need help building a general all rounder

arcam_boy · 3 May 2008 at 14:46

Hi,

This is going to be my first build after selling my C2D macbook.

I'm not wanting a specific computer but something thats good all round with plenty of speed and will meet my needs for the next 12 months with no upgardes needed.

I'd like a Blu Ray Drive, Something thats quiet and stable. I'm not after a huge HD and the only PC game I play is Command and Conquer. I'd like something that can output HD video if possible?

I wasn't sure wether to choose the antec p182 or lian li but went for the later in the end. Would this be a good rig for my needs or would you change anything/all of it. £800 is certainly the top of my budget but if I could squeeze it down to £700 I'd be

My current plan is:

Pioneer BDC 202 Blu Ray Drive £85.76
Western Digital Raptor 150gb £135.11
Artic Silver Thermal Compound £7.04
Lian Li PC A71B case £140.99
Corsair 450w PSU ££46.99
EVGA Geforce 9600 GT KO 512mb Graphics Card £138.64
Intel C2D CPU 2.66Ghz 1333FSB £103.39
Crucial Ballistix 800Mhz 2Gb ram £32.89
Windows Vista Home 32bit £56.39

Think thats all I should need for my system not sure if I need extra cables/fans etc :confused:

Thanks guys and gals!

arcam_boy · 3 May 2008 at 14:53

after reading several posts on here I may swap the raptor for a small 2.5" laptop hard drive and use that instead as this rig will also perform part of a HTPC as such so the quieter the better.

V|per · 3 May 2008 at 14:54

First off, don;t bother with the raptor, wast of mony for such a small drive with very minimal performance increase, go for a 500gb samsung F1/seagate 7200.11/weston digital AAKS, perform almost as well, half the price, and much more storage (or save even more and get a 250GB/320GB if you don't need that much storage...)

Swap the arctic silver for MX-2, it's better

You can pick up an 8800gt for less than the price of the 96gt you have mentionned, which will out perform it, no need to go for clocked versions, extra premium for something you can do yourself for free.

That should save you a bit of money, but you'll definately need a motherboard to go with that lot

Let us know if you intend on overclocking, and then we can spec you a board that'll gove you the features y ou need.

Also, may be better in the general hardware rather than 'small form factor'

arcam_boy said:
after reading several posts on here I may swap the raptor for a small 2.5" laptop hard drive and use that instead as this rig will also perform part of a HTPC as such so the quieter the better.

the 3 spec'd above are all very quiet drives, and will almost certainly be quieter than a laptop drive (in my experience, although i haven't owned a laptop drive for a while, so correct me if i'm wrong...)

arcam_boy · 3 May 2008 at 15:04

Many thanks viper for the reply.

I don't really intend on overclocking for now but I'd consider it once I get a bit more confident with playing around with this type of stuff.

Sorry i forgot to mention the mobo I choose was the gigabyte GA-P35C DS3R but this is probably my least knowledgable area :eek:

arcam_boy · 3 May 2008 at 15:14

Hi Viper...which 8800GT would you recommend?

Thanks

V|per · 3 May 2008 at 18:10

This one

10 year warranty, factory clocked, and an awesome price (and actually, come to think of it, is the exact one i have in my 2nd rig...)

arcam_boy · 4 May 2008 at 19:29

thanks viper...its all in my basket :eek:

just one final check on the motherboard please matey....will it run this lot ok? I'd possibly like to have 4gb of ram eventually and would need a PCI slot for a sound card as well as one for an internal wi fi card.

thanks!

Guardsmon · 5 May 2008 at 19:41

Damn wrote a whole load then lost it.

Anyway, V1per, the 3.5" drives are more noisy than the 2.5"'s I have both in this computer and I can only hear the 3.5" but unless you have the best fans on the market i doubt very much if this would really be classified as noisy

(samsung spinpoint 500GB and Toshiba 80GB 2.5")
Arcam_boy, i would definately follow V1pers suggestions and get rid of that rapter and get one of the drives he's suggested and that GFX

One thing did cross my mind while reading your specs though and that was why are you writing in the SFF section and worried about getting a M-ATX motherboard when you've selected a midtower case? The motherboard you are looking at would be perfectly adiquite for what you want, though if you thinking of upgrading (i know you said you're not) or overclocking in the future then something like the X38 or nvidia 7 series might be a good idea.

If you want to stay MATX though why not look at something like the lian li v350B? its cheaper and smaller. Also get the 64bit version of vista - you've got a cpu that supports it - you might aswell make use of it. Only other thing is just wondered if you would fing vista home premium a better idea for the little more that it is, but thats all up to what you want to use it for.

Hope that helps.

arcam_boy · 5 May 2008 at 19:56

hi guardsmon many thanks for taking your time to reply.

i have been waiting for some info on the motherboard.

is there any links you could post of suggested motherboards.

i'm not after any in particular aslong as it will work in my system, give me maximum expandability and for around £100 - £150.

as for vista, what improvement would I see having 64bit over 32 bit as I'm a little confused.

thanks again.

Guardsmon · 5 May 2008 at 22:48

As you are not overclocking or planning on expanding much, I really wouldn't worry about spending too much money on it. I would have a look in the motherboard part of the forums, but what is suggested to you will all depend on what you plan for your computer.
If you look into upgrading your system each year to keep up with the new technology then it is probably worth you looking to spend more and get something like a X38 Asus Maximus Formular (I would say a x48 as it gives true PCIE2.0 support and DDR3 but that would cost a lot more than you need).

If you were looking to use SLI then it would have to be an nvidia board like the new 790i's, but SLI and crossfire are a waste really. The P35 board is a good all round chipset. It gives good overclocks with not so much heat as the nvidia 6 and 7 series board and gives all the features you would need.

As for 64bit over 32bit, have a read around, but they cost the same and the 64bit will help you more with the more power hungry applications and the most obvious answer is it allows you to address more than 3.25GB of RAM. http://www.dansdata.com/askdan00001.htm
have a look around. there are pro's and cons to each, but if you're planning on using blu ray and im guessin will want to play some nice new games in the coming months, then 64bit is good idea.