Yet another new PC thread

[arizonagroove]

I currently have an Athlon XP 2400+ with 1Gb ram and some GeForce 3 card I nicked off my housemate. It's upgrade time.

Overclocking - never have, never will. DX10 support - irrelevant - I play the kind of games you can pick up for a fiver or less second hand like Doom 3, UT 2004, Deus Ex II (or at least I will when I get a machine can run them ) Also I mainly use Linux (Kubuntu) so anything I can run under Linux, like UT2004, I do. Quieter is better. Got to have Firewire and USB on the front of the case. Must have Nvidia 'cos ATI's Linux support is generally considered to suck.

Here's what I'm thinking -

Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 ('cos it's the new bang/bucks sweet spot) (Scan LN19275)
Asus P5K, iP35 ('cos 1333FSB and Firewire) (Scan LN18699)
520W Corsair HX Series Modular PSU (good reviews and quiet) (Scan LN15216)
2Gb (2X1GB) Corsair TwinX XMS2, DDR2 PC5400 (Scan LN12200)
320Gb Samsung Spinpoint SATA300 16MB cache (Scan LN17225)
Gigabyte Triton 180 Black (Curiously Scan only have the model this replaced, can get it locally for under £50)
NVIDIA GeForce 7950 GT 256MB DDR3 HDCP Extreme (manf part no PV-T71J-UHE4 - can get for £132 delivered - 'cos it's decently powerful, totally silent and has good reviews)

I'll take the DVD burner out my current machine.

Thoughts, suggestions?

cheers,

mike

p.s. This is only my second post so I can't post urls yet, in case you were wondering why I haven't)

[staffsMike]

If its not being overclocked then id say go for it. All good choices for a nice silent system...apart from you have no aftermarket HSF listed... if you are going for silent then the scythe offerings are very good.

PS. that case is horrible

[DratUK]

Welcome to the Hexus forums M8.

Opinion same as StaffsMike, nicely balanced and should stand you well for the next couple of years or more.

Agree about the case though It hasnt recieved that good a review but cases are often personal choices.
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=584955

No doubt I'll get blasted for the above but silent and cool it's 1 360mm side fan very quiet but shifts a lot of air then add 2 140mm fans front rear you then have a very cool running case with a side fan control.
But as I have said personal preference

[Steve B]

Q6600 can be had for similar price range, IMO better than an E6750.
If you're not overclocking, go for Corsair value select RAM, no need for anything better.
I'd try to upgrade that 7950 to an 8800GTS, as these can be had now for ~50 quid extra.

oh and ubuntu > kubuntu Gnome FTW!

[Pob255]

Actually depending on the resloution your running I'd sugest a 7900GS as they can be got for under £100 and and run very well at 1280x1024 / 1440x900 (standard for 17"-19")
Ebuyer has got EVGA 7900gs for £90 http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/125936 while not totally slient, it's got that nice EVGA warranty and there 90day upgarde option thing.

The case is up to you, it doesn't look that bad for the price.
I think DratUK's case sugestion might not be that bad, but I suspect that like some of the rest of us we're waiting for someone to actually get one so we can hear what they think.
There's also a sliver detail version and a Black with drive door version
So yes go for that Xclio case and tell us all about it.

[arizonagroove]

Thanks for the feedback so far!

Currently I have a 17" CRT@1280x10424 but I intend to upgrade it for a widescreen tft 1680x1050. Hence the 7950 GT seemed like a better bet rather than a 7900GS and I'm willing to splash out the extra £30 or so.

I promise myself I would never buy from Ebuyer again after they screwed up my last order and then messed me around something chronic trying to get it resolved.

The Corsair Value ram is 1p cheaper on Scan's site than the TwinX XMS2 stuff I mentioned. I don't know what TwinX XMS2 is but for a penny I'll take it

The Q6600 is £145+vat on Scan's site again the e6750's £100+vat. Whilst this certainly better value from a number of cores for your money it's 45% more money. Also Q6600 lower FSB and lower clockspeed. I'm coming from an Athlon XP 2400+ so a dual core will be a huge increase in performance anyway. Quad core seems kinda curazy power to me and I can't see I'd make use of it to be worth the extra cash. I'm pretty sure I read something that said dual cores are actually better at some stuff and quad cores better than others. I'd look it up but the grand prix coverage is about it start.


I've been round and around and around on the case. I did look at that X Clio and now someone's mentioned it I'm wondering again. Though it has no front Firewire. Hate the look of the sliver one. Not a fan of doors over drive bays though they do certainly improve the look of the case. My current case has a door because I thought it looked great. After a week or so I found it to be irritating as it got in the way. Then one of the hinges broke and then I chucked it in a box somewhere.

