Cheapest Way of Building High Spec PC?

marka87uk

I'm looking to build a high spec system - but the problem is the prices of each part I want adds up to well over £1200-odd and that's without a monitor!

What's the cheapest way to do this?

I was thinking perhaps buy a decent barebones system - just mobo and processor, possibly RAM as well, and then add the graphics card etc maybe?

I'm basically looking for a decent processor - Athlon 64 3200 or higher, or P4 - something over 3Ghz at least; at least 1GB of RAM (preferably decent branded stuff), and the motherboard which has taken my eye is the Asus A8N SLi Deluxe.

Any ideas of how to do this cheaply?! Once I have the barebones system I'll look into the graphics card (7800GT looks yummy, although a bit expensive), case, PSU, HD, etc.

rogerramjet

Have you https://www.ebuyer.co.uk for the parts you want? usually cheap but a bit dodgy for customer services. Also check https://www.aria.co.uk as they sometimes have good deals on components in their super specials section for example at the mo

AMD Athlon64 3200 Venice OEM
A new price on the Athlon64 3200 "Venice" CPU! Fits all Soc..
Retail Price £122.20 inc. - Saving £22.38

£84.95 exc,
£99.82 inc.

dalepearson

My advise would be to spend the money on the Case, PSU, Mobo and processor you want. Then buy the rest within your budget and upgrade more later. Buy the graphics card last as this is what costs the most and changes most often.

Hope it helps a little, and use things like price runner, and look for special daily and weekly deals.

frak

OK i've quickly specced the follwoing from https://www.scan.co.uk my local pc supplier, they do mail order too and will deliver anywhere

Asus A8n SLi - 84.85
Athlon 64 3500 Sandiego - 153.16
WD 250gb SATA2 - 80.77
Sony 16X DVDRW 27.82
Sony Black 16x DVD-ROM 14.32
Chenbro Gaming Bomb Case Black/Orange w/o PSU 21.06
480W Hiperpower RED Type-R aPFC PSU - ATX v2.2 - 14Db 46.87
256Mb Gigabyte PCI-E GV-NX78T256V-B 7800GT (256bit) 259.68
Microsoft Black/Silver Wireless Optical Desktop Keyboard & Mouse V2.1 (OEM) USB Only 24.31
1.44Mb Sony Black Floppy Disk Drive OEM 4.34
Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS 71 THX OEM UK 42.88
1Gb Corsair PRO Series DDR400/PC3200, 128Mx64, 101.86
total price = £862
then add this monitor 19" dvi from https://www.aria.co.uk
MON-TFT-1918 19" Digimate L-1918 TFT with DVI super special £182.07
and that is a serious machine with all the components you desired.
This is not defintive and i have used only high quality parts like £46 for a PSU but they are worth it. Before everyone starts saying they can do it cheaper i am aware of it but that is just a quick spec for a damn fast machine and its a lot cheaper than you origianlly thought

frak

wolfman

CPU:
For cpu, the AMD64 3500+ is probably the best performance for its price. You should be able to find it for around £150 (like mentioned above).

CASE/PSU:
If you want a good case/psu combination, which you should do if you're buying a decent system, have a look at the Antec Sonata II. It's a silent case with a 450W (decent) psu. At £80 the build quality, silence and decent psu make it a bargain. From personal experience, and reading around I'd not go for a Hiper psu. Maybe look at Enermax, Tagan, Seasonic if you want a decent psu.

HARD DRIVE:
For a hard drive, the Western Digital or Hitachi drives are currently the best SATA ones to go for. The Western Digital WD3200 is a great performer, but for performance/value have a look at the Hitachi Deskstar T7K250.

DVD-WRITER:
You can't go wrong with the LG GSA4163. It's generally seen as the best writer on the market and only retails at around £30.

MOUSE:
The Logitech MX500 (or one of it's offsprings) is a very good mouse. I've had mine for nearly 3 years and it barely looks like it's aged.

