My 1st Build :)

[MitchMan31]

Hi Guys,

I've set-up this thread to post you the details of my first computer build. At the moment it's just at the stage of sourcing the component etc.

I was wondering if anyone would be kind enough to help me find the right parts for my first build. The computer will be used for doing coursework, using the internet heavily and moderate gaming (Battlefield 2142, Rome Total War, Counterstrike, Wolfenstein and COD).

So far I have purchased the following components:

• GIGABYTE GH-PCU23-VE 92mm Ball CPU Cooler
• Crucial Ballistix Tracer 1GB (2 x 512MB) 240-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 800mhz (PC 6400)

I have around £350 or $610 to spend on the rest of the components for my computer. Also I have listed the other components below I plan to buy, but if you think you know of the best components that are in reach of my budget please suggest so, Thanks .

Case: -------------

PSU: -------------

Floppy drive: Generic 1.44MB, Internal, Floppy Disk Drive, Black - £5-$10

Optical drive: Asus DRW-1814BLT Black DVD-RW SATA 18X14 lightscribe - £20-$40

Storage hard drive (for music, movies etc.): Western Digital 250 GB - £40-$80

Motherboard: Asus M2N-SLI Deluxe AM2 Skt940 nForce 570SLI Dual PCI-E x16 Dual Giga LAN +8ch.audio Firewire ATX Motherboard - £65-$130

CPU: AM2 Athlon 64 3800 Dual core - £40 - $80

Video card: XFX GeForce 8600 GT 256MB DDR3 PCI-E DVI Fatal1ty Edition 540Mhz -£98-$190




I would be very appreciative of the help...... Thanks guys

Mitch

[InnocentCriminal]

Nice one! Another geezer from the UK - excellent!

You'll have to feed us pictures to complement this thread once you're done ordering.

I suggest you look into a E4300, a decent HSF and a decent supporting motherboard. The E4300 will piss all over the 3800+ you've spec'd there. I'll get back to you once I'm home.

[choppy]

1.will you be using vista / do you need an OS?

2. imo those xfx 'fatal1ty' cards are a rip off and way overpriced, you could look into 2600xt's..gddr3 version = £70, gddr4 = £85 at SCAN (its good your in the uk! --btw where are you buying all this from as scan has some very low prices)

3. case - coolermaster elite 330 , £25 case and on that budget should suit you fine
http://microdirect.co.uk/(17353)Cool...idi-tower.aspx

4. psu - thermaltake tr2 470w @ £31 (not sure if tt make good psu's)
http://microdirect.co.uk/(11881)Ther...t-ATX-12V.aspx

FSP 400w @ £32
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=468726

erm on that budget you may be able to squeeze in a E4400 and a p965 board, il look around and price you up a c2d build if you like unless you wanna stay amd

[InnocentCriminal]

Right as I'm home now I can explain in more depth what I was bollocking on about...

After some thought, maybe going the AM2 socket path isn't going to be such a bad idea. With Barcelona - which is the new native quad-core Phenom (horrible name) from AMD being drop in compatible (with only a BIOS update to make it work) you could well be investing in some decent future proofing there. I have a 939 3800+ and it's great, same about the cache sizes mind.

Which brings me to why I originally thought buying a E4300 would be a better option. With this (and a decent HSF) you'd be able to OC the living crap outta of it and it would piss all over the 3800+ with anything that you throw at it.

In the lastest September PC Format (Issue 204) they do a rather good multi-cored CPU Special where they test out all the current crop of CPUs. Might be worth picking up before you start ordering.

Let's say you did decided to go for the E4300. I've recently spec'd the Abit Fatal1ty F-I90HD for a client's rig as they wanted an affordable, transportable gaming rig which they could later upgrade with minimum of fuss. It's a neat little board which also comes with an on-board X1250 GFX chipset (which is around the same as a X700) which would obviously be of no use to you, unless you wanted to use the on-board HDMI port. Either way it's worthy of a look

As for the mobo, it's actually mATX, so I spec'd them this chassis - it's currently my favourite tower! I doubt you'd want a limiting, small form factor chassis & motherboard, but I thought I'd recommend that considering you have a decent CPU cooler and the RAM already.

The products I have mentioned come to a total of.... £201.69 in VAT exc delivery. Not bad I guess. As for the other £149... you'd probably be able to pick up a decent HDD and PSU included. The PSU I spec'd for my client was Corsair's excellent 520W. Unfortunately that's too expensive for your remaining budget but they do however have a 450W which is probably just as efficient as the 520W but with just a lower rating.

With that out of the way you still have £100 (in a sense) to find a decently sized hard drive. I'd recommend anything by Samsung - albeit they not be the fastest on the market but they're damn quiet, extremely reliable and have a good warranty - not that I've ever needed to replace the drives.

