New PC Build - Printable Version
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New PC Build by Ptoye on 04-16-2007 at 10:43 AM
Hey,
Well as you may know i have my dell inspiron 9400 and now want to get a desktop, i looked at dell and i can get:-
- AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual core processor 3600+
- Vista Home Premium
- 20" flat panel Moniter
- 2048MB of RAM* (they give me the choice to have either four 512MB cards or two 1024MB cards...whcih is better?)
- 320GB (7200RPM) HDD
- Integrated nVidia GeForce 6150 LE graphics
- 16 X DVD +/- RW Drive
- multi-media keyboard and premium mouse
- Creative Inspire T7900 7.1 Speaker System
That is in the Dell C521
£544.07
BUT i do not like dell' s PC ( i do there laptop!) (because of cheap part and bad service) so i have decided to build my own
this is what i was thinking
case £85
Mobo £45 Asus m2n-mx
CPU (not sure!) AMD (budget = £40 - £65)
RAM £50 (DDR2 800)
Hard drive £55 320GB ATA 2
Tv tuner £30
Optical drive(s) ~£20 per drive (one DVD RW and one lightscribe)
Standard CPU cooler £15
PSU 400w £13
Mointer to be decided, hoping dual screen ( i will be willing to change Mobo for one with dvi and vgd support if that one does not)
OS vista home premuim £80 OEM
Total £463 (not including monitor(s))
so what would anyone reccomend me change or ect...
hopeing to build it in Summer holidays ( june 28 - ~ August 27)
Thanks Everyone
P.Toye
RE: New PC Build by John Anderton on 04-16-2007 at 10:50 AM
quote:2x1GB gives you expandability because almost all motherboards atm have only 4 ram slots. So 2x1GB gives you an option in the future to get more ram.
Originally posted by Ptoye
they give me the choice to have either four 512MB cards or two 1024MB cards...whcih is better?)
That's what you should go for
quote:the 4200+ by AMD looked good. I was actually considering it until I got my hands on my E6600 about six months back
CPU (not sure!) AMD (budget = £40 - £65)
quote:ATA?
Hard drive £55 320GB ATA 2
SATA wins any day 
quote:Or get a DVD-RW which has lightscribe capabilities like mine? I didn't even know what lightscribe was when I got this :x
Optical drive(s) ~£20 per drive (one DVD RW and one lightscribe)
The only thing I don't have is blue-ray read/write capabilities but those aren't as common yet so yay
Good luck with the new pc
RE: New PC Build by Knucks on 04-16-2007 at 10:51 AM
quote:Buying a PSU that cheap is not at all recommended. Considering that the PSU is the component that powers the whole of your PC, I would definately up the wattage to say about ~600W (However, I don't know what you're using this PC for, but 600W would give you a good amount of power.) As for the price... you get what you pay for, £13 is not a lot at all so if you don't want your PC to fail due to the PSU, up the wager to something more "trustable" if you can, also go with a manufacturer that is well-known too.
Originally posted by Ptoye
PSU 400w £13
RE: New PC Build by Ptoye on 04-16-2007 at 11:01 AM
quote:
Originally posted by John Anderton
Or get a DVD-RW which has lightscribe capabilities like mine? I didn't even know what lightscribe was when I got this :x
The only thing I don't have is blue-ray read/write capabilities but those aren't as common yet so yay
well i wanted two so that i could use it well like two drives...
quote:
Originally posted by Knuckles
Buying a PSU that cheap is not at all recommended. Considering that the PSU is the component that powers the whole of your PC, I would definately up the wattage to say about ~600W (However, I don't know what you're using this PC for, but 600W would give you a good amount of power.) As for the price... you get what you pay for, £13 is not a lot at all so if you don't want your PC to fail due to the PSU, up the wager to something more "trustable" if you can, also go with a manufacturer that is well-known too.
