Mate wants a quote. I was thinking core 2 duo, nice mobo with decent quality built in sound and a reasonable amount of mem. GFX isnt a massive concern.
Thing is, Im a bit out of the loop. What should I be looking for in terms of ram and motherboard to suit a core 2 duo? And is the basic 1.86Ghz chip any good?
Actually thinking about this Im gonna need reccomendations for coolers aswell. Any maybe PSUs, what sort of wattage should one look for these days?
Tell us what he is going to be using it for as well :)
Im sure someone can specify something for it :)
The usual. Work, office, dvds, lots of LOLinternet and maybe the odd game but nothing that warrants more than Ã,£70 on GFX.
Basically I reckon a basic core2due, gigoram (or more), 250gb ish, bog standard dvdrw and a cheapy graphics card. Being nice and quiet is probably quite importants. Just got no idea what that translates to in terms of motherboard, cooler and type of ram :S
Just keep him future proof with the Motherboard ensuring PCI-E :) You can pickup some DDR3200 or 3500 RAM pritty cheao at the moment... Also you can get PCI-E Graphics Cards cheap :)
Intel Core 2 DUO LGA775 E6300 1.86GHz Retail
Gigabyte 965P DS3
1GB GeIL PC2-6400C4 Dual Channel Kit
-Bundle from overclockers.co.uk
BFG 3DFuzion GeForce 7300 LE Turbo Cache 256MB DDR TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express)
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BU-036-OK
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-028-BG
Not a bad cost for a case, especially a Lian-Li:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-038-LL
I have been considering something like this...
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 S775, 2.40Ghz, 1066Mhz FSB, Conroe Core, 4M Cache Retail Ã,£204.44
ASUS P5N-E SLI, NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI, Quad-Core ready, DDR2 800 Ã,£69.97
Sapphire Radeon X1950PRO 256MB DDR3, PCI-E, Dual DVI, VIVO, Retail Ã,£126.43
OCZ 600GXS Sli -UK nVidia Sli Ready 600W Power Whisper Technology Active PFC (3 year Direct Manufacturers PowerSwap warranty) Ã,£76.83
Scythe Infinity Quiet CPU Cooler Ã,£29.73
Also 2x80Gb drives to run in raid 0 as the OS partition. However, Ã,£550 is alot of money just to increase encoding speed...
A word of warning regarding the DS3, it is very picky over what memory it likes depending upon bios revision. Latest is much improved but you have no idea what revision it will come with so you may be screwed. Having said that, Anandtech just ran some tests with the new E4300 and DS3 using some normal memory, because they could run mem in sync with fsb they got excellent benchmarks and a decent overclock of 3.38GHz because of the high multiplier vs low fsb (800MHz). 3.38GHz on stock intel cooler aint bad.
For Ã,£30-40 you cant go far wrong with a Coolermaster Centurion case.
This is for a guy who is upgrading from a completely boned 800MHz laptop. It probably wont be overclocked at all, so I just need a motherboard that works, with built in decent sound, lan, usb etc, that is cheap.
Quote from: Deaths HeadI have been considering something like this...
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 S775, 2.40Ghz, 1066Mhz FSB, Conroe Core, 4M Cache Retail Ã,£204.44
ASUS P5N-E SLI, NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI, Quad-Core ready, DDR2 800 Ã,£69.97
Sapphire Radeon X1950PRO 256MB DDR3, PCI-E, Dual DVI, VIVO, Retail Ã,£126.43
OCZ 600GXS Sli -UK nVidia Sli Ready 600W Power Whisper Technology Active PFC (3 year Direct Manufacturers PowerSwap warranty) Ã,£76.83
Scythe Infinity Quiet CPU Cooler Ã,£29.73
Also 2x80Gb drives to run in raid 0 as the OS partition. However, Ã,£550 is alot of money just to increase encoding speed...
A word of warning regarding the DS3, it is very picky over what memory it likes depending upon bios revision. Latest is much improved but you have no idea what revision it will come with so you may be screwed. Having said that, Anandtech just ran some tests with the new E4300 and DS3 using some normal memory, because they could run mem in sync with fsb they got excellent benchmarks and a decent overclock of 3.38GHz because of the high multiplier vs low fsb (800MHz). 3.38GHz on stock intel cooler aint bad.
For Ã,£30-40 you cant go far wrong with a Coolermaster Centurion case.
overclockers wont sell the ram with the mobo and CPU unless they worked together from box anyway so thats that problem sorted.
I think the spec I gave is around an average PC spec these days... Even thought of even looking at Dell?
The overclockers bundle is pricey though, I doubt my mate needs a motherboard that good.
OK, the absolute budget is: Ã,£600
MUST be a CORE 2 DUO.
Dont need a kb, mouse or speakers.
dont need masses of HDD space, and 1gb of ram is fine. No OS needed at this stage. Graphics is also not too important.
So, any suggestions? Particularly need cases/psus and coolers at this point, as cheap as poss!
Ended up buying a quite reasonably priced reconditioned packard bell core2duo from dixons for Ã,£300. Saves around Ã,£100 so he can always replace the sh*tty bits with the extra cash.