Please Help me to build system!!!!

[reubenne]

Hello everybody, I registered to get some advice from others any advice will be great even if its just one sentence.

Im basically trying to build a new system, sort of from scratch.

Case: Lian-Li PC V1000
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3
RAM: 4x1Gb DDR2
Hdd: 4xSata
IDE: 2xDvd Rw x16
TVTuner: Hauppauge WinTV Nova-T-500

? PSU: 500w (min) silent or quiet as possible also modular and cheap.
? Processor: Core 2 Duo (Equivalent to P4 3.4Ghz or better) not sure if this if half frequency at 1.7GHz.
? Graphics Card: Good Card Suitable for 3D Games but not too over budget - PCI Express
I have little knowledge on good cheap grapics cards

? Would like to utilze the PCI -x1 slots on motherboard is it posible to get PCI x1 wifi card, and PCI x1 4 port usb replicator.

Erm that should be it for now. Ive never setup a system from scratch before do i need to touch the bios before installing windows?

I have the case and the Hdds, are the any recomended places to purchase the rest, as im on a low budget?

With core 2 Duo is the equivalent P4 speed double that of the Core 2 Duo speed?

Is this a suitable motherboard 775 chipset- advantanges/diadvantages?

and will a 500w power supply be sufficent enough for all the stuff mentioned above?

Any help given will be much appreiciated? (no matter how small thankyou)

[staffsMike]

500w will be plenty to run the system even with the top end power hungry graphics cards, but, only if its a good one.

I'd recommend the corsair 520w HX, i've had two in seperate builds and both were totally silent and they are built by seasonic so pretty much as high quality/reliable as you can get (enermax are good also).
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=446788

Any particular reason for the gigabyte motherboard? Theres a bit of a marmite thing with them I find. Personally I don't really like them but thats from past experience a long time ago.

I'd personally have this on a budget
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=605524

or this if you can stretch to it
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=605522

but im sure the gigabyte would be fine.

Core 2 Duo is a different league from P4..not worth comparing imo. They run cooler, far more efficent and out perform them in pretty much any test you can throw at them regardless of whether they are 1.8's or 3.0GHz. Thats not even mentioning that most of them are capable of around 30% overclocks without breaking a sweat.

That said if you can afford it then the new quad core (q6600) is an animal and as long as you get the G0 version it will overclock well too.
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=643237

I would get sata optical drives..theres no particular performance boost (maybe start up times) but the cables are far less ugly lol.

I think you might want a nice HSF as the retail intel cooler is a noisey thing. This is an amazing cooler and silent as you could want.
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=296802

For RAM I use this in my PC. Great for overclocking and at that price it's a no brainer for me.
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...odid=MY-058-GL

Generally I use scan for all my PC's now as they are pretty much the cheapest, deffinatly the most reliable for sales and after sales and awesome for customer service.
Also, if you get to 25 posts here on Hexus you will be able to claim free delivery from them just to sweeten the deal that little bit more.

In terms of building just take your time and make sure you read any instruction you feel the need to.
If you are unsure post up on here and i'm sure someone will come to your rescue.
You shouldn't really need to touch the BIOS unless you want to overclock or tweak things here and there.

forgot to add a gfx card but what is your overall budget for this system?

[mobo]

4gb ram wont work on windows xp.

[excalibur2]

I'm very happy with my system (click on link) I got the components at their individual cheapest prices using google £10 check out offer, other special offers, and free delivery, etc over the weeks................you can either copy it or use it as a basis i.e. start position and change the spec of a few things.

[cougarslam]

4gb ram wont work on windows xp.

yes it will but xp 32-bit can not use all 4gb.

the reason for this is windows can address up to 4gb of memory but needs to reserve a portion of that memory for other component so you end up with 3-3.5gb usable.

not entirely sure how all this adressing works Clunk can probably explain better if he happens to be reading this.

