First Post // First Build // Need Advice! // TY

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Location
Orpington, Kent
Right my first post. Several Questions i'd like to ask all you "sweaty nerds" as someone put it on another thread.

Looking to build me first pc.

Have got a budget of approximately £750. Obviously i'd like to spend less, but can always spend a little more if it would make a reasonable difference.

Firstly, I have not a clue when it comes to overclocking anything and a I don't think im ready to try it at the moment. Such a Pussy!

Main uses for it will be. Games, thats probably the main use actually, all sorts of games (DOOM3, HL2, FarCry, FEAR e.t.c), also will be used for playing all my music, not films. Also will be used for video editing of video camera footage and burning e.t.c.

I am unsure whether to start from scratch or just upgrade main components, CPU/MOTHERBOARD/GRAPHICS CARD/PSU and possibly RAM.

My soundcard, dvd re-writer and hard disk are ok. Although if a new hard disk would help i am willing to add that too the list becaue i will use all the bits and pieces from 2 other computers to build a low spec pc for my brother or something and the only thing im missing is a hard disk. So I can upgrade mine and stick my old one in there.

I suppose basically i need a whole system not including DVD re-writer, sound card, monitor and any accesories, keyboard mouse e.t.c. I wouldn't mind a new case and i saw the "Antec Super LANBOY Aluminum Super Mini Tower Case - No PSU". Which seemed to be a good choice.

I did look into it a bit and first decided on the AMD 64 X2 4400+, but then read that single core processors can be better for games and looked at the AMD 64 3700 San Diego, which is considerably cheaper and allows me too spend more on other parts. I don't know whether the extra cost is worth is or there is any other options which are better. I was looking at Buying to Graphics cards to run in SLi, but then decided maybe i'd just get 1 7900GTX at the moment and then maybe purchase a second in a month or so.

Any advice would be much appreciated spent hours trying to research all the different parts and trying to weigh up the price difference with the performance differences, but not knowing the real difference in performance this is rather difficult.

Anyway hope this is enough information. Just ask if I missed anything.

Looking to buy in the next couple of weeks. Have looked at several sites and components vary slightly in price but generally OC has come up cheapest overall.
 
Thanks for all the quick responses.

Can't remember where i read that, thought i saw it couple of times though, trawled so many websites i've forgotten.

I am not too fussed about recording footage from camera too computer at same time, or infact doing any 2 things simulataneously really, except maybe music and web browsing e.t.c. My video camera uses SD Card so transfering to my pc is prettyy quick and painless.

I am not really nervous about buidling the pc tbh. I have upgraded my current pc before. Probably only things are screwing motherboard down and installing cpu. I have looked at pre-built but i think buidling my own is much better . Firstly cheaper, secondly Most pre-built pcs you don't want some of the stuff thats included.

I had pretty much decided to go with the single graphics card and had not really looked into the Ati option. Although i currently have a Radeon 9550.

I don't really know spec of DVD Re-writer. It's a BenQ and I don't particurlarly use it that much. Only occasionally. My soundcard is a Soundblaster Live 24Bit, which i understand is not top end by any means, but it is all played through my stereo system. The Hard Disk is Barracuda 7200.7 120GB if that helps. I have 2 pieces of 512MB RAM. Think there unbranded Elixir/Matrix if that means anything. Think that is probably the cause of a few problems i have been having so maybe replacing that would be wise.

My Budget is approx £750, can be swayed to spend a little more and am definitely willing to upgrade more in near future.

Have not really looked at Crossfire, but will do know, thanks Trigger.
 
GX-038-OK OcUK GeForce 7900 GTX 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-038-OK)
£259.95 £259.95
CB-041-GE Akasa Rounded Ultra ATA133/100/66 IDE Cable (0.45m) - Blue (CB-041-GE)
£2.95 £5.90
CA-012-AN Antec Super LANBOY Aluminum Super Mini Tower Case - No PSU (CA-012-AN)
£28.50 £28.50
CA-006-HP Hiper HPU-4B580 Type R 580W Modular ATX2.2 PSU - Blue (CA-006-HP)
£59.95 £59.95
MB-038-GI Gigabyte K8N Pro SLi nForce4 SLi (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-038-GI)
£67.95 £67.95
CP-150-AM AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego 90nm (Socket 939) - OEM (CP-150-AM)
£101.95 £101.95
HS-005-TT Thermaltake Blue Orb II Socket 939/754/775) CPU Cooler (CL-P0257) (HS-005-TT)
£15.95 £15.95
MY-059-CS Corsair 1GB DDR2 XMS2-5400 TwinX (2x512MB) (MY-059-CS)
£64.95 £64.95

Subtotal £605.10
VAT £105.90
Total £711.00

Just for reference that was what i came up with! Maybe need to stick a another GB of RAM on.
 
I just chose that completely at random. Because theres so many and I don't know the difference between any. Thats why i started the thread so i can find out if there are better options.

And as i said, I am most probably not going to overclock.
 
Thanks. I really didn't want to get into overclocking at this point but maybe i'll have to try.
 
Right lets just say no overclocking, what should i go for?

-AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+
-AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4200+
-AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4400+
-AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego 90nm

Bearing in mind I don't want to overclock atleast for now. Possibly in future.
Price, is going for the dual cpu worth the significant price increase over the 3700+?
 
I know I am slightly over budget. But would i be limited by the cpu choice on this system. i.e Would a dual processor cope better, worse or same.

CP-121-AM AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego 90nm (Socket 939) - Retail (ADA3700BNBOX) (CP-121-AM)
£134.95 £134.95
MB-111-AS Asus A8N-SLi Premium nForce4 SLi (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-111-AS)
£89.95 £89.95
MY-046-GL GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit CAS3 (GE2GB3200BDC) (MY-046-GL)
£114.95 £114.95
GX-038-OK OcUK GeForce 7900 GTX 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-038-OK)
£259.95 £259.95
HD-048-SE Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 120GB ST3120814A ATA-100 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-048-SE)
£37.95 £37.95
CB-041-GE Akasa Rounded Ultra ATA133/100/66 IDE Cable (0.45m) - Blue (CB-041-GE)
£2.95 £5.90
CA-012-AN Antec Super LANBOY Aluminum Super Mini Tower Case - No PSU (CA-012-AN)
£28.50 £28.50
CA-006-HP Hiper HPU-4B580 Type R 580W Modular ATX2.2 PSU - Blue (CA-006-HP)
£59.95 £59.95

Subtotal £732.10

VAT £128.12

Total £860.22
 
At the moment I don't really have a problem when editing with my single core pentium 4 3.0Ghz. It's only occasionally for personal stuff. It's not a job or anything I do seriously. So mainly will be for games only. 1600X1200
 
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