Is this build going to cause grief?

[magic79]

Heya,


My computer celebrated its 11th birthday last week or so and its looking a bit of a miserable mess, so its going to retire soon and i thought i could have a bash at making a new one. It seems to be something thats deceptively simple yet bewilderingly techincal under the surface, like my cheesecake .

Anyway after a bit of research and shopping around, i came up with a list of hardware that id like to put together and hopefully someone can tell if it will work or car crash, and how it would fair as a machine for a semi serious gamer and very heavy downloader, so here you go:


CPU: AMD Athlon 64 Dual Core 6000, Socket AM2, Retail
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...MEWA:IT&ih=016

Mainboard: ASUS AI Life M2N-SLI Deluxe 570 or 590
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...MEWA:IT&ih=015

RAM: OCZ 2GB DDR2 PC2 6400 800MHz, SLI ready
http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/4-/343397...searchsource=0

Graphics Card: Nvidia 7900 GTX 512mb or MSI 7900 GTX 512mb
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/NVIDIA-7900-GT...QQcmdZViewItem
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/MSI-7900-GTO-7...QQcmdZViewItem

HDD: Maxtor 200GB IDE

PSU: Not sure how much power is required

DVDRW Dual Layer: 20x Samsung IDE

FDD: 1.44 Generic

Case: Any ATX case

Already have: Monitor, Keyboard, Wireless Router, Speaker, Mouse


Would it possible to put Vista onto this? Also am i aiming too high with these components for my first build

Please share your words of wisdom, Cheers!!!

[Alaron]

Welcome to PCMech.

Your list is fine as it is but I have some tweaks. First, buying from eBay is always a risky play. Check out www.overclockers.co.uk , www.dabs.com and www.ebuyer.com for some UK retailers.

Go with SATA drives instead of IDE. Samsung opticals are not the greatest. We recommend Retail LiteOn drives and be sure they come with software.

The 7900 cards are a generation old right now. If you're gaming, look at the 8600GT and 8800 GT cards.

For power, it largely depends on your video card. I'd go with a 500w unit. We recommend Corsair 520HX power supplies for gamers.

Vista would be fine on that machine if you want to use it.

[maxnik]

you may wanna check Athlon 64 X2 5000 - black edition. They are built built with 65 nm process and consume less power. They are very easily oveclockable.

[magic79]

Hurrah my list is ok! Im thinking of waiting for the christmas sales, as ebay could very well rob me blind and what with postage for every component; hopefully the bits would have come down by then.

BTW what are SATA and IDE, and there differences?

[magic79]

Just a guess but with overclocking do you tell the processor to run a bit more? Like going at 110%?

[Alaron]

SATA is new technology. Thinner cables, faster transfer rates. Plus motherboards are phasing out IDE in favor of SATA. It just makes sense to buy SATA now. IDE is old tech.

Yes, thats the jist of overclocking. But I honestly wouldn't bother with it. The system will be plenty fast at stock settings.

[magic79]

Thanks Alaron. Id rep you but theres not a button for it.

It probably wont all go to plan so ill return with something along the lines of 'help theres this blue screen and it says it only has 45 seconds to live!'. Will let you know how i get on.