£800 to Spend

Actual zak, I probably would oc it, and tell them.

Now basing it on some of the examples of the good cooling methods, I'm certainly not going to suggest something like taking a Q6600 to 3.6 and handing it over "cos it worked ok on the bench for an evening".

However, taking the Q6600 as an example, I'd definitely consider a timid oc, keep the memory at around spd/non-oc'd levels so there's no fear of it acting up. And hey, they have an added boast of a mildly oc'd pc.

(same with the gfxcard tbh. like if u know the card will do 725mhz from a stock 650mhz - put it at 675 or something - and tell them. similar deal, don't consider pushing the memory)

I do understand the requirement for it to no act-up tho, so it would depend on the components u settle on. And if u build it urself - consider very strongly creating a partition to store an image of the build, that way if windows does act-up, reapplying an image in minutes also impresses.

Another thing u could consider, understanding that I don't fully know what build u got, but how about offering them ur rig and buying new urself ? Obviously u know how stable ur system is under conditions - but again, I'm not fully clued on ur entire setup so I could be selling u short without knowing :p
 
Rasta is being extremely persuasive so I'll have a chat with him and see if he agrees.

So OCing is back on the list but no OTT clocking.

This thread still lives!
 
If you have a fancy custom built pc, i'm sure you'll be able to give it a gd dust and sell it to him.

Otherwise get the 920 d0 and clock it to 3.2ghz and tell him that its as fast as a £1000 cpu. :beerchug:
 
That's where my PC fails.

My PC has been bought from PC World and has only had a graphics card and RAM upgrade. Doesn't sound very appealing now eh?
 
haha, i know what you mean. I biult a pc for my brothers friend with the intention of clocking his e8400 to 4ghz, but the mobo fked up strait away, rmaed it got a different dfi blood iron mobo and worked great. But some times you may get a power cut or some windows update, and the bios may reset back to default settings, so if I was you I'd either leave ocing along or advise him on what to do and as he grows up i'm sure he'll do it him self. For that reason, i'd actually go for a higher clocked AMD dual or tri core cpu, good performance and are alot cheaper than i7 with similar ish performance.
 
Why not a nice i7 920, decent board, any will do as they all clock the same near enough, and a nice little 4890?

Why is overclocking out of the question? we all know we only buy chips for clocking them...pointless otherwise. If your overclocking you can save alot of money on a chip, then crank it up to the same power and the chip or 2 above it?

I give up, im going i7 anyways with a nice 4890, it makes the perfect sense...then upgrading in the future is much easier...
 
name='sock58' said:
Why not a nice i7 920, decent board, any will do as they all clock the same near enough, and a nice little 4890?

Why is overclocking out of the question? we all know we only buy chips for clocking them...pointless otherwise. If your overclocking you can save alot of money on a chip, then crank it up to the same power and the chip or 2 above it?

I give up, im going i7 anyways with a nice 4890, it makes the perfect sense...then upgrading in the future is much easier...
Click to expand...

Fact remains is that i7 is utterly overkill for his friend. If future upgradability is a concern, I maintain that a modest Socket AM2+/AM3 system makes more sense.
 
name='Mul.' said:
Fact remains is that i7 is utterly overkill for his friend. If future upgradability is a concern, I maintain that a modest Socket AM2+/AM3 system makes more sense.
Click to expand...

Absolutly agree. I7 is a waist of hard earned cash for most people.
 
One final shot.

scanam3.jpg


Again, I think this too is overkill for the end user but here's my reasons for this choice in spec.

- For all intents and purposes it is a fast gaming PC. It offers everything my previous AMD spec did but has a faster CPU and graphics card as zak said he didn't want to take the low end approach. Regardless, this saves £200.

- Since overclocking is on the cards, you can expect anywhere between 3.6 to 4.0GHz with this CPU and so far the success rate of unlocking to quad core has been quite good.

- Don't be fooled by the motherboard. Biostar has hit the nail on the head with the 790GX chipset, offering motherboards at an excellent price that overclock very well. It supports all Socket AM2, AM2+ and AM3 CPU's and will most likely support anything that AMD release for those sockets. Speaking as someone who's owned one of these, I'll definitely vouch for it.

Things you could do to modify the system -

- Drop the graphics card down to a HD 4850 or HD 4770 maybe? The 4870 is quite unnecessary.

- Add a nice Creative X-Fi sound card? How about a Blu Ray drive?

- Nicer case? Take a look at Lian Li's and Silverstone range.
 
Nothing there to argue against really.

If the MSI does ALC889a, I'd not bother with a creative card.

I'd get the bluray - cos u can.

Spend extra on the case - cos u can.

And tbh I'd go nVidia - cos u can and all the fluffyness is there next to the fps.

Tbh tech has been so stagnat the last 3 years, u could spend <£400 or max to £800 and ur customer is gonna be happy. 4g, decent cpu, good graphics and add the pimp-fluffy stuff, and ur done.

The only question I'd have on the tb drive is if the size isn't going to be used, I'd go with a smaller or 2 drives (but not for raid only cos I dont favor it and it's another thing that WILL go wrong :p)

The oc we been talking about up to now is a weak one, and I think it might be an idea to stick with that unless u intend spending time on it urself.
 
Another suggestion. Intel 775 wolfdale cpu dual core. Nice gfx card.

e5200090709.jpg


Ok, to make this easier.

1) Let him choose a case.

2) How much storage, 320gb enough?

3) Is he going to game heavily on large monitor?

4) What size monitor?

You stated that he doesn't need a monitor, but a nice wide screen for under £100 would give him a much better visual experience. If he has a monitor of 22" and less and doesn't game much put a hd4770 in.
 
A very tidy setup that. My only reservations are:

- Opting for this setup will actually require a CPU overclock to match the graphics card's theoretical performance. Not that it matters too much as the guy doesn't even need this much system power. The Phenom II X2 550 is faster clock for clock, has a 600MHz clock speed advantage and has the potential to even unlock into a quad core It is indeed £24 more than the E5200 but I'd say it's worth it! :)

- While it sounds as though the end user isn't likely to chop and change parts, it'd be nicer to offer a system that is still expecting future CPU releases including the potential for CPU's with more cores (an AMD 6 core part, say). While there will certainly be a lot of LGA775 CPU's in the supplier chain for a long time, good quad cores like the Q9550 will be in demand and will likely be sold for extortionate prices.

- If he wishes to opt for your spec, he should spend a couple of quid more and get 4GB of RAM.
 
The only thing is though, is that I'm uncomfortable around AMD processors as I haven't used one recently. Last time I used one was when I was seriously computer illiterate.

But hey keep on firing those suggestions.
 
If u go for no oc or pu55y oc, not knowing much about them isn't gonna matter.

"Load default settings" via the bios, to get it working - then come to OC3D and see what's safe to do.
 
name='zak4994' said:
The only thing is though, is that I'm uncomfortable around AMD processors as I haven't used one recently. Last time I used one was when I was seriously computer illiterate.

But hey keep on firing those suggestions.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't worry about that at all :)

They are very much the same and there's no way one would even be able to tell whether they're using an AMD or Intel based system without looking up it's specifications. I'm yet to have come across a dodgy AMD or Intel chipset from this generation so you can pretty much guarantee that either would be as solid as a rock in terms of stability. I'm certainly no fanboy, I've sampled the best buys of both brands over the years and can quite confidently tell you to give AMD a try with an open mind. You won't go wrong :)
 
The guy doesn't answer.

I showed him all the options that you guys created.

Hmm...

I'm starting to think he doesn't want to buy it.

Anyways, I'll tell you which one he chooses when he does.

I might even attempt a build log ;D.
 
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