New Build: You Decide!

[Roblackpool]

Hi, I'm from England, my current PC is an off-the-shelf PC which was pre-built, and is slowly becoming too slow for me. I would like to keep hold of it, purely to do work, play music when I have people round etc. But I would also like to build an entirely new PC.

I upgraded my graphics card to an Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTS, and I think this is still good these days, so I'd like to keep hold of it, put it into my new build, and with this PC, just leave it running on the crappy one that came in-built to the motherboard.

My budget is approximately £500. Remember the cost of a graphics card is not included, I also have a really good gaming mouse and a really good sound system. but I will need all of the below;

Main Build
- Case
- Processor (I would ideally like a quad-core)
- RAM (looking at either 4 or 8 gig??)
- Motherboard (no idea about motherboards - what is good, and whats not?)
- PSU (whatever you think for my ideal set-up)
- DVD/RW drive
- USB Ports
- Cooling (?)
- Decent sound card

Peripherals;
- Monitor (I LOVE the samsung monitors - I know they are expensive tho! Ideally around 22" will be great)
- Keyboard
- Headset (I would really like a good headset for once)


I have a few extra questions for you!
Now, I have never built a pc before ;
1. Is my budget realistic?
2. Have I forgotten anything?
3. And what do I do about installing windows -- This ideally is to be a pure gaming PC just for me, my girlfriend can go on facebook on the old one! So, is XP better for gaming, or will a top build be able to run vista at a decent pace?
4. Do I need to buy a new copy of windows? I have windows on this old PC which came with the PC but without an install cd, which is really annoying as I wanted to re-format this PC and obviously cant. Any help on this will be greatly appreciated.

I look forward to hearing what you guys think. Again, thanks for your time and for reading

Edit: I forgot to mention I do NOT overclock. Dont wanna mess up all my new hardware!!

 

[wol-va-rine]

Hi, I'm from England, my current PC is an off-the-shelf PC which was pre-built, and is slowly becoming too slow for me. I would like to keep hold of it, purely to do work, play music when I have people round etc. But I would also like to build an entirely new PC.

I upgraded my graphics card to an Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTS, and I think this is still good these days, so I'd like to keep hold of it, put it into my new build, and with this PC, just leave it running on the crappy one that came in-built to the motherboard.

My budget is approximately £500. Remember the cost of a graphics card is not included, I also have a really good gaming mouse and a really good sound system. but I will need all of the below;

Main Build
- Case
- Processor (I would ideally like a quad-core)
- RAM (looking at either 4 or 8 gig??)
- Motherboard (no idea about motherboards - what is good, and whats not?)
- PSU (whatever you think for my ideal set-up)
- DVD/RW drive
- USB Ports
- Cooling (?)
- Decent sound card

Peripherals;
- Monitor (I LOVE the samsung monitors - I know they are expensive tho! Ideally around 22" will be great)
- Keyboard
- Headset (I would really like a good headset for once)


I have a few extra questions for you!
Now, I have never built a pc before ;
1. Is my budget realistic?
2. Have I forgotten anything?
3. And what do I do about installing windows -- This ideally is to be a pure gaming PC just for me, my girlfriend can go on facebook on the old one! So, is XP better for gaming, or will a top build be able to run vista at a decent pace?
4. Do I need to buy a new copy of windows? I have windows on this old PC which came with the PC but without an install cd, which is really annoying as I wanted to re-format this PC and obviously cant. Any help on this will be greatly appreciated.

I look forward to hearing what you guys think. Again, thanks for your time and for reading

Edit: I forgot to mention I do NOT overclock. Dont wanna mess up all my new hardware!!

considering where you are your budget is not realistic for a good build and even less so for a top of the line build, that budget would be doable in USD but you aren't here in the states...

here's an example...

core2duo E7300...$115 w/promo code: EMCABBEBC

or core2quad Q6600...$185 w/promo code EMCABBEBD

Antec 300 case...$85 shipped

ASUS P5Q Pro motherboard...$105 after $15 MIR...