i can get a 650W for an extra £12
thanks both of you
RE: New PC Build by ShawnZ on 04-16-2007 at 11:02 AM
quote:
Originally posted by John Anderton
ATA? (Smilie) SATA wins any day (Smilie)
serial ata is ata too
quote:
Originally posted by Ptoye
- AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual core processor 3600+
get a core2 duo
RE: New PC Build by Ptoye on 04-16-2007 at 11:04 AM
quote:
Originally posted by ShawnZ
quote:
Originally posted by John Anderton
ATA? (Smilie) SATA wins any day (Smilie)
serial ata is ata too
sorry i ment serial ata
quote:
Originally posted by ShawnZ
quote:
Originally posted by Ptoye
- AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual core processor 3600+
get a core2 duo
to costly
RE: New PC Build by John Anderton on 04-16-2007 at 11:17 AM
quote:When did he say serial ata? Other than the post above this of course
Originally posted by ShawnZ
serial ata is ata too (Smilie)
I've not seen any ATA disc above 80GB. Don't think they exist or are in use mainly
Anyway, as Knuckles said, 600W PSU should be enough. That's what I have
Got mine for 7 pounds though 
I never said UK was the cheapest place to buy things quote:Not everyone has a gold mine under their house like our (not so) little shawnzy
Originally posted by ShawnZ
get a core2 duo
quote:*too
Originally posted by Ptoye
to costly (Smilie)
Its cheaper now than it was back then. Quite a lot cheaper
RE: New PC Build by CookieRevised on 04-16-2007 at 11:25 AM
Same things what the others already said, and:
quote:Buy a big enough case. Space is everything. It isn't a laptop so it shouldn't matter if the case is a bit bigger than otherwise. More space means better air circulation, means more lifetime. It also means you can more easly expand and put more cards in it if needed.
Originally posted by Ptoye
case £85
I would look for a full sized case...
quote:try to get a dual core2
CPU (not sure!) AMD (budget = £40 - £65)
quote:speed depends also on your motherboard, make sure both are compatible.
RAM £50 (DDR2 800)
Also go for two sticks if your motherboard supports dual channel memory.
Don't get more than 3GB, more than 3GB is totally useless.
quote:two HDDs of like 200GB are better than 1 of 400GB. Even when you partionate the one big HDD into 2, it will run slower than when you have two physical seperate HDDs.
Hard drive £55 320GB ATA 2
quote:see if it supports all formats. Starting with +RW, -RW, DVD-RAM, etc. But also DAO (most important if you are going to write discs), TAO, digital input, etc. Try to get a dual layer supporting drive.
Optical drive(s) ~£20 per drive (one DVD RW and one lightscribe)
quote:By cooler do you mean a passive element or a fan? Best is to have both.
Standard CPU cooler £15
Also, besides a CPU cooler you should invest in an extra fan for the case. Prefereable two (one to get air in, one to get air out)
quote:most likely this is a crap PSU... 400W is enough, but the price isn't... Go for a higher price range. Never cut budget on the PSU!
PSU 400w £13
If you buy one and you can choose between a few, get the one that is the heaviest. This indicates in almost all cases a very decent quality.
Look if there are plugs to put the power of your monitor in (very handy; though in that case get a PSU with a bit more wattage).
Also see: http://shoutbox.menthix.net/showthread.php?tid=51...d=551342#pid551342
quote:That mostly depends on your graphics card, not your motherboard.
Mointer to be decided, hoping dual screen ( i will be willing to change Mobo for one with dvi and vgd support if that one does not)
Get a decent graphics card which supports dual view (not all do! some only support clone view), and one with two DVI connectors (not one with one VGA and one DVI).
RE: New PC Build by Kenji on 04-16-2007 at 03:40 PM
quote:You will only get about 1GB 667 For that price..
Originally posted by Ptoye
RAM £50 (DDR2 800)
quote:For the specs that you want and how much money you have, get a cheaper case that is around £50.
Originally posted by Ptoye
case £85
quote:The stock cooling is good enough IMO.
Originally posted by Ptoye
Standard CPU cooler £15
quote:Like other people have said, get around 600w.
Originally posted by Ptoye
PSU 400w £13
quote:Seeing as youre not going to be gaming, as you said in your previous post, get a nVidia 7300 GS. I used to have that and it ran dual screens fine.
Originally posted by Ptoye
Mointer to be decided, hoping dual screen ( i will be willing to change Mobo for one with dvi and vgd support if that one does not)
Well, i got bored so I went to overclockers.co.uk and set some up..
You would have to get a bigger budget for what you want..
AMD setup
Core 2 Duo setup
If i was you, i would save up some more and get the c2d setup..
You could save money by taking stuff out of your old PC, like DVD drives, etc. if possible.
