Must-have components

[bravenovice]

Hi guys. I'm half way through buying the components for my first build, but apart from the compulsory case, mobo, psu, cpu, ram, gfx card, hdd, dvd rom, keyboard and mouse, and of course the monitor - what else should I be looking at getting? I do a bit of graphics work and my son and hubbie like games...we will probably also watch films on it. Is there anything - including peripherals - apart from what I've just mentioned that you couldn't do without on your computer?

eta: oh yeah, which do you think is better - p5b or p5w (deluxe)?

[Flewis]

What about cooling? U will need some case fans if the case uve chosen doesnt have any. Will you be using the stock cpu heatsink? If you are overclocking or want to reduce noise you will want a custom one.

[DecomposingStar]

Wacom graphics tablet if you're doing some graphics work. They're great quality.

As for the motherboard question, will you be overclocking? If so, that will also determine which RAM, MoBo, CPU and cooling you get.

[my new pc is a]

SPEAKERS!

Single most important part of any computer!

Also maybe a card reader? They're about £5-15ish, and let you stick in the memory cards which come with digital cameras and mobile phones. (Although to be honest I've been fine with just usb cables)

[Clunk]

Card reader + SD card, maybe a usb stick, quiet fans, floppy drive for emergencies, arctic silver 5, akasa tim clean (definately buy these last 2 if you are buying an asus board), sata dvd drive (saves using the horrible jmicron ide controller).

[bravenovice]

Firstly, I have no idea about overclocking - it is a completely new concept for me, so I guess I won't be doing that for now. I've already purchased the p180 case, and that comes with 3 fans - hopefully that will be sufficient for my needs. And I've already bought Corsair 2gb TwinX XMS2 6400 DDR2 ram.

eta: what is akasa tim clean?
I've also already got a sata dvd drive and a seagate barracuda 320gb hdd.

[DecomposingStar]

Righto.
If you aren't overclocking, your RAM and Case may be a bit excessive, however there's nothing wrong with getting good kit. If you can, get a Core 2 Duo E6400 or at least E6300. They are great little things and if you ever did want to overclock, you can push them extremely far.

For mobo's, stick to trusted makes; Gigabyte and Asus are good, i personally have a Foxconn 975x7ab and i think it's great for the price.

Graphics, if its just casual gaming and graphics work, then an ATI X1600 upwards (or the nVidia equivilant, i think thats a 6800?) should do fine, if its going to be a bit of a games machine then you want to hold out for a DX10 card.

As previously said, SPEAKERS! or headphone. Creative do good sound products. But wait, you need something to run your speakers on! Check your mobo for integrated sound, but if you want truly brilliant sound, go for a Creative X-fi of some sort.

I haven't looked into the motherboards too much, but i know that the Asus Commando is good, and around the same price as the P5W.

Anyway that's my opinion on it.

[Clunk]

Akasa TIM clean is for removing old thermal paste and stuff. It is quite handy and only a couple of quid for a bottle that will last you ages.

Out of the 2 motherboards that you mentioned, the P5B deluxe wifi would be my choice (and is). The Commando mentioned above has been a right pain in the arse due to build quality problems mostly, going to have another go at it later.

[DecomposingStar]

Out of the 2 motherboards that you mentioned, the P5B deluxe wifi would be my choice (and is). The Commando mentioned above has been a right pain in the arse due to build quality problems mostly, going to have another go at it later.

Oh really? That's a shame, it got good reviews and has a cool setup.

If the P5B has WiFi, get it, it will save hassle later on, and for what it sounds like you will be using your system for, the Commando is probably pointless(it's a bit of a gamers board).

[bravenovice]

What kinds of things do people do with usb sticks? Do you save files and stuff on it?

[DecomposingStar]

What kinds of things do people do with usb sticks? Do you save files and stuff on it?

Basically, yeah.
USB pen drives are used for data storage and transfer, and come in REAL handy. Get one at the size of about 1gb. I use a 256mb one occasionally and it is totally necessary. But i wouldn't pay too much for one, really. They are cheap these days anyway.

[Flewis]

You can do bios flashes with usb drives now, eliminating the need for a floppy drive completely.

[DecomposingStar]

You can do bios flashes with usb drives now, eliminating the need for a floppy drive completely.

Yep, but i doubt she(?) will be needing to flash a BIOS.

[bravenovice]

heyy... I might want to... one day

[wja96]

Nexus prolong - stops the CPU overheating if you've been gaming and then shut down too quickly.

mCubed TBalancer BigNG - a proper high frequency PWM fan controller - essential for optimised cooling at all times.

[merdat]

Yes, And another must have 'bittie', is some 'ESP' protection , i.e. anti-static band , for when you are doing the build. They only cost about 5 quid and will probabaly save you a 'fortune' . Don't just rely on 'touching the case with the mains plug in and the power switched off ' --'witch brew methods ' .