Final Decision on a System

[G-Dub]

I'm looking at £1400 for this system, getting it on finance to spread the cost over a few months.

What are your thoughts? Is this a good system for the money? Would you recommend changing any parts or adding anything? If so, why?

Also, I already have keyboard, mouse, monitor, DVD drives, CD Writer, speakers, secondary data hdd, etc, so haven't added that stuff to the buy list.

Thanks in advance for any feedback/help :thumbs:


CPU
• AMD® ATHLON® 64BIT 4000 (San Diago) 1MB L2 Cache (939 pin)

MEMORY
• 2048 MB DDR400 PC3200 WITH LIFETIME WARRANTY! (2x1GB)

MOTHERBOARD
• ASUS® A8N-SLI DELUXE: DUAL DDR, S-ATA, 2 x x16 VGA, 3 PCI

USB OPTIONS
• SIX USB 2.0 PORTS (4 REAR + 2 FRONT)

HARD DRIVE
• SATA 74 GB HARD DISK @ 10000rpm 8mb cache

GRAPHICS CARD
• (SLI) Graphics Card 1 256MB GEFORCE 6800GT PCI Express (SPECIAL OFFER)
• (SLI) Graphics Card 2 256MB GEFORCE 6800GT PCI Express (SPECIAL OFFER)

SOUND CARD
• HIGH END ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL SOUND (RECOMMENDED)

NETWORK FACILITIES
• 2 x 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORTS ONBOARD

FLOPPY DRIVE/CARD READER
• 1.44MB FLOPPY DISK DRIVE

CASE
• Black Stylish Case + 2 Front USB

POWER SUPPLY & COOLING
• Silent 550W PSU + 120mm Fan + 19.2 dBA CPU Cooler! Super Quiet! £39

FIREWIRE & VIDEO EDITING
• 1 x FIREWIRE PORT ONBOARD

WARRANTY
• 1 Year Return-to-Base Warranty + 1 Year Free Collect & Return: £5

 

[J_Tweedy]

have you looked at getting 4x512 RAM instead? Im not certain, but i think 1gb sticks are normally slower aren't they?

 

[G-Dub]

I wasn't sure, it's an option on the website so I'll go with that if it is quicker.

 

[duffers20]

I think the person to ask about the speed of different DIMM configurations is Asus, he knows quite abit about it, other that that, it looks like an impressive system. Oh, just a quick question, what case are you getting, the description you posted doesn't mention a make or model.

 

[Cole]

4x512 I think might be faster because you have more bandwidth.

 

[bosox188]

But you can't run dual channel with 4x512mb. I think that now 1gb sticks are getting faster. You should be able to find a pair of good 1gb sticks I think.

 

[JellyWorld]

74GB seems like a pretty small hard disk, but to each his own I guess...

 

[Chris D]

Where are you getting it from Devvo?

 

[DrDevin]

Good system go with the 2X1GB as 2GB of ram is not really a lot (BF2, MMORPG's, HL2 Lost coast need 2GB) so in case you need to upgrade you wont want to have to pitch a stick of ram.

Also you might want to look into a bigger hard drive.

http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/7k500/7k500.htm

and especially a soundcard. I would suggest the creative X-FI when it comes out (get the system now and buy it later). As the card would improve gaming framerates.

http://www.soundblaster.com/products/X-Fi/technology/lastinfo/ssrc.asp

 

[G-Dub]

Where are you getting it from Devvo?

http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/

I've heard a lot of good things about these guys, computers are apparently built really well.

I'm liking the fact that it will be a real mean machine and not cost that much a month over the summer.


In regards to the comments about teh HDD, I've got a big IDE drive that I use for downloads and data etc; the 74GB one coming with it is just a quick one for the OS and installed games etc.

I'm really looking forward to getting it, at the moment I have GTA SA running with minimum draw distance, no AA, and on 800 x 600

 

[Chris D]

Definitely a decent looking company.

 

[G-Dub]

Yeah I had a read through the testimonials and that, they don't look like cowboys.

EDIT: The price is real good I reckon when you consider how high end those specs appear to be, 4000 AMD, 2gig RAM, Dual 6800GTs

 

[Chris D]

I'd go for them, but I wanna build my own and I don't like their finance options.

Wanna go with Scan and buy now, pay nothing til March and no interest.

 

[G-Dub]

Yeah but that sort of system on scan was silly money I thought?

 

[Chris D]

If you bought all the seperate components at Scan it'd probably cost around £1,380 but of course you have to put it together yourself, run the risk of dead on arrival parts, only have the manufacturers warranties, no extended warranty etc.

Scan do computers pre-built computers so for a spec like that it'd probably cost more than £1400.

My system is probably going to cost less than £800 and I'll chose the buy now, pay in 9 months option and just put a bit of money aside each month so I can pay them in March. No interest either which is cool.