Example Systems
Below I have outlined a number of example systems to suit roles ranging from a simple upgrade for an end of life machine to a machine built purely for speed.
Prices for this list are based around those from E-Buyer, Eclipse, Dabs Direct, and Micom usually in that order. It should be noted that whilst a retail outlet such as PC World tends to be overpriced for the vast majority of components, items such as Printers and Speakers can be remarkably good value.
Cheap Base Unit
| Item | Name | Cost (11/09/05) |
| Barebones | Asus Vintage AE1 | £61.86 |
| Processor | AMD Sempron 2600 Retail | £37.90 |
| Memory | 512Mb Corsair PC3200 DDR SDRAM | £27.50 |
| Hard Drive | Western Digital Caviar 1600JD 160Gb | £46.80 |
| Floppy Drive | Alps FDD | £4.52 |
| DVD-RW | LG GSA4167 16X | £26.31 |
| Total | £204.89 (£240.75 inc VAT) |
If you already have a reasonable monitor, keyboard and mouse you can upgrade just the base unit and keep all your old peripherals for a very reasonable outlay. The machine outlines above, whilst not cutting edge, will certainly make a good performance PC for the average person and contains high quality components.
Cheap System
| Item | Name | Cost (11/09/05) |
| Barebones | Asus Vintage AE1 | £61.86 |
| Processor | AMD Sempron 2600 Retail | £37.90 |
| Memory | 512Mb Corsair PC3200 DDR SDRAM | £27.50 |
| Hard Drive | Western Digital Caviar 1600JD 160Gb | £46.80 |
| Floppy Drive | Alps FDD | £4.52 |
| DVD-RW | LG GSA4167 16X | £26.31 |
| Graphics Card | SiS 760GX (on-board) | - |
| Sound Card | AC97 (on-board) | - |
| Network Card | 10/100 Ethernet (on-board) | - |
| Keyboard & Mouse | Microsoft Business Hardware Pack | £20.50 |
| Monitor | CTX VL701B 17" (Black) | £65.07 |
| Total | £290.46 (£341.29 inc VAT) |
Despite its very reasonable cost, this system still manages to contain some good components. Like the System Upgrade machine specified above, this machine is built around the high performance, but good value, AMD Sempron processor. The Hard disk is excellent value for money and is a fast 7200rpm model.
Office System
| Item | Name | Cost (11/09/05) |
| Barebones | Asus Vintage AE1 | £61.86 |
| Processor | AMD Sempron 3000+ Retail | £48.49 |
| Memory | 512Mb Corsair PC3200 DDR SDRAM | £27.50 |
| Hard Drive | Western Digital Caviar 1600JD 160Gb | £46.80 |
| Floppy Drive | Alps FDD | £4.52 |
| DVD-RW | LG GSA4167 16X | £26.31 |
| Graphics Card | SiS 760GX (on-board) | - |
| Sound Card | AC97 (on-board) | - |
| Network Card | 10/100 Ethernet (on-board) | - |
| Keyboard & Mouse | Microsoft Business Hardware Pack | £20.50 |
| Monitor | Benq FP937S 19" TFT | £161.99 |
| Multifunction printer | HP PSC 2355 | £101.12 |
| Cable | Belkin USB2 A to B cable | £1.52 |
| Total | £500.61 (£588.22 inc VAT) |
The machine outlined above, whilst not cutting edge performance wise, is more than adequate for SOHO use. The most important parts of the system for office users are the quality of the keyboard, mouse, monitor and printer, along with the general stability of the system. Raw speed and disk capacity tend not to be particularly important as such PC's tend to be used for tasks such as wordprocessing and email/internet access which require limited CPU power and only generate small files.
Value Small Form Factor System
| Item | Name | Cost (11/05/05) |
| Bare Bones | Shuttle SN45GV3 | £123.33 |
| Motherboard | Shuttle nForce2 | - |
| Processor | AMD Sempron 2800 | £53.36 |
| HS&Fan | Shuttle Heat Pipe | - |
| Memory | 512Mb Crucial PC3200 DDR SDRAM | £27.99 |
| Hard Drive | Western Digital Caviar 2000JB 200Gb | £53.60 |
| Floppy Drive | Sony 1.44Mb, Silver | £3.92 |
| DVD-RW | NEC ND3540, Silver | £32.99 |
| Graphics Card | Inno3D GeForce4 MX 4000 | £17.86 |
| Sound Card | 6ch, on board | - |
| Speakers | Creative SBS350 2.1 | £20.13 |
| Network | nVidia 10/100 + 3COM 10/100 (on board) | - |
| Keyboard | Microsoft Digital Media Pro OEM (Black) | £9.99 |
| Mouse | Microsoft Optical Wheel Mouse OEM (Black) | £6.51 |
| Monitor | AG Neovo F417 17" TFT | £119.13 |
| Total |
£468.81 (£550.85 inc VAT) |
This system is designed to be stylish, compact and good value for money. This machine is not particularly suited for games, but it is a great PC for general Office and Internet work. Note that I have included 2x256Mb of memory in this package rather than 1x512Mb DIMM. This is because the nForce2 chipset supports dual banking which will double the amount of memory bandwidth available to the system. This improves performance by a slight degree under 2D applications, but it will significantly improve the 3D performance of the on-board GeForce graphics. If you are planning on purchasing a separate graphics card and want to have better memory expansion possibilities then 1x512Mb DIMM may be a temptation.
