Spec'd myself a PC..what changes would you make?

Soldato
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Cambridge, UK.
Intel Core 2 Duo E6400, Socket 775, 2.13 GHz, 1066MHz FSB, Allendale Core, 2MB Cache, Retail - £138.64

Gigabyte GA 965P-DS4 iP965, S775, PCI-E (x16), DDR2 533/667/800, SATA II, SATA RAID, ATX - £102.87

OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) PC2-6400 Dual Channel Platinum Revision 2 XTC Series DDR2 (OCZ2P800R22GK) - (£119.84 inc vat at 17.5%)

2x 500 Gb Seagate ST3500641AS Barracuda 7200.9, SATA300, 7200 rpm, 16MB Cache, 8.2 ms, NCQ - £164.24

512MB XFX 7950GT XXX, PCI-E (x16), Mem 1600MHz, GPU 610MHz, 24 Pipes, Dual DVI/HDTV - £194.80

Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate 64Bit 1Pk OEM (DVD) - £117.31

NEC AD-7170S-0B 18x DVD±RW/RAM black internal SATA Oem - £21.07

Akasa Mirage-62 Midi Tower Case - Hi-End w/o PSU - Overclockers & Gamers Best Choice - £105.62

500W Enermax Liberty Modular Series - ELT500AWT - £68.73

Total: £1033.12

Just a couple of notes, I am buying this case no matter what, and I dont intend to change HDD's either. I dont intend to buy a high wattage 88xx card (dont want ATi either), and I would like a passive cooled card, I found a MSI fanless 7900GS 256mb for £135.00 inc vat which I would prefer as its a hell of a lot cheaper but only 256mb - however the card I buy now is just to tied me over till I decide to get a DX10 card, so is the 256mb extra worth it?
 
One thing that really annoyes me is the whirl of a graphics card fan, so much so the last two cards I've had have been fanless. With the excessive amount of watts a 8800 uses, surely that'll make the fan whirl even louder too?
 
From what i have read the 8800 gts fan is pretty quiet and its a far superior card with dx10 support as you will be using vista and for the same money as the 7950. The rest looks good :)
 
Apart from the graphics card, is the PSU ok? I want a modular PSU and have had a trusty 431w enermax for a good 4-5 years but I had read some posts on here a few months back about quite a few new ones going "pop".
 
I had an enermax go pop on me a few months back after i upgraded my pc. Nothing else was damaged and the rma process was simple and took about 4 days in total, so i dont have any problem with enermax, i'm just not sure if i would buy another one.
 
sr4470 said:
Any reason you chose 7200.9 Seagate drives and not 7200.10?

Where I am buying my stuff from it doesn't seem to have the .10, also on ocuk its about £16 more, so £32 in total - just for SATA2? Probably wont ever notice the difference for them?
 
fobose said:
Apart from the graphics card, is the PSU ok? I want a modular PSU and have had a trusty 431w enermax for a good 4-5 years but I had read some posts on here a few months back about quite a few new ones going "pop".
Nothing wrong with that PSU at all. Enermax are an excellent brand.
 
I would recommend Enermax a lot, i did have one go wrong & that was within the last 3 days of the warrenty they replaced it in 3 days. Very quiet too. Are you thinking about overclocking at all?
 
Ever considered the Gigabyte GA DS3P ?
It will save you £20 atleast and is packed with features

Also, if you want a quiet running system then get some samsungs and ditch the seagates. The performance difference will not be noticeable.
2x Samsung SpinPoint T HD501LJ 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM
£176.22

And, NEC drives have a tendency to run pretty loud (i have one), i would suggest Samsung SH-W183 18x18 DVD±RW Serial ATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM
£21.14
 
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I did look at the DS3 but I wanted more SATA ports as I already have a 300gb seagate SATA drive and if I decided to get another HDD and a DVDRW I am buggered. The nec's are very loud, I currently have a 2500a and a 3520a, however they are good drives and I always make myself scarce when I am burning ;)

Are the Samsungs really that much quieter than the seagates? I have pretty much always had seagates (PATA 80, 120, 160, 200gb, SATA 80, 300gb) and the only one that has been rather loud was the 80gb SATA.

<edit> Will a 500w enermax be fine with my system spec, with the addition of another hdd and perhaps another dvdrw and a 8800 card? (if not how about the 7900GS?)
 
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