mutant_matt

Guys,

I want to buy a motherboard, CPU, hard drive and memory - was going to use Simply but they have been messing me around. Anybody out there that can recommend someone that is cheap and reliable (and either is in North London or will deliver on a Saturday)

I'm thinking about a P4 1.5Ghz on a Gigabyte board - will be running Win2K - any recommendations about which board to go for (I've heard that Abit boards and Via chipsets are no good for W2K???)

Any help, most appreciated.

Matt

Danny Fisher

Matt, try Scan. You might find a bundle of these bits.

Dan

mutant_matt

Dan,

Thanks for that - I thought of Scan but they're selection of bits on their Website seems really limited. I may try them if they've got the bits though - have you any experience of dealing with them?

Cheers,

Matt

druddle

Either www.overclockers.co.uk or www.dabs.com

I use Overclockers alot as they are very good on price.

Dave

druddle

Damn ntl...............

[Edited by druddle - 10/23/2001 7:21:31 PM]

BigGT3Fan

Scan are dirt cheap, but they have zero customer service/support if you have a problem or want to return something. I have found ebuyer.com to be excellent

Only downside for small orders is a hefty £10 delivery, but the upside is that if you spend more than £100 (as you would be buying what you are intending to, I guess !) then delivery is free.

Have fun!



Alex

Neanderthal

iTrader: (6)

I always refer to;

http://www.pcindex.co.uk/

Compares lots of prices from all the leading online UK stores.

Matt

DazV

www.novatech.co.uk

Good reputation - been in business a LONG time.

By the way, I find Athlons much better value than Pentiums now.

-DV

[Edited by DazV - 10/23/2001 7:44:44 PM]

mutant_matt

Guys,

Thanks for the responses - most useful.

Daz, I agree - thing is, everyone I know that's built their own Athlon system has had problems with either the CPU/heatsink/fan or had compatibility problems with the chipset/USB controller.

I can't be arsed with the hastle so was going to go for a Pentium as the (hopefully) easier solution.

Anyone got any thoughts on which motherboard/chipset/CPU combo?

Cheers,

Matt

CraigH

Mattheeeeeeeeeewwwwwwwwwww.

Can't believe you're asking that.

Gimmee a call you dweeb.

boxst

Hello!

I bought my CPU / Motherboard / memory from Tottenham court road.

If you know what you are looking for, you can bargain and get a good price.

I ended up with : AMD 1.4 / A-Bbit / 512mb memory.

Steve.

DazV

Matt - not a single problem with my Athlon. I know when Athlons first appeared ages ago there was a problem with the mobo providing the right power to the cpu, but those days are over.

Athlon 1.4GHz
MSI Master K7 Pro Board

-DV

mutant_matt

Daz,

Don't you need a different case and PSU if you have an Athlon too?

Craig, will give you a call in the morning (I'm on a course but will give you a call at either break time or at lunch).

Cheers,

Matt

Silent Monkey

You need an AMD "approved" PSU for an Athlon. You also need a P4 compatible PSU for a P4 motherboard (or frig the power connections). If you are thinking of putting new motherboard in existing case then you'll possibly be out of luck either way. On the other hand new case is minor copmpared to m/b + cpu + mem.

AndiThompson

I run an AMD k7 Athlon Thunderbird on a Asus A7V mobo and a 300W PSU, it runs brilliantly.

I'm not even thinking of touching Intel anymore because of the expense of the P4 (new mobo, new CPU, new RAM, new case) and the fact that many tests show it to be slower.

I buy my stuff from www.microdirect.com. They're cheap and in manchester.

No association etc etc blah blah blah.

[Edited because it's far too late on a school (yes school) night]

[Edited by AndiThompson - 10/24/2001 2:13:26 AM]

mutant_matt

You know guys, it's looking more and more like a whole new machine - then at least I can have two (I need two to practise my MCSE coursework anyway ). Perhaps I should just but a whole system (box at least) and be done with it.....

