£800 to Spend

[Mul.]

Most definitely overkill.

By the sounds of it, this would be much more suitable

I could be shot for posting such a spec on an enthusiasts forum but hey, it's worth the risk. This is likely to satisfy all of his needs, while offer enough capability to run older games with ease. The graphics card is more than enough for 1080P playback and blu-ray if that's a requirement and the CPU is no slouch either. In terms of upgradability, the foundations are there to drop in a fast Quad Core and a single high end graphics card later down the line. This is definitely AMD territory.

 

[zak4994]

Ah you see this is where the problem is. He has £800 to spend but he doesn't want it necessarily that low end. So yeah I still think my choice works best no?

 

[Rastalovich]

Total re-think.

1 off pc purchase that'll last years for the everyday user, throw in some kinky bluray stuff, and some LL that'll look nice. Heck open the case and there's lots of shiny stuff that looks nice. Physx over fps that they probably wont know about cos it's over 25/50, HDCP full messing about processing. One of the top duals, as quad will never be used. Quietness with the cooling and psu. The mobo has the sexy digital sound connectivity - wtEf is eax ?

Practically then :

Some oos, but hey u probably not use Aria anyway In anycase, u should look at deals and offers b4 purchasing.

I'd even get some media reader.

EDIT: Sad point to be proven here, is that, in all likelyhood, for the everyday user, this PC will be brilliant even in 5 years time.

 

[Mul.]

Total re-think.

1 off pc purchase that'll last years for the everyday user, throw in some kinky bluray stuff, and some LL that'll look nice. Heck open the case and there's lots of shiny stuff that looks nice. Physx over fps that they probably wont know about cos it's over 25/50, HDCP full messing about processing. One of the top duals, as quad will never be used. Quietness with the cooling and psu. The mobo has the sexy digital sound connectivity - wtEf is eax ?

Practically then :

Some oos, but hey u probably not use Aria anyway In anycase, u should look at deals and offers b4 purchasing.

I'd even get some media reader.

EDIT: Sad point to be proven here, is that, in all likelyhood, for the everyday user, this PC will be brilliant even in 5 years time.

I like your thinking. About the only thing I'd do is replace the CPU and motherboard with a Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition and a AMD 790GX based motherboard of choice. Money saved and comparable performance.

All of these systems truly overkill by the sounds of it though and my £480 spec would've cut it quite easily without him being any wiser. Things such as nicer cases, Blu Ray, dedicated sound cards are good things to invest in instead, like above.

edit- should cost you a tad less over at OcUK. The GTX 275 is £149 there. It's very much on par with the HD 4890 and depending on what he might play, it might be a little quicker. It'll also fold better, in case he might want to do that.

 

[rapidman17]

Rasta's setup looks to be close to what you want.... not so keen on the gtx275.. maybe a 4850x2 or something?

EDIT: Mul you AMD fanboy lol..... ... never liked amd procs and am unlikely to start, but there is no doubting they offer good value for money

 

[Rastalovich]

No real point in a casual user having an x2 gpu imo. I find it hard to advise any1 to go xfire/sli/x2 tbh - not enough use outside of benching. Probably more things to worry urself over rather than stick in a 1 gpu card that does more than enough.

mobo/cpu switch for AM3 is fair comment, probably give the rig an extension of 5 years to 7, being as AMD may well bring out an AM4 or 3+ with a same pin cushion.

Just be nice to have ALC889a+ over ALC888 for me. (or make sure the mobo has atleast ALC889a+ and I'd be happy)

Main reason in the thinking is - show-off-ability and being able to do everyday stuff including interacting with other medias, no drawbacks, and some fluffy stuff thrown in.

ddr2/3 for casual - doesn't make a difference. get 4g of anything tbh.

 

[Mul.]

Rasta's setup looks to be close to what you want.... not so keen on the gtx275.. maybe a 4850x2 or something?

EDIT: Mul you AMD fanboy lol..... ... never liked amd procs and am unlikely to start, but there is no doubting they offer good value for money

How dare you call me the F word!

I am no fanboy however. I've always tried both AMD and Intel's offerings and decided accordingly, owning a Pentium 4 HT based machine when they were performing better than the AMD Athlon XP's, I had the AMD Athlon 64/X2's when they were smoking Pentium 4's and I went Core 2 Duo when Intel returned the favour.

