First own build

[DarkRyu]

After having my last pc break and then spending the last week looking for a halfdecent replacement one ive found myself unable to get one for my budget, so i thought i would give building my own a go, i'm not exactly sure on what i will need to do this so i thought i would just explain on here what i want/need the pc to do and what budget i have to spend and then let you guys give me a hand with what components i should buy,

I have £450 to spend on the new PC and i'm looking for one that will be able to run new games at a steady speed/rate, it will need to be able to run media and graphics software at good speeds because i do alot of photo editing work, and also be good enough for downloading music, browsing the web and some office work, i already have the mouse/keyboard and monitor so dont need them, also i use a wireless router so will need the pc to inclued a wireless network card.

Unfortunatly i dont have long left to buy the pc because i have some work that needs compleating for next week meaning i will need to order the parts and assemble them before next monday/tuesday, is this possible?

Thanks a lot
/Ryu

[Sam-U-Rai]

Well, to start off before everyone recommends parts for this guy, I suggest the 6600 GT for him. It'll run his games and Software pretty good for the price.


*waits for GLC to come to the rescue to help RYU

[DarkRyu]

Originally Posted by Sam-U-Rai Well, to start off before everyone recommends parts for this guy, I suggest the 6600 GT for him. It'll run his games and Software pretty good for the price. *waits for GLC to come to the rescue to help RYU

i already have a GeForce 6600 in my broken pc if thats any good but its AGP meaning i would have to get an old/outdated motherboard and i was kinda wantng the new PC to be upgradable in the near future when i can afford to spend more money on parts, i have also got a 450w PSU which should be fine or would i be best buying all new parts for an all new PC?

/Ryu

[newbuilder14]

"i'm looking for one that will be able to run new games at a steady speed/rate"

Don't reuse the 6600, then. Look at the 7600gt if your on a budget.

[Sam-U-Rai]

If I can build my cheap build for about $400 in parts, I think you can too bro .

I'm a first time builder too so I know what you're going through.


The parts I"M getting that you might want to look into:

1. Western Digital Caviar SE WD800JD 80GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM


2. ASUS M2N Socket AM2 NVIDIA GeForce 6100 ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail

3. SONY Black IDE DVD-ROM Drive Model DDU1615/B2s - OEM

4. FSP Group (Fortron Source) AX400-PN, RoHS, 12cm FAN, version 2.0, 2 SATA, 20+ 4 pin, PCI Express, 400W Power Supply - Retail


5. CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB (2 x 512MB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) Desktop Memory - Retail

6. Sapphire X-1600XT (I'd get the X-1600 PRO instead because they lowered the price to what I had to pay for the XT)

7. And a AMD Athlon 3800+ Single Core 2.4 GHZ CPU


Those are some suggestions. If you don't like ATI, I'd go with Nvidia's 7600 GT or 7600 GS to equal the X-1600.

Overall, WITHOUT an windows XP OEM, I paid around $500 for it. Good luck.

[glc]

450 quid is pretty light for a gamer. You will have to reuse as many components as possible.

Your time frame is way to short to properly research, plan, order, and assemble. You may have to take what you can get - just make sure what you get uses halfway decent quality parts and is upgradeable - i.e. has a video card slot.

Sam, you have no idea what parts cost in the UK - that build of yours will thoroughly bust that budget.

[DarkRyu]

Originally Posted by glc 450 quid is pretty light for a gamer. You will have to reuse as many components as possible. Your time frame is way to short to properly research, plan, order, and assemble. You may have to take what you can get - just make sure what you get uses halfway decent quality parts and is upgradeable - i.e. has a video card slot. Sam, you have no idea what parts cost in the UK - that build of yours will thoroughly bust that budget.

Hmmm maybe i havent given myself enough time or money to do this, maybe a trip to PC world is in order to see what they can do for my budget

[DarkRyu]

What would you guys say if i extended my budget to £600? or is that still not enough money?

nvm bought one from here instead: http://www.arbico.co.uk/

[Sam-U-Rai]

Originally Posted by glc 450 quid is pretty light for a gamer. You will have to reuse as many components as possible. Your time frame is way to short to properly research, plan, order, and assemble. You may have to take what you can get - just make sure what you get uses halfway decent quality parts and is upgradeable - i.e. has a video card slot. Sam, you have no idea what parts cost in the UK - that build of yours will thoroughly bust that budget.