Cheers anyway guys,

Matt

boxst

Well, it depends what you want. I bought my AMD 1.4/Case/Motherboard/Memory for about £400.

So it saves about £300 off of buying a new machine.

Steve.

father_jack

Nah - buy a whole system it's not worth building yer own any more.
I ordered a Dell P4 1.6Ghz yesterday for £599 + vat.
I saved the £50 delivery charge too cos I hummed and hawed a bit so they took off the delivery cost.
Spec:
P4 1.6Ghz, 256Mb single-channel memory, Geforce2 Tv out (£30 upgrade)
19'' monitor - yes a 19 !!
CD re-writer - cd-rom - 40Gb HD
Tell me that's not a good deal - plus everything will have been properly tested together.

MartinM

Sounds like a good deal, Father

Which Dell model was it? - I can't find a deal anything like that on www.dell.co.uk

kav

www.cclcomputers.co.uk

Cheers
Kav

bigmac

Try this site for reviews of hardware and software (well I think it's good)

It is called http://www.firingsquad.gamers.com/

Very detailed reviews given and it's all free - can't be bad.

I use shopsmart.co.uk and pcindex.co.uk when looking to purchase summat.

Mark.

bigmac

ignore

[Edited by bigmac - 10/24/2001 3:00:41 PM]

father_jack

MartinM - I will dig out the model no. tomorrow - but I had to phone them up as it wasn't listed on the website - i saw it in their catalogue and phoned them up - make sure you don't pay the £50 for delivery now. :-) You might even haggle them down further -they're sh1tting it.....!!

father_jack

Right - The model code for the Dell is 038 D0410 - call 0870 9078 4344.
Thats a 1.5Ghz which they don't have so they will upgrade it to a 1.6Ghz for +£30.

mutant_matt

Andy/Daz,

RE: The Athlon motherboards, you both say they are great but I presume neither of you are running Windows 2000? I ask this because I will be and the VIA chipset (which seems to come on just about every Athlon board out there ) does not work (well the USB part anyway) with Windows 2000. There is even a note on the Microsoft website (HCL) which says that it doesn't work [img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img][img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img]

I *think* the Gigabyte Athlon board however does work but was hoping for someone else who knows about this to confirm....???

Matt

dsmith

I have an Athlon with VIA chipset running Win2K. - Unfortunately I don't have any USB things to try though. It all looks as though its working ? - Whats the issue with USB,VIA and Win 2K ?

mutant_matt

The issue is the because the VIA USB Chipset doesn't work properly/at all, Microsoft don't support it and it's not on their HCL.

In practise, there are problems ranging between, it doesn't work at all/won't install to it looks like it's working until you try and put some load on the bus.

Everyone I know has had to either a) live with not having USB b) changed their motherboard or c) buy a cheapy USB card and disable the onboard USB.

I have now found out that the Gigabyte GA-7DXR should be OK so am going to buy that.

Matt

Gizmo555

Hi Matt

How you doing ?

Just about to build a new base as well. In terms of motherboards PCW magazine Dec edition has a motherboard review.

I'm going for the ABit KG7-Raid.

Try www.komplett.co.uk

They look good on price & they're mentioned in PCW for the contact for this board.

Might also be worth a look at www.overclockers.co.uk

Cheers

Mark

mutant_matt

Mark,

I just had a look on Abit's website and the chipset in use is AMD761/VIA 686B. I'm guessing that the AMD chipset is the USB and the VIA is the IDE (like the Gigabyte board). If that is the case then this should work with Win2K (but you didn't mention which OS you were going to install).

I'm going to stick with the Gigabyte as I've heard good things about them and am happy with the one that I'm currently using. Thanks for the info though,

Cheers,

Matt

Gizmo555

Hi Matt

All bits ordered -

ABit KG7-Raid
Athlon XP1600+
512MB DDR

Couldn't really afford GeForce 3 so went for GeForce 2 64MB Ti for £111

All from www.overclockers.co.uk

Gonna go for 98SE for now - seeing as having no probs with it at the moment.

Should be a tad better then my PII 450

Cheers

Mark