Okay, you lot. You're always on about the most powerful kit, well how about the cheapest. :)

I'm looking to put together a PC with the following sort of spec:

- 2.5Ghz (or thereabouts) P4 (Intel - no arguments, that's just what I want)
- Half-decent graphics card (64Mb or maybe 128Mb)
- 512Mb, or possibly 1Gb if I can afford it
- 2x 120Gb drives of storage
- DVD-writer

I've got a screen, and can probably cadge a mouse/keyboard from somewhere if necessary. The mobo needs to have a NIC, and I'll also want at least one USB and Firewire port (but they're pretty standard these days so shouldn't be a problem).

The PC will be left on for most of the time, so probably needs a decent PSU and adequate cooling.

Main use will be development (Visual Studio.Net), 35mm negative scanning/processing (so need a decent amount of memory), video editing (hence the large disks) and as an MP3 repository, with a possible view to turn it into a house-wide music server at some point in the future.

It doesn't need to be a games monster, since I don't ever play games on the PC, and the graphics card doesn't really matter as 99% of the time I'll be using it via my laptop using remote desktop over a wireless link. The plan is to stick it in a back room and forget about it.

Novatech can manage about that spec for a smidgen over £500. Where else should I be looking at? Ex-vat prices please. :D

[Edited by MarkO - 7/20/2003 7:40:45 PM]

that's a good price - I've just built a PC through Novatech and Overclockers....

Althon 2400XP
1Gig of DDR 3200 Ram
Asrock K7S8X mobo
ATI 9700 DDR 128Meg G/card
Already got the HD

total price of around £350....

Try overclockers.co.uk - they were quite competetive :)

Dan

edited to say (inc Vat :rolleyes:) :D

[Edited by ScoobyDoo555 - 7/20/2003 10:11:23 PM]

You needn't have bothered - I don't care about VAT. ;)

Hmmm. Had a look at Overclockers. While they may be well-built systems, they're not particularly competitive. £500 for their 2.4Gz pentium shuttle, but that's with 40Gb and 256Mb. I'd expect more disk space/memory than that in a laptop FFS!!!

well between both, they were competitive for my PC! :p

Best of luck sorting (no matter where you get it from :))

Dan ;)

MarkO

Self build or shop build.

Si

Shop build. I wouldn't have the first clue about putting together a PC, and have no interest in learning. "That's a hardware issue". :D

Ahhh.....my apologies Mark - i thought you were talking about a self-build :rolleyes:

They probably weren't that competitive then.....

Again, best of luck :)

Dan

Well i cant get nowhere near that at simply, what components you using at novatech :)

Si

Here's what I spec'd up at Novatech this morning:

Processor Intel P4 2.66GHz 533MHz System Bus
Case ATX 300W Midi Tower + Fan (AMD/P4)
Motherboard Asus P4S533-X Socket 478 M/Board
RAM 512MB 333MHz DDR RAM
Hard Drive 1 Maxtor 120GB Plus9 8MB Cache
Hard Drive 2 Maxtor 120GB Plus9 8MB Cache
CDRom 1 Sony DRU500 DVD Writer
Graphic Card 64MB DDR GeForce4 MX4400 AGP
PCI Card 1 Network Card - Novatech PCI 10/100

Price : £618.41 ex VAT £726.63 inc VAT

Ovbiously the DVD-RW pushes up the price a bit, but without it the price was about £500 I think. No idea whether the components are any good, but as long as it works....

That mobo is a bag of spanners (IMHO) ;)

Yeah, I know, but they don't seem to have any others as options now. Tell you what, I'll buy the bits, you build it for me? ;)

Wouldn't a be a problem bar delivery.

I'm sure I could entice you to deliver it with a crumble at the destination. ;)

Bribery solves so many problems :D

Doesn't solve your problem but if you're after a DVD-R, why pay the premium for the Sony?
A Pioneer 106 can be picked up for £129.99 at SVP (+/-R 4X)
Or a hacked 105 for £89 (ex VAT) at: www.playstationmods.com/cdwriters.htm

Paul

seeing as your not into hardware.... why not pick up a 4550 from dell outlet and just add the dvd burner??

Just looking on their website, a Dimension 4600, with 2.6Ghz P4, 512Mb of RAM, 200Mb HDD, DVD/CD-RW, minimum service contract and 64Mb graphics card is going to cost me around £800+vat. That's £300 more than Novatech for a HDD that's 40Gb smaller, an optical drive which I don't want, and a monitor which I don't want/need.

And Dell don't have the best reputation for being easy to upgrade...