whaddya reckon?

[bravenovice]

Hi all. I'm building for the first time from scratch. Until yesterday I knew nothing about sata, raptors, pci-e - heck, when my husband removed the cpu fan to hoover the dust out I was like, 'What is that gooey white stuff?' Let me go get a cloth...'
Anywho, I've already bought an Antec P180 case, a Seasonic S12 430W PSU, and an Asus P5B Deluxe mobo (I learnt that term on my travels too!) So I'm planning on doing the following setup:

Case: Antec P180
PSU: Seasonic S12 430W
Mobo: Asus P5B Deluxe/Wi-fi
CPU: Core 2 Duo E6400
Graphics Card: Sapphire Radeon x1650 Pro
HDD: Undecided. I'd like lots of storage (as I do some graphic design/presentation work with Flash, Director and Photoshop on and off. I've been reading up and have decided against RAID tho, so only one drive should be necessary.
Sound Card: Undecided. I don't need anything too fancy, but it should be able to lend some atmosphere to the odd game here and there (11yr old son to please).
DVD drives: I want two of them, writable of course, but I dunno what make or speed to go for. What's good that's out there now?

Can't think of what else I'm gonna need... oh yeah, a monitor...

[Nick Smith]

e6300 and overclock? or dont you want to overclock?

and whats your budget?

welcome to the forums aswell

[dave87]

Looks good, the Hard disk I'd look at Seagate 7200.10s - probably around the 320gb mark. I'd get 2 drives, but not RAID them, more performance

Soundcard - the onboard should be fine.

DVD Drives, unless you do a lot of disc to disc copies, then 1 would be fine.

RAM - What are you looking at on that front? DDR-6400 should be fine, and if you are using Photoshop - 2gb is a minimum.

Graphics card wise - the x1800/7800-x1900/7900 range will be higher value for money, but start slightly higher up the price range...

[bravenovice]

e6300 and overclock? or dont you want to overclock?

and whats your budget?

welcome to the forums aswell

Listen, overclocking is a new concept for me - I still don't really know what it means...

[dave87]

Heh, don't worry, get the e6400 - will be more than powerful enough, whilst still allowing you to overclock should you ever want to

[bravenovice]

Phew. Ok, now I'm hearing stuff about these x1900 being all noisy and that. I don't want to fork out more than £150 for a decent graphics card, so maybe you have some other recommendations.

[dave87]

Something like this perhaps?

It comes with a Zalman Vf-900 which is one of the quietest coolers around

[No.72]

Phew. Ok, now I'm hearing stuff about these x1900 being all noisy and that. I don't want to fork out more than £150 for a decent graphics card, so maybe you have some other recommendations.

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/produ...oductID=550482
why not one of these, they are on today only and its dx10?

[bravenovice]

Something like this perhaps?

Sounds good, but will 256mb be ok? I was thinking I should go for 512mb actually, not that I know why exactly...

[dave87]

You can go for the 512mb version if you like, but you don't get the silent cooler, so it could be a bit noisier...

This would be the one if you wanted 512mb.

[bravenovice]

OK. I'm making my list now! I've looked up the ram, does Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2-6400C4 sound right to you? And what make of DVD drive do you recommend, or does it not really matter?

[dave87]

XMS2 sounds fine, DVD drives, Samsung should be alright, I've got a Sony, but some have had problems with them. Otherwise NEC seem to be a favourite...

[bravenovice]

Thanks for all your help dave.

[staffsMike]

Overclocking was pretty new to me until recently.

Got stuck in with "my system" and its actually not as hard or scary as you might imagine.

You've picked a very good motherboard for it to say the least.

Theres plenty of guides around to help you..and these forums will help to.

For Hard drives...ultimate performance comes in the shape of Western Digital Raptors but they are nosiey and expensive for the space you get.
Spinpoints (samsung) are very good as well as other western digitals but thats personal and others will say different im sure.

DVD drives..I've got an NEC Labelflash writer and its very good

RAM..You're very limited on scan..but corsair is very good afterall. Any PC6400 will be good. You dont need particularly low latencies (timings) with core 2 duos..

OCZ and GEIL are good brands but you do need to go elsewhere..like overclockers.

GFX Card...I hate ATi... I'd get the MSI Geforce 7900 GTO from scan..

Silent..or near as dammit..wait for it to be on a today only and it will be £140 and better than most ATi's...and you wont have an ATi...which is the biggest bonus

What size monitor?

[dave87]

I agree with most of you've said, though I'm not sure on the graphics front. I like nVidia, but afaik, the x1950 is a pretty decent card.

Spinpoints are fine, if you get a decent one. They've been having trouble with noisy motors/increased vibrations. Seagates 7200.10s are quick but not Raptor loud, hence the suggestion.

Oh, and if it's your first build, avoid overclockers. CS side is a shambles, and whilst I've had good experiences with their sales staff, the aftersales is useless (they lost my RMA in their warehouse - eventually sent out a replacement).

Dave

[staffsMike]

Must admit i've never had an RMA with overclockers...but my brother lives just round the corner so I can just go in when im round there lol.

The x1950 is an awesome performer no one can deny that..I've just had trouble with ATi in the past...drivers being one of my main annoyances.
Never seem to have trouble with nvidia.

Personally I like my wester digital..its quiet, quick...it as well as the seagates are good comprimises.