I know you all like debating the best hardware options, so…
I am going to build a PC for my kids. It will primarily be a games machine, in fact probably little else. I don’t have a fixed limit for cost, but there is no point in spending more than necessary. They play all the latest releases, but they’re not going to worry too much what the 3D Mark05 score is. Somewhere in the £600 - £1000 range for the system unit I guess.
I also want to add a LCD TV as the monitor, but I know nothing about flat screen, I’ve always stayed with CRT. So, 17" or 19"? And what should I look for, response times of how much?
I’ve got a pretty good idea of the spec in mind, but I’d like to make use of all the knowledge here and see what you chaps think.
Asus A8N-E nForce4 Ultra (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard £64.95
GeIL 1GB (2x512MB) PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit CAS2.5 £54.95
Leadtek GeForce 6800 GS 256MB GDDR3 VIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £139.95
Samsung SpinPoint P HD080HJ 80GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM £36.50
Floppy Drive - Black £6.50
Samsung TS-H352AWBGH 16x48x DVD-ROM (Black) - OEM £12.95
Asus TA-250 Series Midi Tower (Black) - No PSU £29.90
Akasa Ultra Quiet 400W Paxpower Active PFC ATX2.0 PSU - Black Nickel £39.95
AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Venice 90nm (Socket 939) - Retail £84.95
Subtotal £470.60
Shipping (City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)) £10.95
VAT £84.28
Total £565.83
TFT … depends on how big … and dont forget native res to suit the system.
generally the lowerer responce time in MS, the better , but figures ain’t everything. and different makers measure different ways.
One of the well rated models ATM, for the money, is the Hyundai ImageQuest B70A 17" with a native res of 1280x1024 @ around £175 inc VAT.
If you want to spend less, Aria have an tidy looking 15" W/S unit for around £115 … decent native res of 1280x720 so won’t stress the graphics card to run native with some AA.
All above based on the thinking that you are not going to want to be overclocking etc, otherwise there would be different recommendations 
That’s a neat system for under 600 notes, less than I expected for the screen as well. I’ll probably go pretty much with that, except they have got (within reason) choice of case.
It won’t be overclocked, in fact I don’t even overclock my own system. Usually.
Are those prices from various suppliers, or all the same one? I used Overclockers for most of the stuff on the last build, they were pretty good.
Oh, and I guess I should allow another 50 quid for a proper copy of XP this time :o
Yep all prices from OcUK … didnt shop for prices as just wanted to list the specs TBH … also that Hyundai monitor is there too.
Forgot to add a keyboard mouse … there are some nice wireless combo’s on OcUK for 20-30 notes.
Erm … you have one legit copy of XP ? thats more than enough in my book, its not like Billy boy needs the money
I also want to add a LCD TV as the monitor
Sorry to butt in, but I’m thinking of doing something via a LCD TV after christmas. The entertainment minister and are in final talks re: a new TV and LCD looks like where we are going. I want a small form PC with TV card and WinXP Media Centre. “Verso” Pentium IV is the sort of thing I’m looking at, throw in the TV card and XP Media Centre Couple it up to a 32" LCD. Yummy!!
PeeGee, I know it’s not what you asked for but it’s another option for you.
32" LCD :eek: You’ll be able to watch that from the bottom of the garden. Can you check that link, Brigstock? I want to see this.
PeeGee consider to buy 2 monitors, because at the end you will steal the LCD of your childrens :p:p:p
I also bought a lcd for my second pd. I had a great sony crt, but at the end i switched them…
love colour brightness and the flat factor of LCD…
The link is just for the PC (which is at Overclockers, but the site is having problems), 32"" LCD TV’s go for around £750+. The TV I’m considering is an LG for a grand. The res isn’t as good as a proper Monitor. But 1360x768 is acceptable for what we want. At the mo’ I keep a laptop handy in our lounge. It gets used for e-mail and internet. But email, internet, freeview TV, Music, recordable DVD, and some gaming with the kids in the comfort of my sofa, that appeals to me. My budget is £1500, but swap a 32" for a 26" and you could do it for £1000.
@ Brigstock: Big thank you mate, replied to the PM but your message box is full.
No probs mate - PM is now empty.
Just as an Update PeeGee, if you havent already ordered, and are going to soon, OcUK have the PowerColor ATI Radeon X850 XT 256MB in this week only offer for £176, just £13 more than the 6800GS and faster, but without SM3.0 support … you could put it in your machine and give the kids the XL
I gave the kids the choice of case, so of course they went top of the range… :rolleyes: The case has tool free rails and a “wind tunnel” cooling duct across the CPU, so I’ll report back my views on it after the build.
