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Old 02-28-2006, 09:57 PM   #11 (permalink)
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Default -- Canadian Buyers --
Budget: <1600CADThe extra $100 allows us to finally hit the X1900XT and upgrade the system cooler.

Budget: <1700CADLosing the aftermarket HSF we've got a beefier PSU and a second 250GB drive.

Budget: <1800CADHere we've brought the aftermarket HSF back along with an upgrade to the PSU for even tighter regulation

Budget: <1900CADThe extra $100 allows us to wrap this box up with an upgrade to 2GB of memory.

Bigger Budget?
Well the boxes are for the most part, maxed out in a balanced manner; yes there are more balanced configs possible but not without incurring a few hundred dollar jumps in between.
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Old 02-28-2006, 09:58 PM   #12 (permalink)
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General Purpose Machines
Budget: <500CADNothing special about this machine although compared to the $500 gaming box, this rig is a lot more upgradeable due to it's PCI-Express nature although it is still based on the discontinued S754 platform

Budget: <600CADDowngrading from the X600Pro to the X300SE, we can fit in a dualcore CPU

Budget: <700CADThe extra $100 allows us to upgrade the CPU as well as bring back the X600Pro

Budget: <800CADThe extra $100 allows us to make a substantial upgrade on the videocard

Budget: <900CADWith the budget bump we've got enough to easily make the switch to the Ahlon 64 X2 platform

Budget: <1000CADHere we've upgraded to the X800GTO and upgraded the motherboard significantly

Budget: <1100CADHere we've upgraded both the PSU/case as well as the processor

Budget: <1200CADHere we've made a CPU sacrifice to get the 7800GT into the spec

Budget: <1300CADThis budget allows us to comfortably bring back the items that were trimmed back to make room for the 7800GT originally

Budget: <1400CADHere we comfortably make the switch to a 2GB of memory setup

Budget: <1500CADWith the extra $100 we've upgraded the PSU slightly and shuffled the harddrive configuration for an extra 150GB

Bugger Budget?
I would reccomend you reconsider your performance requirements as "general purpose computer" tasks should be more than adequately handled by the configurations above. If not, feel free to make a post idenfying your particular needs
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ASUS P5K Premium WiFi-AP, Q6600@3.7 / ASUS P5ND, E6400@3.8
4GB OCz Platinum XTC 8500 / 4GB CorsairXMS2 6400
5x500GB Seagate 7200.10 / 2x500 Seagate 7200.10
OCz 8800GTX 768MB @ 630/800 / 2x Galaxy 8800GT SLI
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Old 02-28-2006, 10:02 PM   #13 (permalink)
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Section 03 - European Buyers
Where to Buy Stuff?
Here are some places you can start with
Categorical Reccomendations
  • Work Oriented machine
  • Play Oriented machine
  • General Purpose machine
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ASUS P5K Premium WiFi-AP, Q6600@3.7 / ASUS P5ND, E6400@3.8
4GB OCz Platinum XTC 8500 / 4GB CorsairXMS2 6400
5x500GB Seagate 7200.10 / 2x500 Seagate 7200.10
OCz 8800GTX 768MB @ 630/800 / 2x Galaxy 8800GT SLI
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Old 02-28-2006, 10:03 PM   #14 (permalink)
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Work Machines
Budget: <250GBPBy the time we get to the higher end components we wont be using any of these parts ever, this is still a nice system for a very low price.

Budget: <300GBPDang it took a long time to spec this box out, but this is a hell of a box for the price.

Budget: <350GBP
Budget: <400GBP
Budget: <450GBPShuffled a few things around to fit in out first X2 box

Budget: <500GPBThose extra 100GBP go a very long way in allowing us to upgrade virtually everything: RAM, PSU and mobo

Budget: <550GPNot nearly as impressive an upgrade as before, here we've upgraded the processor

Budget: <600GPBSwitched up the motherboard, the optical drive, RAM and to a tried-and-true power supply.

Budget: <650GPBHere we've changed the drive configuration a bit to allow us an extra 150GB total.

Bigger Budget
If you're lucky enough to have a bigger budget and the above suggestions dont meet your needs, feel free to make a post outlining your requirements
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ASUS P5K Premium WiFi-AP, Q6600@3.7 / ASUS P5ND, E6400@3.8
4GB OCz Platinum XTC 8500 / 4GB CorsairXMS2 6400
5x500GB Seagate 7200.10 / 2x500 Seagate 7200.10
OCz 8800GTX 768MB @ 630/800 / 2x Galaxy 8800GT SLI
Last edited by Praetor; 02-28-2006 at 10:18 PM.
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Old 02-28-2006, 10:04 PM   #15 (permalink)
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Play Machines
Budget: <250GBPIf you can confirm that the PSU that comes with the case has a minimum of 18A on the 12V line then you may consider dropping the added PSU (which isnt that great anyways) and upgrading the CPU to the 3100 (the 3000 gets a clock speed bonus at the cost of half the cache). If not, this is still a fairly competitive system especially so for its price.

Budget: <300GBPBy sheer luck I was able to locate a X600XT (the alternative was to settle for a X300/6200 class card which is significantly behind in performance). In addition to the videocard change we've changed from a S754 Sempron above to a S939 Athlon64

Budget: <350GBPHere we spent the 50GBP to upgrade the videocard and CPU as well as switch to branded (as well as tried-and-true) memory.

Budget: <400GBPDid a lot with the 50GBP difference between this and the previous stepping: a phenomenal upgrade in videocard performance as well as a bump in the CPU

Budget: <450GBPDid some minor changes here and there as well as bump the harddrive up to a respectable 250GB.

Budget: <500GBPNot quite enough money to make the jump to dual core so we make motherboard and CPU change.

Budget: <550GBPSome shuffling around of parts and we've got a dualcore gaming rig.

Budget: <600GBPSome more shuffling: traded one top notch motherboard for another as well as got a first rate PSU

Budget: <650GBPA bit of shuffling and we can put a 7800GT into this box
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ASUS P5K Premium WiFi-AP, Q6600@3.7 / ASUS P5ND, E6400@3.8
4GB OCz Platinum XTC 8500 / 4GB CorsairXMS2 6400
5x500GB Seagate 7200.10 / 2x500 Seagate 7200.10
OCz 8800GTX 768MB @ 630/800 / 2x Galaxy 8800GT SLI
Last edited by Praetor; 02-28-2006 at 10:17 PM.
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Old 02-28-2006, 10:04 PM   #16 (permalink)
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Default -- European Buyers --
Budget: <700GBPHere we've shuffled back to the highly overclockable A8R-MVP

Budget: <750GBPHere we upgrade the CPU and PSU as well as add an aftermarket HSF

Budget: <800GBPHere we've upgraded the machine to a 2GB setup

Budget: <850GBPStil not enough to upgrade the system to a 78GTX or the ATi equivalent so I've doubled the harddrive capacity

Budget: <900GBP