First time build advice

[Ruzza]

Hi, I've never done a full build from scratch before, although I feel I could cope, I've fiddled about with things and upgraded components just never a complete build.

I have been researching and would like some advice on the components I have chosen, I
would particularly like advice on a suitable graphics card, I will most likely use it for a little gaming but I'm not bothered on full settings, just something that is fairly cost effective whilst providing decent performance.

Heres the list...

Motherboard
Asus P5B (Sckt 775) £66.18
P5B Mobo (http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?rb=27954479514&action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X3NwZWNpZmljYXRpb25z&product_uid=113965&spec_type=ZXh0ZW5kZWQ=)

CPU
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 (2.4ghz) £137.46
E6600 PROC (http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=430633)

RAM
OCZ 2Gb PC2-6400 DDR2-800 £83.22
OCZ 2GB RAM (http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/118306)

HDD
Samsung SpinPoint 320GB SATA-II 16MB Cache £49.81
Samsung 320gb SATA HDD (http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=529060)

Optical Drive
Samsung DVD±RW SATA lightscribe £19.96
Samsung DVD+RW SATA (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CD-084-SA&groupid=701&catid=10&subcat=349)

OS
Windows Vista Home Premium 32 or 64 bit? The price difference is minimal so would appreciate some advice.

Cases
Antec Nine Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case £64.61
Antec P900 (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-065-AN)
WITH
Akasa Ultra Quiet 400W ATX 2.0 Blue LED £44.64
Akasa 400w PSU (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-013-AK&tool=3)

OR
Antec Sonata II Case in Piano Black with 450w PSU £75.53
Antec Sonata II Case (http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=548064)

Not quite sure on the case as if I opted for the cheaper one I could put some money towards a better GPU.

GPU
256MB BFG Technology 8600GT Overclocked £87.94
BFG 8600GT OC (http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=599469)
OR
XFX 8600GT 256MB DDR3 XXX £114.74
XFX 8600GTXXX (http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/127345)
OR
Point Of View 7600GT 256mb £64.95
POV 7600GT (http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?rb=27958121664&action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X3Jldmlld3M=&product_uid=106578)
This last card is probably too cheap and nasty, just thought I'd throw it in to mix things up.

Thanks for reading, sorry a little long, I would appreciate any pointers you could give me, especially about GPU and cases etc, as I'm fairly new to this and some of these components may be completely unsuitable, so speak your mind!
If you know of any better places to get the components from I'd be more than happy to hear from you!

Thanks again for taking the time to read and for any advice given.

Cheers Russ.

[Alaron]

Welcome to PCMech. You have a very solid list, but I have a couple suggestions.

For a Core 2 Duo build, you only need DDR2-667. Anything higher is overkill if you don't want to overclock.

Samsung drives are 'ok' at best. For hard drives, we recommend Seagate 7200.10 SATA drives. The 320GB versions are a great price per GB.

For opticals, take a look at a SATA LiteOn Retail drive, not OEM. Retail drives come with burning software.

Either of those case and PSU combinations are solid. Take a look at the Sonata III as well. Comes with a 500w Earthwatts PSU to give you a very good power supply and plenty of headroom. http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/128045

I'd go with an 8600GT over the 7600GT because the 8xxxs give you DirectX 10 for the future. The 7600GT is still a good card if you're on a budget though. We usually recommend eVGA cards for their superior reputation over XFX.

We have been recommending that new builders stick with XP for now, but if you want Vista, go with 32bit to avoid driver hassles.

[Ruzza]

Hi,
thanks for the input, I swapped the samsung HDD to a seagate as I can also remember reading not such good things about samsungs elsewhere.
Seagate 320gb SATA (http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/115418)

As for the DVD writer, I really wanted lightscribe, I know it's probably just a fancy gimmick and probably isn't worth the money, but it'll look nice showing off to the mrs ;)
I can't find a Liteon SATA lightscribe, do they make them? I can only see IDE ones, and as I've read, this board uses 3rd party IDE support so SATA is the way to go.

I switched to the Sonata III it looks a lot better and better PSU for a marginal increase in price, read a review aswell and all looks good.

With the 800mhz RAM, will this cause any issues if I keep it, as I may look into overclocking sometime, I know I'd need a better HSF cooler than the stock one, but I could get that later. Or should I just get the 667mhz rated one?

I'm still not sure on the graphics card, I'll have to tot up the prices so far and see where that leaves me.

Sorry again for a long post.
Cheers, Russ.

[Alaron]

Upon closer inspection that Samsung you picked out does include Nero burning software. Usually don't see that with OEM units. However, I'd still stick with LiteOn. Here is one with Lightscribe: http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?LIT-20XL Keep in mind that requires lightscribe specific CDs.

You can use DDR2-800 no problem if you want to leave the overclocking option open.

Your other changes are good. :)

[Ruzza]

Hi again, the drive you specified is an IDE drive, I am looking for a SATA drive, I have searched google and checked liteon's website, but to no avail, I don't think they have them in UK. I did however find this on newegg but it's US so I couldn't get. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106073

A google search on that model number brings hardly anything up for the UK.
I may stick with the samsung, or get a liteon and maybe get a samsung later.

Cheers Russ.

