my first build - opinions please

[perkster]

ok, so did research, i want a very fast system, not ever so worried about top of range gaming graphics, but it needs to be able to play modern games to reasonable level, i prefer AMD and it seems AM2 seems best way to go compared to 939?

heres what i found parts wise, anyone can suggest any modifications to this, or if any of these parts seem expensive and you can advise better places to buy them from please do!

I am a bit worried abotu cooling as i havent researched additional fans etc as not sure what the case and motherboard come with and what i would need for this kind of system, if it will fry and needs more cooling please tell me!

thanks

Motherboard: Asus M2V Dual DDRII SATA - £36.55
Processor: AMD 64x2 5600 £GH 2x1MB 64bit - £175.95
PSU: Hiper 730Q three power - £69.95
Memory:Corsair TwinX 2GB XMS2 Dominator DDR2 PC6400 with Airflow Fan TWIN2X2048-6400C3DF £355.95
Hard Drive 1: 500GB Seagate 7200 SATA-2 16MB 300Gb/s £78.95
Hard Drive 2: None at first
DVD/CD Drive 1: LiteOn LH-18A1H-487C 18x DVD-RW LightScribe+3 Bezels £23.50
DVD/CD Drive 2: None £0
Floppy Drive: Black 3.5" - £3.65
Card reader: 3.5" slot 52 in 1 card reader black - £6.89
Graphics Card: Asus GeForce 7600GS 512MB PCI-E DDR2 (DVI) - HDTV out SILENT/HTD £70.10
Sound: On board 7.1 channel £0
PCI card: USB2.0 4 Port PCI Controller Card £3.95
TV card: Pinnacle DVB-T PCI Digital TV Tuner £21.95

[freakitchen]

Welcome to the forums.

Suggest you get a motherboard with an nVidia chipset - which is superior to VIA. The motherboard is not a place to skimp; it's arguably the most important part of your system, and determines its stability - which is very important. Would recommend the ASUS M2N-E

I can't recommend Hiper power supplies either, the quality is variable. Would suggest the Corsair 520w Power supply as a GREAT quality alternative.

Corsair Dominator RAM is VERY expensive, and unnecessary for all but the most extreme overclockers. Go for some Corsair XMS DDR2-800 instead

Would suggest a Hauppauge Tuner for quality reasons, their digital versions are called Nova-T I believe.

[perkster]

Thanks for the tips!

thats just the kind of stuff i need to know that you know from experience. I wasnt too sure on the different chip-sets and what ones are best etc. i was just looking for good L2 cache and AM2 sockets.

Also thanks for power and RAM suggestions, wouldnt mind getting 4gb of ram in my machine so its really ahead of the game in terms of performance, but would need a motherboard with 4 ram slots then and 4x1gb ram i presume?

I am not an avid overclocker, i want a system thats fast and reliable without pushing it too hard, so more important to get good quality components that perform and wont die on me.

is 500W or so power enough for most systems? i know a lot of computers come with 340W etc but while i want the system not to be too noisy i need to make sure it has enough power, i use quite a few USB devices and despite plugged in USB hubs i would think I would still use quite a bit of power.

thanks for your tips, and any other advice greatly welcomed, i will start buying and making next month, so just trying to get my schematic plan in place and making sure its affordable and there are no compatibility issues, any advice on best places to buy components? seems big differences in prices between websites that I have seen, any bargains to be had with quality components?

Thanks

[Alaron]

I would stick with 2GB of RAM. If you are using Windows XP, it cannot use more then 3.2 anyway. Only Vista (or XP x64) can handle 4GB, but we don't recommend using that until some Service Packs come out.

The wattage of the power supply is largely determined by the video card, since that consumes the most power. And a 7600GS is not as much of a power hog as some of the expensive 8800 cards are. So 500w will be fine for you. The Corsair unit that FK recommended is very high quality and will give you plenty of room to upgrade down the line.