I hope my suggestions help - if you'd like me to do a more AMD based spec - I'd be more than happy too.

[Irish_PXzyan]

Dont forget to buy a Razer DeathAdder and Razer eXactMat X Speed

hehe

[MitchMan31]

Originally Posted by choppy

1.will you be using vista / do you need an OS?

2. imo those xfx 'fatal1ty' cards are a rip off and way overpriced, you could look into 2600xt's..gddr3 version = £70, gddr4 = £85 at SCAN (its good your in the uk! --btw where are you buying all this from as scan has some very low prices)

3. case - coolermaster elite 330 , £25 case and on that budget should suit you fine
http://microdirect.co.uk/(17353)Cool...idi-tower.aspx

4. psu - thermaltake tr2 470w @ £31 (not sure if tt make good psu's)
http://microdirect.co.uk/(11881)Ther...t-ATX-12V.aspx

FSP 400w @ £32
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=468726

erm on that budget you may be able to squeeze in a E4400 and a p965 board, il look around and price you up a c2d build if you like unless you wanna stay amd

Hi, Thanks for your reply, So far I've bought from traders on ebay and amazon because they've been able to offer me the best deals. I am aware of the overpriced fatal1ty components, they're all overprice especially the sound devices. Thanks for letting me know where I can find some of the cheap products.................Mitch

[MitchMan31]

Originally Posted by InnocentCriminal

Right as I'm home now I can explain in more depth what I was bollocking on about...

After some thought, maybe going the AM2 socket path isn't going to be such a bad idea. With Barcelona - which is the new native quad-core Phenom (horrible name) from AMD being drop in compatible (with only a BIOS update to make it work) you could well be investing in some decent future proofing there. I have a 939 3800+ and it's great, same about the cache sizes mind.

Which brings me to why I originally thought buying a E4300 would be a better option. With this (and a decent HSF) you'd be able to OC the living crap outta of it and it would piss all over the 3800+ with anything that you throw at it.

In the lastest September PC Format (Issue 204) they do a rather good multi-cored CPU Special where they test out all the current crop of CPUs. Might be worth picking up before you start ordering.

Let's say you did decided to go for the E4300. I've recently spec'd the Abit Fatal1ty F-I90HD for a client's rig as they wanted an affordable, transportable gaming rig which they could later upgrade with minimum of fuss. It's a neat little board which also comes with an on-board X1250 GFX chipset (which is around the same as a X700) which would obviously be of no use to you, unless you wanted to use the on-board HDMI port. Either way it's worthy of a look

As for the mobo, it's actually mATX, so I spec'd them this chassis - it's currently my favourite tower! I doubt you'd want a limiting, small form factor chassis & motherboard, but I thought I'd recommend that considering you have a decent CPU cooler and the RAM already.

The products I have mentioned come to a total of.... £201.69 in VAT exc delivery. Not bad I guess. As for the other £149... you'd probably be able to pick up a decent HDD and PSU included. The PSU I spec'd for my client was Corsair's excellent 520W. Unfortunately that's too expensive for your remaining budget but they do however have a 450W which is probably just as efficient as the 520W but with just a lower rating.

With that out of the way you still have £100 (in a sense) to find a decently sized hard drive. I'd recommend anything by Samsung - albeit they not be the fastest on the market but they're damn quiet, extremely reliable and have a good warranty - not that I've ever needed to replace the drives.

I hope my suggestions help - if you'd like me to do a more AMD based spec - I'd be more than happy too.

Thanks for this post Innocent Criminal I'm looking into getting an intel now, just from what you've said, definitely sways my decision. There is a problem though and that is I need a case at least around 200mm and it must have an acrylic side, this is because my CPU cooler is so big, its around 4 times the size of a standard CPU cooler. I need the acrylic side so that I can cut a whole in the side so that the fan can slide through and suck in more air. Or the other option is buy a case thats like 230mm in width and don't cut a whole. Thanks for all the other information and its been a pleasure talking to you, speak to you soon mate

Mitch

[Darknova]

Really you want atleast 2Gb or RAM, especially for Battlefield 2142 and CS as they both benefit hugely from the extra RAM.

Also, if you definately want to go AM2, I would go with a Brisbane core, and I have never seen a 3800 brisbane in the UK. Try and go for a 2.1Ghz or 2.3Ghz chip (Brisbane).

[InnocentCriminal]

He can alway add another stick of RAM when funds are slightly higher - you're right though, I wouldn't run Vista 32bit on anything less than 2GB and if I was planning using Vista64 then I wouldn't use anything less than 4GB - but as he said, he doesn't have the budget for the big money things.

I guess, if you go the AMD route you'd hopefully save enough money to get that extra stick of RAM. I'd continue look on eBay for another stick - try and get the exact same make, type and speed. You probably already know that.

