PC noob needs assistance

Kodama · 20 Aug 2006 at 00:13

Right, basically i'm starting uni in a couple of weeks and I need a new PC, so I've decided to try and build one myself. From lurking on OC boards for about a week and just generally trying to buff up my PC knowledge I've come up with the following spec;

Intel Core 2 DUO E6300 "LGA775 Allendale" 1.86GHz (1066FSB) - OEM (CP-135-IN) - £126.84

Gigabyte GA_965P_DS3 (MB-061-GI) - £105.69

Connect3D ATI Radeon X1800 XT 256MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-044-CO) - £149.17

GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC6400 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400UDC) (MY-058-GL) - £146.82

OcUK Value Hanns-G HC194D 19" LCD Monitor - Silver/Black (MO-019-OK) - £120.43

Akasa AK-ZEN-01-BK Zen Black Case - No PSU (CA-020-AK) - £32.84

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 250GB ST3250620AS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD-079-SE) - £57.52

Asus DRW-1608P3S 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - Retail (CD-020-AS) - £28.79

Seasonic S12 430W Silent ATX2.0 Power Supply (CA-000-SS) - £46.94

Scythe Ninja Plus Heatpipe CPU Cooler (Socket 478, 754, 939, 940, LGA755) (HS-003-SY) - £37.54

Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound (3.5g) (AC-000-AC) - £6.46

Now i'm a relative noob, so I'm not 100% sure on this spec, so I have a few questions;

1) I've listed a Crossfire motherboard as I'm assuming somewhere down the line I'll want to upgrade and get another X1900 card, from what I understand not all Crossfire/SLi configurations add any significant improvement in performance, is the the case for this series of graphic cards? If not, what none crossfire (or SLi enabled board, if you suggest a Nvidia alternative) should I get?

2) I'm not very savvy on cooling whatsoever, so I'm hoping for some input in that area.

Appreciate any advice. I'm hoping for this PC to last at least the next 3 years, and be reasonabley capable of playing high end games for most of that time. I'm new to this computer building malarky, so if anything isn't compatible, please point it out!

Tetras · 20 Aug 2006 at 00:23

If you go for an X1900 GT, you really should look at the HIS with ICEQ 3 cooler, quiter, cooler and not much more money

For a new build the memory is a bit low, I'd look for a minimum of 2GB but you should get by, as long as you don't play games like BF2, will no doubt be quick on your future upgrades list though.

Would suggest a different brand PSU, Antec have dipped in quality and have had crap caps and compatibility issues with many of their recent PSUs (though partly the fault of their OEM). You won't need a SATA power adapter for any modern PSUs either, cos 1: any decent PSU should already have SATA power connectors and 2: one heck of a lot of boards come with SATA power adapters.

As far as I know that board doesn't support Core 2 Duos I'm afraid.

j00ni · 20 Aug 2006 at 00:26

Would the X1800XT not be a better gfx card for only £10 more?

Kodama · 20 Aug 2006 at 00:28

ah damn, thought as it was the right socket it would support the CPU. Any other crossfire capable ones that spring to mind? (unless of course you feel there's little need in getting a crossfire board).

Kodama · 20 Aug 2006 at 01:23

Right made a few modifcations, namely the motherboard, PSU, heatsink, and graphics card. How's it looking now?

edit: Put in two options for the motherboard, depending on whether people reckon crossfire will be worth it.

j00ni · 20 Aug 2006 at 11:13

Looks nice. The Gigabyte mobo seems to be the more popular on here, and has seen some nice overclocks if you are intending to have a go at that

- I don't think crossfire is really worth the extra expense at the moment, and by the time it is needed to play the latest games you will probably be looking to upgrade again anyway. The X1800XT will make anything out currently fly

Though if you aren't looking to overclock the scythe ninja heastsink is probably overkill, and you could probably be better off going for something like the Arctic Cooling Freezer 7

Kodama · 20 Aug 2006 at 14:35

Thanks for thr advice, decided to get the DS3 and keep the Ninja, just incase I decide to overclock some time down the line

Tetras · 20 Aug 2006 at 15:00

ah damn, thought as it was the right socket it would support the CPU

Yeah, it is shame really, they might as well have put Core 2 Duo on its own socket seeing as 99% of the compatible motherboards are new designs anyway :rolleyes:

Interesting choice on the case by the way, never seen those till today

Did you spot the review Akasa link to (http://www.doomedpc.com/?q=node/155)?