new Build Spec Advice Please!

[Muel]

OK finished spec! I just looked at how many empty places for fans the case had and added them in. It's gone a good wack over budget, but never mind.

AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 965 Black Edition 3.40GHz (Socket AM3) £159.99
Corsair TX 650W ATX SLi Compliant Power Supply (CMPSU-650TXUK) £72.99
Asus M4A785TD-V Evo AMD 785G (Socket AM3) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard £70.99
G.Skill Ripjaw 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit £66.99
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - £58.98
Samsung SpinPoint F1 320GB SATA-II 16MB Cache £34.99
Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4670 1024MB DDR3 PCI-Express Graphics Card £57.99
Antec 300 Three Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black (No PSU) £45.99
Titan TTC-NK85TZ Fenrir CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/LGA775/LGA1366) £33.99
Sony Optiarc AD-5240S 24x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Arctic Cooling MX-3 Thermal Compound £6.99
3x Xilence XPF120R Red Wing 120mm Quiet Fan (£6.89) £20.67

Sub Total : £563.09
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £12.50
VAT is being charged at 15% VAT : £86.34
Total : £661.93

 

[Muel]

The antec 300 is a nice case, however it doesn't come with any front intake fans (though it does include a pair of exhaust fans). My suggestion would be to add one of these fans to provide intake airflow.

Without a power hungry GPU or much overclocking, that should be perfectly sufficient. However, if you want a very quiet system,you will want to look at replacing all case fans with quiet fans and a fan controller, this and this are very good - but certainly not required for your build.

Cheers for the advice yet again mate!

I looked in the description on Overclockers, it says:

- 1 rear 120 x 25 mm TriCool™ Fan with 3-speed switch control.
- 1 top special 140 x 25 mm TriCool™ Fan with 3-speed switch control
- 2 front (optional) 120 mm fans to cool the hard drives
- 1 side (Optional) 120 x 25 mm Fan to cool graphic cards

I've added 3 into the spec, two for the front and one for the side. Should be enough I hope!

My only worry is, how many sockets do they put on motherboards for fans these days? My current one has 1 3pin socket for a case fan, then one other for the CPU.

On another website, I found this:

1 x CPU Fan connector
1 x Chassis Fan connectors
1 x Power Fan connector

I've no idea what the difference between a Chassis Fan and a Power Fan is though? The fans you suggested are 4 pin aswell though, do people still use 4 pin much or would it be a better idea to get a fan controller? Or just use it on 4 Pin and if I feel it's too loud, get a fan controller then?

 

[cmndr_andi]

3 will certainly be enough, though I would suggest investing in 3 of these so you can tune the fans to the speed/noise you are happy with, at full speed they are a bit loud (in my subjective opinion).

For the motherboard connections - this is the way you want it:

1 x CPU Fan connector - Titan Fenrin Fan connected here
1 x Chassis Fan connectors - First red fan connects here (motherboard sensing enabled)
1 x Power Fan connector - Second Red fan connects here (no motherboard sensinga vailable)
The final fan connects to a 4 pin Molex plug (from the power supply).

The 4 pin connectors advertised with the Xilence fans are not PWM connectors (like those available from the CPU_Fan header) but instead 4 pin molex plugs that look like this (the big plugs). They are included so you can connect them straight to the PSU if you run out of motherboard connections, this means there is no speed control or sensing for these fans - they always run at full speed.

 

[Muel]

That all sounds fine, do the two already supplied with the case connect straight to the PSU then if they've already got there own controllers?

I was planning on leaving the standard fans in and filling the 3 empty spaces aswell, is it really necessary to have 3 more with this set-up? I will be overclocking at some point, but not when it's new.

 

[cmndr_andi]

Aye, the fans included with the Antec 300 connect straight into the PSU (using 4 pin molex connectors). They have a simple fan controller on them, so you can set them to either low/medium/high. For your needs, I suggest connecting them up and setting them to low - should keep things cool and quiet enough. 3 extra fans is nice to have (great airflow) but isn't required for your uses, I suggest just getting one and seeing later if you want any more. I do however, suggest investing in a cheap fan controller (linked above) for each new fan you get, as they don't cost much and make your PC-using experience a lot better.

 

[Muel]

OK cheers, think I'll just get the one, get it running and if I decide it needs OCing, I'll get another two.

I think that's everything sorted now, pretty sure I'm ready to order!

For anyone whos interested, here's the finished spec. Thanks to all who've helped, you've done an admirable job!

AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 965 Black Edition 3.40GHz (Socket AM3) £159.99
Corsair TX 650W ATX SLi Compliant Power Supply (CMPSU-650TXUK) £72.99
Asus M4A785TD-V Evo AMD 785G (Socket AM3) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard £70.99
G.Skill Ripjaw 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit £66.99
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - £58.98
Samsung SpinPoint F1 320GB SATA-II 16MB Cache £34.99
Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4670 1024MB DDR3 PCI-Express Graphics Card £57.99
Antec 300 Three Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black (No PSU) £45.99
Titan TTC-NK85TZ Fenrir CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/LGA775/LGA1366) £33.99
Sony Optiarc AD-5240S 24x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Arctic Cooling MX-3 Thermal Compound £6.99
Xilence XPF120R Red Wing 120mm Quiet Fan £6.89
Zalman Fan Mate 2 Fan Controller £3.44

If there's anything I've forgotten, now would be a wonderful time to let me know.

Once again cheers guys. (Y)

 

[cmndr_andi]

Cool stuff, couple of questions/suggestions about the above spec:

As you are using a Quad core and a low power GPU, you can easily get away with this PSU. Its very good quality, and unless you plan on adding a much more powerful GPU - it will handle your system (even overclocked) very well.

I would suggest going for this DVD drive (the 5240s, is actually a 20x drive not 24x). The 7241s drive is faster and also does lightscribe.

Also, why the two hard disks?


Everything else looks awesome.

 

[Muel]

I am thinking that maybe I will end up with a more powerful GPU in the future, I'm not really into gaming at the moment, but seeing as I'll have a decent spec computer soon it'll probably be worth having a dabble.

Have updated the DVD drive though, thanks for everything dude! Time to get ordering...

 

[Muel]

Double post...