Sorry, forgot about the whole exchange rate.


Hope it works out for you Ryu.

[newbuilder14]

Well I hope you researched that company and made sure they are reliable. They seem okay... Good luck and hope it is a good PC. What are the specs of it?

[glc]

Sam, it's not the exchange rate - parts just cost more there, and they have a 17.5% VAT.

If you are going to give recommendations on parts and computers here to our UK members, you must use UK websites to do your research and pricing.

[DarkRyu]

glc's right - for your graphics card, ram and processor it would cost more then £200 here which would be over $400 - The UK always pay over the odds for anything compaired to the US

[DarkRyu]

After talking with my brother he informed me of another company who i should talk to, they have offered me these:

Optical Drives\DVD Writers: NEC DVD±RW/DL 18x6x18x8 ND-4570A SIL OEM
Motherboards\AM2: FOXCONN K8M890M2MA-RS2H SKT-AM2
Memory\DDR2: 1GB DDR2 533 PC4300
Computer Case: XBlade - Black - 450W PSU
CPU\AMD Athlon 64 X2: AMD ATHLON 64 X2 4600+ 1MB SKT-AM2
Hard Drives\SATA: 160 GB SATA HDD UDMA 300 7200 8MB
Graphics Cards: ASUS 256MB GeF 7600GT SILENT PCI-E SLI

£463.54 inc VAT

or

Optical Drives\DVD Writers: NEC DVD±RW/DL 18x6x18x8 ND-4570A SIL OEM
Motherboards\SKT 939: ASUS SKT-939 A8V-VM S/V/L M-ATX 2000MT/s
CPU\AMD Athlon 64 X2: AMD ATHLON 64 X2 4800+ 2MB SKT-939
Memory\DDR: 2 GB PC 3200 DDR 400
Computer Case: ALIEN - BLACK - 460W PSU
Hard Drives\SATA: 160 GB SATA HDD UDMA 300 7200 8MB
Graphics Cards: ASUS 256MB GeF 7600GT SILENT PCI-E SLI

£519.47 inc VAT

both seem ok in my opinion but what do you guys think - i have e-mail them to see if they would change the case to a thermaltake black tsunami and upgrade the ram to 2gb for the first build but i'm still waiting for a reply, also out of the two which is more future-proof because i will want to upgrade it at some point, the only down side is they dont offer wireless networking cards with there builds, would i be best buying one and fitting it myself or contacting them and asking how much they would charge to add one to the builds?

/Ryu

<>Edit<>

They also offer this Intel:

Optical Drives\DVD Writers: NEC DVD±RW/DL 18x6x18x8 ND-4570A SIL OEM
Motherboards\SKT 775: ASUS SKT-775 P5VD2-MX S/V/L M-ATX 1066
CPU\Intel Core 2 Duo: INTEL CORE 2 DUO E6400 1066FSB SKT775
Memory\DDR2: 1GB DDR2 PC2-5300 667 MHZ
Computer Case: ALIEN - BLACK - 460W PSU
Hard Drives\SATA: 160 GB SATA HDD UDMA 300 7200 8MB
Graphics Cards: ASUS 256MB GeF 7600GT SILENT PCI-E SLI

£478.33

[glc]

Well, all 3 of those are cutting corners on at least 1 component. They are all using VIA chipset motherboards, not the right way to go. Nvidia is best for AMD, and Intel is best for Intel. Asus and Foxconn are both okay for brands though.

DDR2-533 ram will hold an AM2 back quite severely, it really needs DDR2-800 to run at full performance. 1gb is fine for now if you are on a tight budget, just upgrade later.

Wireless cards are easy to add yourself if necessary.

If you need to cut costs after the ram and motherboard issues are sorted, you can cut back on the processor speed without killing things. You can put in the least expensive dual core in each of those series.

The only other question is what they are using for power supplies.

Bottom line, it looks to me like if you can tweak any of those 3 configurations a bit, you will be doing okay. The 7600GT is a quite decent gaming card. The video card is much more important than the raw processor speed for gaming anyway.