[Irish_PXzyan]

My friend has Vista ( 64-bit ) and he says its terrible for playing games! he only has 2 gigs of ram and says that is more or less his problem...you must have 4gig for a good experience.
Vista is not a good choice atm tho...maybe go duel mode " Windows XP and Vista " Use XP for gaming and Vista for other stuff...and once DX10 stuff is around then Vista will be the way to go!

[InnocentCriminal]

Originally Posted by MitchMan31

Thanks for this post Innocent Criminal I'm looking into getting an intel now, just from what you've said, definitely sways my decision. There is a problem though and that is I need a case at least around 200mm and it must have an acrylic side, this is because my CPU cooler is so big, its around 4 times the size of a standard CPU cooler. I need the acrylic side so that I can cut a whole in the side so that the fan can slide through and suck in more air. Or the other option is buy a case thats like 230mm in width and don't cut a whole. Thanks for all the other information and its been a pleasure talking to you, speak to you soon mate

Mitch

Not a problem, I'm glad it helped. As for the chassis problem. You could always cut a window yourself. You're 92mm Fan can't be that big - I have one in my Shuttle and it's nothing compared to a 120mm. Still, you'll know better thank I would.

I wouldn't be suprised to see the E4300 drop in a few months. Might be worth holding out saving as much as you can. :P

Oh and don't forget to take pictures once once you're ready to build. ;p

[MitchMan31]

Hi again guys, especially to InnocentCriminal lol

Just to let you know the CPU cooler is around 175mm in height and depending on what case I get it could poke out, by the way do you know how far standard mobo trays are mounted out because this will affect the fans positioning. thanks if you do......

I'm also really pissed now because its typical, I buy something and then the new latest thing is released, what I mean by this is the same crucial ballistix RAM I bought on ebay has just been updated by the seller. So he has just got the 1000mz ram in for the same price as I paid for the 800mhz ram. If I buy this faster ram and install both sets will this affect performance ??? have compatibility issues ??? or just even worse cause system instability ??? I would be appreciative of the help again, Thanks

PS: Don't think i'll be using vista until acouple of months or so because its not at its peak atm, too many problems. Two of my friends have had vista piss up their pc so far in the past month so its not looking good. Anywayz I'm out

Thanks ppl

[InnocentCriminal]

when you say 1000MHz, d'you mean 1066?

I'd get it if it doesn't affect your budget as it'll run at 800MHz when placed with your other (800) stick. Plus, this will enable dual channel which is something you really want to have working these days. As their the same make of RAM, it wouldn't cause any instability or compatibility issues. If you try to OC them though, you may find it might then - as the one 1066 stick will be able to be take the strain better than the 800MHz - that could be a road to when you come to it.

As for Vista - I agree with you on staying clear until the first service pack is out. What's the specification of your current rig, are you able to recycle parts from it?

[cdawall]

look for an 8600GTS the GT is not up to par with it in games

http://www.ebuyer.com:80/UK/product/127242

its worth the extra £10

CPU
here is a brisbane X2 4000+

http://www.ebuyer.com:80/UK/product/125199/rb/0
same price as your X2 3800 but a better oc'r and energy eff.

HDD seagate 250GB 16mb cache
http://www.ebuyer.com:80/UK/product/113433

i prefer seagates to WD since the run cooler/quieter and this on caost £42 inc vat

[mitsirfishi]

why 8600gts they arnt that good in current games and only 128bit might aswell get a x1950pro for the money or wait a while till the x2900pro come sout

[cdawall]

Originally Posted by mitsirfishi

why 8600gts they arnt that good in current games and only 128bit might aswell get a x1950pro for the money or wait a while till the x2900pro come sout

there is no point in getting an X1950 the 8600GT keeps even with it in EVERY test and has DX10 compatability yeah i know there is no way to know how it will do in actual DX10 gameplay but why spend ANY money on something that wont do it at all if you can get what can run it maybe at lower settings but still run it?

STOP BEING A FANBOY you have said this in every thread i mention the 8600GTS the card is not worse than a X1950PRO it pulls almost identicle numbers i have posted several synthetic and real numbers for both cards and the 8600GTS leads in synthetics by ~10% and pulls DEAD even in DX9 gameplay stop trolling...

[InnocentCriminal]

I must admit cdawall has a point mitsirfishi - as Mitch has a SLi capable motherboard, I can't help but look at it as a waste not to utilise that aspect of it. Which he says he will be doing at a later date. That would definately out perform a X1950XT and it would if they would in Crossfire too as they wouldn't be able to run DX10 games - DX9 is another matter.

Mitch - look into getting the GTS - the GT isn't worth it dude. Oh, and 512MB is a minimum in my opinion - try to avoid the 256MB version. Unless it has faster GDDR than the 512MB version(s).

