Hey guys,
Just looking at buying a totally new system, it's been a while since I last performed any upgrades so I'm a little out of date on what's the best and where things are going. Also finding it a bit hard to find out whats going on as there are more and more options for each component!
So, I've scouted around and I think the following is best suited to what I want (gaming performance mainly)
AMD X2 3800+ £169.95
2x Maxtor MaxLine III NCQ 250GB £117.90
G.Skill 2GB CAS2 £129.95
Sapphire ATI Radeon X1800 XT £169.95
Asus A8R-MVP Crossfire £64.95
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy SE 7.1 Sound Card £15.95
Zalman Reserator1-Plus £152.95
2x OcUK Silentmaxx Aluminium Hard Drive Enclosure £59.90
Lian-Li PC60 case £69.95
Asus DRW-1608P2 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter £26.95
Enermax UC-A3FATR2 £10.95
Tagan TG530-U15 530W ATX2.01 Easycon SLi Compliant Modular £69.95
Total inc. vat: £1,244.68
So, few questions:
1. Does this look like a reasonable setup? Have I missed anything major / is there something conflicting
2. Do I need the hard drive enclosures? Has anyone used the maxtor drives and found they are quiet enough already?
3. Will I still need some fans in the case? Most of the heat will be getting taken out by the water cooling so I'm thinking that I probably need 1 fan running low-powered (hence the fan controller) in the case still just to take out extra heat.
3b. Is that water cooling compatible with what the graphics card?
4. Is that motherboard OK? Anyone know whether it has on-board sound or not? (Or can suggest an alternative that does!) Bearing in mind I want crossfire support for if I decide to add another card some time in the future.
5. I find that my current DVD drive makes the computer hellishly noisy when it gets going, any suggestions on quiet DVD drives? (Or ways to make them quiet!)
6. I already have a sapphire graphics card which I like. However, I'm curious as to whether or not anyone can suggest a better card than the sapphire one I've selected but still at about the same price (or cheaper)
7. Is the PSU I've selected the quietest I can get? I have a tagan at the moment and I like it, but can't tell how noisy it is due to the hard drives being really noisy in this machine. I don't like PSUs that vary the fan speed as I find I can switch off to constant noise but having them suddenly get noisier really bugs me!
Thanks for any advice
Mortah
Just looking at buying a totally new system, it's been a while since I last performed any upgrades so I'm a little out of date on what's the best and where things are going. Also finding it a bit hard to find out whats going on as there are more and more options for each component!
So, I've scouted around and I think the following is best suited to what I want (gaming performance mainly)
AMD X2 3800+ £169.95
2x Maxtor MaxLine III NCQ 250GB £117.90
G.Skill 2GB CAS2 £129.95
Sapphire ATI Radeon X1800 XT £169.95
Asus A8R-MVP Crossfire £64.95
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy SE 7.1 Sound Card £15.95
Zalman Reserator1-Plus £152.95
2x OcUK Silentmaxx Aluminium Hard Drive Enclosure £59.90
Lian-Li PC60 case £69.95
Asus DRW-1608P2 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter £26.95
Enermax UC-A3FATR2 £10.95
Tagan TG530-U15 530W ATX2.01 Easycon SLi Compliant Modular £69.95
Total inc. vat: £1,244.68
So, few questions:
1. Does this look like a reasonable setup? Have I missed anything major / is there something conflicting
2. Do I need the hard drive enclosures? Has anyone used the maxtor drives and found they are quiet enough already?
3. Will I still need some fans in the case? Most of the heat will be getting taken out by the water cooling so I'm thinking that I probably need 1 fan running low-powered (hence the fan controller) in the case still just to take out extra heat.
3b. Is that water cooling compatible with what the graphics card?
4. Is that motherboard OK? Anyone know whether it has on-board sound or not? (Or can suggest an alternative that does!) Bearing in mind I want crossfire support for if I decide to add another card some time in the future.
5. I find that my current DVD drive makes the computer hellishly noisy when it gets going, any suggestions on quiet DVD drives? (Or ways to make them quiet!)
6. I already have a sapphire graphics card which I like. However, I'm curious as to whether or not anyone can suggest a better card than the sapphire one I've selected but still at about the same price (or cheaper)
7. Is the PSU I've selected the quietest I can get? I have a tagan at the moment and I like it, but can't tell how noisy it is due to the hard drives being really noisy in this machine. I don't like PSUs that vary the fan speed as I find I can switch off to constant noise but having them suddenly get noisier really bugs me!
Thanks for any advice
Mortah
