Advise please on PC build.

[Azure]

I have about £1200 for a PC to include a monitor and for gaming use. Monitor has to double up as 360 panel.

Any advice? [Specific advice, not "Conroe is teh good"]

Case

http://www.quietpc.com/gb-en-gbp/products/cases/p180 £89.01



Mainboard

ABIT AW9D-MAX, I975X, Socket-775,SATAII, Silent Otes,2xGbLAN,DDR2,ATX, 2xPCI-Ex16 £148.00



Processors.

Core 2 duo E6400 2.13 Gighz 2mb cache £145.20



Graphics.

MSI Nvidia 7900GT 512Mb £176.00




Gainward BLISS GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI £252.61



HDD.

Western Digital WD2500KS Caviar SE 250GB 7200RPM SATA2/300 16MB Cache £48.16




Samsung SpinPoint T133 400GB SATA2 16MB 7200RPM £69.95



Sound

Dolby master HD onboard. £0


OS

OEM MS Win Vista Home Premium 64 bit DVD £70.92



Monitor

Dell Ultrasharp 2407WFP 24" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Midnight Grey 1920x1200 £552.24

- 1920 x 1200 (WUXGA+) Optimum Resolution
- 16.7 Million Colours
- 1000:1 Contrast Ratio
- 6ms Response Time [Grey to grey, 16ms for black to white
- 450 cd/m2 Brightness
- One DVI-D Input w/HDCP Support
- One Analogue Input
- One S-Video Input
- One Composite Input
- One Component Input
- Height adjustable stand (100mm travel)
- VESA mounting compatible / Security slot : Yes (100mm) / Yes
- Integrated powered USB 2.0 hub : 4 downstream / 1 upstream ports
- Integrated powered 9-in-2 Card Reader
- Revision A03
- Warranty : 4 year next business day exchange supplied by Manufacturer (Call Dell on 0870 9080800 and have the work number from the original packaging handy)

Someone please advise on this?

I am lacking a PSU, RAM and Optical drives at the moment.











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Current price so far : £677.13-£766.14 inc VAT.
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Mods feel free to move to PC gaming, I couldn't decide as it is for the 360 as well...

[SlantedTruths]

Everything looks good. The only thing that I'd be concerned about is the response time on that monitor. Try to find one that's got a 8ms response time black/white. 16ms is a bit much and you might see some ghosting while playing games, especially if you're gonna use it for 360. Besides that little gripe everyhting looks good.

[Graham]

I'm a bit out of touch with the PC world since I last built this one over two years ago, and it's still going strong.

The specs of the bits you reference seem reasonable, and the monitor is the one I would definitely go for. What about RAM though; how much are you putting in? Have you considered a PhysX card too if you are into gaming?

Edit: In response to SlantedTruths, a mate of mine just spent £4,500 on a gaming PC. That was the monitor he chose, and I've seen it with my own two eyes - it is more than good enough.

[Azure]

Ideally I want to put 2 gig in, but im on a budget really of about £1300, I might be able to claim VAT back though so I have to look into that.

[Mikleran]

You really should go for the GeForce 8800.. you will be kicking yourself in the future if your machine can easily cope with the like of Crysis (which so far the other components you're putting in should), but your Graphics card isn't Shader Model 4 complient!

For the future; GeForce 8800 has to be the choice. I'd even just put 1GB of RAM in my machine and have that because i believe it is such an important thing for the future.

[Azure]

I was unaware that it doesn't support shader 4. Argh it is a headache and a half. Thanks for the heads up.

[Graham]

The 8800 is a no-brainer, as is the inclusion of at least 2GB or RAM. If you can't afford to do both, I'd wait and save up, because the last thing you want is your whole system brought down by one component that's not up to par.

[Mikleran]

The 8800 is a no-brainer, as is the inclusion of at least 2GB or RAM. If you can't afford to do both, I'd wait and save up, because the last thing you want is your whole system brought down by one component that's not up to par.

Or, at the very least, don't fill up your RAM sockets on the motherboard.. always allow the space for an upgrade.

It looks like the motherboard you want to buy has 2 sockets on it.. if you only buy 1GB of RAM buy it in one stick rather than 2x512MB modules. That would mean you'd have to remove memory before you could upgrade it.

The graphics chip can't be upgraded.. the RAM can. Therefore i'd put the Graphics chip as a much higher priority than the amount of RAM.

[Graham]

Or, at the very least, don't fill up your RAM sockets on the motherboard.. always allow the space for an upgrade.

It looks like the motherboard you want to buy has 2 sockets on it.. if you only buy 1GB of RAM buy it in one stick rather than 2x512MB modules. That would mean you'd have to remove memory before you could upgrade it.

The graphics chip can't be upgraded.. the RAM can. Therefore i'd put the Graphics chip as a much higher priority than the amount of RAM.

Very good point Mikleran. The GPU should definitely get a higher priority in the build, and as you say, RAM can be upgraded later on if you think ahead and leave spare sockets.

[w_tanoto]

just some suggestion: change windows to 32 bit. 64 bit has a lot of compability issues

[Azure]

[Apparently] MS has stated that to achieve WHQL compliance a 64 bit driver has to be released to vista platform alongside 32 bit ones.

[Morganator]

Your mother board comes with the ability to support 8GB of ram. You should only get one stick of ram but it should be in a 2GB module. As far as the rest of the system is concerned I suggest you make it Vista ready.

[Naboomagnoli]

If you're looking to link up to X360 wirelessly you're going to need a Wi-fi adaptor . I'd advise against Linksys products, never had or known of a good experience with the blighters. Belkin are pretty good. You can either get a Wireless Access Point or a Wireless Router - one goes before the PC, one comes out of the PC (can never remember which is which). In either case go for a 802.11g compliant device, it transfers at 54Mbps (nominal) which is just right for streaming files and is more than enough for online use.


edit: you could get a pre-N device instead as they are a LOT faster and more reliable, but they cost around three times as much. G-compliant devices seem to be around £35, pre-N's are £110 or so.

[WhatRuOn]

If I were you I'd get a cheap video card and save the money until 2nd generation DX10 cards come out from Nvidia and ATI.

Also,
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115003
The E6600 is a much better processor for the money. It's not much more then the E6400 and gives a much better boost in performance.

Also, 2x512mb Ram will run faster then 1x 1gb stick. But, like already posted, when you upgrade those sticks will both be useless.

[Super_Lilith]

With that Motherboard design there is one fault, I can only see one PCI slot. fine if you don't really need pci, but if you want a TV card and other things that fit into PCI you might be in trouble. In the future if you decide to SLI / CF then you will have no PCI slots as it looks like an extra GPU will take up the space.

http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/113819
- Perhaps something like a DS4 may be better as although it is uglier, it is also cheaper by nearly 50 pounds, as well as having a host of great features, dual pci-express, silent pipe, solid state capacitors and what not, plus a generally better layout.

[Appolyons]

Does the girl come with that monitor? If she does, forget the computer and just get the screen.