OCZ StealthXstream 500w psu...$20 after $35 MIR w/promo code EMCABBEAB

GSkill 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 800...$40...

Lite-On DVD burner...$20...

Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum...$67 shipped (refurbished)...

XP Home SP3 - OEM...$90...

- don't let the "refurbished" fool you with regards to the sound card, mine looked brand spankin' new when I got it, no sctratches anywhere, no way someone had used it...

- cooling...? you aren't overclocking so the stock Intel cooler would be fine...

sooooo...

the core2duo build (as cheap as it is) is still over your budget in USD ($542 after MIRs) and the core2quad build is even more over budget ($612), and that's just here in the states, in the UK it will be around double the price IIRC, and this is just a good build, a top end system would me much more...

 

[Roblackpool]

The thing is, £500 translates currently at around $760. Whats MIR anyway?

I can get a quad core for around £130 i think, that is the main cost, however when i'm considering getting a decent monitor that again takes my budget sky high. £500 is flexible, but I think if i were to import a lot of the parts the expense will be too high. Is anyone here from the UK who knows any decent current prices for good parts? I'll check that list you gave me and try to find UK suppliers and let you know the cost.

 

[wol-va-rine]

The thing is, £500 translates currently at around $760. Whats MIR anyway?

I can get a quad core for around £130 i think, that is the main cost, however when i'm considering getting a decent monitor that again takes my budget sky high. £500 is flexible, but I think if i were to import a lot of the parts the expense will be too high. Is anyone here from the UK who knows any decent current prices for good parts? I'll check that list you gave me and try to find UK suppliers and let you know the cost.

MIR = mail in rebate...

are you talking about a quad core AMD...? that's a ridiculously low price for an Intel quad core...

 

[kjman87]

thats euros...
1 Euro = 1.3228 U.S. dollars
so his 130euro = $172 which is realistic

q6600 on newegg: $190
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115017

 

[JJCG]

I will put the prices in Sterling, from wol-va-rine's post.

Intel Core 2 Duo E7300 2 x 2.66Ghz...£91.94

or Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz...£157.54


Antec Three Hundred Case...£63.24

Asus P5Q Pro...£114.99

ThermalTake TR2 RX Cable Management 500W...£47.15 (Novatech dont stock OCZ PSUs)

OCZ Gold Vista 4GB (2x2GB)...£34.49 (There is only one set of G.Skill ram on the novatech website which was 1066MHz)

LiteOn 22x DVDRW...£17.25

Creative SoundBlaster X-FI XtremeMusic...£83.38 (very overpriced, if you can find a refurb in the UK, go for it)

Windows XP Home OEM Service Pack 3...£68.94

If you go with the Core2duo build the total will be: £521.38 which is not bad, Novatech is the cheapest place to buy PC parts (as other sites do NOT include the VAT).

If you wanted to save more money, you should get one of the Barebones bundle deals which are really good value for money .

EDIT:
I have forgot to add a HDD into the list, so add another £30-£50 to the final price.

 

[worshipme]

For those who are posting links to the 'egg and converting to £, prices over here are waaaay higher.

I usually don't recommend duals any more, because quads are available at such excellent prices and the clock speeds are decent.
The best value quad ATM is probably the Phenom 9850, it's around the same speed as the Q6600 but cheaper. Pair it with a 790GX and you have a winner.

Novatech have a pretty crap selection of cases so I'd order one from Ebuyer: CM Elite 335.
I'd also get the PSU from Ebuyer, the OCZ StealthXStream 500W.
I'd recommend the same RAM as JJCG.

I don't know much about sound cards, onboard is enough for me , I'm sure the others can help you with that.

1. Is my budget realistic?

Yes.

2. Have I forgotten anything?

Hard drive, unless you already have one.

3. And what do I do about installing windows -- This ideally is to be a pure gaming PC just for me, my girlfriend can go on facebook on the old one! So, is XP better for gaming, or will a top build be able to run vista at a decent pace?

