Self Build Concerns

Drake · 18 Jul 2006 at 11:58

Im currently toying with the idea of building my next PC myself, Ive never even attempted to build a PC before and I plan to spend as much as £3000 or just over.

My question is how easy is it to damage hardware accidently when installing it or make mistakes in genral which will ruin a peice of hardware? Getting the cooling wrong is also a big consern. I know theres a build guide on here but I was wondering what everyone elses opionions on this are.

Drake · 18 Jul 2006 at 12:22

Thanks guys, I use my PC for gaming only and recently purchased a 2407 so I want a rig that can run games maxed at 1900x1200. The budget isnt realy a problem for me and Ive recently purcahsed new monitor, speaks, mouse and keyboard anyway.

Ill request a spec on a new thread and see what people come up with. thanks again .

Drake · 18 Jul 2006 at 14:08

hp7909 said:
EDIT: £3000's OTT especially considering whatever you buy now will be obsolete in a years time (& or price will reduce by more than 50%). But, it gives you a chance to concentrate on parts outside the PC case such as peripherals, monitors, speakers, etc which can stay unchanged for more than 5-years

Ive always payed over the odds for PCs

but it doesn t bother me so much, I only bought new mouse, monitor, speaks and keyboard within the last month so those are already sorted.

I started a seprate spec thead here so please go make lots of suggestions.

Drake · 18 Jul 2006 at 14:26

Looking at that guide very briefly Im left wondering do you need to mess about with the BIOS or is tha tjust something for people who want to tweak their PC to their own taste? also is it better to buy extra stuff like thermal paste and not use the stuff that comes with the mboard?

Drake · 18 Jul 2006 at 15:02

I will when I get home thanks.

Drake · 18 Jul 2006 at 19:38

Well atm I want a Conroe CPU and probably a 7950 but I belive ive read that there arent currently any mother boards which support the two together?

Drake · 18 Jul 2006 at 19:53

Given this is my first build nice and stable sounds good to me, and im not gonna rush this cos the last thingI want to do is screw up.

Drake · 18 Jul 2006 at 20:14

Is that all you get for the extra £340ish ?

Ill admit im normaly one for spending for the sake of it but even I find it hard to spend that much for such a small gain.

Anyway lots of ideas swirling around my head now, as soon as I decide if I want to go for a 7950 or 2x x1900s ill post some sort of a wish list.

Seriosly thanks for all this help guys.

Drake · 18 Jul 2006 at 20:53

shimy182 said:
dont know if anyone has said but...

getting a propper kit will help a lot with these sort of things.

Propper kit?

do you mean the right tools? if so ive access to a lot of tools but if there are any which are almost if not totaly PC specific could anyone point them out to me?

Drake · 18 Jul 2006 at 21:23

Ok this is my first attempt at a spec andi m sure theres a lot wrong with it but here we go.

REFERENCE DESCRIPTION QUANTITY PRICE COST
CP-129-IN Intel Core 2 DUO E6700 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.67GHz (1066FSB) - Retail (CP-129-IN) 1
£349.95 £349.95
MB-152-AS Asus P5W DH Deluxe WiFi (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-152-AS) 1
£149.95 £149.95
CA-068-LL Lian-Li PC-S80 Silver Aluminium Full Tower Case (CA-068-LL) 1
£148.95 £148.95
SC-036-CL Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum - Retail (SC-036-CL) 1
£104.95 £104.95
MY-013-GS G.Skill 2GB DDR2 HZ PC2-6400 (2x1GB) CAS4 Dual Channel Kit (F2-6400PHU2-2GBHZ) (MY-013-GS) 1
£147.95 £147.95
GX-045-CO ATI Radeon X1900 ***Crossfire Edition*** 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-045-CO) 1
£254.95 £254.95
GX-052-HT HIS Excalibur ATI Radeon X1900 XT-X ICEQ 3 SILENT Heatpipe 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-052-HT) 1
£299.95 £299.95
HS-003-SY Scythe Ninja Plus Heatpipe CPU Cooler (Socket 478, 754, 939, 940, LGA755) (HS-003-SY) 1
£26.95 £26.95
HD-069-WD Western Digital Raptor 150GB WD1500ADFD 10,000RPM SATA 16MB Cache - OEM (HD-069-WD) 2
£157.50 £315.00
FG-024-AK Akasa AK-183-L2B Ultra Quiet 120mm Fan - 3 pin (FG-024-AK) 1
£9.95 £9.95
CA-001-SK FSP Sparkle FX700-GLN Epsilon 700W ATX2.0 PSU (CA-001-SK) 1
£95.50 £95.50
CD-030-NE NEC ND4570 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM (CD-030-NE) 1
£21.95 £21.95
OS-002-MS Microsoft Windows XP Professional Edition inc. SP2 - OEM - 1Pk (E85-04026) (OS-002-MS) 1
£81.95 £81.95
AC-000-AC Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound (3.5g) (AC-000-AC) 1
£5.95 £5.95
CB-000-WD Western Digital Secure Connect Serial ATA Cable (CB-000-WD) 2
£4.95 £9.90
Subtotal £2,023.80
Shipping (City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)) £14.95
VAT £356.79
Total £2,395.5

