New Build Advice Please

[CyberSurfer]

Hi all,

Well it's not exactly new, but a friend has donated the following which I intend to use to replace my trusty but aged P4 3.0 H/T rig which is now 5 years old and showing its age.

Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 6000+ 3.00GHz
Motherboard: Asus M2NE-Sli (BIOS 1201)
Graphics Card: Xpert Vision 6600V 256MB DDR2 PCI-E, 15Pin D-Sub/DVI, TV-Out
Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 SATA 3.0Gb/s 160-GB Hard Drive 2Mb Cache
Cooling: Stock AMD
Sound Card: On Board C-Media Audio 7.1
Case: Compucase 6CS3 Black Midi Tower
Power Supply: Colors-it 400W Grey Silent PSU 12cm Fan SATA
O/S: Win XP Pro

I intend to purchase the following to complete it:

CPU Cooler: Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro PWM CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2). I’m changing this as I want something quieter/more efficient than the stock cooler.

Case Fan: Arctic Cooling Arctic Fan 12025PWM 120mm Fan - 4- Pin PWM (for Extraction)

Memory: Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2-6400C4 TwinX (2x1GB)

Storage: This I’m undecided about as I’m cagey about having everything on one drive and would like to use one for storage. Either 1X Samsung SpinPoint F1 750GB SATA-II 32MB Cache or 2X Samsung SpinPoint F1 320GB SATA-II 16MB Cache.

Uses: MS Office Pro, some gaming (Tombraider Legend, Anniversary), although would like to try CoD, Half Life, some dvd/cd copying, internet/music, and digital image editing/archiving.

All comments/questions welcome.

 

[hp7909]

Have you set a budget for the upgrades? Because I'd also include reputable PSU (maybe this).

Why not 2 x 500GB Samsung F1s Roughly £18 more for an extra ~360GB of space

Make sure the ACF 64 Pro will fit that case height-wise.

 

[Kyo Daikun]

Have you set a budget for the upgrades? Because I'd also include reputable PSU (maybe this).

Why not 2 x 500GB Samsung F1s Roughly £18 more for an extra ~360GB of space

Make sure the ACF 64 Pro will fit that case height-wise.

The 320gb F1's read faster than the 500 gig ones tho so I would personally stick with the 320's or get 1x 320 gig & 1x 640 gig F1 for more space.

 

[sibeer]

Or you could get 1x320GB as a OS/Programs drive and 1x1TB for data storage. With the current prices it makes sense to get a drive above your needs now rather than have to add a third drive later.

You should definitely get a decent PSU by the way and I would consider a little spend on a graphics card if you want to game well. The 3850 Pro with 512MB RAM for £54 inc VAT is amazing value:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-075-GW

Near the same power as the 8800GT but costing loads less.

 

[CyberSurfer]

Thanks for the replies.

My budget is very limited (around £150 tops). I don't want to spend much more as I'm hoping to start work soon and replace the whole system anyway.

In the short term would it be ok to use the Seagate for the O/S with the Corsair ram, ACF 64 Pro, and 1X Samsung F1 640Gb for storage? Would the PSU handle this setup?

My current monitor is a 5 year old Compaq 1720 which I use at 1280x1024. This and my current card (Quadro4 980xgl 128Mb) on the P4 3.0Ghz lets me play TRA with reasonably comfort. Could I get away with the short term proposal with no major mishaps?

I understand from someone at OC that the ACF 64 Pro will fit the case.

 

[CyberSurfer]

Anyone?