Also, be sure to check if your LiteOn drive comes with software. Not all models do, and you'll need some.

[YukonMaster]

Most motherboards have 4 Slots for adding up to 4GB of ram. 520W of quality power is enough for most systems. Quality is far more important than pure wattage. That PSU will be enough to power your system and allow for upgrades.

Hope that helps,

YukonMaster

[bosamar]

Build yourself a nice MSI K9 nVidia system. The K9N Diamond is excellent, followed by the K9N Platinum. Everything else you chose looks good.

[perkster]

ok thanks to all advice so far, system plan now looks like this, any other recommendations? do i need any further cooling or will the fans on PSU and the processor and graphics card be enough?


Motherboard: Asus M2V Dual DDRII SATA - £70.49 inc VAT (misco)

Processor: Retail Boxed AMD X2 Dual Core AM2 Athlon 64 5600 2.8GHz 2x1MB - £213.85 inc VAT (novatech)

PSU: Corsair HX520 520 Watt PSU - £68.15 inc VAT (novatech)

Memory:Corsair XMS6400 2GB DDR2 (2x1GB) 800Mhz Non-ECC - £138.65 inc VAT (novatech)

Hard Drive 1 (master):Western Digital Caviar SE16 320Gb 16Mb Cache Hard Disk Drive SATAII 300MB/s <8.9ms 7200rpm - OEM -

£59.34 Inc VAT (novatech)

Hard Drive 2 (slave):Western Digital Caviar SE16 320Gb 16Mb Cache Hard Disk Drive SATAII 300MB/s <8.9ms 7200rpm - OEM -

£59.34 Inc VAT (novatech)

DVD/CD Drive 1: LiteOn 20x Dual Layer All Write DVD+/-R/RAM Retail Includes Beige/Black/Silver Bezels - £27.61 Inc VAT

(novatech)

DVD/CD Drive 2: None £0

Floppy Drive: 1.44MB 3.5 Inch Floppy Disk Drive (Black) - £8.22 inc VAT (novatech)

Card reader: 3.5" slot 52 in 1 card reader black - £6.89

Graphics Card: INNO3D GEFORCE 7600GS 256MB PCI-E DVI TV £57.99 inc VAT(misco)

Sound: On board 7.1 channel £0

PCI card: Novatech USB2 PCI Controller Card 4 Port 98SE 2000 ME & XP £11.16 inc VAT (novatech)


total cost: £721.69

[perkster]

just realised i need to include a case, any suggestions on cases, as there seem to be many brands and i am not sure what features i need to look for, with the above specs and plan to add a PC tuner card and 2nd optical drive in time, i need enough bays and slots etc. dont care about neons and lights etc, just want basic decent black case.

[freakitchen]

Suggest you look at www.overclockers.co.uk for your parts. Buying from two separate stores means paying for two lots of shipping. Novatech are OK, I believe, I haven't heard of Misco so can't comment.

You've listed the price of the M2N-E next to the M2V, I assume you're going for the former (you can edit your above list)

Otherwise, that's a good list. Go eVGA as the brand for your video card if you can (not available at all vendors). Do you really need that USB2 PCI card? The board will have plenty ports built in, plus headers and brackets to add more.

The fans that come with your components will be sufficient in themselves, the only other cooling you need to think about is on your case, which moves air through the system. Cases are a personal preference thing, find one that you like. Suggest a mid-tower or larger to give yourself enough room, and look for 120mm fans to keep the noise down (preferably one intake and one exhaust).

[perkster]

you are right i did plan to buy the M1N-E on your suggestion and it looks much better, in fact by following suggestions on here my overall price went down, which is good!

i am a bit confused about USB ports, seems most motherboards have 4 on back and 2 on front, but then mention intenal USBs? what use are internal USBs and what so you use them for? how can i without a USB2PCI card make use of more USB ports on my computer, without using my self powerered external USB hub (which is tempremental) You mention headers and brackets, but I dont know what you mean can you explain how to use them, and how many ports i could have accessible if i used them?

