Spec me a computer please :)

[Muntyness]

Hi all.

I'm building a new computer and I need help specing it.

This computer will mostly be for Gaming/Programming/Movies. It also needs to have 2 hard drives so I can use RAID 1 for backing up. (Otherwise I'll never get around to backing up important files ) This computer also needs to be relatively quiet.

Here's what I'm thinking of:


What do you guys think?

My budget for this is roughly £1100, so feel free to suggest away.

I've also got roughly £300 for a monitor, which I want to use for the computer/xbox 360, so if you've got any suggestions of a good one to get I'd appreciate it

 

[BillytheImpaler]

I like this spec a great deal. 4 GiB RAM, 1000 MiB disk space, overclockable quad core, a great case, and a much faster graphics card.

 

[Teaf]

2x 500GB hard drives for Raid1 with a decent amount of space and very good and importantly very quiet hard drives. I opted for the 2900XT mainly because it plays everything out at the moment and will do for the next 6 months at pretty much max settings (plus I'd want to spend less and maybe sell it on later for 9800GTX when they arrive). Also added you a sound card as this sound card is REALLY good and you can't knock it for the price. 4GB ram so it's great for Vista gaming and so forth.

So overall you can game at max settings with 60 or more FPS, you have superb sound, 4GB ram, a very top end motherboard which is future proof, brillant case which is also very quiet.

 

[t31os]

I like this spec a great deal. 4 GiB RAM, 1000 MiB disk space, overclockable quad core, a great case, and a much faster graphics card. *Edited image link to thumbnail for quote *

I like this spec the best... though i'd drop one of the hdd's and spend more on the board personally.

The raid really isnt worth it... spending an extra £75 on another 500gb hdd just to go raid, i couldn't justify it....... extra £20-£30 on a better board would be more worthwhile imo, and you could proberly up the PSU to the 620W for some extra juice when needed to.

 

[Muntyness]

Hey all, thanks for the advice

Based on what you're saying I've put together another spec that looks like this:

What do you guys think?

Little bit of explanation for my decisions:
I'm going with an Nvidia card, simpily because I wont be able to justify a new graphics card purchase for atleast another year.

The Western digital drives were included mainly because I've seen some reviews that the Seagate ones can be loud.

The case, because I like how it looks

And the 620W PSU because I have an extra TV card I'll probably be shoving into the case.

t31os: The whole reason for Raid is because eventually I'm going to loose a drive somehow, and I never get round to doing disk backups.

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Just a couple more questions for you guys.

You all seem to be agreement about the CPU cooler, so should I just order it now? (It's out of stock at the moment, so the sooner I order it the better really.

Also, any recomendations on a monitor? (I'm planing on dual screening with my current monitor, because after using Dual screens away from home, I just can't go back to a single monitor )

 

[t31os]

If the Tuniq is out of stock, the Thermalright Ultra's are also decent coolers.

Regarding the monitor you're best asking some of the other big screen owners, i'm only on a piddly little 19" widescreen myself...

I like your spec btw, agree on the WD hdd's to... i have 4 in my system...

 

[Muntyness]

I'm going to be buying/building the computer over the next 2-3 weeks anyway, so I don't really mind waiting for the cooler to be delivered.

I guess I'll go bug the monitor forum about the monitor then (Monitor numbers confuse me )

Thanks for the helps all.

 

[Teaf]

I know you mentioned the 620W Corsair because you feel you will want to add more to the system, such as a TV Card, but even so tthe 520w will suffice even with an overclock. That gives you £30 ish more to play with and can go into either getting a sound card (XtremeGamer or something similar) or bumping up the RAM from 5300 to 6400.