High End Small Form Factor System
| Item | Name | Cost (11/05/05) |
| Bare Bones | Shuttle SN95G5 | £184.54 |
| Motherboard | Shuttle nForce3 | - |
| Processor | AMD Athlon 64 3500+ | £155.50 |
| HS&Fan | Shuttle Heat Pipe | £0.00 |
| Memory | 2x512Mb Crucial PC3200 DDR SDRAM | £55.98 |
| Hard Drive | Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 10 250Gb, 16Mb cache | £82.92 |
| DVD-RW | NEC ND3540A 16X Dual (Black) | £30.62 |
| Floppy Drive | Mitsumi 7-in-1 FDD + Card reader (Black) | £10.99 |
| Graphics Card | Dabs Value GeForce 6600GT | £95.11 |
| Sound Card | 6ch, on board | - |
| Speakers | Logitech Z3 2.1 | £42.38 |
| Network | 10/100, on board | - |
| Mouse & Keyb | Microsoft Wireless Optical Desktop | £25.01 |
| Monitor | AG Neovo F419 19" LCD | £169.00 |
| Total |
£852.05 (£1001.16 inc VAT) |
This system is a high-end, stylish SFF system, which competes in both features and performance with any high-end desktop PC. The system features an ultra fast 64-bit CPU, high-end graphics and a 19" flat screen TFT monitor and is more than adequate for the latest games and multimedia.
Best Value System
| Item | Name | Cost (11/05/05) |
| Case | Antec Sonata Midi Tower (380W) | £64.22 |
| Motherboard | Asus A8N SLI (nForce4 S939) | £81.83 |
| Processor | AMD Athlon 64 3200+ (Venice) | £110.92 |
| Memory | 2x512Mb Crucial Ballistix PC4000 DDR SDRAM | £111.98 |
| Hard Drive | Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 10 250Gb, 16Mb cache | £82.92 |
| Floppy Drive | Mitsumi 7-in-1 FDD + Card reader (Black) | £10.99 |
| DVD-RW | NEC ND3540A 16X Dual (Black) | £30.62 |
| Graphics Card | Dabs Value GeForce 6600GT | £84.15 |
| Sound Card | 6ch, on board | £0.00 |
| Speakers | Logitech Z3 2.1 | £42.38 |
| Network | nVidia 10/100 (on board) | £0.00 |
| Keyboard | Microsoft Digital Media Pro OEM (Black) | £9.99 |
| Mouse | Microsoft Optical Wheel Mouse OEM (Black) | £6.51 |
| Monitor | Iiyama Vision Master Pro 454 19" | £204.64 |
| Total |
£841.15 (£988.35 inc VAT) |
The machine outlined above attempts to offer the best price/performance components. The system is built around AMD's Athlon 64 processor and is aimed at high-end home users who tend to play 3D games. This machine is also extremely overclockable, with the ASUS motherboard and the Ballistix memory able to cope with an increased FSB speed with excellent timings. The GeForce 6600GT is an excellent mid-range performance graphics card that should be more than suitable for all current games. I have outfitted this machine with a high-end 19" monitor as I believe a CRT is still better value for money than a TFT and offers superior output for gamers.
Best Performance
| Item | Name | Cost (11/05/05) |
| Case | Antec Sonata Midi Tower (380W) | £64.22 |
| Motherboard | Asus A8N SLI (nForce4 S939) | £81.83 |
| Processor | AMD Athlon 64 3700+ (San Diego) | £199.95 |
| Memory | 2x512Mb Crucial Ballistix PC4000 DDR SDRAM | £111.98 |
| Hard Drive | Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 10 300Gb, 16Mb cache | £109.35 |
| Floppy Drive | Mitsumi 7-in-1 FDD + Card reader (Black) | £10.99 |
| DVD-RW | NEC ND3540A 16X Dual (Black) | £30.62 |
| Graphics Card | Gigabyte GeForce 6800GT | £197.05 |
| Sound Card | Creative SoundBlaster Audigy2 ZS OEM | £33.69 |
| Speakers | Logitech Z-680 5.1 | £195.72 |
| Network | Gigabit (on board) | - |
| Keyboard | Microsoft Digital Media Pro OEM (Black) | £9.99 |
| Mouse | Microsoft Optical Wheel Mouse OEM (Black) | £6.51 |
| Monitor | Iiyama Vision Master Pro 514 22" | £362.54 |
| Total |
£1414.44 (£1661.97 inc VAT) |
The system outlined above is intended to represent the best performance system which can be built without being totally over the top. The system is built around a top-end Athlon 64 CPU, a fast I/O subsystem and the best audio and visual solutions on the market.
My System
In case you are curious about what hardware I have purchased, here it is! Note that while all the components are still very good, some may have been superceded since I bought them or may no longer be available. Check out the Recommendations section to find out exactly which components I would currently spend my money on.
| Item | Name |
| Case | Antec Sonata II (520W Thermaltake PSU) |
| Motherboard | Gigabyte K8N Pro SLI (nForce4 SLI) |
| CPU | AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+ |
| Memory | 4 x 512Mb Crucial Ballistix PC4000 SDRAM (2Gb) |
| Graphics card | ATI Radon X1900XTX 512MB |
| Hard Drives | 300Gb Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 10 SATA (Boot) 300Gb Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 10 SATA (Storage) 300Gb Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 10 SATA (Storage) 200Gb Western Digital Caviar Special Edition SATA (Storage) 500GB Western Digital My Book (External) |
| DVD-RW | Optiarc 7170A 18X |
| CD-RW | LG GCE-8520B 52x24x52 |
| Sound card | Creative SoundBlaster Audigy 2 Value |
| Speakers | Creative Inspire 5300 |
| Network | nForce, Belkin Wireless-G |
| Monitor | Dell Ultrasharp 2407WFP 24" widescreen LCD |
| Keyboard | Microsoft Digital Media keyboard (Black) |
| Mouse | Microsoft Optical Wheel Mouse (Black) |
| Broadband | 3-Com OfficeConnect 3CRWDR100A Wireless Router |
| Printer | HP LaserJet 4L |
