From Scratch Build Advice

[jamiesalter]

Please post any thoughts on the following system (note all prices are rough):

Processor
Intel Q6600 G0 SLACR - £170
Motherboard
See below for notes - £128
Memory
OCZ 2x2GB PC6400 Kit (OCZ2P8004GK) - £160
Graphics Card
XFX GeForce 8800GTS 640MB - £250
PSU
Corsair VX550W - £50
Hard Drive
2x160GB tba - £60
Case
tba - £60
Cooling
tba - £30
Drive
LiteON 20X SATA (DH-20A1S-15C) - £20
Screen
Samsung SyncMaster 940BW 19" Widescreen - £150
Keyboard
Logitech Cordless Desktop S-510 - £30

Total: - £1,108


Motherboard choices:
Asus P5K Deluxe/WiFi-AP - £135
Abit IP-35 Pro - £120
Asus Blitz Extreme - £150
GA-P35-DQ6 - £120
MSI P35 Platinum - £110
MSI P35 Platinum Combo - £130

Any help appreciated.

Cheers.

[alsenior]

Please post any thoughts on the following system (note all prices are rough):

Processor
Intel Q6600 G0 SLACR - £170 - ok
Motherboard
See below for notes - £128
Memory
OCZ 2x2GB PC6400 Kit (OCZ2P8004GK) - £160 - ok
Graphics Card
XFX GeForce 8800GTS 640MB - £250 - for a 19inch screen it might be better to go with a 320mb and save some money
PSU
Corsair VX550W - £50 - good
Hard Drive
2x160GB tba - £60 - a single seagate 320gb 7200.10 would be a better choice
Case
tba - £60
Cooling
tba - £30
Drive
LiteON 20X SATA (DH-20A1S-15C) - £20
Screen
Samsung SyncMaster 940BW 19" Widescreen - £150
Keyboard
Logitech Cordless Desktop S-510 - £30

Total: - £1,108


Motherboard choices:
Asus P5K Deluxe/WiFi-AP - £135
Abit IP-35 Pro - £120
Asus Blitz Extreme - £150 - not as good value as a p5k deluxe
GA-P35-DQ6 - £120
MSI P35 Platinum - £110 - msi boards are a bit poor at the moment
MSI P35 Platinum Combo - £130 see above

Any help appreciated.

Cheers.

see the notes i made above

[staffsMike]

I would probably go with the 320mb version of the GTS on a small screen as it will save you a fair bit of money and you wont see a difference in performance.

My choice on the motherboard would be the IP-35pro. Great motherboard and a good company for support.

Any particular reason for going with 2gb modules? They are a bit of a waste imo. They have slacker timings are quite expensive. You can get 4GB of crucial ballistix right now for just over £100. It will overclock really well if you want it to and I can't see why most people would need more than 4gb for a good few years unless this is supposed to be a fairly extreme work station.

Case wise in that budget the Antec 900 is really good.

Hard Drive i'd get a 400/500GB western Digial AAKS they are amazing and super silent.

I would also factor in an after market HSF as the stock cooler is rubbish.

The scythe ninja is a great cooler.

[jamiesalter]

Thanks for the input...
I've made a few changes:

Processor
Intel Q6600 G0 SLACR - £170
Motherboard
Asus P5K Deluxe/WiFi-AP or Abit IP-35 Pro - avg:£128
Memory
2x Crucial 2x1GB Kit (BL2KIT12864AA804) - £100
Graphics Card
XFX GeForce 8800GTS 320MB - £190
PSU
Corsair VX550W - £50
Hard Drive
Western Digital Caviar 400GB 7200RPM - £60
Case
Undecided - £100
Cooling
SCYTHE Ninja-Plus or Thermaltake Big Typhoon VX - avg:£30
Drive
LiteON 20X SATA (DH-20A1S-11C) - £25
Screen
Daewoo HL920W 19" Widescreen - £117
Keyboard
Coolermaster Aluminium Wired (EAK-US1) - £12

Total: £982


As you can see, I haven't included a case...
I've got a budget of around £100 and have been looking at the Thermaltake VA8003BWS. However it seems slightly large. Any suggestions?

I'm also undecided on the motherboard. Narrowed down to the Asus P5K Deluxe/WiFi-AP or the Abit IP-35 Pro. If read that the asus overclocks better, but (above) was suggested the abit. Are there any other advantages of one over the other?

Oh and which is better: the SCYTHE Ninja-Plus or the Thermaltake Big Typ VX?

Cheers.

[staffsMike]

Case wise the antec P182 is fantastic if you have £80 for it. It's very sedate looking (no led fans etc..) but probably one of the best cases for cooling and deffinatly the best for quiet or silent pc's.

Both HSF's are very good and different group tests will come up with different results.

Hexus' big test showed the big typhoon to be the best but most will suggest that the Scythe Range and the Thermalright Extreme 120 is the best.

Personally I prefer the scythe ninja because it is almost as good as the thermalright (talking 1 or 2 degrees) but works off a near silent fan where the thermalright needs a faster spinning fan.

