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Thread: Custom desktop build

  1. #1
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    Custom desktop build

    Evening all, first post on here so thought i'd ask for some much needed help. On recommendation of a good friend who uses this forum to spec his desktops i'm after some pointers. I've specced out what i think will work well for my needs and still meets my £600 budget although i'm way over my head with this stuff so any advice would be much appreciated

    Item Type Quantity Price
    Processor Intel Core 2 Duo E6750, 2.6ghz 1 £117

    Processor cooler Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro 1 £15

    Mobo Gigabyte GA 965QM-DS2 iQ965 Express, S775, PCI-E (x16), DDR2 667/800, SATA II, SATA RAID, uATX, VGA 1 £63

    RAM 2GB (2x1GB) Corsair TwinX XMS2, DDR2 PC2-6400 (800), 240 Pins, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 5-5-5-12 2 £98

    Graphics 256MB XFX 8600GT XXX, PCI-E (x16), Mem 1600 MHz, GDDR3, GPU 600 MHz, 2x Dual Link DVI-I/HDTV 1 £85

    HDD 500 Gb Western Digital WD5000AAKS Caviar SE16, SATA300, 7200 rpm, 16MB Cache, 8.9 ms 1 £64

    DVD re-writer Samsung SH-S203/BEBN 20x DVD±R, 16x DVD±DL, DVD+RW x8/-RW x6, SATA, Black, OEM inc. Nero 1 £19

    Case Xclio 3060 PLUS Black Silver Midi Tower Case w/o PSU - 36CM Side Fan! 1 £35

    PSU 400W AKASA Ultra quiet Active PFC ATX 2.2 PSU with Black 12cm Fan 1 £40

    Fans 120mm Sharkoon 2000 "Golf Ball" Quiet Case Fan 2 £14

    Mouse Logitech MX1000, Cordless, Laser, 800 dpi, PS2 USB 1.1/2.0, 5 Buttons, Black/Blue 1 £37

    Keyboard Logitech 967653-0120 Ultra Flat Wired Keyboard, PS2/USB 1.1/2.0, Black 1 £10

    Total X X £597

    Apologies for the annoying format of that table, i've never been too gd with sorting those out on forums.

    Thanks in advance,
    Alex

  2. #2
    finding nemo staffsMike's Avatar
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    Re: Custom desktop build

    What is your budget?

    does it have to be uATX?

    what is the pc for?

    sorry to hound you with questions but you kind of need to gather an idea of what people are looking for.


    Here are my intial thoughts anyway.

    CPU is fine. (if you can find an extra £50 the Q6600 is awesome though)

    Mobo i would change for this which has native 1333mhz support (for that cpu)
    http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=605384

    or this if you fancy the quad
    http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=548096


    RAM I would get this, it's great stuff and super cheap this week.
    http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...odid=MY-058-GL

    Power supply
    http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=644038
    super silent and amazingly stable power as well as being super high quality.

    Graphics.. its an OK card but only if you are desperate for DX10 support.

    If not then a ATi X1950pro or geforce 7000gs will be better bangs for the same money.

    Case: well it's personally preference of course but..that one is a no no.

    something like this is probably better
    http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=446040
    Last edited by staffsMike; 14-10-2007 at 09:23 PM.

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    Re: Custom desktop build

    Thanks for the reply Mike

    My budget is about £600 but i'm willing to stretch abit if i can make a vast improvement for not much extra although i'm just using this machine to give me the edge over my current laptop which is on its last legs.

    The machine will be used for day to day use, films, music and such but also running high end CAD programs which i find eat RAM, hence i feel the need for 4GB, i've tried 2GB and it still struggles when you have a few applications going.

    Honestly no idea what uATX means or does, motherboard selection was based purely on abit of logic, my friend isn't up to scratch on this hence i'm here now

    CPU wise i'm going to have to stick to my guns due to funds,and that motherboard you've suggested looks the part *adds to list*.

    RAM and PSU also changed, knew there would be better out there for the money.

    Graphics card i was advised to get DX10 for gaming if i fancied it which i do from time to time but i see what your saying about better performance from older kit.

    Finally the case, again this was a logic decission....big fan and a controller can't be a bad thing, out of interest what makes you say its a no no choice? My backup is the Xclio A380 Tower but it comes in at a price hike which i'm sceptical over for the moment.

    Thanks for your time, anymore help would be more than welcome guys

  4. #4
    finding nemo staffsMike's Avatar
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    • staffsMike's system
      • Motherboard:
      • evga 680i
      • CPU:
      • e6600
      • Memory:
      • geil ultra pc6400
      • Storage:
      • WD 320gb
      • Graphics card(s):
      • leadtek 8800 GTS 640mb
      • PSU:
      • ocz gameXstream 700w
      • Case:
      • akasa eclipse
      • Monitor(s):
      • dell 2007wfp and Lg L194WT
      • Internet:
      • pipex homecall

    Re: Custom desktop build

    uATX is micro atx.. basically a cut down motherboard which generally has an onboard gpu so you dont need a graphics card..

    They are pretty good for basic/budget builds and offer amazing value for money considering what you get. If you ever want to overclock though it's best to go standard ATX such as this

    http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=605521

    or this is if you want raid and better overclocking functions
    http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=605524

    Abit are my personal preference due to great quality and good support but here is a good selection of boards using the P35 chipset which is best to go for at the moment.
    http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...Thumbnails=yes

    Unless you have plans for DX10 gaming (nothing uses it yet..apart from games that offer dx9 support as well) you are better off with the older cards. They outperform the other cards hands down and if the dx10 cards are that bad at dx9.. i see no reason why they would be good at DX10.

    If you wait a week or so a new graphics card will come out called the 8800 GT which is a great compromise but will set you back around £130.

    Case is your choice but i'd honestly go for something with a more..conventional air flow. A 120mm fan on the front and one on the back and maybe one on top is proven to be best.

    If you have the money for it this a fantastic case
    http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=501972

    great cooling and next to silent. In fact if you got a decent Heat sink for your CPU (scythe ninja is perfect) and got a passive graphics card you could have a totally silent running system if thats on interest?

    passive card
    http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=615951

    plenty of others though, i have a gainward passive 8500gt in my other oc.

  5. #5
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    Re: Custom desktop build

    it probaly looks great and performs great?

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    Senior Member Pob255's Avatar
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    • Pob255's system
      • Motherboard:
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      • CPU:
      • FX8350 & CM Hyper 212+
      • Memory:
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      • Storage:
      • 512gb samsung SSD +1tb Samsung HDD
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    Re: Custom desktop build

    Well the 8600gt should be ok for lower res gaming 17"-19" but as staffMike has said all the current dx10 games also work in dx9 and the 7900gs or x1950pro will out perform the 8600gt and can be bought for around the same price.
    As the Hexus review of the xfx 8600gt xxx shows. (note that review is a little skewed as that's an extreamly good 7900gs and a basic x1950pro, normally the x1950pro slightly beats the 7900gs)

    Thoes xcilo propeller cases look good on paper but don't actually work that well.
    The xcilo windtunnel is suposed to be far better however at the price the antec 900 is better.
    The Asaka Zen and Antec NSK4000 are good budget cases provideing decent air flow and build quality for the price. (sub £30) they are also smaller than something like the antec 900 which is both good and bad.
    Good, smaller so less space is required under/on desk. Bad, smaller so less space to work in when putting it together, although they are still big enough to get all the bits into them.

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