Having tried and tested both AMD Phenom II and Core 2 Duo, I know their strengths and weaknesses from first hand experience. There is no denying that Phenom II has been fighting back at Intel Core 2 (albeit a little too late) and right now they have much more to offer as a platform that costs less and will be supported with plenty of future releases. I am taking this in a light hearted fashion but in all seriousness, you seem to be the fanboy if you simply "don't like" a manufacturer's offerings!

Read some articles dating back to AMD's releases since the Phenom II X4 920/940 and then onto the AM3 lineup and you'll see that they aren't so bad.

 

[noobieocer]

you could always buy a low end computer and then spend the rest on flashy wc and custom paint jobs

 

[zak4994]

you could always buy a low end computer and then spend the rest on flashy wc and custom paint jobs

Have you even read the first post?

 

[cl0ck_ed]

IMo, do your cousin a favour and advise him how much he needs to spend on an everyday pc. £800 is OTT. Save some of his money for something else, £400-500 is fine for most people. Look at my tread on the e5200, it clocks like a beast, whack it up to 3.5ghz, rock solid, and gfx card of choice. Sorted.

http://forum.overclock3d.net/showthread.php?t=27723

 

[zak4994]

Yeah, overclocking is something we don't want to do. Anything that makes the PC less stable is out of the question. Regardless of whether it isproven to be stable.

So since people are agreeing no OTT PC parts, I guess mine suits best?

 

[cl0ck_ed]

Nice little setup:

Your basket

Product Name Qty Price Line Total

Intel Core i7 920 D0 Stepping (SLBEJ) 2.66Ghz (Nehalem) (Socket LGA1366) - Retail + World In Conflict PC Game £208.99

(£181.73) £208.99

(£181.73)

Asus GeForce GTX 275 896MB GDDR3 PCI-Express Graphics Card (Includes Terminator Salvation PC Game) £149.99

(£130.43) £149.99

(£130.43)

MSI X58M Intel X58 (Socket 1366) PCI-Express mATX DDR3 Motherboard £129.98

(£113.03) £129.98

(£113.03)

Patriot Viper 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800 (1600MHz) Low Latency Tri-Channel (PVT36G1600LLK) £75.99

(£66.08) £75.99

(£66.08)

OCZ StealthXStream 500w Silent ATX2 Power Supply £48.99

(£42.60) £48.99

(£42.60)

Samsung SpinPoint F2EG 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD502HI) £37.98

(£33.03) £37.98

(£33.03)

Coolermaster Elite 334 Midi Case- Black (No PSU) £30.99

(£26.95) £30.99

(£26.95)

LG GH22NP20 22x DVD±RW IDE Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99

(£14.77) £16.99

(£14.77) Sub Total : £608.62 Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:

DPD Next Day Parcel

(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £11.75 VAT is being charged at 15% VAT : £93.06 Total : £713.43

 

[rapidman17]

^that looks good... imo only thing to do is get a higher watt power supply and instead of the gtx275 get 2 hd4850's, which are the same price....

 

[zak4994]

Missing OS.

 

[rapidman17]

you can use windows 7 rc for now and then buy the full 0S when it comes out ?

 

[zak4994]

you can use windows 7 rc for now and then buy the full 0S when it comes out ?

You have not read anything have you.

This is for a person who isn't going to be particularly going to be playing that many games and is significantly computer illiterate.

While I tried to convince him to buy a pre-built PC, he still wants it to have a personal feel to it.

So yeah. Base it around pre-built PCs...

 

[rapidman17]

You have not read anything have you.

This is for a person who isn't going to be particularly going to be playing that many games and is significantly computer illiterate.

While I tried to convince him to buy a pre-built PC, he still wants it to have a personal feel to it.

So yeah. Base it around pre-built PCs...

ahhh, sorry mate u are right i havent read through the whole thread...

edit

 

[zak4994]

Oh and Vista would probably be better as why have so a good rig and not run Vista on it?

 

[monkey7]

Why have a fast car and put a block of steel in it?

 

[zak4994]

'Cos the fast car should be able to handle it?

Anyways, only reason I want Win Vista is because of the Win7 upgrade thing whch I will snatch...