My new HCPC shopping list - hardware

wyerd

Prominent Member
Joined
Dec 29, 2000
Messages
775
Reaction score
28
Points
261
Location
Upstate New York. USA
Here's the list. Please feel free to comment!

Mobo Abit AN7 SATA, µGuru nForce2 Ultra400/MCP2-T £73.44 Overclockers
Case Accent HT-400S £165.00 APPROX Quiet PC
Graphics Sapphire Radeon 9600 XT Ultimate 128MB £120.00 Quiet PC
Hard Disk Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 SATA 160Gig £79.00 Quiet PC
CPU AMD Athlon Barton XP3200+ 400FSB - OEM £126.31 Overclockers
Memory GeIL 512MB (2x256MB) PC3200 Value CAS2.5 £62.71 Overclockers
CPU Cooler AMD / PIII Flower Cooler CNPS6000-CU £29.00 Quiet PC
N/B Cooler Zalman ZM-NB47J Northbridge cooler £12.00 Quiet PC
Case Fan Zalman ZM-F1 Ultra-Quiet Case Fan £9.00 Quiet PC
PSU SilenX 400w <14dBA Pro iXtrema PSU £89.95 So Advance

Delivery £26.92

Total £793.33

I already have a Dlink 802.11g wireless card, a Nebula card & a Pioneer DVD-121, but I find it very noisy on loading. Is there any way of making it quieter, or is there a better DVD-ROM drive that can be hacked to RPC1 as easily as the Pioneer?
 
Hmmm.... so I've heard. I was gonna buy from Komplett, but they don't stock the XP3200. I'd rather get as much as I can from one source to keep P&P charges down. Any other good etailers?
 
What's wrong with Overclockers?

Just bought a case from them and was going to order more stuff.
 
Got most of my stuff from overclock not overclockers. They were very good, quick delivery and cheap. I went with the Zalman CNPS7000 CU CPU cooler, fits in my Accent HT 200 case no prob. The QTechnology Ultra-Quiet ATX PSU 350W I got from QuietPC is ace, almost silent.

Rich
 
If you can spend another £4 on the graphics card you'll get a very good 9800 Pro (Saphire) - lite edition.
 
overclockers are very good as long as you dont have to rma, and tbh i dont see why you would have to.....
 
Yeah quite. Ordered £800 worth of stuff from overclockers last week. One of the DDR memory pairs was faulty. Returned last week and still heard nothing and no replacement yet. Will be on to Barclaycard tomorrow if I get no response.

Mind you, was messed about by ebuyer a month or so ago as well. So difficult to find a reliable Net supplier these days :(
 
Just to give a balanced view
I've heard horror stories about every retailer. Some more than others, maybe.

I used to use Scan & Dabs (local), never had a single problem, but it appears Scan have a mediocre reputation. Always been brilliant for me. Just used Overclockers this week, everything brilliant so far, but i'm not surprised some customers have had a bad experience, I guess that there is always going to be problems with orders on occassion (human / system errors).

Now SplashDVD is another matter....
 
Getting back on topic........

Originally posted by GJC
If you can spend another £30 on the graphics card you'll get a very good 9800 Pro (Saphire)

In a HCPC enviroment - no gaming, what makes this card better than the 9600XT Ultimate?
 
wyerd,

In a HCPC enviroment - no gaming, what makes this card better than the 9600XT Ultimate?

Just had a quick look at the specification:

9600XT Ultimate uses Smartshader 2.0

9800Pro Lite uses Smartshader 2.1

(I think this determines the quality of cinematic playback during games)

But if all you going to use a card for is HCPC then try looking at these types of cards:

Sapphire ATI Radeon "The Beast" 9600 Pro All-in-Wonder 128MB (£154)

or for (£100)

this

available at ocuk.

Kind Regards,

Graham
 
Originally posted by GJC
wyerd,



Just had a quick look at the specification:

9600XT Ultimate uses Smartshader 2.0

9800Pro Lite uses Smartshader 2.1

-----

G.

Do you have a link for the Pro? The only ones I can find have a fan and are about £190.
 
Originally posted by GJC
9800pro lite

But it has a fan - however, this will not be heard when used for its intended purpose :D

G.
Don't make me laugh its the most noises thing in my PC.
Stick to the 9600 ultimate if you want silence.
 
Please, HCPC - dont you listen to Films louder than noise of the fan?

If you want reduced performance go for the 9600xt - its your money!

I would get the 9800 and if the fan really is a problem>? - I'd change it at a cost of £10 ish for a quiter ver.


Good luck any way.

Regards,

G.
 
I was thinking that as I leave the HCPC powered on 24/7, so the noise of the GPU fan would be audible when not watching a loud movie. Anyway, the Mrs would complain!
 

The latest video from AVForums

TV Buying Guide - Which TV Is Best For You?
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom