Expensive Build, need help

unwashed potato! · 14 Feb 2006 at 00:56

ok im going all out and starting from scrath and planning to build me the ultimate gaming pc for £1400 buying each part seperately and building it myself, buying from overclockers.co.uk.

here is what i have UPDATED (Version 3):

CP-127-AM AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4400+ (Socket 939) - Retail (ADA4400CDBOX) (CP-127-AM)
£289.95

CD-024-NE NEC ND4550 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM (CD-024-NE)
£25.50

HD-018-SA Samsung SpinPoint P SP2504C 250GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-018-SA)
£61.95

CA-024-LL Lian-Li PC V1000 PLUS Silver Aluminium Midi-Tower (No PSU) (CA-024-LL)
£114.95

MY-079-CS Corsair 2GB DDR XMS3200C2PT TwinX (2x1GB) CAS2 (MY-079-CS)
£129.95

GX-046-CO Connect3D ATI Radeon X1900 XT-X 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (3055) (GX-046-CO)
£329.95

MB-091-AB Abit AT8 ATI RD480 Crossfire (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-091-AB)
£74.95

HD-000-MI Mitsumi FA 404M 7in1 USB 2.0 Floppy & Media Drive - Silver (HD-000-MI)
£13.95

Subtotal £1,041.15
VAT £182.21
Total £1,223.36

leaving me with at most £180 to buy other bites and bobs. Advice needed on what i should get and any changes.

Im currently looking at PSU right now.

Thanks for any help i get.

p.s. My mum should hopefully be getting a new screen soon so i will be inherating her old one which is a CRT prob about 1280x1024 maybe bigger

gary996 · 14 Feb 2006 at 01:09

Ok the v1000 is a top quality case and you cant go wrong with it. Depends what you want to spend on a case. Have you a reason for wanting that choice of motherboard? Its not the best (as in chipset) the new ones are out in March if you are wanting crossfire. If not I would say the NF4 boards are a better buy. Make sure you have adequate case cooling you could always get a fan controller to turn them down when your browsing and up when you benchmark or gameing

badbob · 14 Feb 2006 at 01:20

What a fugly case! (I feel sick after looking at it ) overpriced and small case. Get a CM 810 Stacker

loads of fans included as standard (3x12cm) plus add device module as needed, 12cm fan there. So total of 2x12cm on the back, 3x12cm on the front, plus PSU fan and one 8cm on the top. See sig
replace CPU with single core. No need for games.
replace maxtor hd with more reliable drive

Retail mobo will come with all cables, don't need to buy anything seperate.

Look into xfire, apparently some teething troubles. I would wait, or get Nvidia chipset, single ATI or dual Nvidia.

you don't need fan controllers...get them later.

nikebee · 14 Feb 2006 at 01:25

firstly, welcome to the forums

the link you posted doesn't seem to work.. which is just as well since its a competitor (which isn't allowed).

a few things i'd change:
Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 10 to a Seagate Barracuda or Samsung Spinpoint.
the new Maxtor drives can be quite loud at times, and i've just generally got on with the Barracuda's a lot better.

Corsair XMS3200 to G.Skill 2GB DDR ZX.
G.Skill is slightly more expensive but has lower latancy and should clock better than the Corsair. nothing much between the two though.

i'd drop the Audigy completely... from experience i wouldn't bother with a soundcard unless your going for one of the new X-Fi range of cards.
the Audigy range doesn't really offer that much of an advantage over todays standard on board sound (which can be very good now). it does help taking off some of the load off the CPU, but unless you do have some very nice surround sound speakers and need the 7.1 capabilities you wont notice the difference.

the Hiper Type-R is a good brand, i've had a few niggling issues with build quality on the two that i've owned (bought one, RMA'd it... got sent another one that isn't too great either... but it works flawlessly and thats the main thing i suppose.)

you'll get a variable cornacopia of cables with your motherboard, and fans etc.. should come with the case.

you'll get a stock Heastink/Fan with your X2 4400, but it may be worth investing in a better quality Heastink/Fan... if your not wanting to spend a lot of cash... the Artic Freezer 64 Pro is probably the best you can get (at only £17ish) without spending an arm and a leg.

nikebee · 14 Feb 2006 at 01:32

badbob said:
What a fugly case! (I feel sick after looking at it ) overpriced and small case. Get a CM 810 Stacker loads of fans included as standard (3x12cm) plus add device module as needed, 12cm fan there. So total of 2x12cm on the back, 3x12cm on the front, plus PSU fan and one 8cm on the top.
replace CPU with single core. No need for games.
replace maxtor hd with more reliable drive

i can't agree with this post at all.
the case build is good, and has got decent reviews in the past.
a case, really is down to personal preference though.. as while the CM stacker has had good reviews there are a whole host of people that don't like the case.

