New Build, Need some advice please?

InfoTech

InfoTech

InfoTech

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14 Oct 2007
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MSI K9A Platinum Crossfire (Socket AM2) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
(£79.89)
Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2 DHX PC2-6400C4DHX TwinX (2x1GB)
(£93.99)
Zalman VNF100 Fanless VGA Cooler
(£19.96)
Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT SILENT Heatpipe 512MB GDDR3 VIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail
(£234.99)
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 6000+ 3.00GHz (Socket AM2) - Retail
(£103.39)
Western Digital MyBook Essential 250GB USB2.0 External Hard Drive (WDG1U2500E)
(£56.39)
Western Digital Caviar SE16 400GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (WD4000AAKS)
(£57.56)
Scythe Card Reader & Floppy Drive - Black
(£21.14)
Samsung SH-S203NBEBN 20x20 DVD±RW Dual Layer Serial ATA Lightscribe ReWriter (Black) - OEM
(£19.96)
Zalman CNPS9700-NT nVidia Tritium CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/LGA775)
(£51.69)
Akasa Rounded Floppy Cable (0.45m) - Metal Braided
(£3.51)
Akasa SATA-2 45cm Silver Data Cable
(£9.38)
Antec P182 Super Midi Tower Case - No PSU (Gun Metal Black)
(£82.24)
Hiper HPU-4M580 580W ATX2.2 PSU - Black
(£46.99)
Everglide Titan Monster Gaming Mat
(£13.28)
Logitech G9 Gaming-Grade Laser Mouse - Retail
(£58.74)

All prices in VAT.

Im a gamer, i build pc's for myself, friends and family. I know mostly what im upto, but when doing new builds i always have lots of little questions arrise. Im hoping that with some advice and guidance from some more experience people il be able to put my queries/worries to rest and go ahead and do the build. Looking at spending just short of 1K, but that includes everything but soundcard, speakers and monitor.

Let the questions begin..........

1.) My first question and my most concerning is.. Will the power supply i have there be enough for the hole load, or should i go for the 730W version ?
(baring in-mind i have a G15 keyboard, pc-ps2 controller adaptor and a webcam plugged in)

2.) Im curious as to why everyone is going for the G.skill ram, from what i'v read they arnt all that! is it because they have good volts and that Micron D9 chip?
(If so... the ram i have chosen also has good volts, and is the D9 chip that worth it?)

3.) The motherboard i have chosen is very different to what i normally go for but i know MSI are good from previous experience, but can anyone shed some light on the ATI chipset and how good/fast/reliable it is?
(Also baring in mind its a ATI graphics card)

4.) Graphics cards.... iv gone for the sapphire version of the 2900xt instead of HIS or asus, since they have been making ATI cards longest and its slightly cheaper. Why have people not been going for the sapphire version.... is there some crucial bit of information im missing out on, or is it just preference?

5.) CPU... Iv gone for AMD instead of intel due to the vast value for money difference, im aware that intel are better atm but they cant be £££ better per gig..... can they? (can some give me the intel equivalent to the AMD 6000+ i have added, not by money but by results/spec?)

6.) VGA cooler... the cooler i have added for the vga doesnt say if it fits the 2900xt or not, can some please enlighten me? i'v decided on this because the last card my dad baught was phat and came with 1 of those so-called silent heatpipe fan cooled units on it.........which was phookin loud!

Anything else anyone can suggest for me to consider or to change, and why?

Any help and information will be much appreciated!
Many thanks, Matt.
 
a quick view i would say you would be far far far better with a C2D setup.

I.e something like a gigabyte DS3 P35 board and a E6750 or alike - massive boost over the top end AMD cpu.

Also Hiper psu seem to be either love'em or hate'em group - better with the corsair 520W psu.

Also could save a bit on the cpu cooler, scythe ninja or alike would be good.

Also consider some ballistix Pc-6400 ram @ around £65 for the setup. This would allow the budget to maybe squeeze a Q6600 quad core in:p
 
booyaka

Thanks for the info booyaka, i had had strongly considered the ballistix for exactley that reason, plus im not planning on doing any major over clocking so the volts shouldnt matter too much... you've just sold it to me :P

Definitly like the idea of dropping some prices to squeeze in a Q6600 quad core, would it be that much better high end then? I remember looking at a comparison test a while back with my m8 but cant really remember how diff they were :confused:

Not too sure about the ninja...... im after a really quiet cpu cooler thats realiable, would one of those fit my requirements?
(never used a scythe before and dont really know anything about them apart from they have been making coolers for a while)

My biggest problem is still the PSU, i appreciate your advice but will 580 or 520 even still be enough for the system? (Can you give me some reasons why you would go for that particular PSU? dont mean to be a pain in the %^&* just i want a reliable quiet PSU and i keep reading so many pro's and con's about various PSU's :(

thehmsjellyfish

My budget was £800 but iv pushed it to just over £900 lol as you do, but il say £1k MAX! Any thoughts?

Anyone else out there who fancies dropping in some ideas aswell, feel free :)

thanks guys.
 
As mentioned, C2D is king & nothing touches (from AMD) the Quad Q6600 even at stock!

