Please help me justify £2000 on this lot!!!

Definately get a good PSU and motherboard, that will really set you up.

Can I ask exactly what you are requireing this PC for? By the sounds of it you also want it as a gaming PC? The TFT will it be used for gaming or are you hooking up to a projector?

To not upgrade a PC for 3 years will be a tough job if you want it to play the latest games decently, really 18months-2 years is the most you will get out of some components.

On the motherboard front I too have gone through two MSI mobos and wouldn't touch them with a barge pole. ASUS all the way for me, might not be the fastest off the block but I have never had one problem with any ASUS board I have owned, I still have an old P5 churning away. Features and reliability are what I look for.

Do you really need to pay the premium for 939? You could knock off over a hundred quid off the price to get a 754, considering that the new BX form factor should be out shortly, the current incarnation of mobos are going to change drastically, so I doubt you will see that much upgrade advantage with the 939.

The X800 I would also question, although it is most probably a good buy, it may be worth waiting to look at the new X700 or 6600GT the mid range cards about to be launched. Looks like they should retail for about 150 quid and are not that different in performance.

I am not sure I agree on the HD performance, fast IO is not that important to a home PC. If you were running an 2 Terabyte Oracle Database server (not that you would on windows!) then IO becomes nearly the most important factor. But in a home PC ATA will not affect your performance, it might have a slight bearing on load times, but you will be able to stream movies fine. It is often wise going for a slow drive on a HCPC as it generates lower temperatures and requires less cooling. Size is also key and if you plan on storing DVDs on your HD you won't be able to with a 74Gb without running out of space soon.

I would be extremely hesistant buying a 19" TFT screen, these screens are still known to show blurring in motion. I currently use a Hercules 920 Pro 17" TFT, these have the 20ms Hydis screens which are still rated as the best TFT screen on the market. I have no problems with it and game on it most days :)

Sorry if I have come in and upset your decision, I hope not as that is a really good spec PC. However, it is worth considering what price/performance ratios are like. Paying double for a component when it only yields say 5-10% performance increase is not money well spent. I would imagine you could pay at least 300 quid less and be unable to tell the difference between that PC and your current spec under normal operating conditions.

Usually the biggest leaps in performance are when you change a generation of components, not when you simply upgrade within a generation.
 
The 19" Viewsonic mentioned above does have a 16ms response time and has been getting good reviews, so it could well be good enough for games and DVDs (I've been looking at this one myself to be honest). There are quite a few 16ms 19" monitors coming out now and they are getting more affordable.
 
Response time is not the only measure to base on a TFT, also the response times are what are quoted by the manufacturer not what the actual monitor is capable of.

Many of the 16ms quotes are actually cheats, as it is only applicable to a small pallette of common colours.

You also need to consider contrast and colour, some TFTs are very bad on this respect so you will get washed out images.

However, I have just some reviews at OcUK and it seems to be a pretty good choice, so ignore my comments :)
 
Sinzer,

Thanks for your input - read with interest.

Yeah, the PC will be for games only, and I have realised that even with that set-up I'll still need to upgrade some parts (possibly the graphics card in around 18 months' time).

I'm willing to take a gamble on the motherboard - the reviews that it has been getting make me want to give it a try...

With regards to the imminent release of new ranges of motherboards and graphics cards on the way - this is exactly has been putting me off for the last year! If I don't get something now, I'll just fritter my money away on something else and never upgrade my current PC! It seems to me that we could always justify putting off buying new PC equipment as there'll always be 'something new coming along soon'. Also, the X800 sounds easy enough to soft-mod to almost X800XT levels?

I've changed my mind with the hard-drive situation and am opting for 2 x Western Digital 160GB jobbies (£54.45 ex VAT each - komplett), which I'll run in RAID (or whatever the phrase is). The Raptor is not worth the money on reflection - thanks for the advice.

The monitor has been getting some good reviews, and it appears as we speak today to be the only affordable, branded monitor with a claimed 16 ms response time, although I'd be happy to be corrected!

I'm still finding the case and PSU situation a bit of a confusing place at the moment, I'm after a silver case, as quiet as possible, and I liked the look of the Coolermaster as per my spec. I've also found a Tagan TG480-U01 480W Silent PSU - £59 ex VAT from chillblast) that had some decent reviews, but it all seems like information overload. I want a quiet PSU that can easliy cope with the components above. If you have any suggestions on alternatives I'd be grateful.

Also, if anyone out there has experience of the Creative Inspire T5900 system, I'm wondering if the volume of each speaker can be controlled independently, as I sit to one side of the centre of the room.

I think I've got to make my final choice and go with the specification below, or the wife will find something else to spend my money on...

Coolermaster Cavalier 3 - Silver CAV-T03 - chillblast - £77.55
Tagan TG480-U01 480W Silent PSU - chillblast - £69.33
MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum (Socket 939) with WI-FI Motherboard - komplett - £96.00
Athlon 64 3500+ S939 512Kb Box - dabs - £235.99
Sapphire ATI Radeon X800 Pro 256MB DDR3 TV-Out/DVI - komplett - £280.00
2x512MB 184Pin DIMM PC3200 DDR Non-Parity CL2 2-2-2-5 - komplett - £190.00
Western Digital Caviar 160GB S-ATA 8MB cache 7200RPM - komplett - £127.96
Pioneer DVR-108 Double Layer Dual 16x DVD-R/RW - dabs - £58.50
Sony DDU 1612 - DVD-ROM drive - IDE - komplett - £19.00
ViewSonic VX910 19" TFT Display Silver - microdirect - £358.32
Creative Inspire T5900 - komplett - £65.00
White Microsoft Internet Keyboard PS/2 Win'95/98 - scan - £8.21

Total of the above £1,585.85 includiung VAT but excluding delivery.

Thanks again for your help.

Matthew
 
MRW,

regarding the speakers - you don't mention a dedicated soundcard on your spec now (you originally had the Audigy2 ZS).The volume adjustment is handled by the sound card drivers, not the speakers (which normally just have a master volume control). If you're relying on the MSI sound chipset, don't expect the same sophistication as the creative drivers (although I've no idea what the MSI ones are like - they may be very good).

Here are the panels from the Creative Audigy2 ZS software:

http://www2.gamma.uk.com/nwn/surround.jpg
http://www2.gamma.uk.com/nwn/thx.jpg
 
Cheers Yandros,

Well spotted! Seeing as the motherboard (although I have changed my mind considering some recent opinions on the MSI and will probably opt for the ASUS A8V) has 7.1 surrond sound, I decided to save myself £100 and put that towards the X800XT Platinum Edition graphics card, and not the X800 Pro listed in the specification above.

If the ASUS mobo doesn't have support for changing the individual speaker volumes (which it probably wont) I'll just have to live with that until I buy a sound card - which will probably be the Audigy2 ZS anyway.

Thanks,

Matthew
 

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