New System - NSK3400/4600+/8800gts - Opinions?

[RedSnapper]

I thought it might be time for an upgrade and, well, I could hardly part with my cash without consulting the spcr forum. I've come up with the following spec if anyone one would care to crtique it? I think I've covered the angles, but a second opinion would be appreciated. Maybe branded ram?

Antec NSK3400 Matx 380w PSU Blk/Sil - £57
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+ (65w) - £71
Asus DRW-1608P +/-R/RW - £19
250GB Samsung SP2504C SATA - £37
Asus M2N8-VMX motherboard (CnQ) - £36
1GB PC6400 Elixir - £32
Arctic Cooling Alpine 64 - £6
8800gts 320mb - a cheap stock one
Xfi XtremeMusic - salvaged

I can hardly believe you can build a nice little system £250 (inc. ebuyers google discount). Fantastic! I'll probably swap out the case fan and suspend the HD.

What do you think?

[Erssa]

I thought it might be time for an upgrade and, well, I could hardly part with my cash without consulting the spcr forum. I've come up with the following spec if anyone one would care to crtique it? I think I've covered the angles, but a second opinion would be appreciated. Maybe branded ram?

Antec NSK3400 Matx 380w PSU Blk/Sil - £57
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+ (65w) - £71
Asus DRW-1608P +/-R/RW - £19
250GB Samsung SP2504C SATA - £37
Asus M2N8-VMX motherboard (CnQ) - £36
1GB PC6400 Elixir - £32
Arctic Cooling Alpine 64 - £6
8800gts 320mb - a cheap stock one
Xfi XtremeMusic - salvaged

Looks fine.

I can hardly believe you can build a nice little system £250 (inc. ebuyers google discount). Fantastic! I'll probably swap out the case fan and suspend the HD.

What do you think?

Probably no need to swap out the case fan. Antec Tri-cool is quite silent at low setting. At least it is far quieter then the psu fan (fan swap for it could be in order). I don't think HD suspension is realistic, the case is very small, so it would require alot of effort. Grommets in the case should work just fine.

[RedSnapper]

Thanks Erssa,

I'll see how I go with the tricool.

Hopefully antecs grommits have improved a bit as I can appreciate space will be a real issue with this case.

Any opinion on the ram, I've found cheap Elixir 6400 or Geil (4.4.4.12) 5300 for the same price?

[Erssa]

Any opinion on the ram, I've found cheap Elixir 6400 or Geil (4.4.4.12) 5300 for the same price?

I'd buy 2gbs of that Elixir just because it's faster. Although I have never heard of the brand before and have no idea about the compabitily, but I suspect it should be fine.

[autoboy]

2GB minimum especially with 8800gts. Otherwise it looks great

[EV10]

1GB PC6400 Elixir - £32

Take 2GB. Extra L32 won't make a lot of difference.

Any opinion on the ram, I've found cheap Elixir 6400 or Geil (4.4.4.12) 5300 for the same price?

You can take 5300, but 6400 will be a bit faster, even with higher latencies. Elixir isn't top brand, but not infamous either; and most brands (except for Samsung and Hynix) don't make chips themselves anyway.


Well, for the rest it's all OK, seems you are on a budget, and these are good for the price.

[RedSnapper]

Cheers guys, looks like a thumbs up all round.

I guess I can stretch the £250 budget for the extra ram.