the first one should be the card you have been looking at, for the extra 43 quid you get a card with 256mb of memory AND much quicker

Tony

PS, some of these sites (Aria and Scan) do have places where you can add quiries, though they wont be back until wednesday for aria and next tuesday for scan, they will give you info on which card is best for your system

 

Hi

Refresh seem a little expensive.

A card to look at is the MSI FX5900ZT 128mb, retails at about £92.50 + VAT. This would be great for CM Rally, GTA type games. If you play Halo/Half Life type games a lot, I'd up it to something like an MSI NX6600GT VTD128 at £135 + VAT, or NX6800 TD128 at £167 + VAT. For enthusiast players. a futher option is to look at the 256mb RAM versions.

Remember to consider carefully the PSU. With a fast graphics card, you will need at least 360 watts, I see that Refresh sell Q-Tec - don't even think of buying that rubbish. Instead look at the Enermax range.

Component sources are:
http://www.aria.co.uk/
http://www.casetech.co.uk/
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/
http://www.quietpc.com/uk/products.php

 

Definately not buying memory from refresh

Tony

 

The sort of games i play are the medal of honor type things first person shooter... not sure what to get really.... The rest that i have spoke about seems ok just dont want to get a card and fin i am replacing it in 6 months..

Cheers nikc

 

any idears sorry to sound thick???? and no comments please.............

 

You mean, anyone other than Tony & me - we have both given you options.

 

Something like this will do you for more than 6 months, only when you see it struggling do you need to change it

http://www.microdirect.co.uk/Product...944&GroupID=27

I have in this computer at the moment a 4200 geforce 4, it still goes quite well (128mb) but its getting a little long in the tooth (been in here for around 2 years or so) and wasnt top of the range when i got it.

Tony

 

ok thanks for you help I think i know where i am heading now..

CHEERS GUYS