Feedback for new build please

[Andrew87]

Hi, I'll be moving to university in just over three weeks to do a computer science course and thought it's time I build a new machine to replace my outdated Athlon 2500+ (3200 OC) XP machine.

My budget is about £700 and this should include at least a 17" TFT monitor with at most a 8ms refresh rate; I plan to do some mild gaming on the PC but need the ability to connect a VGA input to the monitor, namely my Xbox 360 - which I've still not decided if I should take or not.

I've come up with this list although would appreciate some guidance:

Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 S775, 1.86Ghz, 1066Mhz FSB, Conroe Core, 2M Cache Retail
Asrock CONROEXFIRE-ESATA2, i945P, S775, PCI-E (x16), DDR2 533 / 667, SATA II, SATA RAID, ATX
2GB (2X1GB) Corsair Value Select, DDR2 PC4200 (533), 240 Pin, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 4-4-4-12
256Mb Leadtek 7600GT, PCI-E (x16), Mem 1400 MHz, GPU 560 MHz, 12 Pipes, Dual DVI-I/HDTV
AKASA Zen case - Black Silent Cool Midi-ATX Computing case w/2 silent 12cm fnas & front I/O ports
400W Akasa Ultra quiet aPFC PSU with Black 12cm Fan ( 24pin Connector )
17" Hyundai IT X71S Black TFT,1280x1024, 8 ms, 700:1, 300 cd/m2, Speakers, D-sub
320Gb Maxtor 6V320F0 DiamondMax 10, SATA 3.0Gb/s, 7200 rpm, 16MB Cache, 9.0 ms
LiteOn DRW-6S160P-05C Black X16 DVD±RW Dual Layer OEM
Microsoft Comfort Curve Black Value Pack Keyboard with Optical Mouse

The total cost is £694.56


I think this machine should suit my needs fine although I'm a little worried on the specification of the cpu. Over the next few months I would probably have enough money to sort out the cooling inside the case and get a better heatsink and fan for the CPU and therefore would like to overclock it a little but I suppose the Asrock motherboard wouldn't allow me to get much extra performance from the cpu?

Another thing which I was thinking about is the motherboard being Crossfire compatible but I'm going with an nVidia card. The 7600 GT seems to easily be the best card for around the £100 mark but would I be better off going for an ATi solution because of the motherboard? Although I doubt I could run a Crossfire setup on just a 400W PSU (is this even enough to begin with?).

I could probably save some money by going for a cheaper graphics card and reinvesting the money into getting a better motherboard and cpu cooling to attempt to overclock it as I may take my Xbox 360 with me for gaming purposes, although I'm not sure if the monitor I've chosen has a VGA input?

Thanks for any suggestions you can give me,

Andrew.

 

[Andrew87]

I've decided I won't take the Xbox 360 with me but I think the above machine would be able to handle games smootly for the next few years, it's not important for me to have all the eye candy on or play at resolutions above 1280x1024.

Would anyone suggest me getting a laptop over a desktop for university use?

 

[setscrew]

A laptop is cetainly easier to manage in a university environment. If you are living on campus, quarters are typically cramped. Get a good anti-virus program and plenty of RAM. Some universities are installing WiFi so portability would be a bonus. Call the university you will be attending and see if they have any vendor discounts at their store.

I would take the Xbox 360 (great for group play) and look for a sturdy laptop.

You will probably find that available downtime for gaming will be at a premium. Apply your own critical decision making.

Good luck and enjoy.