Spec Check Please.

[Anders]

Putting together a system for a friend. He doesn't want to play games . What do you think?

Case: Aplus Case CS-Blockbuster-BAW (inc Window) Micro ATX with 2x USB, 2x Audio, 1x Firewire (No PSU), £39.94, LN18109
PSU: 450W Corsair VX Series PSU, ATX, PS/2, UK Version, 80 PLUS® certified, £43.35, LN19492
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E4500, S775, 2.2 GHz, 800MHz FSB, Allendale Core, 2MB Cache, Retail, £73.78, LN19277
CPU Cooler: Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro - P4 up to 4.4GHz - S775 Dual Core / Core2Duo Ready, £15.73, LN13080
RAM: 2GB (2x1GB) Corsair TwinX XMS2, DDR2 PC2-6400 (800), 240 Pins, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 4-4-4-12, £39.93, LN14277
HDD: 500 GB Western Digital WD5000AAKS Caviar SE16, SATA II, 7200 rpm, 16MB Cache, 8.9 ms, £62.97, LN17252
DVD: Samsung x20 DVD RW SH-S203D/BEBN SATA BLACK, £17.61, £17.61, £17.61, LN20728,
MoBo: Abit Fatal1ty F-I90HD ATI, S775, PCI-E (x16), DDR2 667/800, SATA II, SATA RAID, uATX, VGA, £60.85, LN17655
Floppy: 1.44Mb Sony Black Floppy Disk Drive OEM, £4.57, £4.57, £4.57, LN5291
Keyboard & Mouse: Logitech Cordless Desktop 1500 Rechargeable Mouse & Keyboard, USB, £28.31, LN20285
Monitor: 19" Daewoo HL920W White/Black Widescreen LCD, 1440x900, 700:1, 300 cd/m2, 5 ms, VESA, £105.74, LN17354
Total: Messed up the total!

I've never built a Micro ATX machine so my first concern is, will it all fit in, particularly the CPU cooler? An alternative mobo could be the Asus P5KPL-VM, but the HDMI port and the on board 3-D graphics for Vista (should be he want to upgrade in the future) made me go for the Fatal1ty. He'll run the sound through his amp.

[staffsMike]

Done a lot of research into this stuff recently and that cooler will certainly not fit in that case.

Take a look at the thermalright blue orb.

Consider getting a modular PSU since you have such limited space.

I was going to get that motherboard but didn't bother going intel in the end. There's a lot better choices for uATX if you go AMD.

If you get an amd x2 5000+ black edition, you get an unlocked multiplier so its a piece of cake to overclock and you dont need a decent motherboard as it puts no extra load on it. Also it's only around £80.

I got the Asus M2A-VM which is a great little board. DVI and VGA and for an extra £5 you can get an extra HDMI. The standard one is just £34

I would seriously consider it. It runs so cool even overclocked at 3.0ghz it's read 10 degrees in everest and core temp

If you still want to go intel there are the new 630i nforce boards which have DVI, VGA and HDMI but are quite expensive.

[PenguinJim]

I'd get the 500GB Samsung Spinny - cheaper, quieter, and roughly as fast.

What's he using it for instead of games? In another spec check thread, we were discussing the restrictive lack of height and inability to display the standard resolution of 1280x1024 inherent in 19" widescreens, and found this 22-incher for £149 on Scan Today Only... but that's another £45.

[staffsMike]

I'd get the 500GB Samsung Spinny - cheaper, quieter, and roughly as fast.

AAKS is basically silent.. find it hard to believe the samsung is quieter.

Cheaper.. well on today only the AAKS is just under £60

[PenguinJim]

The Spinpoint is silent, and it also ABSORBS NOISE from other components. maybe

[staffsMike]

.... lol

I'd stick with the WD but i'm a fan boi. Never buy anything but...never been let down

[Sprite]

That heatsink def won't fit in that case (I have that case AND the CPU cooler) you could look at the Akasa AK-960E or maybe even just stick with the stock cooler as it's pretty quiet and half decent performing.

[Anders]

Lightening replies, thanks.

Thermaltake Blue Orb, £20.52 @ dabs, looks good although Scan don't stock. Akasa AK-960E, £12.90, LN15635 certainly a possibility. Sticking with the stock cooler just seems wrong and goes against all my instincts to be honest.

I wasn't going to overclock as he will want this PC to run for years and I believe that it shortens the life-span of components.

Gigabyte GA-73PVM-S2H NF 630i, £44.05, LN20660, looks good actually. Never had a Gigabyte board, how are they for reliability?

I've got a WD5000AAKS and it's spot on.

Borrowed a few ideas from the thread you mentioned PenguinJim. I have the Daewoo 19" monitor and I find it more than adequate, however i do have a dual-screen setup. I'll give him a 22" as an option.

[staffsMike]

I don't trust gigabyte but only based on experiences with them a long long time ago. These days they are actually pretty good.

There are EVGA boards floating around on some sites.

If you aren't overclocking then deffiantly go AMD. Bigger bangs for bucks. You can get 6000+ (3.0ghz) for £90 now.. with the saving on the motherboard you would be on for the same budget.

[amjedm]

Also consider the Scythe Mini Ninja cooler.

Scythe MINI NINJA 6Heat Pipes CPU Cooler

[staffsMike]

Mini Ninja still won't fit although it should fit in this...just

Aerocool Cube Case > M40 - No Psu- Coolest Cube Case On The Planet- All Black - XCASE No1 For pc computer cases, atx cases & rackmount cases

I was so close to buying one of these but decided that a uATX tower was far better unless there is a serious space issue.

Went with the silverstone TJ-08 in the end. Best case you could hope for, It's on offer this week on scan today only I believe

[Anders]

Having read a review of the Akasa AK-960E I think I'll steer clear. The Blue Orb II comes out very well, the Golden Orb II a smaller version of it.

Forgot to ask, what's different about a modular PSU? (I should probably know this!)

That Aerocool case looks pretty cool.

At Scan, the price equivalent AMD is the AM2 Athlon 64 5200+ 2.6GHz, LN19293, £74.01. So how does this compare with the E4500? Of course, I can never find a straight comparison but, Tom's Hardware has a guide which shows the 5200+ is better than a E4300. This article compares a 5200+ to the more expensive E6600.

[staffsMike]

pay £5 more and get the black edition.

it's a 65nm chip, so it runs cooler, Has that unlocked multiplier. It actually overclocked itself in my motherboard to 2.8 rather than 2.6ghz

Remember though the motherboards are cheaper than intel chipsets so you save money there.

As a black edition it will also be saleable down the line of ebay etc.. as there is always a market for them after they are EOL.

My 5000+ at 3.0ghz ripped a dvd and encoded it to Avi within 5 minutes of my E6600 at 3.4GHz (over an hour for both). Thats the best comparison I can give.

Modular PSU's have removable cables so that you only use what you need