3rd build! Initial Draft

[Metalstar]

Hi all

Its about time i upgraded again. My current spec is in my sig

I have recently gained a little bit of extra cash so its time to build a new PC. I havent been keeping up with current tech so I would appreciate your input on the following draft spec :

Case :Aerocool CoolView Silver Midi Tower Case

PSU :ThermalTake TR2 500W Black Silent +ATX 12V 2.0 PSU

HDD:320 GB Western Digital Caviar JB 7200rpm 8MB cache

Mobo:Abit KN8 SLI Motherboard

CPU:AMD Athlon 64 x2 Dual Core 3800 512k Cache per core

RAM:Geil® Value 2Gb PC3200 Dual Chan DDR Kit

Graphics CardXFX GeForce 7900GT SLI eXTreme Edition 256MB DDR3, PCI-E

I'm going to use the monitor/keyboard etc. etc. from my current PC.

I would appreciate any comments/suggestions on the above. It is mainly a gaming PC, Mainly Racing Sims, FPS's and RPG's.

Any comments are welcome!

[Alaron]

Looks pretty good.

If you aren't considering SLI, you could use the Asus A8N5X board instead. If you are considering SLI, you should look at this list of power supplies so you'll be ready: http://www.slizone.com/object/slizon..._powersupplies

Switch the hard drive to one with a 16MB cache and SATA.

Also, you may want to look at eVGA for video cards, XFX is not the most reliable brand.

[MakeYourslf2012]

Alaron pretty much covered it, follow those suggestions and it will make a great build.

[Metalstar]

Thanks guys - I've made a couple of changes, tell me if you think they are ok.

I cant find anyone over here who stock evga cards so i have gone with a gainward - i believe they are more reputable.

Also, i want to get a Physics card when more games support them, it will need a PCI 2.0 slot or higher. will this board support it?

Also, i have upped the processor to a 4200, only pops it £2 over my budget

Case :Aerocool CoolView Silver Midi Tower Case

PSU :ThermalTake TR2 500W Black Silent +ATX 12V 2.0 PSU

HDD:250 GB Western Digital Caviar SE16 SATA2 7200rpm 16MB cache

Mobo:Asus A8N5X AMD Skt939 nForce 4 2000MTS PCI-E

CPU:AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4200 512k Cache per core (2.2GHz) Skt 939

RAM:Geil® Value 2Gb PC3200 Dual Chan DDR Kit

Graphics Card: Gainward GF Bliss 7900GT SLI 256MB 1.5ns DDR3, PCI-E

[MakeYourslf2012]

Gainward is fine for the video card - that haven't been producing alot of the newer generations, but they a reputable manufactuerer a while ago.

Yes your motherboard will support a Physics card.

[Metalstar]

Thanks for the help

Have ordered all the bits now, should all be here by tuesday! I'll post again to let you know how it goes.

Hopefully i cant start cranking all the settings to full again!

[Metalstar]

All the stuff arrived. Its all together and windows setup is now formatting the hard drive. Everything seems to be ok so far!

Its taking a long time to format though, excuse the silly question but is this to be expected? Its a 250gig WD. Should i have chosen the "quick" format option?

[MakeYourslf2012]

Yes, it will take a long time for Windows to format a 250GB hard drive - I would say at about an hour.

It won't really make a difference in the long run, but a regular format just scans the whole drive for bad sectors. A "quick" format is significantly quicker; and should you choose to reformat again at a later date, you can just choose this option.

Good luck!

[Metalstar]

yup, took about 45 mins to do

I am on the new pc now Its quieter than my old one by far, just downloading the drivers etc now

Only problem so far is the sound not coming out of all the speakers correctly, they are dodgy though so i'll pick some new ones up tommorrow.

[drew.]

awww im so jelouse, i wont be building my 2nd till a few more weeks, what games you plan to run on it?

[Metalstar]

I use racing sims such as Live for Speed and NetKar Pro alot.

Also the usual FPS's UT2k4, FEAR, etc.

Oblivion and Guild wars are also in my collection Its running fine so far, dont want to jinx it though

Good luck with your build, hope it goes as well as this one did.