I'd go with Vista 64 bit, it will be able to address all 4 GB of RAM, unlike XP, and it works nice and smooth nowadays. DX10 too

4. Do I need to buy a new copy of windows? I have windows on this old PC which came with the PC but without an install cd, which is really annoying as I wanted to re-format this PC and obviously cant. Any help on this will be greatly appreciated.

You won't have to if you uninstall XP from your current comp and install it on the new one. Just burn an .ISO image of XP from Pirate Bay or something since you have your XP license key.

Edit: I forgot to mention I do NOT overclock. Dont wanna mess up all my new hardware!!

Awww... Well, you won't need any after market coolers, the stock cooling will be fine.

 

[JJCG]

Novatech have a pretty crap selection of cases

Yeah thats the only thing about Novatech, they have a poor selection of stock compered with other suppliers.

 

[Roblackpool]

Sorry for the late reply, ive not been online this weekend! That build you gave, JJCG looks quite good, around £600-640 total, with the quad-core. Little over budget and would really like to include the cost of a fairly decent monitor with that. With regard to windows, I'll ideally be keeping this PC running, for my girlfriend and generally for work so I can keep my new PC specifically for gaming.

So really, If i wanted to go for a decent build, with monitor included, and decent peripherals, I'm looking around £750. Is there really that much difference between dual core and quad? I'm looking at this to really be an investment for the future, and hopefully not need to upgrade anything for a few years, so if there is a big difference between dual and quad, I will need to look at paying the difference.

I'll have a further look at scraping a few pennies off that price, maybe the bundle deals will be better value. Thing is, I've had the bad experience of this computer being a shop-bought pre-build, and found the overally performance ok (at the time) but needed the new graphics card, RAM etc. which cost me an extra £200. I'd rather pick everything individually.

I've never built before! Is it fairly easy to do? I may be able to get someone to help me, but thats not for certain.

Build 1;
Processor: AMD Phenom 9850 Black Edition Quad Core AM2 2.5GHz 2Mb L2 Cache - £133.40 www.novatech.co.uk
Motherboard: MSI DKA790GX - Socket AM2 - AMD 790GX - Dual DDR2 667/800/1066(only for AM2+) £97.75 www.novatech.co.uk
Case: Coolermaster Elite 335 Case £29.99 www.ebuyer.com
PSU: OCZ Stealth Xtream 500W PSU £42.29 www.ebuyer.com
RAM: OCZ Gold Vista 4GB £34.49 www.novatech.co.uk
OS: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64-Bit Edition £87.40 www.novatech.co.uk
DVD R/W: LiteOn 22x DVDRW £17.25 www.novatech.co.uk
Sound Card: Creative SoundBlaster X-FI XtremeMusic OEM £51.22 www.advancetec.co.uk
Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar Blue 250GB 16Mb Cache Hard Drive SATAII 300MB/s £37.89 www.novatech.co.uk
Total: £531.68 (inc VAT)


That is A LOT more like it. Now that includes a new hard drive. Is 250GB Enough do you think? And am I getting a good deal there for £38 inc VAT? I could have got a 350gb one for almost the same price, but it was 8MB Cache rather than 16MB. I have no idea what this means but I went for the higher MB (is this how quickly data can be accessed?)

I'm going to have a shop around for a decent monitor. I want a 22" but have no idea what sort of one is good? Any suggestions.

Finally, because I'm so near to finally deciding on my build - What sort of rating would you give for that build? Is it good, and will It LAST?! That's the main thing. Thanks a lot for all your help by the way

Monitor

Okay, quick bit of research, and I've found a pretty quality monitor. Samsung, 22" from ebuyer: Samsung SM2220LM 22" TFT Monitor 1680x1050 - http://www.ebuyer.com/product/151395#

What do you guys think?

Cost if £124.99 inc VAT, which takes the total cost of my build to £656.67

It is an extra £150 over my original budget, but I do think the build is pretty good, what do you all think, would you buid this? Is it worth the price tag for this system?