RE: New PC Build by user27089 on 04-16-2007 at 04:56 PM
You should try and get a smaller monitor and you'll get the package cheaper, or of course get a better graphics card or something. The biggest screen anyone needs is 17", which is 1280x1024. Which is, in my opinion the best resolution for games etc.
RE: New PC Build by Ptoye on 04-16-2007 at 05:32 PM
quote:
Originally posted by CookieRevised
quote:
PSU 400w £13
most likely this is a crap PSU... 400W is enough, but the price isn't... Go for a higher price range. Never cut budget on the PSU!
If you buy one and you can choose between a few, get the one that is the heaviest. This indicates in almost all cases a very decent quality.
Look if there are plugs to put the power of your monitor in (very handy; though in that case get a PSU with a bit more wattage).
Also see: http://shoutbox.menthix.net/showthread.php?tid=51...d=551342#pid551342
thanks!
think i will go for a 600W
quote:
Originally posted by Ptoye
quote:
Mointer to be decided, hoping dual screen ( i will be willing to change Mobo for one with dvi and vgd support if that one does not)
quote:
Originally posted by CookieRevised
quote:
That mostly depends on your graphics card, not your motherboard.
Get a decent graphics card which supports dual view (not all do! some only support clone view), and one with two DVI connectors (not one with one VGA and one DVI).
Never knew that some only suported clone view
thanks, i will ask the guy at th local pc shop which one in the range to get.
quote:
Originally posted by Dazzy
quote:
Originally posted by Ptoye
Mointer to be decided, hoping dual screen ( i will be willing to change Mobo for one with dvi and vgd support if that one does not)
Seeing as youre not going to be gaming, as you said in your previous post, get a nVidia 7300 GS. I used to have that and it ran dual screens fine.
Yeh i think a dedicated grapics card would be a good idea .. thanks
@ dazzy - Thanks for the AMD and intel setups! i think i like them, the two asus drives look very good, but i dont think i shoulhd be spending that much on a PSU....
quote:
Originally posted by traxor
You should try and get a smaller monitor and you'll get the package cheaper, or of course get a better graphics card or something. The biggest screen anyone needs is 17", which is 1280x1024. Which is, in my opinion the best resolution for games etc.
I agree although i have saved up enough (will save more though
) for dual screens (hopefully 20") so i may aswell use the money, i like the concept of dual screens too so thanks everyone
A lot of help there, alot of info for me to take into condideration, one i get it build (eventually
) i will post a thread in GCC or T&T about it to let you see what i ended up getting..thanks again!
P.toye
RE: New PC Build by CookieRevised on 04-16-2007 at 07:39 PM
The money you can spare if you buy some smaller screen can be better used for other critical things like memory and/or cpu. Two 20" screens is seriously over the top if you ask me, especially if you need to cut down on other components. A screen is almost the least important and critical thing in the whole system. It is also something which you can easly expand later on. If you don't have enough money, cut down on the screens, you can later always buy a bigger one.
RE: New PC Build by Ptoye on 04-16-2007 at 07:59 PM
quote:
Originally posted by CookieRevised
The money you can spare if you buy some smaller screen can be better used for other critical things like memory and/or cpu. Two 20" screens is seriously over the top if you ask me, especially if you need to cut down on other components. A screen is almost the least important and critical thing in the whole system. It is also something which you can easly expand later on. If you don't have enough money, cut down on the screens, you can later always buy a bigger one.
I see what you mean..... possibly i could just get one moniter ATM and then put the money in CPU/RAM.Grapics card... good thinking
thanks RE: New PC Build by Jhrono on 04-17-2007 at 12:00 AM
Maybe you should do some research first.. That hardware is awfully outdated..
Here's a brief (like a sketch) list of what you should try to buy :
A good case, which provides good airflow (incase you want air cooling, if we're talking about water cooling, it's an whole different matter) and similar construction quality..
Examples of good brands are Lian Li and Silverstone
Next, a good power supply.. Power Supplies aren't all about Watts. You should revise how many Amps. they got on the 12V line and how many rails they've got in each line (the more amps. the better, and the fewer rails the better). Good brands when it comes to PSUs are Corsair, OCZ etc..
