First foray down the rabbit hole

Kieslou

Kieslou

Kieslou

Associate
Joined
28 Feb 2009
Posts
17
Location
Birmingham
Hi everyone. This is my first time building a rig, so I wanted to get a second (third and fourth) opinion from people who have a clue before going to full she-bang and committing myself to it.

Here's what I've been looking at:
  • Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600
  • Abit IP35 Pro XE Intel P35
  • Powercolor ATI Radeon HD 4870 1024MB
  • Kingston HyperX 4GB (2 X 2GB) DDR2 8500C5
  • Sunbeam Core Contact Freezer CPU Cooler
  • Akasa AK-191-SM Smoke Ultra Quiet 120mm Fan
  • Hitachi Deskstar P7K500 500GB SATA-II (x 2)
  • Corsair TX 650W ATX2.2 SLi Compliant Power Supply
  • Asus VH226H 22" Widescreen True HD LCD Monitor
  • Sony BDU-X10S Blu-Ray Reader Serial-ATA Drive

I wanted to make sure all of the above would play nicely together and whether you could recommend anything that's better for around the same price for any of the above. I'm not sure whether I've skimped on the motherboard and a few others as a way of keeping the costs down, so would be great to get some opinions.

It's going to be used for pretty all-round purposes, though I would like something that tackles new games relatively well.

A few other questions I have are:
Is it worth going for a Blu-Ray reader at all yet? There doesn't seem to be a huge amount of choice, but if so, is it worth paying a little extra and getting the LG GGC-H20L Blu-Ray Reader & HD-DVD ROM instead?
And, is there much between the Antec 300 and the Coolmaster Elite 335 cases? They both seem to do the job I want, but is there anything one is inherently better for than the other?

Altogether, the total cost comes to just under £900 currently (without OS), which is why I try to save where I can (the Coolmaster case over the Antec if there's little difference etc.)

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Cheers.
 
nice one

Kieslou said:
Here's what I've been looking at:
  • Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600
  • Abit IP35 Pro XE Intel P35
  • Powercolor ATI Radeon HD 4870 1024MB
  • Kingston HyperX 4GB (2 X 2GB) DDR2 8500C5
  • Sunbeam Core Contact Freezer CPU Cooler
  • Akasa AK-191-SM Smoke Ultra Quiet 120mm Fan
  • Hitachi Deskstar P7K500 500GB SATA-II (x 2)
  • Corsair TX 650W ATX2.2 SLi Compliant Power Supply
  • Asus VH226H 22" Widescreen True HD LCD Monitor
  • Sony BDU-X10S Blu-Ray Reader Serial-ATA Drive
Cheers.
Click to expand...


Here's what I've been looking at:
  • Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600- good (apparently, dont run intel myself)
  • Abit IP35 Pro XE Intel P35 good (same again...)
  • Powercolor ATI Radeon HD 4870 1024MB good card (use nvidia myself)
  • Kingston HyperX 4GB (2 X 2GB) DDR2 8500C5 nice
  • Sunbeam Core Contact Freezer CPU Cooler - looks good from reviews.
  • Akasa AK-191-SM Smoke Ultra Quiet 120mm Fan - gotta be good with that name :P
  • Hitachi Deskstar P7K500 500GB SATA-II (x 2) hmm (got dubbed the deathstar because of fails on one model, not sure about this one)
  • Corsair TX 650W ATX2.2 SLi Compliant Power Supply (sure thats enuf powa for the gfx card?)
  • Asus VH226H 22" Widescreen True HD LCD Monitor >=D (good monitor methinks!)
  • Sony BDU-X10S Blu-Ray Reader Serial-ATA Drive /cry (ive not seen a need for blue ray yet, theyre not much better then dvds, your choice i suppose!)

altogether a decent little rig man, obviously i dont know much about intel or blue ray or how much power is needed for the ati card, but others may be able to help further, from what ive seen it should be a good build.
 
I wasn't too sure about the PSU originally (forgot to ask about it in the post), though I'm glad to hear it's good enough.

I chose the Deskstar because of its low price for the amount space it offered. If there's any horror stories with that model though, I wont risk it, especially as I'm going for two of them.
 
Kieslou said:
snip
Click to expand...

Hi,

I would change a few things with your spec. I wouldn't go for the Abit board (although it's good) since they went bust and will stop with the support.
Try going for a P45 board, but if you can't stretch that far, get a P43.

Go for the Elite 335 case, it's a good case and will save you some money over the 300.

The power supply you've chosen is overkill, 500W is more than enough.
If I was you, then I would wait for the Coolermaster 520W Real Power to come back into stock - it's a very good PSU and a lot cheaper than the one you've chosen.

Finally, change the Sony blu-ray drive for the LG one, since it can only read discs. The LG can read both HD-DVDs and Blu-rays, and also write DVDs.
 
Thanks for the recommendation. I'll go for the Coolermaster PSU and case. And due to losing the overkill PSU and saving a little on that, I'll go for the LG drive too.

I knew I was skimping a little on the board when I read they were no longer in business. I'll take a look for a replacement, unless someone has a recommendation that isn't too much dearer?
 
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