building a new PC, need advice

JDBlizz

JDBlizz

JDBlizz

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8 Mar 2009
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10
Hi, I've been looking to build a new PC for gaming and day to day functions. This will be the first one i've built myself and im looking for it to last for a couple of years. so far I've picked out the following parts:

  • Samsung T220HD 22" Widescreen LCD Freeview Monitor (LS22TDDSUV/EN) £212.74
  • XFX ATI Radeon HD 4870 1024MB GDDR5 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express)£164.99
  • AMD Phenom II X3 Tri Core 720 Black Edition 2.8GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £137.99
  • Gigabyte GA-MA790XT-UD4P (Socket AM3) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard £126.49
  • Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (66I-01939) £91.99
  • OCZ Fatal1ty 550w Silent SLI Ready ATX2 Power Supply £63.24
  • Western Digital Caviar Black 640GB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM £63.24
  • Corsair 4GB DDR3 10666C9 1333MHz XMS3 TwinX Dual Channel Kit (2x2GB) £54.99
  • Antec 300 Three Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black (No PSU) £50.59
  • Logitech LS21 2.1 Speaker System (980-000057) £18.39
  • Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro PWM CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2) £17.24
  • Samsung SH-S223F/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.09
  • Akasa AK174CB-4BLB 120mm Blue LED Fan £9.19
  • Logitech Deluxe Keyboard (Black) - OEM (967738-0120) £6.99
  • Western Digital SureConnect SATA Cable - 0.5m (WDCA030RNN) £6.89
  • 2 Zalman ZM-F3 120mm Silent Case Fans - 3 Pin £6.89 x2
  • Akasa SATA-2 45cm Silver Data Cable £4.59
  • Total - £1,077.06

My budget is about £1000 so I have went over it by a small margin

I thought about switching the case and power supply out with this case and PSU thats on a deal:

Antec 300 Gaming Case and Antec Basiq Plus 550W Modular PSU
£89.99 inc VAT

Which would save me about £20. Is this advisable? Is there anything else that I could get away with dropping(such as the fans if that many is too much)?

Thanks!
 
Hi and welcome to the forums, You dont need the SATA cables, there'll be supplied with the motherboard, and yeah you can leave the fans, chances are the 300's stock ones will be fine, you could always buy them later down the line if you do start running into problems (which I doubt) Id actually recomend a better PSU (its the most important part), youre building quite a nice system and you dont want to skimp, look at the Corsair on TWO if youre buying shortly link
Oh and if youre unsure on anything else with it being your first build dont be afraid to ask, Im sure someone will be more than willing/able to help you out
Edit: one other point is Id look at a 24" monitor if you've got the space for it, and if youre wanting to watch TV through it youre prob better off getting a tuner card for the comp rather than having it built into the monitor - thats purely opinion though, your call
 
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Thanks. I got rid of two of the fans and the cables and switched the power supply to the one you suggested and knocked £10 off the total.

About the monitor, I picked that one partly for the tv function and partly so I could hook up my x-box 360 to it too via component cables. I suppose I could get a vga cable for the 360, that should work

I saw this one for a similar price, the size is a bit odd though at 23.6".
Samsung SM2494HS 23.6" Widescreen LCD Monitor

Not sure if thats a good choice or not though,
 
The 360 is one of the first generation ones from december 2005 so unfortunately it doesnt have a HDMI socket on the back, the only options are Component or VGA im afraid.
The view sonic is a great price though.
 
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Probably would cost the same, building your own isn't necessarily cheaper. It's fun, it gives you the confidence to upgrade and you get a better understanding of all the parts.
 
yeah, your right, im wondering if i've went a bit overkill though with the gfx card though. Not sure if I should maybe bring it down a bit to one of the new 1028mb GTS 250s or a 512mb 4850 and save myself about £40
 
If I was going to save money on that set up I wouldn't do it on the graphics card, you'll like it for the screen size you're running.

You could dump your OS entirely and go for the Windows 7 Beta or swap to DDR 2 and save some money on the memory and the motherboard.
 
I would love to dump Vista completely, but wouldn't Windows 7 have massive compatibility issues with most drivers and programmes?

I thought about dropping the ram, but what AM2+ motherboards work out of the box with the Phenom II X3? I dont have a spare AM2 processor kicking about so I can't flash it
 
Okay with the new TWO deals I had to drop some things, so now I have

  • Samsung SM2494HS 23.6" Widescreen LCD Monitor (LS24KIVKBQ/EDC) £201.24
  • Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4870 1024MB GDDR5 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail (21133-04-20) £164.99
  • AMD Phenom II X3 Tri Core 720 Black Edition 2.8GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £123.98
  • Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (66I-01939) £91.99
  • Biostar TSeries TA790GX 128M AMD 790GX (Socket AM2+) DDR2 Motherboard £78.19
  • OCZ Fatal1ty 550w Silent SLI Ready ATX2 Power Supply £63.24
  • Antec 300 Three Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black (No PSU) £50.59
  • Hitachi Deskstar P7K500 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (0A35415) £48.29
  • Corsair 4GB DDR2 XMS2 PC2-8500C5 TwinX (2x2GB) Dual Channel Kit. (Twin2X4096-8500C5) £40.99
  • Logitech LS21 2.1 Speaker System (980-000057) £18.39
  • Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro PWM CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2) £17.24
  • Samsung SH-S223F/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.09
  • Logitech Deluxe Keyboard (Black) - OEM (967738-0120) £6.99
  • including shipping - Total : £939.85

that price is looking better. though I've had to get rid of DDR3 and lower the HDD a bit to do it.
 
JDBlizz said:
I would love to dump Vista completely, but wouldn't Windows 7 have massive compatibility issues with most drivers and programmes?

I thought about dropping the ram, but what AM2+ motherboards work out of the box with the Phenom II X3? I dont have a spare AM2 processor kicking about so I can't flash it
Click to expand...

I haven't found any incompatibilities yet, on drivers or software (except one funny little freeware app).
 
According to this the PC wont draw more than 450W ever in that set up, and thats testing it with a PII X4 940 which draws more power than the PII X3 720

still i bumped the PSU up to 600W as I saw the Ocz Modxstream is in again
 
JDBlizz said:
According to this the PC wont draw more than 450W ever in that set up, and thats testing it with a PII X4 940 which draws more power than the PII X3 720

still i bumped the PSU up to 600W as I saw the Ocz Modxstream is in again
Click to expand...

that calculator is a rough guide tbh i would buy a 650 to make sure tbh corsair power supplies are very reliable and will do the job likes!!!!
 
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