How about...
  • NEC AD7170S Serial ATA 18x18 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £15.99
  • Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient 95W Edition" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - OEM £137.99
  • Western Digital Caviar SE16 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (WD5000AAKS) £54.99
  • Antec P182 Super Midi Tower Case - No PSU (Gun Metal Black) £69.99
  • Tuniq Tower 120 CPU Cooler (Socket 478/754/939/940/AM2/LGA775) £27.99
  • GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400UDC) £41.99
  • Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 2900 Pro SILENT Heatpipe 512MB GDDR3 VIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (21119-00-40R) £143.99
  • Abit IP35 Pro (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £104.99
  • Corsair HX 520W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU (CMPSU-520HXUK) £57.99
  • Sub Total : £655.91
  • Shipping : £12.95
  • VAT : £117.05
  • Total : £785.91
:cool:
 
Ok :) after a little more tweaking to the build and advice from you guys i'v repicked a few items, almost exactley the same price as before and the only thing it doesnt include is the G9 mouse and Titan mouse pad (which i could ask for for Xmas) :p

Here it is, tell me what ya think?

Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 PC2-6400C4 800MHz Dual Channel Kit (BL2KIT12864AA804)
(£64.61)
Samsung SH-S203NBEBN 20x20 DVD±RW Dual Layer Serial ATA Lightscribe ReWriter (Black) - OEM
(£19.96)
Akasa SATA-2 45cm Silver Data Cable
(£9.38)
Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient 95W Edition" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail
(£180.94)
Abit IP35 Pro (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
(£123.36)
Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT SILENT Heatpipe 512MB GDDR3 VIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail
(£234.99)
Western Digital Caviar SE16 400GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (WD4000AAKS)
(£57.56)
Scythe Card Reader & Floppy Drive - Black
(£21.14)
Western Digital MyBook Essential 250GB USB2.0 External Hard Drive (WDG1U2500E)
(£56.39)
Antec P182 Super Midi Tower Case - No PSU (Gun Metal Black)
(£82.24)
Scythe Ninja Plus Rev.B CPU Cooler (Socket 478/754/939/940/AM2/LGA775)
(£34.06)
Zalman VNF100 Fanless VGA Cooler
(£19.96)
Akasa Rounded Floppy Cable (0.45m) - Metal Braided
(£3.51)
Corsair HX 520W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU (CMPSU-520HXUK)
(£68.14)

Once again all prices inc VAT& shipping = total of £991
 
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A 2900 XT is a poor investment. The 2900 Pro is the same card that's been underclocked even though it costs significantly less. If you want a top-end card get the 8800 GTX.

EDIT: This rig would perform better and it costs less
overclockersukyourbaskeyp2.gif


Before you decide to spend to get a graphics card cooler, see what the OEM HGSF sounds like. IT doesn't hurt to wait and you might find that it's quiet enough for your needs.
 
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Hmm ok, everyone agree with this? Because from what i'v read the 2900xt beats the 8800GTX and 2900pro quite sufficiently! Plus its cheaper than all 8800GTX cards.

Im not saying your wrong by any means im just seeking others opinion.

thanks btw :)
 
I think as it turns out, iv read a few more reviews and so called "vs" test's here there and everywhere lol..... i think some of it is depends on the manufacturer as to how good the card itself is, also weather it is running in SLI/Crossfire. (i wont be using SLI or crossfire)

As individual cards i think you are correct the ultra is top (as standard) but not by much at all, and for the little increase of performance-£ ratio i dont think its going to be worth it for me.

If i want to buy a 8800GTX card thats worth buying, im looking at min of around a £100+ extra for it, as nice as it would be just to splash out, but iv been increasing my budget again and again as time has gone by due to greed (as is easily done) :P and 1K really is the stand off point against myself lol.

ty. :)
 
The spec I posted above seems to tick all the boxes and it's less than 1k. You're putting a lot of superfluous stuff in your spec. You don't needs to get extra cables; they'll be included. You probably don't need the IP35 Pro since the DS3R will do a more than adequate job. The Scythe is not as good as the Tuniq Tower and yet the Scythe costs more.
 
InfoTech said:
Ye i like the tuniq idea, but will it be ok running fanless like the ninja ?
Click to expand...
You could run it fanless, but both of them wouldn't overclock without a fan. If going that route I'd fabricate a duct to use the rear exhaust fan to draw air through the CPU heatsink. If you get the Tuniq listen to it before yanking the fan. If it sounds alright with the fan working there's no reason to remove it.
 
ye the 2 quid on the cpu cooler is no biggy lol but point taken cos every penny counts and i completely agree about the listen then modify if needed tactic.

Ye im also liking the build you did, couple of Q's though..... is the 4gb ram really worth it? i mean im running 1gb now and thats fairly good but on the other hand... iv used a computer with 4gb ram lol :eek:

I'v never used gigabyte mobo's before..... are they any good?

Doesnt OEM basically mean it was faulty/broken then refurbished, please correct me if im wrong cos iv had lots of conversations about OEM stuff and no one iv spoken with seems to know for sure. If not then definitly the better, cheaper option.

My only other concern is....... no disrespect to OC in any manor shape or form because they are the shiznit! but iv always been catious about buying in-house parts due to reliablility/quality and compatability of the item and the parts they are made with. Now if anyones gonna get it right then it will be these guys but i hope you can understand where im coming from. This is just my opinion and if you can in anyway shake my worries about in-house parts then please attempt to do so :)
 
OEM basically just means with out the box/drivers and fancy package. It does not mean by any means, broken, 2nd's etc etc. I buy most of my hard drives etc OEM.

OEM - Original equipment manufacturer, or OEM, is a term that refers to containment-based re-branding, namely where one company resells under its own brand, usually within in a larger product of its own, a manufactured product it purchases from another company. OEM is the company that originally manufactured the product and the other company which re-brands it is named a 'reseller' of which.

From wikapedia.

4gb is maybe overkill a bit bit for that price - why not!! i paid £120 for 2gb about 6 months ago and now for less than that you can get 4gb!!!
 
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