My First Build, Any Thoughts?

sketch145

sketch145

sketch145

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2 Mar 2009
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577
This is my first build which I put together last week, spec is as follows:

Coolermaster Elite 335 case
Gigabyte MA78G-DS3H Mobo
AMD Athlon x2 7750 BE *cough*dual core phenom*cough* (OC'ed to 3.2Ghz)
4GB Kingston Hyper X pc-8400 Ram
500GB Hitachi Deskstar OEM Hard drive
22x Hamsung dual layer DVD+/-RW
500w OCZ stealth PSU
Dual boot, Windows Vista home premium 32 bit/ Windows 7 beta







So what do you guys think? sure beats my pentium 4 :D

The problem however, as I'm sure you've guessed by now, is that its running on the Mobo's integrated graphics, which are pretty good for integrated but I need something more substantial.

So if anyone could spec me a graphics card for around £100 (prefferably ATI so it can run in hybrid xfire)that would be great.

I mainly use the PC for photo editing (has to handle the 30MB images from my camera),for light gaming, and occational audio/video editing.

Also any other upgrades you would recommend.

Thanks.

(sorry for the epic post everyone, also unsure as to whether this should be im the GPU specific forum, feel free to move if this is the case)
 
:eek: ooh that is nice, I can get the VAT off if I put it on the work account, had XFX in my last PC so would be good to go for them again.

cheers for the reply.
 
Yeah 4860 is about the level you'll be looking at, just remeber to check the this week only deals when you buy in case theres a deal on a particular board
 
sweet little comp you made there. i used that case for a friends build and was quite impressed with build quality, paint finish was really smooth.

1 more vote for the 4850

only bit of advice would be do a little cable management, tucking as much wires away behind harddrive bay and fastening them to the edges. just be a tad inventive.

will be neat, cool and ready for your new graphics card :)
 
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Nice build for a first time. As for the GPU, the 4850 would be the way to go in my view. I would also reiterate Shaolin's suggestiong on cable management to try and make it look a little tidier - it's quite satisfying.
 
Thanks for the advice everyone, good call on the cable management did look a bit of a mess to be fair.

sorted it out now as best I can


and with the case fans on


and finally in the dark


hmm I feel a side window coming on:D
 
Looking very tidy for a first build mate - it's taken me two a half years since mine to get my case that tidy :)
 
How is that case less than £50. It's just such a good case. :eek:

With the cable ties, the machine looks like it's got a giant spider's web on it - very nice.

I'd second (third? fourth?) the 4850, it'll go with all the rest of your components nicely. :)

- Huw
 
Good job sorting out cables, and a great first build.

As others have said the 4850 would be your best choice at the moment so i would definatly go with that. Though i think it might be best to move that hard drive down a slot or two to give the graphics card a bit of breathing space when you get it, and allow the power cable for the gpu to be crowded by the hdd cables. Infact you could probably but the hdd in the far bottom hdd bay. ;)

Overall, good stuff mate, keep it up :D
 
yes I think the hard drive should be closer to the bottom but the SATA power connectors from the PSU are all on one cable and its already a stretch from the HDD to the optical drive (and I dont really want to move the optical drive down)

I'll probably order an extension for it when I get the graphics card, and probably another akasa fan to light up the back.

also thinking about getting another 500GB hard drive and linking them in RAID 0, would it be worth doing this with drives this slow?
 
Nice build, but just one thing to check, is your RAM set in the same chanel?

Usually for Dual channel RAM the sticks arnt next to each other.

Have a check in the manual, I might be talkin crap
 
@acid, I got given the disks for 32 bit because 1 of my friends computers died so he gave me the discs because he bought a new one with vista already installed, to be honest I'm waiting for windows 7 to come out and then I'll definitely get the 64 bit version. I've got another 4gb of kinston RAM to bung in when I do as well, it's annoying being limited to 4gb especially with all the image editing I do.

So in short, if I wasn't such a cheapskate, I would definately go for 64 bit :D
 
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