My first build

fps133 · 2 Apr 2006 at 01:20

I will soon be building a PC for downloading / listening to music, browsing the net and playing games. It will be my first build and this is the component list so far.

Asus A8N SLI SE Mobo
Dual Core Athlon 3800+
Gainward Bliss nVidia 6800GS
2GB Geil value RAM
250GB SATA Maxtor
LG DVD Writer
Samsung SM913N Monitor
XP Home

I have not decided on a case and PSU yet, mostly because of lack of knowledge / confidence. Of course to a newbie like me the whole buying process is a bit of a minefield so I am hoping you might be able to offer some advice and tips for be to be going along with. My total budget is £1000.

Edit - I just know that the above system will probably be laughable. I am a total novice, so what would you buy for gaming for £1000 and why?

Chris19 · 2 Apr 2006 at 02:56

CP-152-AM AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+ (Socket 939) - OEM (CP-152-AM)
£169.95 £169.95
MB-014-DF DFI LanParty UT NF4 Ultra-D (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-014-DF)
£79.95 £79.95
MY-046-GL GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit CAS3 (GE2GB3200BDC) (MY-046-GL)
£89.95 £89.95
GX-079-XF XFX GeForce 7600 GT XXX Edition 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (PVT73G-UDD7) (GX-079-XF)
£134.95 £134.95
HD-046-WD Western Digital Caviar SE16 250GB 2500KS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD-046-WD)
£55.95 £55.95
CD-001-AP OcUK Value Floppy Drive - Silver (CD-001-AP)
£5.95 £5.95
CD-038-PO Pioneer DVR-111DBK 16 x 16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter - (Black) OEM (CD-038-PO)
£23.95 £23.95
FG-000-AR Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940) (FG-000-AR)
£15.95 £15.95
CA-038-LL Lian-Li PC-7 PLUS Silver Aluminium Midi-Tower Case (No PSU) (CA-038-LL)
£47.95 £47.95
CA-024-EN Enermax Liberty 620W ELT620AWT ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU (CA-024-EN)
£89.95 £89.95
MO-018-AC Acer AL1716AS 17" LCD Monitor (MO-018-AC)
£135.95 £135.95
Subtotal £850.45
VAT £148.83
Total £999.28

Here is an quick one i whiped up you could get an lower W psu and put it towards an better graphics card that motherboard should allow an fair bit of overclocking on that 3800+ i think its an good buy for the price.

matt1 · 2 Apr 2006 at 11:56

I'd say if you are into games you may want to consider a fairly high spec graphics card as a minimum. Something like these:

GX-069-LT Leadtek GeForce 7800GT 256MB GDDR3 VIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-069-LT)
£164.95
GX-121-SP Sapphire ATI Radeon X1800 XT 256MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-121-SP)
£179.95

These prices exclude VAT as does the ones Chris has provided.

fps133 · 2 Apr 2006 at 12:45

OK, this is what I have decided on...

Hiper HPU-4B580 Type R 580W Modular ATX2.2 PSU - Blue (CA-006-HP) £52.95

Lian-Li PC-7 PLUS Silver Aluminium Midi-Tower Case (CA-038-LL) £47.95

Asus A8N-SLi SE nForce4 SLi (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-101-AS) £64.95

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+ (Socket 939) - OEM (CP-152-AM) £169.95

Zalman CNPS7700-ALCU Ultra-Quiet CPU Cooler - Retail (HS-011-ZA) £18.95

GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit CAS3 (GE2GB3200BDC) (MY-046-GL) £89.95

Gainward BLISS GeForce 6800 GS "Goes Like Hell" 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-027-GW) £139.95

Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound (3.5g) (AC-000-AC) £5.50

Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 NCQ 160GB ST3160812AS SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-050-SE) £45.95

NEC ND4570 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM (CD-030-NE) £24.95

OcUK Value Floppy Drive - Black (HD-001-OK) £5.95

Will be buying XP and a monitor later in the week. Could anyone please tell me what cables I will need to buy also? Sorry to be a pain.

matt1 · 2 Apr 2006 at 12:49

All the cables will be provided in the boxes, you shouldn't need to buy anything else.

I would advise revising some things like your choice of HDD, for an extra £7 you are looking at another 90GB of storage.

Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 NCQ 250GB ST3250824AS SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-058-SE)
Price: £52.95 (£62.22 Including VAT at 17.5%)

I'd mull it over for a day or so, don't want to rush into these things.

fps133 · 2 Apr 2006 at 13:54

Thanks for your help.

I am very indecisive by nature so have bitten the bullet and ordered everything above including the 250GB hard drive.

I have made another thread here - http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?p=6767616#post6767616

Chris19 · 2 Apr 2006 at 14:19

All your cables you need will come with the motherboard and psu. I heard that some of the Hiper psu's have fairly short ATX conectors and dont always reach im not sure with that case/motherboard but you might need an extension.

iraiguana · 2 Apr 2006 at 15:54

looking good, but i would suggest a better graphics card if u are into gaming like above the x1800 or 7800gt would both be very worthwhile.