[DarkRyu]

I have requested a full components list from them for each build to see what parts they are exactly going to use, one i get it i will post it here so you guys who know what your taking about can look through it and say what you think, remember that i am on a tight budget and have already upped it from £400 to £600 so wont be able to add any more cash unless i wait several months (i get paid monthly). Which of the 3 would you guys favour and what components of that build would you sugest i ask them to change?

Thanks for the help
/Ste

[glc]

Exactly what I posted. Motherboard on all 3 of them. Ram on the AM2. I favor the C2D personally, the 939 is my second choice. Power supply brand is possibly critical, if they are using substandard there's a chance of having problems. Compensate for additional cost by sticking with 1gb of ram and cutting back on the processor speed. No need for a fancy expensive case.

[DarkRyu]

Originally Posted by glc Exactly what I posted. Motherboard on all 3 of them. Ram on the AM2. I favor the C2D personally, the 939 is my second choice. Power supply brand is possibly critical, if they are using substandard there's a chance of having problems. Compensate for additional cost by sticking with 1gb of ram and cutting back on the processor speed. No need for a fancy expensive case.

Thanks for the advice glc - i will contact them about the changes and ost here once they get back to me

[DarkRyu]

Case: Coolermaster Mystuque 631 Black with Window
PSU: FSP Blue Storm 500W Retail PSU
Motherboard: ASUS P5N32-SLI SE Deluxe (1066 FSB Conroe)
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 Retail (2x2.13GHz 1066FSB 2Mb)
Memory: Patriot DDR2-667 2x1024MB LLK Series Dual Channel Kit
Graphics: Vadim Nvidia 7900 GS 256Mb PCIe HDTV
Hard Drive: 160Gb Barracuda 7200.9 8mb Cache SATA II NCQ
Optical Drive: NEC AD-7173A 18x dual layer DVDRW black
PCI card: BELKIN PCI 54G WIRELESS ADAPTER

They have offered to build me this for arround £700-£750 they want me to phone them tomorrow,

[glc]

Get them to replace that SLI board with an Asus P5B and you will have a solid winner. You can save some bucks with an E6300 and never notice the difference.

[DarkRyu]

Final update:

Case: Thermaltake Black Tsunami (no psu)
PSU: Thermaltake 550w PSU
Motherboard: Asus P5W64 WS Professional (1066 FSB Conroe ready)
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 Retail (2x 1.8GHz 1066FSB 2Mb)
Memory: Corsair Twin2X CM2X1024-6400C4PRO
Graphics: Vadim Nvidia 7900 GS 256Mb PCIe HDTV
Hard Drive: 160Gb Barracuda 7200.9 8mb Cache SATA II NCQ
Optical Drive: NEC AD-7173A 18x dual layer DVDRW black
PCI card: BELKIN PCI 54G WIRELESS ADAPTER

Made some changes, hopefully this will be the final component list for my build, fortunatly my brother has given me £200 to put towards the new build (he broke my last pc) and i should be able to get this all for around £700, will be placing the order on friday when i get paid, so if u guys can spot any problems with this build or have any ideas about possible other components please say so

/Ryu

[glc]

That is one expensive motherboard and not necessary - but it IS excellent. I'd actually prefer the plain P5B and that Fortron power supply, but if that list is what you want, no quibbles.

[DarkRyu]

AsusP5B Deluxe WIFI-AP (1066 FSB Conroe ready)
Intel Core Duo E6400 Retail (2x2.1GHz 1066 FSB 2 MB)
FSP Blue Storm 500W Retail PSU

Changed the motherboard and upgraded the CPU and put the old PSU back in, hopefully everything is perfect now and i can order her tomorrow

[glc]

Why the deluxe wifi board? It's your money, but do you need all those extra features? If you do get that board, I believe you won't need the Belkin wifi card.

[DarkRyu]

Originally Posted by glc Why the deluxe wifi board? It's your money, but do you need all those extra features? If you do get that board, I believe you won't need the Belkin wifi card.

They have sold out of the normal P5B board so i went with the deluxe one.... or should i wait until they get it back in stock?

[glc]

Might as well get it - just confirm with the builder that you won't need a separate wireless card and that would help justify the extra expense.