It's depends entirely on what you want though. I go for silenece where possible and thats the Scythe, Extreme overclocking would go to the thermalright. I personally would stick to tower based HSF's as the top down designs like the big typhoon can actually heat motherboard components as opposed to cool as some suggest they do.

I would also suggest a slightly different PSU. There's nothing wrong with what you have picked, it's a great PSU bu the corsair HX whisper 520w would be my choice as it's modular and so much better to work with due to that.

Everything i'm suggesting I have used together in a second PC I use and it makes an absolutely silent running PC, even the hard drives (AAKS western digitals) can't be heard. It's fantastic.

I havn't used either motherboard but I have used the normal abit IP-35 and it's a fantastic board..great layout, good overclocking and looks good too. No complaints about it.

The P5K is a fantastic board though so I can't really help you decide. The only thing I will say is that Abit's support is far FAR better than Asus support. We even have an Abit Care forum here on hexus

[Dreaming]

Case wise the antec P182 is fantastic if you have £80 for it. It's very sedate looking (no led fans etc..) but probably one of the best cases for cooling and deffinatly the best for quiet or silent pc's.

I love my P180, but he does mention size, is a consideration, in which case - why not consider an Antec Solo or something of that ilk?

The problem when choosing a case is it's quite a personal thing - function wise, they only serve to cool and prevent too much noise escaping, but really if that's a problem you should be looking at the components first and then the chassis if it still bothers you. It's about what you want, style wise, etc.

If I had to go again I would have the Solo because the size of a p180 and weight is difficult to manage at times. But I'm not unhappy with it

I have 2 160gb drives in raid0 for a bit of extra performance, but I have quite a lot of files so it's quite nice when moving gigabytes around from one drive to another.

[ScottY_]

Out of those two motherboards i would say the Abit the P5K boards have issues left unsolved by Asus who don't seem to care about them.

Another suggestion for the case a Lian Li PC-A12B, nice design but more expensive than the P180 but they have a little more room i think.

[jamiesalter]

Thanks alot for you input...here's the system:

Processor
Intel Q6600 G0 SLACR - £170
Motherboard
Abit IP-35 Pro - £120
Memory
2x Crucial 2x1GB Kit (BL2KIT12864AA804) - £100
Graphics Card
XFX GeForce 8800GTS 320MB - £190
PSU
Corsair HX620W - £90
Hard Drive
Western Digital Caviar 400GB 7200RPM - £60
Case
Coolermaster CM 690 - £60
Cooling
SCYTHE Ninja-Plus £30
Drive
LiteON 20X SATA (DH-20A1S-11C) - £25
Screen
HANNSG HG216DP 21.6" Widescreen HDMI - £160
Keyboard
Coolermaster Aluminium Wired (EAK-US1) - £12

Total: £1,017

Few more questions:
Is the 320MB XFX card capable of easily running on 21.6" or should I upgrade to 640MB?
Will the card fit into the Coolermaster CM 690?
Does the build look balanced?

Cheers.

[staffsMike]

Looks like a great build you have there. The 8800GTS will fit pretty much anything as it isn't any wider than the mobo itself.

The 320mb will be fine for current games at the RES. I bought the 640mb just to be safe but who knows whether it will pay off in the long run. I would say stick with the 320mb tbh.

Is the hard drive you've specced an AAKS model? I can't recommend them enough.

[roofio86]

Thanks alot for you input...here's the system:

Processor
Intel Q6600 G0 SLACR - £170
Motherboard
Abit IP-35 Pro - £120
Memory
2x Crucial 2x1GB Kit (BL2KIT12864AA804) - £100
Graphics Card
XFX GeForce 8800GTS 320MB - £190
PSU
Corsair HX620W - £90
Hard Drive
Western Digital Caviar 400GB 7200RPM - £60
Case
Coolermaster CM 690 - £60
Cooling
SCYTHE Ninja-Plus £30
Drive
LiteON 20X SATA (DH-20A1S-11C) - £25
Screen
HANNSG HG216DP 21.6" Widescreen HDMI - £160
Keyboard
Coolermaster Aluminium Wired (EAK-US1) - £12

Total: £1,017

Few more questions:
Is the 320MB XFX card capable of easily running on 21.6" or should I upgrade to 640MB?
Will the card fit into the Coolermaster CM 690?
Does the build look balanced?

Cheers.

Hey mate, hows your HannsG HG216DP?

Im about to get one for my new system but I can find hardly any reviews of it!

Cheers

[jamiesalter]

I'm no screen expert, but here are my opinions on it:

Pros:
Its nice and big
Buttons and menu easy to use
No dead pixels
No noticeable ghosting or problems (although haven't done any tests)
Can handle decent resolutions (currently using 1680x1050)
Looks good with a fairly modern styling

Cons:
The connections at the back are quite difficult to use (esp the HDMI) as its hard to connect large chunky cable heads to them due to little space back there. However, averagely sized cables should be fine.
The base is slightly tacky plastic, although does work well.
The screen can't rotate sideways, only up and down which it does reasonably well.
The speakers aren't great (but who cares about the speakers?)

Hope this helps,

Jamie