[reubenne]

Thanks alot for the advice, you guys are just great

Sorry never mentioned budget, it isnt really fixed but i would allow £20 extra on each item if it was going to be a sound investment

+ PSU: £50 - (looks like it would be the cosair 520W)

+ Motherboard - £60
chose the GA-965P-DS3 mainly last P4 board was a Gigabyte and it was ok. also the for x6 sata ports, x10 usb ports(need usb), x3 PCI, x3 PCI x1, and the PCI express port. and support for core2duo
Why should i chose a 775 chipset board?
Is there a clear advantage of the Abit IP-35 over the GA-965P-DS3?


+CPU: £not sure/£160
is there any disadvantage in choosing a 'core 2 quad' processor, eg. applications not running properly or only using one module of the quad instead of all 4? and will it fit and work in 'core2duo' compatible board?
I love the Scythe Ninja Plus Fanless HeatPipe thats a must if it can fit! (says fanless dose have a fan supplied?)

+Graphics card: £60
PCI Express, dual outputs - this is a total grey area 4 me, i had an ATI radeon x600 was sufficent, never did me wrong... until it recently stopped functioning completly not even displaying the boot up screen. (DVI went last year now its finally dead )

+Sound Card: ???
Is it worth purchasing a sound card these days when motherboards have 7channel sound outputs. I sadly use a soundblaster extigy (external soundcard) on my system, its ok for use with XP but has little use under Vista, as no more support will ever be issued say soundblaster as it is an end of line model now. It would be nice to get a remote control one with. although not neccessary. A media enabled system is high priority.

I will try to set up a multiiboot system with XP/Vista

Thanks for any given, and for even reading this far.
Ben.

[reubenne]

how do i give thanks to people?

[reubenne]

I'm very happy with my system (click on link) I got the components at their individual cheapest prices using google £10 check out offer, other special offers, and free delivery, etc over the weeks................you can either copy it or use it as a basis i.e. start position and change the spec of a few things.

Thanks for post it would be nice to know a little more.

Do scan.co.uk have any speacial/hidden offers on?

[cougarslam]

Thanks for post it would be nice to know a little more.

Do scan.co.uk have any speacial/hidden offers on?

scan have a todayonly and mixit page.

never really looked at mixit but todayonly has diff offers each day.

every weekend cpus are always on todayonly with a few quid off the price.

scan do free del if you have 25 constructive posts on hexus forums you can link your hexus forum account to your scan 1 to get the free del.

[excalibur2]

Thanks for post it would be nice to know a little more.

Do scan.co.uk have any speacial/hidden offers on?

It is very unlikely that you will get all your computer parts at bargain prices all at once and am not sure what time of the year is best.
It all worked for me as I was prepared to wait 5 months for memory prices to fall, and in that time after reading the bargain thread here, and checking places myself, got cheap special offers on parts with a final burst near May.

[mycarsavw]

how do i give thanks to people?

Press the "Thank User" button, but you may need a minimum number of posts first?

[reubenne]

Soundcard... iz it really worth buying one(anymore?)

[reubenne]

Oh and a good pci express graphics card with two outputs.
Are ATI still 'the' brand leaders.

[staffsMike]

Nvidia are seen as the brand leaders at the moment really as the ATi's seem to have very flakey drivers and performance to match.. not that nvidia drivers are actually good lol.

Best bangs for reasonable bucks is the nvidia 8800GTS 320mb which start around £170.

Sound cards have thier uses but I find onboard sound quite acceptable these days, it doesn't really hinder game perfomance so unless you are a real audiophile then you don't really need a dedicated card.

[mycarsavw]

Sound cards have thier uses but I find onboard sound quite acceptable these days, it doesn't really hinder game perfomance so unless you are a real audiophile then you don't really need a dedicated card.

I think it was Mike who gave me the exact same advice when I was building my system.

Having recently bought some headphones I'm amazed at the quality of the on board sound.

Stick with on board, see how it performs, then decide.