My First

[Eddy_maine]

I've sourced all these fundamental parts already. What i want to make sure is that they will all work together.
Some of my concerns include.

Power! How much will i need to power this lot safely. You can see i have a 720W PSU and a case with a 600W PSU. I know i don't need both but on the case there are SATA" connections but my motherboard seems to have ATA, Am i right? If so i guessing this case won't work. Are there any other problems with what i've selected?


Asus M2A-VM HDMI AM2 Motherboard AMD690G Onboard VGA Audio Gb LAN USB Micro ATX (MOTASUM2AVMH) £37.45

AMD CPU AM2 Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 6000+ Retail Box inc Fan Socket AM2 (3yr Manufacturer's Warranty) (CPUAMD2D6000) £84.99

Kingston 1GB Value Ram DDR2 667MHz PC5300 Memory (MEMKINVR1024D53) £59.96

500 GB Hitachi Deskstar T7K500 7200rpm 16MB Cache SATA 300 (HAR500HITS7216) £53.50

Samsung DVD RW SH-S202 BEBN IDE Black 20x +/-R/RW RAM DL oem (DVDSAMSHS202B) £15.52

Atrix 720W Black Silent PSU 12cm Fan (PSUATR700) £39.79

Tsunami case LEO-46 Midi tower 600W PSU 24 Pin Sata2 BLACK

Creative Soundblaster X-Fi Series Xtreme Gamer (SOUCREXFIXGAM) £47.60

[Freakitchen]

Welcome to the forums. Before I suggest any changes, what will this computer be used for (games? video/photo editing? internet/office work?), and what is your budget for the system?

I ask, because you've configured a strange system there - you've picked a powerful processor, but with a 'budget' motherboard that has only on-board video, and a low amount of RAM. The lack of a dedicated video card, in particular, will make that system unsuitable for gaming, but on the flip-side, that processor is overkill for a basic-use system. There are other changes I'd make, too, but let's decide on the core components first!

[Eddy_maine]

Hi, thanks for looking into it. I thought the motherboard was a bargain actually. Upto 8mb of ram if i want it, and HDMI output. It's got a poor intergrated graphics card but i'm gonna get an 8800 graphics card at alater date. It will be primarily a gaming pc. My budget is around £800/$1700 but i'm buying the bits montly so there is a little leeway on this.

[Cricket]

You really can't game with on-board video...it'll lag like crazy. You need a dedicated video card meant for gamers to really make this a gaming rig.

Don't get Kingston RAM, they've been having quality control issues the last few years and their RAM has a high failure rate. Get Corsair instead.

And you really don't want a Hitachi hard drive...they don't have the nickname "Death Star" for nothing.

Samsung optical drives are very unreliable...look at Lite-On, LG or NEC instead.

I wouldn't use either power supply...I don't know what brand the 600 watt is but it probably isn't very good (most power supplies they provide with the case are cheap, low quality units). And I'm not familiar with Atrix power supplies so I'd avoid it. I'd stick to known good brands like Antec, Corsair, Fortron Source, Enermax, PC Power & Cooling, Seasonic and Sparkle Power.

:) Cricket

[Eddy_maine]

Yea im not gaming with the onboard one, Im gonna get 8800 512mb graphics card, but as it's the most expensive bit im getting it last!

Thanks for the heads up on the ram, my mate is in IT support and he laughed at the hard drive as well! So im gonna steer clear of that. To run This motherboard, processor, and graphics card liek the one above what sort of waatage should i be looking at for my psu?

[Freakitchen]

There's nothing especially wrong with that route, but my suggestion to you would be to wait until you can afford every component - including the video card - and buy all at once. That way, you'll be able to play games straight away, AND you'll be able to go for a full-sized ATX motherboard without on-board video, which will get you more features. Not to mention the fact that prices always go down.

If you do go this route, I'd recommend this motherboard - the SLI function is unnecessary, but it's at a good price and has a solid chipset

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/121169

Here's the specific RAM I'd recommend

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/111439

On power supplies, wattage is less important than the quality. There's no way that either of those power supplies could put out 600w continuously, whereas a high quality unit will always be able to match its claims. Assuming an 8800 series card, this would be my suggestion:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/114945

My hard drive suggestion:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/130826

And the optical drive:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/127442

My suggestion on the soundcard would be to give the on-board sound a try first. If you think it's good enough, then you don't need a dedicated soundcard! Finally, don't forget to factor in the price of an operating system.

[Eddy_maine]

Thanks that's great, will have to work around moboard unfortuantley as i was silly and already got this. I am patient though so i may continue along this route. OS is key and i had thought about it, shame vista is so bloody terrible.

Also the motherboard i do have, the chipset is different to the one you have suggested. what difference does this make. Does it mean my current mobo won't support and nvidia 8800 graphics card? Or does it mean it just won't be quite as good?

[Freakitchen]

Okay, well that motherboard will still work with what you want to do.

I forgot to add my video card recommendation...

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/134944

[Eddy_maine]

Thanks for all your help! Appreciate it. As long as it runs COD4 and Counterstrike Source i'll be happy! :)