Upped the spec a little and looked at OcUK’s offers, the resulting final “as designed” spec is:
Case: Enermax CS-718 Server Case Black - No PSU £99.00
PSU: Enermax Noisetaker 485W SFMA ATX2.0 PSU £59.95
Motherboard: Asus A8N-E nForce4 Ultra (Socket 939) PCI-Express £64.95
Processor: AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Venice 90nm (Socket 939) Retail £99.95
Memory: Crucial 2GB (2x1GB) DDR PC4000 Ballistix Dual Channel Kit £154.95
Graphics : Leadtek WinFast GeForce 6800 GT 256MB DDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) £159.95
HDD: Samsung SpinPoint P HD160JJ 160GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM £52.25
Fan: Akasa AK-175 Chimera 80mm 12 LED Low Noise Fan £5.95 (case comes c/w 2 x 120mm fan)
DVD Burner: Sony DWQ30AB 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £26.00
DVD ROM: Sony DDU1613 DVD-ROM (Black) - OEM £12.50
FDD: OcUK Value Floppy Drive - Black £6.50
I like putting in as much RAM as possible, this weeks deal on the 2GB package is good value. I also always build redundancy with the removable media drives as I find they are the thing most likely to fail at the most critical time.
All up it comes to £741.95 + VAT, £882.74 with VAT and delivery.
Can’t argue with the quantity of ram … always usefull at some point … but crucial ballistix ?? hmm.
I did have some of those … they went back cos they didn’t like to run their rated speeds, but as you won’t be running them at PC4000, then I guess that isnt a worry … personally I would still go for some OCZ, Geil or Corsair value stuff, timings are not so crucial on A64 set-ups … apart from T1, which is what the ballistix I had was struggling to do error free.
For the same price as the GT you can get the Connect3D ATI Radeon X850 XT 256MB DDR3 VIVO TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-028-CO), which will be faster @ stock.
Also, I would tend to steer clear of sony dvd/cd units … very fussy in my experience and not as well built as the name implies … can’t go wrong with pioneer 
Just my tuppence worth
BTW what monitor did you go for ?
I’ve managed to surface briefly from Christmas Restaurant Hell just to update this thread.
The rig is now completed and delivered to the kids, final “as built” spec was the following:
Item Supplier Details
*Case OverclockersUK Enermax CS-718 Server Case Black - No PSU (CA-002-EN) *PSU OverclockersUK Enermax Noisetaker 485W EG495AX-VE(G) SFMA ATX2.0 PSU (CA-007-EN) *Motherboard OverclockersUK Asus A8N-E nForce4 Ultra (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-088-AS) *Processor OverclockersUK AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Venice 90nm (Socket 939) - Retail (ADA3200BPBOX) (CP-118-AM) *Memory OverclockersUK Corsair 2GB DDR Value Select PC3200 CAS3.0 Kit (2x1GB) (VS2GBKIT400C3) (MY-080-CS) *Graphics Card OverclockersUK PowerColor ATI Radeon X850 XT 256MB GDDR3 VIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-037-PC) *HDD OverclockersUK Samsung SpinPoint P HD160JJ 160GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-024-SA) *Fan OverclockersUK Akasa AK-175 Chimera 80mm 12 LED Low Noise Fan (FG-015-AK) *DVD Burner OverclockersUK Sony DWQ30AB 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM (CD-044-So) *DVD ROM OverclockersUK Sony DDU1613 DVD-ROM (Black) - OEM (CD-020-SO) *FDD OverclockersUK OcUK Value Floppy Drive - Black (HD-001-OK)
Peripherals
*Bluetooth Adapter Overclockers UK MSI BToes 100M Bluetooth USB Dongle (NW-000-MS) *Router Overclockers UK Linksys WRT54GS Wireless-G SpeedBooster Broadband Router/4-Port Switch (NW-006-LS) *Wireless Adapter Overclockers UK Linksys WMP54G Wireless-G PCI Adapter (NW-003-LS) *Keyboard & Mouse PC World Logitech Cordless Desktop MX3000 Laser *Speakers PC World Philips MMS460 160W 5.1 Surround Sound *Headset PC World Creative HS-300
I also added a 17" LCD TV by LG with a reasonable 12ms response which performs very well.
I have to say it was a very easy build with everything firing up correctly first time. I suppose I got a bit sentimental what with kids and Christmas so it suffered a degree of “scope creep” towards the higher end than originally intended. Even so, it wasn’t outrageously expensive and cranked out a respectable 3DMark05 score of 5700 with everything @stock.
I configured it almost exclusively with Open Source and freeware applications - AVG antivirus, Ad Aware, Firefox, ZipGenius, Real Alternative, OpenOffice, and so on - so it has a pretty fully featured desktop without any cash contribution to well known software companies.
I’m not going to review the whole build, but if anyone wants my views on any of the components there just let me know.
If I am not about until after the New year then “Happy Christmas” to you all - and also a big thank you to everyone who gave advice and other ahem assistance towards the build.