Scooby-kid

In the next 2 weekes or so, I will be ordering my new pc, (self build). I was just wondering if anyone had an oppinion on these specs. I will need absolutley everything, apart from software. My budget is around £550:

OCZ 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 800MHz

Acer V193WB 19" TFT Monitor widescreen

Intel Core 2 Duo E7300 2.66GHz

Hiper 580W Type-M Black PSU


Maxtor 500GB Hard Drive SATAII 7200rpm *32MB Cache* - OEM

ASUS HD 4850 512MB DDR3

LiteOn IHAS120 20X SATA DVD±RW

Coolermaster Elite 330 Black Mid Tower Case - No PSU


for around £50 less I can get nearly the same from dell. But then you dont really know what your getting. for example, I tried to keep to fairly cheap components, but I tried to choose a decent motherboard, a decent high quality power supply, fairly quick memory, hdd with 32mb cache instead of 16, etc. I would like to build in some quality and longetivity into the pc aswell as just raw specs. also, the dell machine does not have as good graphics card.

I would be thankfull for any input regarding all the components, ie. whether to upgrade in one area, downgrade in others etc (ps, i havn't forgot mouse/keyboard)

Cheers
Scott.

BlueBugEye

iTrader: (12)

Looks OK on the surface of it the processor is a bit weak in modern terms, I'd go for an Nvidia graphics card myself but it's personal preference.
Remember a 32bit OS cannot see more than 3.25Gb ram.
Have you looked at Novatechs Barebone bundles?

Scooby-kid

I would have liked to get the q6600 but the recent price hikes have put pay to that.

on the point of the RAM. even though the os will only see/show just over 3 gig, will my system still utilise the full 4gig plus graphics card, or am I better off just sticking with 2gb RAM?

Cheers
Scott.

BlueBugEye

iTrader: (12)

Depends what you're doing with it, the hardest I run mine is photo editing and I have 4gb 800mhz ram and 1gb on the graphics card, but I do run dual displays all the time.

swiss scooby

The Core2Quad 6600 is probably no longer awailable, because it's the older generation of Intel CPU'. I suggest 4GB RAM.

jaytc2003

iTrader: (1)

decent spec, would change the maxtor hard drive though, I have changed at least 3 failed units in the past few years of these of different capacities and interface types

Scooby-kid

thanks for the response people.

I will be using the machine for running photoshop CS3, macromedia dreamweaver, and a bit of gaming.

so will I be able to still use 4gb ram with only vista premium 32bit? or could possibly be xp pro, dont know yet.

rbaz

iTrader: (1)

Just use Vista 64
You can install 4gb with 32 but it will not use it all.

BlueBugEye

iTrader: (12)

Yeah and have the PC die every 5 mins! - Stick to XP especially if you will have any kind of network there

rbaz

iTrader: (1)

I take it you dont like Vista then

john_s

iTrader: (1)

Never had any trouble with vista - much less than XP gave. Vista's noticeably more stable.

BlueBugEye

iTrader: (12)

Vista doesn't do networks properly! It also had massive driver issues on first release, as Microsoft are about to release Windows 7 in 2010 doesn't that tell you there is a fundamental problem with Vista?

Also you'll have downloaded in updates almost twice the size of the original install!

messiah

Where are you buying your stuff from? I built a PC just before Christmas on a similar budget and got everything from ebuyer, aria & scan.

Intel Quad Q6600 (2.4ghz) 4gb RAM 1066 DDR2, 500gb Seagate Baracuda, Sony DVD RW, Antec P182 Case (love it!) Corsair 550W PSU, Sapphire HD 4670 GPU & Gigabyte Mobo.

One word of advice I'd give is to upgrade the Mobo's BIOS - my brand new Mobo's firmware was at v4 when the most up to date was v9! As a result, I got all sorts of freezing issues with Vista - especially with USB devices.

Scooby-kid

thanks guys.

I will be ordering all my stuff from ebuyer, I thought about phoning them to see if i could squeeze a little bit of discount out of them - do you reckon they will?

I will probably stick to only 2gb ram, but I would like to upgrade to a quad core, or maye 3ghz dual core? am i right in thinking that CS3 can utilise the extra cores? what about games. would two fast cores be better, or four slower cores?

sorry for all the questions, and thanks again.
Scott.

messiah

4 cores over 2, but depends on whether the software can take advantage of it - if you go the quad core route you might be better placed to take advantage of 64 bit processing - Photoshop is available in x64. Check your Mobo specs though before you buy, most will have a list of compatible CPU's and whether they can handle x64.

Not sure about games - be interested to hear myself as I just downloaded the Crysis demo to put my PC through it's paces and see how it fares.