I'm going to start ordering various parts once you guys (but mainly my girlfriend lol) give me the thumbs up! I dont know how long the offer is on for that particular monitor, so once i start buying, that will be the first thing I get. Final parts can be ordered next monday, once I get paid ;-)

edit: With respect to the sound card; Is this really a necessity do you think?

 

[wol-va-rine]

Sorry for the late reply, ive not been online this weekend! That build you gave, JJCG looks quite good, around £600-640 total, with the quad-core. Little over budget and would really like to include the cost of a fairly decent monitor with that. With regard to windows, I'll ideally be keeping this PC running, for my girlfriend and generally for work so I can keep my new PC specifically for gaming.

So really, If i wanted to go for a decent build, with monitor included, and decent peripherals, I'm looking around £750. Is there really that much difference between dual core and quad? I'm looking at this to really be an investment for the future, and hopefully not need to upgrade anything for a few years, so if there is a big difference between dual and quad, I will need to look at paying the difference.

I'll have a further look at scraping a few pennies off that price, maybe the bundle deals will be better value. Thing is, I've had the bad experience of this computer being a shop-bought pre-build, and found the overally performance ok (at the time) but needed the new graphics card, RAM etc. which cost me an extra £200. I'd rather pick everything individually.

I've never built before! Is it fairly easy to do? I may be able to get someone to help me, but thats not for certain.

Build 1;
Processor: AMD Phenom 9850 Black Edition Quad Core AM2 2.5GHz 2Mb L2 Cache - £133.40 www.novatech.co.uk
Motherboard: MSI DKA790GX - Socket AM2 - AMD 790GX - Dual DDR2 667/800/1066(only for AM2+) £97.75 www.novatech.co.uk
Case: Coolermaster Elite 335 Case £29.99 www.ebuyer.com
PSU: OCZ Stealth Xtream 500W PSU £42.29 www.ebuyer.com
RAM: OCZ Gold Vista 4GB £34.49 www.novatech.co.uk
OS: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64-Bit Edition £87.40 www.novatech.co.uk
DVD R/W: LiteOn 22x DVDRW £17.25 www.novatech.co.uk
Sound Card: Creative SoundBlaster X-FI XtremeMusic OEM £51.22 www.advancetec.co.uk
Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar Blue 250GB 16Mb Cache Hard Drive SATAII 300MB/s £37.89 www.novatech.co.uk
Total: £531.68 (inc VAT)


That is A LOT more like it. Now that includes a new hard drive. Is 250GB Enough do you think? And am I getting a good deal there for £38 inc VAT? I could have got a 350gb one for almost the same price, but it was 8MB Cache rather than 16MB. I have no idea what this means but I went for the higher MB (is this how quickly data can be accessed?)

I'm going to have a shop around for a decent monitor. I want a 22" but have no idea what sort of one is good? Any suggestions.

Finally, because I'm so near to finally deciding on my build - What sort of rating would you give for that build? Is it good, and will It LAST?! That's the main thing. Thanks a lot for all your help by the way

Monitor

Okay, quick bit of research, and I've found a pretty quality monitor. Samsung, 22" from ebuyer: Samsung SM2220LM 22" TFT Monitor 1680x1050 - http://www.ebuyer.com/product/151395#

What do you guys think?

Cost if £124.99 inc VAT, which takes the total cost of my build to £656.67

It is an extra £150 over my original budget, but I do think the build is pretty good, what do you all think, would you buid this? Is it worth the price tag for this system?

I'm going to start ordering various parts once you guys (but mainly my girlfriend lol) give me the thumbs up! I dont know how long the offer is on for that particular monitor, so once i start buying, that will be the first thing I get. Final parts can be ordered next monday, once I get paid ;-)

edit: With respect to the sound card; Is this really a necessity do you think?

most say it isn't necessary, it depends on how good you want your music to sound, most people can't tell the difference and just stick with onboard sound...

I am not one of those, I like to be able to turn my sounds up and still have it sounding good...