System Compatibility Check

[jcalla]

Hey all,
I was initially planning to spend an additional £100 or so, but I've had to limit my budget due to a general lack of cash, as the other stuff I needed to buy for starting university cost more than I expected it to!

If you people could check out this system build and confirm that it is all compatible I would appreciate it, whilst any last minute recommended amendments are also welcome:

CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ AM2 (~£94)
Mobo: Gigabyte GA M55Plus-S3G (~£58)
RAM: 1GB Corsair Value Select, DDR2 PC5300 (~£60)
HDD: Western Digital Caviar SE 250GB 16MB (~£52)
PSU: Sansun Arctic 500w Modular (~£35)
Case: NZXT Trinity Silver (~£39)
SPU: TRUST 5.1 SOUND EXPERT OPTICAL (~£16)
DVD: LG GSA-H10NBAL 16x16DVD±RW (~£25)
LCD: HANNS G HW191D 19" (~£130)
Keyboard: Wired Zippy WK-9000 (~£8)
Mouse: MLK 10 Button Wireless Optical Mouse (~£7)

TOTAL: ~£524 (Plus any P&P costs)

I'll then have to buy a tuner card and printer with anything left up to £600 and will probably then buy some speakers separately, as I was going to buy a cheap hifi system to take with me anyway.

Upgrade paths:

1) An additional 1GB of DDR2 RAM.
2) A graphics card, come christmas I think the likes of the 7900 will have come down a lot, allowing them to be a realistic consideration for a poor student.
3) Additional SATAII HDD, probably 250-300GB once more, I'll probably consider this when I hit 200GB used space.
4) Maybe a soundcard, however I will consider putting the trust 5.1 into my current system and moving my audigy 2 ZS into my "University system" for the added sound quality.

Thanks in advance for any advice or help on this matter. I'll probably be ordering the components in a few hours, so just need the compatibility of these parts confirmed.

Kind Regards
John

 

[semi-pro waster]

I know nothing about the PSU so it is difficult to say how good it is. I'd probably suggest going for something like the Antec Sonata II which is a good case with a solid, quality PSU and costs about the same.

Does the motherboard come with onboard graphics? I know very little about it and it is normally only mATX motherboards that do.

I'd drop the soundcard to save some money when onboard would probably do just as well. I'd change the hard drive to a Seagate 7200.10 as it would be faster and costs around the same and I'd also change the DVDRW for either an NEC or Pioneer but that might just be personal preference.

 

[jcalla]

I really don't have anymore cash, so I cannot afford to go for a more expensive PSU unfortunately. However I have done my research, and it has 5* from all user reviews on ***** as well as generally having great reveiws across the internet (just google for it). Obviously if it doesn't work out, that will be my first priority update.

The motherboard does come with onboard nividia 6100, and it is full ATX, so much better than the usual matx models which from what I can gather cut back on a lot of aspects, and the ATX model also has 4 back panel USB 2.1 ports, which is essential as I am a lover of dongles!

As for the soundcard, you really think I'd be better off with the onboard audio than this card? This card comes with a 1.5m optical cable which works with 2.1 speakers, which is the likely setup I will go with, so maybe it would be worth it just for that?

As for the LG drive, it is the same price as the same-spec NEC model, which I have, but the LG version has great reviews too, so I'll give that a try

 

[semi-pro waster]

Fair enough, you seem to have done your research. The Sonata II is a 450w PSU and case combo, I'm recommending it because I know it to be good but that isn't to say that the other isn't also good

Onboard is fine for most people but they don't always have optical out so if that is important to you then maybe getting the Trust soundcard is better plus as you say it comes with the cable.

The DVDRW is as I say personal preference so since you already have an NEC no harm trying the LG I guess.

 

[jcalla]

The alternatives to that soundcard are rather lacking (in that price range). I could get the Audigy SE 7.1 for that price... but well from what I hear, the support for the product is lacking with it being OEM.

Plus, I am sure I could save £30 one week and update if really needed... and this is assuming I don't switch my present Audigy 2 ZS to my new system... although it does sound quite good with my Logitech-Z5500s!

Thanks for your response and advice btw mate, I really appreciate it. I'll give it another 30 mins to see if anybody notices any problems or such, and then I'll get to ordering.

In terms of a USB Freeview dongle, do you have any experience of those? There are lots available within the £20-30 price range, and it is hard to see any distinctions between them... as all of the provided ariels suck, that is all I have gathered to date! lol