Budget system

[RiskyPack]

Here is what I did.. I had a budget on £600, so for a month or so I followed the prices on hardware carefully, and here is what I finally bought:

AMD X2 3800+ Stepping F3 (Should be overclockable) £55
Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 pro £10
Asus GeForce 8600 GT 256 mb GDDR3 £90
Zalman VF900-CU £18
ABIT KN9 Ultra nForce 570 ultra £65
2 GB Corsair XMS2 PC2-6400 £90
320 GB Seagate 7200 rpm SATA2 16 mb £50
Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-1100 Tv tuner £40
Samsung DVD-DL SH-S182D £20
Gigabyte Triton ATX case £45

I had a 400 watt NorthQ power supply (£20) that I will be using. So all in all it adds up to (with powersupply):

£503

With delivery and all it was still less than £550

I'm pretty happy with what I got... However I have not received all parts yet, so how far I can overclock the system is still uncertain.

 

[akhilles]

Dunno how good your psu is. I'd get a 450-500w hiper.

The best air gpu cooler, imo. If money is an issue, drop this & put the saving toward a better psu.

Also, the ram is a bit overpriced. In the west, it's around 60 quid after rebate. Sure you can't get anything else in the 60-quid price range? i.e. G.Skill HZ/HK , Cruicial Ballistix, Buffalo Firestix or Mushkin HP2/XP2.

 

[RiskyPack]

I'm pretty sure the PSU will do. Otherwise I will buy a new one later.

The RAM is an issue I was concerned about myself, but the thing that justify the relative expensive RAM is that it is Dual RAM. After all the reviews I've read it should be the best for the price. The cheapest PC2-6400 in Denmark would have been £75-80 for 2 GB. If however I would have saved any money here the thing I would have upgraded was the graphic card. I was really close to buying a 8800 GTS, but I decided that I am not a hardcore gamer, and a 8800 GTS would have been overkill.

 

[Shadow703793]

Dude you have 2 CPU coolers listed on your list. You only need one. Go with the Zalman. Also do you really need the TV Tuner? If not spend this money on a better PSU especially if OC'ing. Every thing else looks good. If you can (and the price is lower than the 8600) I would get a 7800 or a 7900.

 

[akhilles]

He listed a CPU & a GPU cooler. They're different.

Go with the cheapest 6400 brand name ram.

 

[RiskyPack]

Believe me... It is the cheapest I could find. They were £5 more than 2 GB Kingston Value PC6400 in Denmark that is. I almost thought about buying Crucial Ballistix PC8000CL5 but they were £120 so I decided against it. The thing is that in Denmark there is a database where all the shops list their products so you can compare the prices, so that is why I'm sure I can't get anything cheaper in Denmark. However what I have been more worried about is the CPU and GPU. As far as I know the 7800 is mostly for AGP interface, and the 7900 GS should perform on the same level as the 8600 GT. The reason I went for the 8600 GT is of course that it is a DirectX 10 card. In my mind this tells me that I can be using that card at least 3 years forward. In my former system I had a Geforce 4 TI4200 a DirectX 8 card, and it pissed me off that I couldn't play all the directx 9 games even though the system was compatible in any other way. The CPU was by far the hardest choice. I have been a loyal customer to AMD for years, because I've had nothing but good experience with them. But I know that a Core Duo is superior to an AMD X2, but the stepping should give it a Price/Performance advantage when overclocked. The fact that it does not have a locked multiplier makes it a better choice for someone who wants to overclock his system.

 

[alcattle]

The 7900 is faster than an 8600, the 8600 is ranked closer to a 7600. Dx-10 will not be mainstream for 2 years. You are safe with the 7900.
If you are clocking to overclock, the intel cannot be touched by an AMD at the same price. No overclock is the other way around.

 

[RiskyPack]

I am not sure about the overclocking. I know that the Core Duo are insane for overclocking. But my CPU was £55 (actually less without freight) and in this segment I'm not sure Intel has anything serious to offer. I was thinking about the E4300 Allendale (£75), but I found out that the CPU I bought is a lower clocked second-generation opteron, and therefore it has a serious overclocking potential.