New Budget Vista Build. Does this look OK?

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Hi all, just wondering if my budget vista build looked OK. I'm nearly at my max budget of £400-£425 and plan to order the parts in the next few days.

This PC will be used mainly for the usual web surfing, home office stuff and the like. I have recently learned that I will be supporting 200+ vista users In Januraryand need to learn Vista Quick!!! Also I plan to use this PC to run virtual PC so I can follow the Microsoft E-learning courses. Microsoft recommends about 1 gig of memory and anything over a Pentium 4 to run Virtual PC and the E learning course material. So I’m sure the spec looks up to the job.

The only thing I am stuck on is the graphics card, any ideas up to £50, I’m no gamer and I doubt I ever will be (just don’t have the time) however I would like decent -ish graphics set up on this system. I have a 19’ LCD Samsung syncMaster 913 monitor that only has a standard VGA plug.

I am wondering if I should put up with the Mobo's on board graphics until after christmas and spend about £80 on a decent Graphics card then.

spec so far:

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E4500 2.20GHz Socket 775 800FSB 2MB Cache Retail Boxed Processor £74.29 http://www.ebuyer.com/product/130486

MOBO: ASUS P5B Socket 775 Core 2 ready P965 chipset onboard audio ATX £59.74 http://www.ebuyer.com/product/113965

RAM: Corsair 2GB Kit (2x1GB) DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 XMS2 Memory Non-ECC Unbuffered CL5(5-5-5-12) Heat Spreader Lifetime Warranty £40 http://www.ebuyer.com/product/98710

HD: Seagate ST3160815AS 160GB Hard Drive 7200RPM SATAII/300 8MB Cache - OEM £33.59 http://www.ebuyer.com/product/122660

Case: Antec Sonata III Piano Black Quiet Mid Tower Case - With 500W EarthWatts PSU £70.99 http://www.ebuyer.com/product/128045

DVD: Pioneer DVR-112DBK 18x DVD±RW Dual Layer Internal IDE (Black) - OEM £17.34
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/125215

Wireless Card: MSI PC60G-F 108Mbps Wireless PCI Adapter £10.99 http://www.ebuyer.com/product/131824

O/S: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium x32Bit OEM 1PK DVD £62.99 http://www.ebuyer.com/product/123052

this so far amounts to £369.12 with free delivery.

Any ideas, suggestions and advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance guys.

 

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Why not just check out Dell or.........PC WORLD (hides), for budget PC's you can get some good deals.

 

That's a good combo you got there and nice price too. I'd presonally go for the vista ultimate OS though.

 

Some cheap Graphics cards here http://www.videocardshop.co.uk/?source=adwords

Looks like a decent system for the price

 

So your talking £175 for your proposed proc, mobo and RAM....

may I suggest the following:

Intel E2180 £56

GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400UDC) £36

Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L Intel P35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £64


Total £156, not including postage. will overclock nicley beyond 2.2 ghz

You could also save money on the case and power supply, my friend is runing an OC ~3GHZ 6300 using a low spec case and PSU combo...

for example: Asus TA-210 Mid Tower Case Black/Silver with 400W PSU £46

 

.....double post please delete

 

Thanks for your feedback guys
@simongrahamuk Yeah, I know I could buy a similar spec, but I must satisfy my inner geek and build it myself....and I love that case.

@onoski cheers, It looks ok to you..... thats reassuring I'd don't want to blow away £400 on a cack setup, fair point about Vista. I was originally going to buy ultimate but I will have it installed a virtual pc at work in the next few weeks so I thought I'd save £40 and buy a better processor and ram.

@greenbrucelee Thanks for the link, but again I'm spoilt for choice + I know jack diddly squat about graphics cards

@mattyfez I was going to go for the Intel E2180 and Vista ultimate OEM but I decided to go home Premium
and put the extra cash into buying E4500, thanks for the recommendations though I have never delved into the merkey world of overclocking, This system has to be stable because I'm sharing it with my girlfriend. That board looks good, do you have it its a few quid more than the ASUS one. as I said above, I love that case for the price, and it has had good reviews.

Cheers for all input so far. Any more thoughts? i have up to £50 left to spend.

 

Oh yeah, about the Graphics card...... I was thinking of this:Asus Nvidia 7300GS 256MB DVI VGA TV Out PCI-E Graphics Card £29.99 http://www.ebuyer.com/product/111197

this would bring the build at £399 inc VAT and shipping, right on my first budget, or is this card just too cheap?

 

You say you are not a gamer, then you don't need a super duper card, the one you have picked seems good enough, you could do even get a lower model than that.

 

^thanks, I have gone for that card. All ordered up, woo hoo. Thanks for all your help guys

 

I'm just gonna make my comment, i ordered a pc like yoru doing from ebuyer, spend abotu the same amount of money 6 years ago. when it tunred up, and i eventually put everything together, nothing happened.

after investigation, i belived it was teh CPU that was dead, they said send it back, they will test it and if its dead they will replace it, i recived a new one in teh post, great i thought,,put it in.....dead

phoned them up, they confirmed they had tested the previous one and it was that that was faulty, so i asked them to send me a 3rd processor. sent back 2nd, got told that was dead...recived 3rd......nothing

phoned up again, asked if they could swap the motherboard...this they did...again "testing" the old one....new one turned up...finally....dead

OMFG!!! so i took it to a local computer shop to be tested..told them i belived it was motherboard or cpu...they tested it...after claiming it blew up their PSU when plugged it in they said it was teh motherboard..

again got a new motherboard from ebuyer and bingo...eventually the system worked.

personally, i would never buy more than one component at a time from that place!!!

moral of story, they are shite at customer service. they lie to you. they send faulty components

 

^GULP

I have used ebuyer a few times, so far I have had memory, cables and hard drives from them. I'm pleased to say they were all working ok. Thanks for the warning, sounds like you had a 'mare with ebuyer
My Fingers are crossed!

 

Hi, I'd just like to say my machine is all up and running. No faulty parts and it really does fly. Just got to get round to migrating all my data from my old machine, which I predict will be finished by about next summer! Thanks for all advice.

For a £400 build its flippin' ace.

 

I bet it is, i have a similar spec PC running Vista ultimate. The thing flys