the idea of 7 fans inside a case to me, seems a tad LOUD

but anyway...

to say that Dual Core is not needed in games says your quite miss-informed.
Dual Core is here, and is now... there are a whole host of games that are optimised for Dual Core CPUs right out of the box, and a whole bunch more that have released patches for their games to take advantage of Dual Core after the games been released.
Dual Core gaming has shown a nice boost in speed in games and multithreaded apps.
maxtor HDDs are not unreliable at all, they're good drives... i've never had a Maxtor drive die on me and i've used them since the 6 series (i believe it was the 6 series anyway), they were 2K rpm drives...
it's only since i bought a seagate barracuda two years ago that i released that they aren't quite as fast and not quite as quiet as they could be, or as other "rival" HDDs out there...

unwashed potato! · 14 Feb 2006 at 01:34

Ok i will look into a different HD.

i was going to go with g.skill however in another forum i was told togo with Corsair RAM instead, how weird :S which should i do?

The v1000 apperantly gets good reviews, seen in the case forum. Does it do what i require.

I don't really plan on doing crossfire, be nice to have option for fututre but its not something i intend to one day do.

What are chipsets?

i will drop the SC then as it isn't needed and im on a budget which will just be better if it can be lowered any which way possible

badbob · 14 Feb 2006 at 01:51

nikebee said:
i can't agree with this post at all.
the case build is good, and has got decent reviews in the past.
a case, really is down to personal preference though.. as while the CM stacker has had good reviews there are a whole host of people that don't like the case.

the idea of 7 fans inside a case to me, seems a tad LOUD
but anyway...

to say that Dual Core is not needed in games says your quite miss-informed.
Dual Core is here, and is now... there are a whole host of games that are optimised for Dual Core CPUs right out of the box, and a whole bunch more that have released patches for their games to take advantage of Dual Core after the games been released.
Dual Core gaming has shown a nice boost in speed in games and multithreaded apps.
maxtor HDDs are not unreliable at all, they're good drives... i've never had a Maxtor drive die on me and i've used them since the 6 series (i believe it was the 6 series anyway), they were 2K rpm drives...
it's only since i bought a seagate barracuda two years ago that i released that they aren't quite as fast and not quite as quiet as they could be, or as other "rival" HDDs out there...

My case seems quiet (12cm helps) regardless you still need airflow over the mobo/ram/cards and drives so pretty good although compartments probably better but no others in this price range (Antec p180 cheap and badly designed) CM looks nice....not garish. Upto 5 x 12cm case fans, 1 PSU but not using top 8cm

We have our own company so deal with failures, maxtor seem to fail more than WD/Seagate. Maxtor are not good drives.

Got benchmarks showing improvment in games for dual core? (not windows apps of course) IMO at the present time I would get the fastest single core. Leave it a few gens until all new games support dual core and are a improvement over identical ghz single core

ACESHIGH · 14 Feb 2006 at 05:53

As far as CPU goes i would advise to go for the Dual core X2 4400+.
More programs & games are becoming optimized for dual core. Its the way forward.
Also if multitasking dual core are a must once you have used them.

Well from experience i personally think the Maxtor drives are good / fast drives but do like the Samsung Spinpoint drives a tad more. So the Samsung Spinpoint would be what i would go for.

Case choice comes to personal preferance & the one you listed should do what you require, but so will the others listed.

As for the mobo the Abit AT8 ATI RD480 Crossfire (Socket 939) should be fine.
A chipset is what gives the mobo its core functionality. There were some early problems with the crossfire chipset but seem to have been sorted now via bios updates. The MSI board in particular seems to have had few problems [MSI RD480 Neo2 Crossfire (Socket 939) ]

unwashed potato! · 15 Feb 2006 at 21:11

ok i have updated what im planning on getting, ive taken off mouse, keyboard, SC, and changed to spinpoint 25gb sata2. the thing that concerns me with this HD is that it only has 8mb cache, where as other sata2 drives have 16mb. Is there a difference in speed?

trojan698 · 15 Feb 2006 at 21:21

Maybe consider the asus crossfire board?

unwashed potato! · 15 Feb 2006 at 21:27

why? whats the differnce? can that board still do dual ddr and sata2?

badbob · 15 Feb 2006 at 21:31

It's ATI's own "SLI" type thing, bit different though. You have a master and slave card. Although it appears crossfire motherboards are a bit buggy from the posts I've read. You also want to match up similar specced master/slave cards. Ie don't have a 1900XTX master with 1600XL slave (or vice versa)

unwashed potato! · 15 Feb 2006 at 21:50

badbob said:
It's ATI's own "SLI" type thing, bit different though. You have a master and slave card. Although it appears crossfire motherboards are a bit buggy from the posts I've read. You also want to match up similar specced master/slave cards. Ie don't have a 1900XTX master with 1600XL slave (or vice versa)

Now this confused the hell out of me. what the heck is the differnce between a master and slave card? i only have one GPU listed, the ATI x1900 xtx.