Now, Motherboard.. Try getting the new DFI Infinity P965-S Dark, it is said to be stable and to have good Overclock abilities.. It features the P965 Intel Chipset, thus it won't support SLI in any way, but you surely don't want that, I guess. If you don't want to risk your way into DFI, go straight to Asus, they've just released a brand of motherboards dedicated to Windows Vista, one of which actually features onboard flash memory (need to confirm this), which boosts the "Vista Experience", through Vista ReadyBoost technology
Then, CPU.. Try to get an Intel Core 2 Duo E6600.. With the come of new Conroes, the E6600 has dropped price (something like 260 Euros; now, a while back it was 340 Euros).. It really is a great processor, not a toaster like P4 and a great overclocker.
However, I recommend you getting an after market cpu heatsink, like Tuniq Tower 120 (which tops all air cooling heatsinks), since the Stock Intel heatsink sucks (as usual).
Then, graphics card.. Tomorrow (April 17th), there will be available the new mid-range DirectX10 video cards (8600 GT & GTS), at really affordable prices.. Buying anything else besides nVidia 8xxx series right now is not a good idea.. Good video card brands are eVGA, XFX and so on..
As far as RAM is concerned, try to get 2 Gb at 400 Mhz (800 Mhz Effective) DDR2, with the lower timings possible.. Good brands are Team Elite, Corsair, Geil etc..
As for Hard Drives, try getting some SATA II (300 Mb/s transfer rate) drives.. You can get some cheap prices right now.. Look for low access time and 16 Mb cache, not 8 Mb.
Oh and the optical drives, buy one which Asus launched 2 months ago (Edir : Asus DRW-1814BLT DVD-RAM LightScribe), DVD-+RW, SATA and features lightscribe.. I don't think there's much need for two optical drives but if you think so, buy 2, they aren't really expensive
RE: RE: New PC Build by Verte on 04-19-2007 at 09:21 AM
quote:No way, especially with Vista. If you're using Vista on a 32 bit machine especially- with 4GB you can almost stop it thrashing and caching it's brains out
Originally posted by CookieRevisedDon't get more than 3GB, more than 3GB is totally useless.
Well, that said, I don't know what you will be using it for so there's a chance you will use less. Still, it's nice to have all your ram in physical ram rather than on your disk!
RE: New PC Build by CookieRevised on 05-03-2007 at 12:03 PM
quote:yes way...
Originally posted by Verte
No way, especially with Vista. If you're using Vista on a 32 bit machine especially- with 4GB you can almost stop it thrashing and caching it's brains out
If you're using a 32bit system, it is absolutely useless to add more than 3GB (well 3,5 something actually) performance wise. The added memory will not add anything in performance, speed, memory usage, etc. It will simply be wasted and not being used. Even if you have 2 processes using each 2GB of memory, Windows will still need to use a pagefile (even in Vista!).
There are hundreds of benchmarks to back this up too
And all this for normal PC usage (thus not talking about server editions of Windows, etc.
RE: New PC Build by Jhrono on 05-03-2007 at 01:45 PM
By the way, you shouldn't buy a PC just now. Wait for the new few months, Q6600 is coming to replace E6600 (Quad CPU), new motherboards with the P35 Intel Chipset (Supporting DDR3), ATi Dx10 cards (Supposedly) coming out soon, Nvidia 8800 Ultra coming out too..
Just wait a while
RE: RE: New PC Build by Verte on 05-03-2007 at 03:28 PM
quote:
Originally posted by CookieRevised
quote:yes way...
Originally posted by Verte
No way, especially with Vista. If you're using Vista on a 32 bit machine especially- with 4GB you can almost stop it thrashing and caching it's brains out
If you're using a 32bit system, it is absolutely useless to add more than 3GB (well 3,5 something actually) performance wise. The added memory will not add anything in performance, speed, memory usage, etc. It will simply be wasted and not being used. Even if you have 2 processes using each 2GB of memory, Windows will still need to use a pagefile (even in Vista!).
There are hundreds of benchmarks to back this up too
And all this for normal PC usage (thus not talking about server editions of Windows, etc.
Then you can turn all pagefiles off
I know, it's still kind of overkill. I've just had too many experiences [mostly mathematical models and simulations, your mileage may vary elsewhere] with Windows paging with nearly a gig of free ram, sucking my performance down. Moving from a recent Windows machine to a six year old laptop running Unix cuts the simulation time by a factor of about five. I haven't had the time to check Windows with paging turned off, I only heard it could be done without deep magic in #Python the other day, but I imagine the speedup could be similar in programs that access a lot of ram at a time.
BTW Cookie, you sure these benchmarks are for 32 bit?