Opinions on this sub £500 gaming / general use PC (some advice rqd)

[mpartrid]

APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: (next week) BUDGET RANGE: (£500)

SYSTEM USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: (basic gaming (Civilisation, Football Manager etc), surfing the internet, watching movies, editing home photos / movies)

PARTS NOT REQUIRED: (keyboard, mouse, , speakers, OS (planning on using existing version of XP))

PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: (ebuyer.com, scan.co.uk, lambda-tek.com (pretty much any UK site with free or reasonable delivery)

PARTS PREFERENCES: 22" Monitor, CPU that I can overclock

OVERCLOCKING: Yes, would like to overclock CPU. CROSSFIRE: Maybe (no immediate plans)

MONITOR RESOLUTION: 1680x1050 or higher

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: prefer it to be reasonably quiet !!

This is what I have so far

CPU

E5200 (retail boxed) - Ebuyer - £52

OR

E5200 (retail boxed) - Lambda-tek - £52

Motherboard

GA P31-ES3G - Lambda-tek - £43

RAM

OCZ Gold Edition 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 PC2-8500C5 Dual Channel - Overclockers - £38

OR

Kingston HyperX 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 8500C5 1066MHz Lambda-tek - £41

Graphics - need some help here, want a 4770, not sure which one

ASUS 4770 - Lamdba-tek - £59 (not sure why this is cheaper than the other 4770's ??

Case and Power

Coolermaster 333 (460W) - Ebuyer - £52

Hard Drive

1TB Samsung HD103UJ Spinpoint F1 - Ebuyer - £66

Cooler - not sure if I need one ??

Arctic Cooling AC-FRZ-7P Freezer 7 - Ebuyer - £15

CD/ DVD Drive

LG GH22NS40 - Ebuyer - £16

Monitor - could do with some help here

Hanton 22" TFT Monitor 1680x1050 - Ebuyer - £105

Operating System

Planning on using existing XP license


Any opinions or advice on better parts etc would be welcome.

Also, is there anything that I have missed ? Would these parts come with all the wires etc that I would need ?


Thanks


Matt

 

[stonebattle]

These are all fine choices for your budget.
If you plan to overclock at some point in time, you may want to consider a good P45 motherboard. That will cost a bit more of course.
The E5200 overclocks well even with the stock cooler, so you may want to try it first without the Artic cooler.

Good luck

 

[mpartrid]

Thanks, can you recommend a good P45 motherboard ?


Matt

 

[HosainH]

Here's a 1080x1920 22" LG monitor for £140 if you're looking for a higher res screen:
http://www.pixmania.co.uk/uk/uk/2700979/art/lg/w2253v-pf-22-tft-widescre.html?srcid=369

Your build seems good to me, you might want to check over at scan.co.uk for better prices since from my experience they are cheaper.

 

[gkay09]

Instead of getting the P45, get the P43 chipset mobo...they are not as costly as the P45 chipsets but do offer very good overclocking potential and are pretty stable...
Asus P5QL PRO
http://www.lambda-tek.com/componentshop/index.pl?prodID=1584422&viewSpec=y&showold=#productTop

And as for the PSU, that is a decent PSU but if you overclock the CPU and want to put in a more powerful graphics card, then it might have a problem...So investing in a better PSU is a good choice...
Good case and comes with 80+ 430W PSU
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/145090

Rest are good...
As for the monitor, try and get a monitor which has DVI-D connector as it can take the direct digital signal from the graphics card and there will be minimal loss in quality...
Acer
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/22-Acer-V223WBbd-Black-Widescreen-LCD-Monitor-5ms-DVI-VGA-1680x1050-100001-HDCP
Viewsonic
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/22-Viewsonic-VA2216W-Widescreen-LCD-1680x1050-20001-300-cd-m-50-ms-VESA-D-Sub

 

[gkay09]

This might help with your 5200 overclock...
http://www.overclock.net/intel-cpus/390358-e5200-overclocking-thread.html

 

[rambo117]

looks pretty solid.
like stonebattle suggested, a P45 is a much better choice.

the OCZ works great, thats what i use. i overclocked the ram to 4-5-5-15 @928mhz

 

[Fortunex]

I'd grab a Western Digital Caviar Black over that Samsung.

 

[mpartrid]

Great stuff, thanks for the help, will look into the different parts you have all suggested. Any thoughts on the Graphics Card, which make would you go for ? Is that going to be the best card for about £70-80 ?


Thanks

Matt

 

[Helloworld_98]

^ yeah it is, next step up costs £115.

 

[mpartrid]

Thanks again for the help.

Any thoughts on this monitor ??

Monitor

Will go for the Asus P5QL PRO MOBO
Asus P5QL PRO

Think I will go for Western Digital Caviar Black.

Hard Disc


Matt

 

[Helloworld_98]

1) I'd stay away from generic goods.

2) Go for that motherboard unless you plan on plugging any IDE drives into it as the P5Q series has problems with IDE drives.

3) that HDD is nice and quick.

 

[HosainH]

Thanks again for the help.

Any thoughts on this monitor ??

Monitor

Will go for the Asus P5QL PRO MOBO
Asus P5QL PRO

Think I will go for Western Digital Caviar Black.

Hard Disc


Matt

Don't LambaTek have quite a hefty p&p charge? It came up to £60 in my basket inc P&P.

Here's the same HDD from ebuyer £52.11:
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/150247

Mind you it's OEM so I don't think it comes with a SATA connector but you can buy one here for a measly £2.56:
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/151962

Change postage to super saver and you're good to go.

That'll save you £5.45 so you can have pizza tonight or something