Its ATI's own version of SLI, which is what the MB i have suggested is right? i dont knpow wht the reason for the suggestion of the other MB is?

badbob · 15 Feb 2006 at 21:57

huh? If you want to go into Crossfire you'll need a crossfire motherboard. ie

Sapphire PURE Advantage CrossFire Radeon Xpress 200P CrossFire (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-003-SP)

You'll then want a master Crossfire videocard. ie

ATI Radeon X1900 ***Crossfire Edition*** 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-045-CO)

Then slave, and best to go for identical X1900 type card so..

Connect3D ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (3056) (GX-047-CO)

Wheras if you want to go down Nvidia SLI you'll want any SLI capable board ie

Asus A8N-SLi Premium nForce4 SLi (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-111-AS)

then two identical cards ie

BFG GeForce 7800 GTX OC 256MB GDDR3 VIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-009-BG)

Pretty sure I'm right but if not someone please correct me, especially for ATI Crossfire.

unwashed potato! · 15 Feb 2006 at 22:16

yeah but isnt the one im planning on getting a crossfire, im sure it says it in the name of it. ill copy and paste it: MB-091-AB Abit AT8 ATI RD480 Crossfire (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-091-AB) thats crossfire right? so now what i am asking is what is the differnce between this board and the ASUS one?

also im not planning on crossfire yet, if ever, im just like having the option open to me as i mihgt eventually like year or 2's time. I can uise the card i have listed for now cant i and say i do want to crossfire i just buyy the crossfire version later on?

kinggost · 15 Feb 2006 at 22:24

addy_010 said:
yeah but isnt the one im planning on getting a crossfire, im sure it says it in the name of it. ill copy and paste it: MB-091-AB Abit AT8 ATI RD480 Crossfire (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-091-AB) thats crossfire right? so now what i am asking is what is the differnce between this board and the ASUS one?

also im not planning on crossfire yet, if ever, im just like having the option open to me as i mihgt eventually like year or 2's time. I can uise the card i have listed for now cant i and say i do want to crossfire i just buyy the crossfire version later on?

Yeh they crossfire bords but he trying to say ati do crossfire witch is 2 cards working together and nvidia do there own thing called sli 2 cards working together. Yeh you can use it for what you want just you wil use one card. They tell you its crossfire just in case you want it for 2 cards not because you can only use certain cards in it.

The lian li case is amazing i have one with all that stuff in my spec in it

unwashed potato! · 15 Feb 2006 at 22:27

kinggost said:
Yeh they crossfire bords but he trying to say ati do crossfire witch is 2 cards working together and nvidia do there own thing called sli 2 cards working together

The lian li case is amazing i have one with all that stuff in my spec in it

oh ok? well i kinda already knew that, thought it was obvious when i was saying in first post that i don't plan on doing crossfire yet, maybe in future. Be like if somone said oh by the way, HD means hard drive.

im really leening towards the lian li v1000, if i do what do i need for it. PSU, and which? fans, and again which fans?

unwashed potato! · 16 Feb 2006 at 14:34

kinggost said:
The lian li case is amazing i have one with all that stuff in my spec in it

ok thats cool, ive added the lian-li v1000 to my shopping list, kinda over what i planned to spend on a case but whatever, its a werthy investment. only problem is fans, cpu cooler, gpu cooler, and PSU

of these what are required. i have looked into fans and found this: Akasa AK-183-L2B Ultra Quiet 120mm Fan - 3 pin (FG-024-AK) is this any good, is a new fans required?

Are CPU coolers and GPU coolers required?

What power supply power should i get and which make?

BigDom · 16 Feb 2006 at 14:41

addy_010 said:
why? whats the differnce? can that board still do dual ddr and sata2?

The asus Mobo IS dual channel DDR ( all mobo's are AFAIK ) and sata 2, it also has the high quality HD sound ( I guess the abit does but havn't checked ), is stable and cheaper than the abit

.

badbob · 16 Feb 2006 at 14:44

You could buy retail CPU and use stock CPU HSF for now. You can then replace the CPU HSF when you've paid the computer off and decided which is best.

Or you could buy OEM CPU and buy a CPU HSF straight away. OEM CPU's are cheaper, so the money saved can go towards the HSF.

And yes you do need CPU & GFX card HSF. Unless you have a really cool machine ie Pentium P200 where you can just get away with heatsinks, although a single slow 12cm is still needed to at least blow over mobo/ram/CPU heatsink.

As for PSU I would go for Enermax or Antec.