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"Help a guy out"

I have 1800 nicker to spend on a PC (ready built). I want it to be the best spec you can get for the money, designed for gaming and multimedia applications. That being the case I want a great cpu (preferably pentium 4, no less than 3.2Ghz), motherboard, gfx card and ram, as well as high rpm hard drives, preferably SATA RAID (10,000rpm) or similar, TFT monitor if possible though not essential (no smaller than 17"), good soundcard, DVD writer, second CDROM not essential, usual stuff like network card, front mounted USB ports, other miscellaneous peripherals I can't remember at this point.

I currently have my eye on the XPS systems offered by Dell, Alienware systems are well above my budget. Are there any other online vendors offering top spec PC's at reasonable prices (i.e. within my budget)?

Just thought I'd ask before I commit. I could build one up but the bottom line is that I just can't be bothered. Cheers for any input.

where's that from nimco?

Antec Super Lanboy ATX Case With 2x120mm Fans and No PSU
Asus A8V Deluxe Socket-939 VIA/KT800Pro - ATX Gb-Lan IEEE1394 USB2 800FSB
AMD Athlon 64 FX55 1MB L2Cache 939pin Retail Boxed
OCZ Platinum EL Dual Channel Kit 2x512MB PC3200 CL 2-3-2-5
2x Western Digital WD2000JD 200GB Serial ATA150 7200rpm 8mb Cache
XFX GeForce 6800 GT 256MB DDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI AGP With Full DOOM 3 Game
Creative Labs OEM Audigy2 ZS 7.1 Pci Sound Card
Samsung TS-H552B 16x Double Layer DVD R/RW - OEM
Antec TrueControl 550w PSU with 5.25ins drive bay control panel
LG L1730S 17ins TFT Slim Bezel 0.26mm 12ms 550:1 in Silver

TOTAL: £1796.12 inc Del (from a certain online retailer)

I'm sure if you look around a bit you'll get even better....

here's a question then - how much would the last system you posted, biggles, in your opinion, cost to build up?

SCSI is not worth it anymore. If you really want faster hard drive speeds, then a striped RAID configuration, alá Nimco's spec, would give you decent speed and far higher capacity. At 150 MB/S, SATA has plenty of bandwidth.

You win. I just don't like Mesh.

Homebuilds are still infinitely better though.

pretty sweet, although I do have my heart set on 10,000 rpm drives, mainly for multimedia editing applications and also increased speed. I wanted SCSI drives, but the price of them is just ridiculous.

cheers though, I'm lazy, I only tried about 3 sites before I was almost ready to commit to a dell system. I could easily build a system from scratch, but having done it so many times in the past, I just want a nice looking bit of kit ready to go, no hassle.

also cheers to nimco, I feel like a young person in a confectionery establishment.

MESH ATX MidiTower with tool free access
Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition
ASUS A8V Deluxe Athlon 64 Mainboard - 2000MHz SB, Dual LAN, IEEE 1394, SATA
AMD Athlon 64 4000+ (939PIN)
1024Mb PC3200 DDR Memory 400MHz
2x 300GB Serial ATA (150Mb/s) setup in Striped RAID 0 configuration
256MB nVIDIA GeForce FX 6800 GT - TV Out + DVI
17'' TFT Flat Panel LCD Monitor (Analogue)
SONY 16x Dual Layer DVD-Re-Writable +R/-R/RW
Creative Soundblaster AUDIGY 2 ZS Platinum
Creative Labs Inspire T7900 - 7.1 Surround
56kbps V92 Modem, featuring data and fax.
Logitech Cordless Desktop Keyboard & Mouse
Pinnacle Studio 9 SE (OEM)
Microsoft® Works® 8.0
ASUS 54MBps 802.11G Wi-Fi PCI Card
X-treme-3 Games Bundle - Nostromo Speedpad, Games (3 titles)
3 Years - Parts & Labour - Back-to-Base Warranty (Mainland UK only - Terms Apply)

Insured Del within Mainland UK (+ £39) at £39
Price Excluding VAT: £ 1559.75

Price Including VAT + DEL: £ 1832.71

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From Mesh Computers

Komplett.co.uk

I knocked up this:

Komplett Athlon 64 (Socket 754)
Article number: 303546
Stock status: 1 stocked
Corsair Value S. PC3200 DDR-DIMM 512MB
Gainward GeForce 6800GT 256MB GS GDDR3
NEC DVD-recorder ND-3500A IDE Silver
Samsung 19" LCD Syncmaster 910T TCO03
Creative Inspire T-5900
Trust Multi Function Keyboard
Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 200GB S-ATA
Logitech MX510 Optical Mouse,
EPoX EP-8KDA3J Mainboard for Socket 754
Chieftec BX Miditower, Black
Sony Floppy Drive, 3,5" 1,44MB Black
AMD Athlon 64 3700+ 2.4 GHz
Creative SB Audigy 2 ZS, Bulk
PC with no operating system
Corsair Value S. PC3200 DDR-DIMM 512MB

You already have XP, so may as well save £100 on it.

Total: 1655.65

I was severely tempted to get a MaXXXXXXXXXX PC, but it didn't have everything I wanted on it, I prefer sites that allow you to mix n match your PC features, like that one you posted a link to.

I'm sure they're very good, but I'm also sure there are cheaper and more user defined alternatives, no offence to SR. *nods in recognition at SR icon*

Not quite as good, but a couple of hundred cheaper is SR's very own Maxx 4DV thing with an Athlon 64 3700. Which actually is just a single channel version of the Athlon 64 4000. Same speed, same cache.

I run an "old" Athlon XP. Although at nearly 2.6 GHz, with 1 GB of RAM at 225 MHz and an X800XT PE, it isn't exactly a slouch.