MONITOR:
I'd also stay away from the Digimate monitor. A friend has the 17" and for a budget monitor it's ok, but I've never been overly impressed. For a good 17" monitor have a look at the Sharp LL172GB (not the 173 model). For a 19" tft, the Samsung 193P or Dell 1905FP are two of the best.

frak

I'm sat in an office where everyone has a digimate 19" monitor and everyone agrees for the price they are superb. As power supplies go hiper are ok i prefer to get a zalman from quiet pc but the above spec was an exercise in getting a very high performance machine from 2 suppliers.
Its all down to personal preference but i use Western digital drives exclusively. They are quiet, cool perform well and i've never had one fail which i cant say for other disks.

marka87uk

Hehe thanks for all the advice.

Wolfman - the PSU I've been looking at is the Seasonic S12-600, it's 600w, about £80 and has some excellent reviews for it's continuous power output and quietness. I haven't looked at the case I want yet. The monitor would preferably be a 19" TFT with 8ms response or less.

I'll keep looking I guess! Thanks

wolfman

frak wrote:

I'm sat in an office where everyone has a digimate 19" monitor and everyone agrees for the price they are superb. As power supplies go hiper are ok i prefer to get a zalman from quiet pc but the above spec was an exercise in getting a very high performance machine from 2 suppliers.
Its all down to personal preference but i use Western digital drives exclusively. They are quiet, cool perform well and i've never had one fail which i cant say for other disks.

For the price the Digimate is good, but if you're spending that much money on a machine you may as well spend another £100 or so and get a slightly better tft.

Hiper are getting better, especially with their more recent range (the type-r range), although if you're spending £40 or so already I'd personally go with a Tagan, Enermax or Antec, just more proven. I did have an older 420W Hiper, but switched to a 380W Tagan which was quieter and more stable.

Have a look on Toms Hardware regarding hard drives. They do a shootout between 22 drives. It'll depend on the model, but the Western Digital models generally do very well.

wolfman

marka87uk wrote:

Hehe thanks for all the advice.

Wolfman - the PSU I've been looking at is the Seasonic S12-600, it's 600w, about £80 and has some excellent reviews for it's continuous power output and quietness. I haven't looked at the case I want yet. The monitor would preferably be a 19" TFT with 8ms response or less.

I'll keep looking I guess! Thanks

Ooo, nice. Yeah wish I could afford a Seasonic psu. Very nice.

For the case, the Lian Li PC60 is ok (what I currently have), but the Antec P180 is the one I'd like to upgrade to. It gets some great reviews, and is going in the direction of the BTX case standard with the psu at the bottom.

For the TFT, maybe look at the Samsung SyncMaster 915N. A 16ms response is fine though, the Dell 1905FP is generally seen as the best 19" screen around from what I've read.

Toxteth_OGrady

As already said by the others, most important components are case, psu, mobo, processor, RAM, monitor and graphics card.

You didn't say what you wanted to use your high spec machine for but if it's a gaming rig here's my tuppence worth (each to their own ):

PSU - brand in order of preference, 1. PC Power & Cooling (v.difficult to get in UK but try Ebay), 2. Ultra, 3. Enermax, 4. Tagan, 5. Antec. Right now I'd buy this baby

Mobo/CPU/Video - agree with what's already been posted.

Disks - A pair of WD Raptors in RAID.

RAM - OCZ Gold PC4000 (plenty of headroom for serious o/cing)

Monitor - Viewsonic VX924, 3ms response time.

Case - I'd get Lian-li

Best gaming mouse - Razer Diamondback

:cool:

TOG

marka87uk

Thanks again.

Well this case has caught my eye -
http://www.xcase.co.uk/acatalog/Apire_X-Cruiser.html

And it can come with the Hiper 580 Watt Psu which looks great, for £116 - which seems quite a good deal?

I like the case - it has some good reviews - and I'm also a fan of the modular PSU - would be so much tidier! What do you guys think?