New build, advice welcome.

unde4d

unde4d

unde4d

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Eire
Hey,

I know your probably sick of seeing people posting like this, so I'll be short & sweet. I'm building a new system, any words of wisdom would be welcome. Here's what I've chosen:

CPU: £214.95
Intel Core 2 DUO E6600 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail (CP-128-IN)

Mobo: £94.95
<edit>Gigabyte GA_965P_DS3 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-061-GI)</edit>
<original choice: Abit AB9 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-106-AB)/>

RAM: £124.95
Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2-6400C5 TwinX (2x1GB) (MY-092-CS)

HD: £99.95
Western Digital Raptor 74GB WD740ADFD 10,000RPM SATA 16MB Cache - OEM (HD-087-WD)

Monitor: £359.95
Dell Ultrasharp 2007FP 20.1" Performance LCD Monitor - Midnight Grey (MO-010-DE)

PSU: £61.95
<edit>Tagan TG530-U15 530W ATX2.01 Easycon SLi Compliant Modular Silent PSU (CA-008-TG)</edit>
<original choice: Enermax Liberty 500W ELT500AWT ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU (CA-025-EN)/>
<note>Any1 know how "silent" this tagan is? I dont need a whisper quiet system, I just dont want to be conned by a Marketing Dept that thinks it's fine to tag the word silent on the packaging.</note>

Graphics: £140.00-£180.00
<edit>Connect3D ATI Radeon X1800 XT 512MB AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express)</edit>
<original choice: undecided between a GeForce 7900GT or an X1800XT)/>

Case: £40.00-£60.00
Cooler Master Centurion 5 Black/Silver

<note> 320GB Harddrive, & DVD Drives from my current PC will be used in this system </note>

I'm open to all suggestions, nothing will be ordered until the end of the month.
 
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E6600 - Good choice!

Avoid the Abit motherboards, they're no good anymore. Look at the Gigabyte GA_965P_DS3 as it's supposed to be 'the nuts', or wait for more 965 boards to come out.

Corsair RAM, fine, can't go wrong with them.

Raptor? Wait for someone of more knowledge

Good monitor, consider a 20" widescreen aswell, these seem to be going mainstream now.

PSU - Tagan TG530-U15 530W ATX2.01 Easycon SLi Compliant Modular Silent PSU for £72.

Get an X1800XT, the 7900's seem to be really faulty.
 
I think the raptor 150Gig drives have a higher bit density, giving improved data transfer rates. The charts on them are impressive anyway.

Otherwise, the Seagate 7200.10 drives are pretty awesome. Much higher seek times than raptors, but their new perpendicular recording really packs the data onto the disk, giving great datarates. Seagates are a lot cheaper, and pack a lot more data onto the disks. 320gig for just over 60 quid, hard to beat that.

While not modular, the Seasonics are probably one of the quietest PSU's around. Also a good reputation for reliability and steady rails. The 430W will power quite a system, and the 500W is good enough for most SLI systems. Certainly another option worth considering.

Might just be my old Coolermaster case, but I find I can tidy up all the 'spare' cables underneath the motherboard tray. Nothing untidy shows up in my case window :).
 
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thanks for the speedy replies.

I dont have the cash for the 150GB Raptor, even the 74GB Raptor is a luxury. I should have mentioned, I'll be taking parts from my current PC into this new build. Apart from a DVD Burner I'll be re-using, I have a *Refurbished 320GB Sata 3.0 7200RPM Maxtor DiamondMax 10. I bought a "Maxtor DiamondMax 10 300GB SATA2" earlier this year, and it went bang. I sent the drive back to Maxtor, and they gave me this mysterious 320GB DiamondMax (i cant find details about a 320GB DiamondMax anywhere, I believe it's a Seagate wearing a Maxtor badge) anyway, it's been rock solid so far, and you can't complain about a 20GB bump ;)

Thanks for advising against Abit. The Gigabyte GA_965P_DS3 looks pretty tasty, i'll add this to the mix

Can anyone narrow down the choice of GFX? I wont be going for a multi GPU solution, so u can rule that out. I'll happily plump for a X1800, but can any1 recommend a brand?

The case I'm thinking of is a Cooler Master Centurion 5 Black/Silver (Without PSU). I'd like something sleek/stylish, with plenty of room, & I think the CM Centurion 5 is coming in at a nice price too (£45ish).

Cheers guys.
 
It didn't actually go bang. It was more of a <fizz> *sniff sniff* "wtf is that smell, arghhh!" <Rip the plug out of the mains, open the case & cry>. Fortunately everything else was fine, and amazingly the drive was still functional. I was able to retrieve my data & format the drive, before I sent it back to Maxtor. I'll post an image of it tomorrow for your viewing pleasure. I couldnt resist scanning it, although I did received some strange looks from the guys that saw me with a HD on the CLJ5000 @ work.
 
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Good choises mostly, good quality...
Dont forget small things like cables, fans etc...

Good brands for the x1800xt? To be honest I dont know much about whats the best brand for ATI , I know Sapphire 3d, Asus and Club3d are good brands but I suppose Connect3d or HIS excalibur are ok too.
 
Here's the faulty maxtor:
maxtorrg1.jpg


Anyway, I've been looking around, and I think I'll go for an X1800XT. Would the 512MB version be worth another £30?
 
Why don't ya get a Dell 2007WFP (Widescreen 20.1inch) for £285 incl vat + del. (If you look around) That saves you about ~£135? You can spend that on anything else you'd like :).

Edit: Realised you haven't enabled your trust mate, do so now by clicking the "Trust" button at the bottom right of any of your posts :)
 
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Realisticly, I probably wont be gaming @ 1600x1200, but I've chosen that 20.1" TFT so that I have the option. I'll be holding on to the same monitor for a longtime to come, although it's safe to assume I'll be upgrading the PC when it makes sense to do so (just minor improvements/upgrades, like more RAM or a new GFX card in 18-24months).
The reason I'm going for that Dell Monitor, is because I'll be getting it through the company I work for using my employee discount. I've quoted OverClocker's prices cause I dont want to ruffle any feathers. I've seen that the widescreens are a good bit cheaper than the non-widescreen 20.1" TFTs, but my employee discount isn't applicable on the widescreens, so the price difference isn't much.
I think i'll go for a 512MB x1800xt, it might give my system some extra mileage in 2years time
 
Intel Core 2 DUO E6600 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.40GHz
Gigabyte GA_965P_DS3 (Socket 775)
Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2-6400C5 TwinX (2x1GB)
Western Digital Raptor 74GB WD740ADFD 10,000RPM SATA 16MB Cache
Samsung SH-W163 16x16 DVD±RW Serial ATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black)
Tagan TG530-U15 530W ATX2.01 Easycon SLi Compliant Modular Silent PSU
Connect3D ATI Radeon X1800 XT 256MB
CoolerMaster Centurion 5 Black/Silver Case
Dell Ultrasharp 2007FP 20.1"

Ordered. :)
 
You guys really hate the Raptors, dont you.

I've got 2x large capacity HDs in my current PC, and they will be used in this new build. I'll have half a terabyte worth of storage space, before I even install the raptor. The raptor will be used for OS/important programs only.
 
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