Drake · 18 Jul 2006 at 21:51

Well I wasnt sure how crossfire worked as the X1900 XT-X had a warning in the details that said it needed a master card? and the only card I saw which was listed as a master card was the cheaper card.

Drake · 18 Jul 2006 at 23:11

Which case would be better then? also how hard would it be to make a 7950 work on that mother board or on the flip side which boards currently out or out soon will support conroe and nvidia cards? I'll be honest after having crash issues with the x800 xt pe that came in this PC I was planning to move back to Nvidia.

Drake · 19 Jul 2006 at 11:17

Peripherals arent a problem for me I very recently bought a Dell 2407 monitor, Logitech z-5500 speakers, Razer Copperhead mouse, Saitek Eclipse keyboard and Saitek Cyborg Evo joystick.

I was going to hold out for DX10 but then I thought that it would probably take a few months for the cards to be released and much longer again for a lot of games which will support it to come out so id get a 7950 ot 2x x1900s now and get some DX10 cards in a years time.

I dont think ill overclock at all but I may upgrade the CPU to the Extreme as id still be spending less than I had planned if id got a prebuilt.

Drake · 19 Jul 2006 at 13:26

This is my updated spec.

CP-130-IN Intel Core 2 DUO Extreme Edition X6800 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.93GHz (1066FSB) - Retail (CP-130-IN) 1
£666.00 £666.00

MB-152-AS Asus P5W DH Deluxe WiFi (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (MB-152-AS) 1
£149.95 £149.95

MY-013-GS G.Skill 2GB DDR2 HZ PC2-6400 (2x1GB) CAS4 Dual Channel Kit (F2-6400PHU2-2GBHZ) (MY-013-GS) 1
£147.95 £147.95

GX-045-CO ATI Radeon X1900 ***Crossfire Edition*** 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-045-CO) 1
£254.95 £254.95

GX-086-AS Asus ATI Radeon EAX-X1900 XT 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-086-AS) 1
£279.95 £279.95

HD-078-SE Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB ST3320620AS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD-078-SE) 1
£62.95 £62.95

CD-036-PL Plextor PX-760A 18x18 Dual Layer DVD±RW ReWriter - (Beige/Black) Retail (CD-036-PL) 1
£50.95 £50.95

HS-003-SY Scythe Ninja Plus Heatpipe CPU Cooler (Socket 478, 754, 939, 940, LGA755) (HS-003-SY) 1
£26.95 £26.95

SC-032-CL Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Fatal1ty FPS Edition - Retail (SC-032-CL) 1
£122.95 £122.95

CA-068-LL Lian-Li PC-S80 Silver Aluminium Full Tower Case (CA-068-LL) 1
£148.95 £148.95

AC-000-AC Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound (3.5g) (AC-000-AC) 1
£5.95 £5.95

FG-003-DE Delta 120mm Focussed Flow Fan (EHE) (FG-003-DE) 1
£15.95 £15.95

FG-004-DE Delta 80mm Fan (EHE) (FG-004-DE) 1
£9.95 £9.95

OS-001-MS Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition inc. SP2 - OEM - 1Pk (N09-01528) (OS-001-MS) 1
£51.95 £51.95

CA-001-SK FSP Sparkle FX700-GLN Epsilon 700W ATX2.0 PSU (CA-001-SK) 1
£95.50 £95.50

Subtotal £2,090.85
VAT £365.90
Total £2,456.75

Drake · 19 Jul 2006 at 14:45

Ok then I guess I realy should save that cash

so drop the CPU to the E6700 and what case fans would be better?

Other than these bits is there anything that realy should be changed or wont work? or is it looking ok? cos if so ill probably look at ordering all this stuff within the next week or two.

argh still so many questions sorry

what CPU cooler should I get if not the one I listed?