[NightshadowUK]

I don't know what TwinX XMS2 is but for a penny I'll take it

You get faster timings, well worth the penny.

[DratUK]

K after more searching for a suitable case I reckon I may have found one.

USB x 2 1 firewire 1 audio. Big enouigh to take a 8800 GTX should you ever decide to play some recent releases

Classic design, no front door, x 2 120 mm fans. Quiet, although if you add a fan to the top blower its an 80mm but if you have a 3rd party cooler thats quiet then its not needed anyway.

Suppose I had better tell you what it is

Lian Li Pc 7 B

All aluminium construction and LianLi's quality.
Now it does add another 4 quid plus delivery to your £50.00 allowance, but believe you me the LianLi's are worth it.

http://www.lian-li.com/product/produ...ndex=56&type=a

Review and some comments from users

[arizonagroove]

That case it actually the Lian Li PC 7S. The X-Case site says PC 7 B but the Lian Li site says PC 7S as does everywhere else. There's a PC 7B but that's a different slightly more expensive case.
Not loving the silver on the front of the PC 7S I'm afraid. I'm a black with black decoration and black highlights kinda guy. Also nowhere can can I find a pic of the left panel. (Pics of the right panel yes, but who cares about that as there's never anything interesting there on ATX cases.) Is there a vent there down by the PCI slots I wonder? With a passive cooled graphics card I'm thinking a vent down there would be good which is one of the reasons I'm seriously looking at the Gigabyte Triton 180.

I like the look of the Gigabyte iSolo 210 (can I do links yet.... no apparently not) but it's not available to buy yet and Gigabyte's response to me enquiry was 'sometime in the next couple of months'.

Geesh it's hard work picking a case Maybe I'll just chuck it all in a spare plastic storage box and save myself the effort of choosing. Actually I wonder if that could work...

[Steve B]

if you're a fan of brushed ally, what about the TJ04
This is my next case (if Agent ever decides to give it to me)

[explicitlyrics]

And yet another option is the Antec 900 - http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=501972

I keep hearing/reading amazing reviews of this case. Dont know how silent it is, but put in 'low' mode it is apparently pretty quiet...

[arizonagroove]

TJ04 looks nice very, but there's no side vents and most of the 120mm front fan is blocked by the front bezel. Also there is no filter on the intake fan.

The Antec 900 did tempt me. It is by all accounts very quiet with all fans in 'low' mode (and you could always unplug some anyway) and would obviously give great cooling with all that mesh. But the total lack of filters and kinda weird looks put me off. After market ones could be added to the front fans but they'd be a pain to remove and clean assume they could be fitted in there at all.

The Triton 180 has 120mm fans front and rear, a filter on the intake, a front fan that takes air through a big hole in the bezel rather than being mostly blocked and a couple side vents. There's USB and Firewire on the front and I don't find it repulsive to look at. Only other thing that would be nice to have is a vent in the top. I've looked at I think pretty much every case there is at some point and not found one that has every single thing I want on it and I think I wouldn't end up hating the look of, but the Triton 180 has come closest with it's features and generally kinda plain looks. I think I'm just going to go with 'cos I'm kinda bored of looking at cases now. Might try and pick up some spare drive 5.25" bezels to cut up and use to stealth the optical drives. Or just cut up the ones that came with it if I feel like living dangerously.

[Pob255]

Rats so we cannot con you into getting one of thoes Xcilos?

Never mind how about these:
Coolermaster Centurion RC-534 £38.76
Enermax Chakra ECA3050 £39.23 although that pic shoes a solid side, the enermax website lists 3 otpions, standard cpu duct and lower left vent, window or a great big 250mm fan

EDIT: sorry the Chakra has an eSATA port on firewire.

[vicar]

Lian Li's are worth it but their customer service is well hummmmm. If your case works it works any issues with it and you are on your own.

[menthel]

I have the first 4 items in my last build. The IP 35 is particularly good. It is well laid out and has loads of connection options. The bios is also rather friendly. The 6750 is also great and about £50 cheaper than the Q6600. To me that will be another hdd later on (or a new copy of OEM Vista if you didn't use linux!) so is money well saved if you don't need the power.

I also have a samsung HDD, the T166 version and these are quiet and speedy, so highly recommended. The rest of my system is <------

[arizonagroove]

It's done. It's all ordered. Got the cpu on Scan's Today Only offer yesterday, they're now out of stock but since my order was going to be delayed anyway by ordering an out of stock motherboard I'm not fussed. Now just got to wait for it all to arrive and assemble it.