[MitchMan31]

Ok guys, I've taken in what you've said and have found it useful. I may wait and get the RAM later. The other parts are more important atm. Another thing, I've read in quite a few threads and reviews that SLI is a load of old bolloux, so can someone explain why I should lash out a lil bit extra to gain this configuration ??? The other this is what about if I go with a cheaper graphics card for now and update it later ? Because buying a GTS will cost me like an extra £50, when I can be buying a 8600GT for £50 and utilize that money towards a monster mobo or even a better Intel E4300 CPU...... Thanks for the help guys

[InnocentCriminal]

If you get the motherboard I suggested you'd could use the on-board GFX until y'ready to buy. Just a thought.

Originally Posted by MitchMan31

I've read in quite a few threads and reviews that SLI is a load of old bolloux, so can someone explain why I should lash out a lil bit extra to gain this configuration ???

As for SLi being a load of old bollocks - I dunno man. It just hasn't come into it own yet, even though it's been around for a while now. With the arrival wide-screen gaming, I can't help but think that multi-GPU technology will be a decent investment.

Originally Posted by MitchMan31

... if I go with a cheaper graphics card for now and update it later?

I doubt there would be any point buying a cheaper GFX as then you wouldn't be able to play the games you want to play at a respectable frame rate. Unless you can find a decent performing card. I did however just find this on eBay. Alright so it's 256MB still, good price right?!

I'm too tired to look into an AMD route - that might save you some cash instead of the Intel one I suggested.

I'll ask again as you must have missed it the first time... What's the specification of your current rig, are you able to recycle parts from it?

[MitchMan31]

Hi,

I don't wanna say this but I will lol, I have a packard bell IMEDIA 5094 which I bought 7 years ago for £1200. As you know if I had of waited just 7 years for my pc I could have had an absolute sick gaming pc. I'm gutted lol The only parts I could probably recycle are the maxtor 80GB hardrive and the DVD-RW drive I installed recently. Also I've found a Western Digital 36GB Raptor Drive for £56, should I buy this first and buy a 160GB drive later on or what ??? Thanks for the help again

[InnocentCriminal]

I remember reading somewhere that 36GB Raptor wasn't worth the money - I'm trying to find the review now. It might have even been someone on another forum. I'd just get a decent sized cache 160GB now - make sure it's SATA 3Gbps compatible. It doesn't offer much improvement over SATA 1.5Gbps but it's good t'know you have it and it is backwards compatible, so if the mobo you do decide to get doesn't support 3Gbps SATA then you know your drive can run at 1.5. -- Might explain things better than I can --

As for the Packard Bell - my first PC was a P166MMX Packard Bell - lasted me 7 almost 8 years before I built my next computer (which was my first Shuttle).

When it comes to recycling, if you don't plan on using your PB then recycle the HDD and DVD burner for sure! If you do plan to use it as a 2nd PC just take the DVD burner and cross that off your list. That should help with costs.

I'll try and get around to spec'ing out a decent AMD based rig today if I can.

[MitchMan31]

Hi Innocent,

Don't worry about spec'ing up an AMD rig, I'm going to listen to you and go for Intel Core 2 Duo. It will take me an extra week or so to save but I rekon it will be worth it as you say..... I'm also going to spend about £90 or so on a mobo or so. By the way do you know much about this mobo :

• Abit AW9D Intel 975X Skt 775 - http://www.candccentral.co.uk/acatal...B_2d9_2dQuadGT

I was just wondering because that is really cheap on that site compared to others. Most other sites are selling this board for £150...... Thanks Innocent

[InnocentCriminal]

According to Hexus.net - it's extreme!

Only thing I'd suggest is be careful with unfamiliar sites - I recently bought a external enclosure for my DVD burner and they sent me a freaking mobile HDD one instead - fuggin' retards! They didn't even answer my call or e-mail. I'll shout at them all tomorrow as it's Monday.

They're based in Bromsgrove which isn't that far from where from where I live - so if they do screw you over - I'll pay them a visit.

[mullered07]

Originally Posted by InnocentCriminal

According to Hexus.net - it's extreme!

Only thing I'd suggest is be careful with unfamiliar sites - I recently bought a external enclosure for my DVD burner and they sent me a freaking mobile HDD one instead - fuggin' retards! They didn't even answer my call or e-mail. I'll shout at them all tomorrow as it's Monday.

They're based in Bromsgrove which isn't that far from where from where I live - so if they do screw you over - I'll pay them a visit.

lol i live in bromsgrove whats the company called ?

[InnocentCriminal]

Originally Posted by mullered07

lol i live in bromsgrove whats the company called ?

Computers & Components
(Central) Ltd
Unit 12,
Sanders Road,
Bromsgrove,
Worcs,
B61 7DG

Maybe you could check 'em out see if they seem legit - if so you might even be able to get decent deals from them in future.