Could use some help picking parts.

[Moose on the Loose]

Hi everyone. It's been a while since I came to these fora, they've been very useful during my first build (which I am still using as we speak without any real problems), and now I've come to beg for help yet again

I haven't really been following the hardware scene too much, so I have no idea what to look out for anymore. Any pointers are more than welcome. Basically, I'm trying to come up with a decent system without spending too much money. I guess we're talking about 600 US dollars, the prices are a bit different here.

I already have a monitor and speakers, a mouse, a keyboard, and I can get a license for Windows Vista through my college.

This is what I've come up with so far:

Case: Antec Mid Tower Sonata Plus 550 ATX 550W: I hate noise. These cases are known for being quiet, and this one comes with a rock solid 550W PSU. I assume Antec is still a reputable PSU manufacturer
Link: http://www.4launch.nl/shop/#p-4-productid-047795

CPU: I was thinking of an Intel Core2 Duo on the 775 socket. No idea which CPU offers the best bang for buck right now, and I'm open to suggestions.

Motherboard: I'm kind of lost here. I don't know which chipsets are stable, or how much money I should invest. In the past, I've always stuck to ASUS boards, and I think I'd like to keep it that way unless there is a good reason why I shouldn't.

RAM: Some Corsair / Kingston ValueRAM matching the FSB on my future CPU. I don't believe I'll benefit too much from hard tied RAM as I don't intend to do any overclocking or hardcore gaming (although I would like to do some).

Hard drive: I would like at least 300-400 gig of quickly accessible hard drive space. The Maxtor I used in the build in my signature died after about a year and a half. I think I'd like to stay away from that brand this time.

Video Card: Again, I'm a bit lost here as well. I've been checking out some benchmarks and reviews on Tom's Hardware, but I haven't made any decisions yet. I would like an affordable, decent graphics card that will last me for a while. Preferably one that's not too noisy (which seems to be an issue with the latest ATI releases from what I've read).

I hope that's all the information you need. Basically I'm trying to build a silent medium-end system that will allow me to play the latest games, doesn't need to be at max settings, but it would be nice to be able to run them more or less smoothly at least.

Thanks in advance for any help,

Moose

[Alaron]

Here is the basic list we start most people with. We can tweak it for your budget if needed.

Asus P5Q motherboard
Intel E8400 CPU (downgrade to the E7200 if that is too expensive)
2 or 4 GB of Corsair DDR2-800.
Seagate 7200.11 Hard Drives. The 500GB is a nice GB/$ spot right now.
The video card of choice right now is the Radeon HD4850, but that could stretch the budget.

Case choice is solid.

[vtfanmv5]

I haven't really heard any fan noise problems regarding the Radeon HD 4000 series. Yes, they have some driver problems which require you to manually turn up the fan speed in order to keep temps reasonable. But from what I can tell the fan sounds pretty much the same at 45% as it did at 23%.

[Moose on the Loose]

1x Antec Mid Tower Sonata 550
1x Asus ATI HD4850 1GB
1x Corsair 2x2GB PC6400 CL4.0
1x Intel E8400 Core 2 Duo Box
1x Seagate 500GB SATA300 32MB


€ 641.50
It's a bit over budget but I think I can manage. Looking good?

[shadowpr]

To lower the budget, get 2x1gb ddr2-800.

Or, and I would do this anyway, get the cl5 instead of cl4 version of that ram.

You could also drop the cpu to a e7200.

[vtfanmv5]

Looks pretty good.

I've heard that CAS4 RAM sometimes causes some problems. Going with CAS5 may be a safer (and cheaper) choice.

As for the Radeon HD 4850 - the 1GB model would make much of a difference unless you're running at very high resolutions. If you are, I think it's a great choice. If not, the regular 512MB model may do everything you need for a few less euros.

[Moose on the Loose]

I don't know if it's "very high". I'm using a 20/22' monitor with a max resolution of 1680x1050 I believe.

[vtfanmv5]

I would recommend saving and sticking with the 512MB model, then. The difference would be near nothing at that resolution, worth saving 30 euros over, in my opinion.

[Moose on the Loose]

Thanks a lot for the quick replies everyone

What about the Nvidia counterpart to that gfx card, is there anything in range that compares to it, or is ATI the clear winner in this price range ?

[vtfanmv5]

The ATi 4850 and 4870 pretty much own the $170 to $285 price range right now. The only single GPU card that can outperform the 4870 is the farrr more expensive GTX280. The 4850 falls in slightly above the more expensive 9800GTX+.

[Moose on the Loose]

Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 Tray 6144Kb, LGA775, 64bit
Arctic Freezer 7 Pro Sockel 775
4096MB DDR2 Corsair Twin2X CL 5, PC6400/800
ASUS P5Q, Sockel 775 Intel P45, ATX
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 500GB SATA II ST3500320AS
Club3D HD4850 512MB, ATI Radeon HD4850, PCI-Express

Got this in a shopping basket now. Is the RAM matched for the CPU? Ordering pretty soonish!

[shadowpr]

Looks good.

Only thing is, you don't need the arctic freezer if you get the retail e8500. The processor will already come with a fan.

Don't forget the dvd drive.

[Moose on the Loose]

Yeah, I was thinking of salvaging my Plextors from the old rig.

"Tray" means that it doesn't come with a stock cooler, or am I wrong?

[shadowpr]

Not sure. I don't think I've seen the e8500 oem. See what the website says. It should say if it comes with the fan or not. If it doesn't, then the artic freezer is a good choice.

[Alaron]

I believe "Tray" is a UK version of "OEM"