Appreciate all your advice and patients people, i will be on these forums a lot and as i learn more from you i will help answer other peoples questions to give back.

1 intake, 1 exhaust sounds ideal to get air flow through the machine and limit dust build up.

thanks for tip about eVGA, didnt know which ones were best, will see if i can find a good one on that basis, thanks for link.

[freakitchen]

eVGA aren't all that common in the UK. If you struggle, BFG / Gainward are good alternatives.

What you'll get with the board is four ports on the back, the rest have to be added, but that's easy to do. On the board itself, there are two headers (at the very bottom of the board if you're looking at pictures, in blue plastic). These will give you two extra USB ports each - you'll probably want to connect the ports on the front of the case to one of these.

Some boards also come with brackets, which attach to one of the PCI slot covers on the rear of the case, and connect to the USB headers on the motherboard - this will give you two extra ports on the rear.

Of course, you can still use a USB2 PCI Card, but you'll have 8 ports already with that configuration.

[perkster]

ok thanks for explaining that! 8 should be enough.

managed to find some evga graphics boards, som expensive ones but might look for going for a cheaper vesion as i dont play really graphic intensive games. and anythign will be better than my Radeon 9200 i have on here.

[freakitchen]

A 7600GT will give you good performance for the price.

[bosamar]

Originally Posted by Freakitchen A 7600GT will give you good performance for the price.

I've got one of those in my MSI K9N Diamond and it's great.

[perkster]

thanks guys ill look it up now, think this machine is looking much better thanks to everyones advice. will see if i can find all the parts on overclockers, their prices seem better and as you said getting everything from one place would be ideal.

[freakitchen]

Out of all the UK online stores I've tried, I've had best luck with Overclockers. They stock quality parts. They don't have eVGA 7600 cards, but I believe they do have a BFG 7600GT, which would be my pick.

[perkster]

Case: Thermaltake VB1000BWS Soprano SuperMidi Tower - Black £51.69
Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 5600+ 2.80GHz (Socket AM2) - Retail £205.61
MOBO: Asus M2N-SLi Deluxe (Socket AM2) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £88.11
PSU: Corsair HX 520W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU (CMPSU-520HXUK) £70.49
RAM: Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2-6400C5 TwinX (2x1GB) £135.11
HD x 2 Western Digital Caviar SE16 320GB 3200KS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM £122.18
Optical Drive: LiteON LH-20A1P-487C 20x DVD±RW x12 Ram Dual Layer DVD-Writer - Retail £25.13
Floppy: Sony Floppy Drive - Black £5.86
Card reader: Akasa AK-ICR-01 Internal Card Reader £11.74
Graphics card: EVGA GeForce 7600 GS 512MB DDR2 HDTV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (£99.86

All parts from overclockers. think this list is looking finalised now.

[glc]

Why a SLI board?

[freakitchen]

For some reason, the M2N-E has disappeared from Overclockers. You can get it from ebuyer, though - it's currently on free 5-day shipping, which is a bonus!

http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/112086

Everything else looks good, except the video card - you're paying a premium for 512MB of memory. I think you'd be better off with this 7600GT - a more powerful card and cheaper.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...=56&subcat=356

[perkster]

thanks i think some things were missing from overclockers, so i got nearest i could to save buying from multiple places.. ebuyer look very cheap though.

[perkster]

the MOBO is then £30 cheaper, bonus!

and graphics card another £10 cheaper.

thanks again for pointing those out.

[freakitchen]

I'd be comfortable buying from either retailer. Neither is perfect, but I've had very few problems with both. I think the current setup you have - everything from Overclockers, motherboard with free shipping from ebuyer - will work out for you. On a forum note, please use the EDIT button if you have something to add to a post...thanks

[perkster]

Thank you and sorry for not editing previous post, still a newbie