h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Take the model number of the Overclockers one and put it into Google; you may get the same motherboard cheaper elsewhere. I just gave you the first one I found.

Do I need a graphics cpu with this, with your help it is now about specified:

http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=541M

http://www.dabs.com/ProductView.aspx?Quicklinx=4SDB&CategorySelectedId=11154&NavigationKey=50473&InMerch=1

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-139-GI

http://www.xcase.co.uk/p/354556/nzxt-hush-low-noise-chassis---no-psu--black.html

You still need a (PCI-E, probably the higher end of the nVidia 8-series or 9-series) graphics card, DDR2 memory, a DVD writer and a power supply to power it all. (No less than 400W; 600W would allow for additional drives etc. in the future...)

I just notoced the "select a power supply" drop-down on the case page.

Go for the 500W.

Yep, that's it, now I'll just add it all up, and apply for the credit card I told the bank I didn't need.

So the pc I got will be up for sale, without op, but with a dongle.

I noticed that format didn't work, I need something to clean the disc.

Their is no hurry about all this because I'm waiting to hear from an MP, about my fuel, being overcharged and the company have already knocked 30% off, but I want more, because in 2 weeks I will be in credit after the new bill, and can get it £200 cheaper still.

Looks like £455 to me. nvidia cards are expensive, but that's alright.

I don't want HD tv or widescreen on my pc, just speed. Some time in the very distant future I might write a program to draw animated 3-D graphs of manifolds for instance.

So will this work or is it too big. The DDR2 ram costs £40 for 2 gig at crucial.co.uk

and

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/125109

That graphic card will work fine, although an 8-series or 9-series would be better. To explain, non-commercial nVidia cards follow the naming convention "AB00", where A is the "series" and B is the model.

So, the later the series, the more features there are on each individual graphics processor; the higher the model the larger the number of processors on the card. On top of this, some companies such as "Palit" specialise in selling "overclocked" versions, say upping the FSB of the graphics chip from 600MHz to 670MHz for example.

So, for example...

A 7800 is usually slightly faster than an 8600
A 9500 is about the same performance as an 8600

Prices, nVidia GeForce 9600gt in the USA $100, so you would think must be around £50 here, not a bit of it, £100.

How hot do these things get, because I was reading how to install one where he mentioned a can of coolant.

My pc slowed again last night, using 100% cpu, the culprit was IE which I shut down, but still running in processes, so shut that down.

The I noticed that I had apparently downloaded 300Mb of data at 3568Kbs, what, so I had a look on my ISP site and it said I had downloaded 500Mb.

Therefore their must be a lot of temporary files, so I used Ccleaner which found 24Mb to clean.

I'm going to have to keep an eye on this.

If you know the $100 card is the same model as the £100 one then just order it from the states - there's no difference between an American graphics card and a British one, and the postage and customs tax will be significantly less than the £50 price difference. Just order it with a normal UK credit/debit card, and they'll take care of the currency conversion.

I do that a lot now, but never physically had anything shipped. Kingston had CL2 memory but crucial was CL2.5, but they wouldn't let me order from the states saying I have to buy from their UK suppliers. Trouble is the UK one's didn't stock it.

When you try to go to order stuff on the geForce site you get redirected to UK.

After paying Yankie tax and VAT their stuff is still a lot cheaper, but AVG for instance won't let you buy from the states.

A shops equivalent:
1
3618
NZXT Hush Black Gaming Case (No PSU)
£ 70.00 ( 59.57 )
1
£ 70.00

2
4221
Intel Core2 Quad Q9450 Retail
£ 210.00 ( 178.72 )
1
£ 210.00 <-- £110 too expensive

3
4220
Asus P5Q Deluxe (Skt 775)
£ 131.00 ( 111.49 )
1
£ 131.00 <-- £31 too much

4
4144
XpertVision GeForce 9600GT 512MB HDTV/Dual DVI (PCiEx)
£ 81.00 ( 68.94 )
1
£ 81.00 <-- Is the cheapest I've seen in UK

5
4134
Kingston 1GB DDR2 PC2-6400 (800 MHz)
£ 14.00 ( 11.91 )
2
£ 28.00

6
3928
Samsung 320 GB SATA II 7200RPM 16 MB Cache
£ 34.00 ( 28.94 )
1
£ 34.00

7
2545
500W ATX PSU (OEM)
£ 12.00 ( 10.21 )
1
£ 12.00

8
3414
Liteon 20X +/- DVD-RW Dual Layer Black (OEM)
£ 17.00 ( 14.47 )
1
£ 17.00

9
410
Labour
£ 15.00 ( 12.77 )
1
£ 15.00

It's mostly all tax, £15 for putting together means it's not much work.

Bear in mind that you're looking at an Intel "Core 2 Quad" which is faster than an AMD quad core, and we only specced for an AMD triple-core initially. So, they will have offered you an Intel motherboard, which is slightly more expensive too. Also, the RAM will need to be faster, which adds expense.

You can't compare prices unless you're careful about the details.

(£15 for assembly means it'll take 15 minutes at a rate of £60/hour...)

What you reckon to this:

http://www.lambda-tek.com/computing/pcdesigner.pl?cart=%0AOS%09B111888%091%0ACPU%09B101001

All in one place but abit expensive, by about £50.

That link doesn't work for me - the page relies on cookies to keep track of your selections.

Doesn't work for me either. But it came to £498 with everything as described + VAT + delivery.

"everything as described" where?

B101001PHENOM X3 TRIPLE 8750 2.4GHZ SKT AM2 3.5MB 95W PIB£89.86/ea

B88400GIGABYTE AM2 AMD-790FX CROSSFIRE 4XDDRII-1066 ...£92.43/ea

1265887Memory/HyperX 2GB 1066MHz DDR2 Non-ECC CL5 (5-5...£27.99/ea

B110409EVGA 9600 GT SC 512MB 256 BIT PCI-E£96.69/ea

B76501SONATA III 500 PIANO BLACK QUIET MID TOWER UK£61.41/ea

B99814CAVIAR RE2 250GB SATA2 3.5IN 7200RPM 16MB ...£33.79/ea

B88308DVDROM DDU1615-0B 16X48X ATAPI BULK BLACK WO/ SW£7.46/ea

SUBTOTAL£409.63

DELIVERY non-guaranteed next working day (England,Wales)non-guaranteed next working day (Scotland)1-3 working days (N.Ireland)1-3 working days (UK Offshore)next working day pre noon (England,Wales)next working day pre 10.30am (England,Wales)next working day pre 10.30am (Scotland)Saturday delivery (England,Wales)2-3 working days (Rep. of Ireland)£15.00

VAT at 17.5%£74.31

TOTAL£498.94

Here, everything as above

I would still look at a larger hard drive, and would certainly get a DVD writer for backups - that appears to just be a reader.

But the prices aren't ridiculous. I suspect that you could get slightly better deals on some of the parts if you shopped around, but that's the price you pay for having a single point-of-contact if anything goes wrong.

Shame they don't do an assembly service.

Going to have to get it from everywhere anyway, all their prices have gone up since yesterday.

So it's back to the drawing board.

I'm going to get AMD Quad4 2.5 Ghz because it's only £10 more.

The memory has doubled in price, can't believe how expensive some memory is.

Is EVRA better than Gigabyte?