Please cast your expert eyes...

[Freakitchen]

Hi guys

Please cast your expert eyes over this build. It's not for me, rather, a casual-customer who has 800 quid to spend on a desktop system after an insurance payout. This lot clocks in at £756, which leaves a little bit for myself :)

Anything I could do better on for the price? I don't know his specific requirements re: gaming/encoding etc. so i wanted to build the most balenced system possibly.

Corsair (VS1GBKIT400C3) 1024MB (2 x 512MB Matched Pair), DDR400 / PC3200, non-ECC, Unbuffered, CL3, Memory Modules With Lifetime Warranty

Antec Psu/12v 400w Atx 2.01 Dual Rails

Antec SLK3000B Black Super Mid Tower Case - No PSU

GIGABYTE GA-K8VT890-9 SKT939 PCI-E DDR400 ON-BOARD AUDIO RETAIL BOX

AMD (Venice) Athlon 64Bit 3200+ Socket 939pin 512k L2cache 90nm Retail Boxed Processor

Seagate 120gb Barracuda 7200 - Sata Ncq 3.5lp 7200rpm 8mb

NEC ND3540A 16x16x DVD R/RW Dual Layer Internal IDE Black - OEM

Lg 16x52 IDE DVD-rom Black Drive - OEM

Logitech OEM Cordless Desktop Keyboard & Rechargable Mouse Black PS2/USB

LG L1715S 17" TFT 16ms 450:1 (1280x1024) "Non-Glare" Monitor - Charcoal & Grey (3 Years On-Site Warranty)

Microsoft OEM Windows XP Home Edition SP2 - 1Pk

Sapphire ATI Radeon X600 PRO 128MB DDR PCI-Express VIVO DVI-I Retail Box

Cheers!

Freakitchen

[DonVito]

Is that memory the dual channel kit? Im pretty sure that it has a 2.5 cas latency. Also i didnt check the price for that psu and tower but it might be cheaper the get the Antec Sonata II case, it comes with a ATX 2.0 psu. Also if you want to shave down cost, a Athlon 3000+ would probly be plenty for this build.

[rshah]

I would put atleast a 500w PSU in it, If you don't know what he is using it for the more power the better

[Freakitchen]

Thanks for the tip about the Antec Case, buying the Sonata II saved me about a tenner, and I prefer the case too! :)

The RAM is exactly as described in ebuyer. There is a CL2.5 version of the same RAM, which is a few pounds more expensive. They both say nothing about dual channel.

Any chance you could pick me out some RAM to go for? This (http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?rb=9947254457&action=UFNQcm9kdWN0U2VhcmNoUmVzdWx0cw==&subcat_uid=689&order=ASC&order_col=sell_price&show=stock) is the page I'm buying from on ebuyer.co.uk

Don't worry about increasing costs, I'll take your advice on saving money by dropping the chip down.

Freakitchen

[DonVito]

This is the ram i was thinking of but, yea, i couldn't find it on ebuyer. But i guess its not that big a deal anyways.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145440


Everything looks good though!

[Freakitchen]

Managed to find that exact RAM!

The only uncertainty I have is with the video card. Not having had much experience with ATI myself, I was just wondering whether ut was a well balanced card. Even though I cant see this dude being much of a gamer, I'd hate for his new 800 quid system not to be able to handle, say, HL2 because of substandard graphics.

Freakitchen

[DonVito]

Look over these different benchmarks. I dont think a x700 is much more expensive. But it might be worth it. Your choice.

http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20050524/vga_charts-02.html#3d_mark_2005

[glc]

I would put atleast a 500w PSU in it, If you don't know what he is using it for the more power the better

Quality counts for a lot more than quantity, and Antec is top quality. I'll take a 400w Antec over a 500w Ultra, Powmax, Aspire, etc. in a heartbeat. The X600/700 cards are not power hogs at all, a quality 350 watt is plenty.