I'm giving my laptop to my mum, and I need a good PC in the summer. I have some ideas, but I would like to hear your opinion and advice.

Config would be:

MSI P7N Diamond mobo (link)

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3.0 GHz, 6 MB, 1333 MHz (link)

Corsair TWIN2X2048-8500C5D 2 x 1024 MB kit (link)

Nvidia 8800 GT 512MB DDR3 (link)


So, what do you think?

:bump:

Be careful with the XFX YDF4 8800GT - some models of it have the older PCB and apparently have the fan locked at 100%. I suffered the purchase of a different XFX 8800GT variant that had the fan locked at 100%, and had to immediately return it due to the rediculous noise it made.

I was not planning to buy the XFX one, I've just put a link for those who want to check the data So there are different kinds of 8800 gt-s... Which is the best?

Fair enough. Any 8800GT will do, basically. I'd suggest either get an expensive one from the likes of EVGA if you want excellent support and overclocking/modder-friendly warranty. Otherwise, just get a cheap 8800GT. There isn't much point in going for the "middle ground" of 8800GTs.

And I noticed your mobo uses the nForce chipset. Noooooo. Get a mobo with an Intel chipset instead. Modern nForces have quite a few problems, or so I've read, anyway.

True, there were problems in case of older chipsets, but I heard that they have been corrected in 780.

nVidia Chipsets on Intel aren't that good and are overpriced - don't bother unless you NEED (and i mean NEED) SLi.

Why go for such an expensive mobo? Will you be overclocking? Will you be using RAID?

Also, i'd get 4 GB of PC6400 (DDR800) ram over 2 GB PC8500 (DDR1066) RAM - you wont notice the difference between PC8500 and PC6400, although it will make one, but you will notice the difference 4 GB makes.

No, I don't want to overclock. I decided to choose this mobo because it has nForce chipset, and it' quite new and strong, and would suit for the 8800 gt.

Ok, let's clear it, the fix ones are the 8800 GT 512mb, C2D E8400.

I'm not sure about the mobo and the RAM yet, so I would like to ask you to recommend me some.

(I've seen a page where all the chosen products are listed, also its price. IDK which was that...Not ebuyer. Which one could that be?)

Thanks!

What products? eBuyer is UK (and UK ONLY) retailer.


The greatest selection of parts can be found at NewEgg, however they will only ship inside the US.

An nForce chipset is new (well the 780i is, even if it is just a tarted up 680i), but that's not a good thing, it's not that strong - at least for a motherboard that overclocks as well as an £100 P35 board you'd pay £200, and doesn't really "suit" an 8800GT - the mobo's chipset has no effect on the speed of the card (well it does but were not gonna go into that).

All you need is a mobo with a PCI-e 16x slot that's not got a VIA KT800 chipset and you can put an 8800GT in there.

I'd get something like an Asus P5K-E - it's cheap (~£90), it performs well, overclocks well, has RAID. The downsides are that it doesn't have SLi, and while it has Crossfire it's slow second lane makes it totally useless.

What's the rest of your PC (i.e. monitors, PSU, Hard Drives etc) going to be?

I get my mum's PC which was mine before, so

PSU: Gold MS-400ATX p4 ( ~ 6 months old )
Monitor: Old Fujitsu C17-2 TFT
Hard disk: Old Maxtor 6Y08OLO but still fast...

Your PSU isn't good enough for a start. You'd need a branded 450+ watt PSU rather than a Generic 400w unit.

Alright, prices are so cool on Newegg! Too bad that they only ship in the US. I made a list according to your recommendations. See attachment.

That PSU is a little OTT - a Nice Corsair 450w unit will be fine.

Also - that RAM seems a little expensive - here you can buy 4 GB of RAM with good timings for ~£65.

NewEgg is VERY cheap, but doesn't reflect the availability and price of stuff in Europe - do you have any PC parts retailers websites in Hungary that I could see?

What operating system will you be using?

Depo.hu is good enough, hope you can navigate here easily.

I'm would like to use Vista Ultimate.

Why Ultimate? I wanted Ultimate until I actually read up on it - it's got NOTHING 99% of users need over Vista Home Premium.

Remind me again - what's your budget and what parts do you already have?

Now I have:

PSU: Gold MS-400ATX p4
Monitor: Old Fujitsu C17-2 TFT
Hard disk: Old Maxtor 6Y08OLO
CPU: Intel D805 Dual Core
VGA: 9600XT 128MB
Mobo: ASRock 775i65g
512 mb RAM

Let the badget be max. £500 ~ 160.000 HUF

I may use XP SP3 instead of Vista. I don't know yet. Have you checked that Hungarian site?

Yes but I don't understand your currency nor can I find anything.

I built my new PC yesterday:

Intel E8400
2GB Corsair 800Mhz
Asus GeForce 9600GT
Asus P5N-E SLI

and I am super satisfied

Alright. 1£ = 320 Ft, so you have to divide the depo.hu prices by 320 to get them in £. Then you can compare the prices wether they're expensive or not.

Some help for the navigation:
Mobo, RAM, VGA, PSU, CPU

I've found all the parts on depo.hu, I attached the list, also listed the prices of each in £. £488.75 all.

The GFX card looks a little expensive, but apart from that it looks great!

Just in case anyones wondering, the Corsaid PSU rocks - in tests it can put out up to 570w at 81% effeciency!

Yeah these cards are expensive here, here's another list from another page. It's a bit cheaper. I couldn't find the Corsair RAM here, only this Geil.

Just a warning - P5K boards and OCZ RAM doesn't mix well unless you've got spare DDR2 RAM to set the board up with.