Newbie help

chuck990

chuck990

chuck990

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7 Dec 2008
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UK
Hi I recently decided to build a pc for fun and was looking for advice, before I found this site I was pretty sure I had decided on which components to use, however this site has opened my eyes to so much more! I decided to start with a processor and work from there choosing motherboard video adapter etc.

My eyes are currently drawn to the Intel Core 2 Duo E8600 LGA775 'Wolfdale' "Overclocking E0 Stepping" 3.33GHz (1333FSB)
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-232-IN
As this has such a good cache and clock speed I presume it will be well endowed to do things like games etc capably,


However on the Overclockers site when choosing a motherboard it asks for the chipset, I cannot find the chipset of this processor anywhere, is there something I'm missing? Id need to choose the motherboard before choosing memory as it dictates weather I get DDR2 or DDR3 RAM so I cant choose that yet,

For the graphics card I was looking at the HIS ATI Radeon HD 4670 IceQ 1024MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) is this a good choice? It appears to be a cheap alternative to the pricier cards that offer 1 Gb of memory but does it have drawbacks?

Hard drive Samsung SpinPoint F1 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM looks good is it?

Any suggestions for a Disk drive? Not too worried about Blu-Ray but would live a DVD-RW

not too sure about cooling, a water cooling system looks cool but is it just a waste of money? Id also like a cool looking case with LEDs green or blue..

All in all I basically need someone to give me advice on how to make a good gaming PC that also looks good............. Any suggestions?
 
What's your price range for the build, do you need operating system, Monitor, mouse and KB.

Welcome to the forums :)
 
chuck990 said:
However on the Overclockers site when choosing a motherboard it asks for the chipset, I cannot find the chipset of this processor anywhere, is there something I'm missing? Id need to choose the motherboard before choosing memory as it dictates weather I get DDR2 or DDR3 RAM so I cant choose that yet,
Click to expand...

Basically ignore the chipset for now, some chipsets are better than others, like when C2D was the norm everyone wanted P35, it overclocked well. Putting a CPU against a mobo is down to the socket type, for example C2D is LGA775, which is DDR2, the newer Nehalem (socket 1366) CPU is DDR3 and so will need a different mobo with the newer socket type. Hope I helped.

chuck990 said:
For the graphics card I was looking at the HIS ATI Radeon HD 4670 IceQ 1024MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) is this a good choice? It appears to be a cheap alternative to the pricier cards that offer 1 Gb of memory but does it have drawbacks?
Click to expand...

1Gb Graphics are for higher resolutions really, so 24" monitors+. the 4870 is a stonking card, price/performance is awesome, the 512mb version will do you well.
 
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hi the price, though not highly important, should not be too high, id prefer to spend around 600 but would prefer it to be good and more than i wanted to pay than cheap and dissapointing, i will need an os but the mouse and keyboard can be sorted out seperately, ill need a wireless both
 
deleted said:
Basically ignore the chipset for now, some chipsets are better than others, like when C2D was the norm everyone wanted P35, it overclocked well. Putting a CPU against a mobo is down to the socket type, for example C2D is LGA775, which is DDR2, the newer Nehalem (socket 1366) CPU is DDR3 and so will need a different mobo with the newer socket type. Hope I helped.
Click to expand...

does this mean all motherboards with 775 compatibility will work??
 
Personally i would save the money and buy a E8500 instead of the E8600. I don't think the latter is worth the premium for the sake of 160mhz. You certainly will not notice the difference. Team it up with a good P45 board such as the Asus P5Q Pro and away you go.

If going for a Samsung F1 drive then get the 320Gb or 640Gb as they are faster than the 500Gb (they have 320Gb platters). They are probably the best drives at the moment.

I just got one of these LG 22X Sata DVDRW drives to replace a very noisy NEC drive. It's much quieter and appears to be a very good drive.

Cases are a personal choice so i will leave that to you. I can guarantee that you are going to be recommended a Antec 300/900/1200 but i think they are a tacky, horrible looking case. Something from Lian Li or Silverstone would be my choice.
 
pastymuncher said:
Personally i would save the money and buy a E8500 instead of the E8600. I don't think the latter is worth the premium for the sake of 160mhz. You certainly will not notice the difference. Team it up with a good P45 board such as the Asus P5Q Pro and away you go.

If going for a Samsung F1 drive then get the 320Gb or 640Gb as they are faster than the 500Gb (they have 320Gb platters). They are probably the best drives at the moment.
.
Click to expand...

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

+1 Totally agree :)

As for coolin and dvd rw.....

Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775) is a good cooler and quite cheap - (£18.39)

and

Pioneer DVR-216DBK 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM - (£19.54 inc VAT)
 
chuck990 said:
any advice on DVD RW or cooling ??
Click to expand...

DVD RW is such a mature technology that the drives are all much the same nowadays. EDIT: Except for the connector - it's either SATA or PATA ("IDE"). SATA is the current standard, but motherboards usually have PATA support as well.

I wouldn't bother with water cooling for a first build. It's for (a) heavy overclocking and (b) people who like to have water cooling to mess about with. A couple of 120mm case fans (pulling in at the front, pushing out at the rear) and a good CPU cooler will do the job. You're buying a retail CPU, so it will come with an adequate CPU cooler. If you want to look into it and how it compares with third-party coolers, you'll usually find it referred to as the stock cooler. I don't know what the stock cooler Intel is using for new C2Ds is like - I haven't used a stock cooler since...come to think of it, I think I haven't ever used a stock cooler. I'm using a Noctua NH-U12F on mine, but that's a bit old now and there may well be better CPU coolers. Same goes for the 120mm Akasa amber fans I'm using for everything.
 
Any drive can be made near silent with nero drive speed.

Only time you need it really is if you are watching a dvd off the drive.
 
You should have all the wires you need.

The three things to check are...

PSU -> GFX
PSU -> MB
And sata connectors to the drive.

You probably will be fine though.
 
chuck990 said:
yer soz its the Power supply OCZ StealthXStream 700w Silent SLI Ready ATX2 Power Supply
Click to expand...

Regarding the 4670. What size screen do you have and what games do you play? If it's for Crysis, FC 2 and the like it may struggle. It is a budget card after all.

A 700w psu is overkill for the spec too. A decent 500w would be enough.
 
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