[Ruzza]

Hi, I'll post my revised list now, seems a little better, any comments would be appreciated.

Mobo: Asus P5B £66.18 ebuyer p5b (http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?rb=27954479514&action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X3NwZWNpZmljYXRpb25z&product_uid=113965&spec_type=ZXh0ZW5kZWQ=)
CPU: Core 2 Duo E6600 £137.46 scan e6600 (http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=430633)
HDD: Seagate 7200 320GB SATA 16MB £49.81 ebuyer seagate (http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/115418)
RAM: GeiL 2GB PC6400 800mhz £58.74 ocuk GeiL (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-058-GL)
DVDRW: LiteOn 20X SATA DVD±RW £25.64 ebuyer LiteOn (http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/127442)
GPU: EVGA GeForce 8600GT 256MB £93.94 aria eVGA (http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Graphics+Cards/PCI-E/nVIDIA+GeForce+8+Series/EVGA+GeForce+8600GT+256MB+PCI-E+DVI?productId=26910)
Case: Antec Sonata III Case 500w PSU £79.99 ebuyer Sonata III (http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/128045)
OS: Windows Vista Home Premium x32Bit £65.67 scan vista (http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=527301)

The case is currently on preorder status on the website, not sure when they're coming in.
That GPU looks ok and read a review I found from googling and they seemed to like it, also changed the RAM to GeiL, very cheap and has good reviews.

Thanks for looking.
Russ.

[minsonngo]

Looking good! :D

[Cricket]

RAM: GeiL 2GB PC6400 800mhz £58.74 ocuk GeiL (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-058-GL)
also changed the RAM to GeiL, very cheap and has good reviews.But is it compatible with that motherboard? I heard Geil RAM uses slightly higher voltages...will that particular motherboard be able to run the Geil RAM? Corsair VS DDR 667 is known to run fine on that motherboard.

:) Cricket

[perkster]

it seems you are buying your items from 2 or 3 places, that will increase your shipping and packaging costs, i would see if you can locate them all one one of them, even if prices vary a little may save you money overall

[Ruzza]

Hi, yeah that Geil ram uses voltage 1.9-2.3v, I done a little googling and it appears this board boots standard at 1.8v, they recommend using a stick of value ram to boot into bios then change manually to a higher voltage so the RAM can be used.
As I don't have any spare Value ram, this isn't an option and I will most likely just buy two of the modules you specified, the OCZ modules I had earlier are also 1.9v+ so they are out aswell.

I think my googling has turned up the right results, if you disagree, feel free to correct me as you have more first hand knowledge I suspect.

I had a little think about the shipping and may well do that as most suppliers only vary in price a little.

Thanks for pointing that out.

Cheers Russ.

[Ruzza]

Here is the final specs.

Ebuyer
OS: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium x32Bit OEM £65.79
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 (2.4ghz) 4MB Cache Retail Boxed Processor £148.95
DVD: LiteOn 20X SATA DVD±RW/RAM With Beige, Black & Silver Bezel + Nero - Retail £25.64
HDD: Seagate 7200.10 320GB SATAII/300 8.5ms 7200RPM 16MB Cache - OEM £49.81
MOBO: Asus P5B Socket Lga775 Core 2 Duo Intel P965 Fsb1066 8gb Ddr2 Audio £65.70
GPU: MSI 8600GT 256MB OC version DVI HDTV PCI-E £87.88
OcUK
PSU: Akasa Ultra Quiet 400W Paxpower Active PFC ATX2.0 PSU £44.64
RAM: Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2-5400C4 TwinX (2x1GB) £52.86
CASE: Antec Nine Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case £64.61
Total to £617.65 and I can get another 10 off using google checkout.

Listed are the final specs, I will order soon probably, check them over please.


Thanks, Russ.

[minsonngo]

Everything looks good... I'm not familiar with the Akasa PSU so I can't say if it is good or not.


But I would have just stuck with the Antec Sonata III Case that you had in a previous post. It comes with a very good 500 watt PSU that should support the majority of video cards that you may upgrade to in the future.

[Ruzza]

Hi, yeah ideally I would have had the sonata III case but it's on pre-order everywhere, expected to come in 2-3 weeks, but not definitey. So instead I decided to go with the antec again, it adds a little cost but I don't fancy waiting that long.

Cheers Russ.

[Ruzza]

http://img354.imageshack.us/img354/525/complistvx1.jpg

Here are the bits I would like to order, i'm happy to see the sonata III in now!
Comment please.

Russ

[Cricket]

Here are the bits I would like to order, i'm happy to see the sonata III in now!
Comment please.Looks fine to me.

Please change the image to a link. This forum tries to be dialup friendly.

:) Cricket

[minsonngo]

Final specs look good to me too.

[Ruzza]

I've ordered the bits, I'll post pics etc when I get them and build it if I can.
Wont be here for some time yet though because I got the slow free shipping.

Cheers for the help.
Russ

[Mr.Ferrari]

Just fyi, the Akasa is made by a company called Enhance, same people who make a good chunk of Silverstone powersupplies. A high quality unit. The Akasa name brand is usually found in the UK and Europe..

But you made a better choice with the Sonata III, it'll give you more headroom for future upgrades.