novice system builder in need of enlightenment!!

[juanpablo269]

Hi, looking to build a new system in the next week or two - but i'm not the most knowledgeable when it comes to mobo specs and suchlike....

here's what i've got so far (after about 3 weeks of reading reviews and getting confused)

Intel Q6600
Asus P5N32-E SLI PLU
Coolermaster Real Power 520W
512MB XFX 8800GT Alpha Dog
Geil 2Gb 6400c4 (4-4-4-12)
Samsung SH-S203D/BEBN
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro
160 Gb Western Digital 16mb cache sata II
Coolermaster CM-690

This all comes in at about £640 inc vat and delivery (from 2 different sites) - thats about my price range...

The comp will be used mostly for gaming and watching movies etc....

Not sure about the mobo, it seems good because of the sli capability and the supplied audio card, but some forum posts have contradicting (i think?) issues with regards to overheating on some parts.

If anyone has a few minutes to educate me on this or even any comments about the specs, it would be greatly appreciated. Ta!

[Hunain]

Hi Juanpablo, Do you really need an SLI board?

The rest seems fine, but you might want to wait for new quad quores to arrive, that will give you a price drop on Q6600 as well.

The powersupply is fine for the current setup, but not sure if its going to hold up with SLI, so again, do you really need an SLI setup?

You might want to check the ASUS P5K series, they overclock very well and have been getting positive reviews, they might be cheaper than your board ( Im not sure about the pricing right now)

If you save some, might want to get a bigger HDD? 250GB?

The 8800GT will hold you for quite sometime to come IMO, its a good choice.

[teachmech]

I'll second the hard disk issues my choice would be at least 320Gb if not more.

[Lucio]

Personally, I'd change the motherboard for something like an aBit IP-35e (since you clearly don't need more than 4 SATA devices) and then swap the PSU for something with a better reputation such as Seasonic, Corsair or Enermax. My personal preference is for a Corsair HX series (520w), they're quiet and effeciant though on the slightly expensive side of things.

Also, if you can spare the extra £5-10, get a larger HDD or be prepared to get another HDD later on for docments. Storage is cheap and it never hurts to have the extra space.

[staffsMike]

Here is my thoughts.

Intel Q6600
Asus P5N32-E SLI PLU - Probably better to go with an Abit IP-35 (possible an IP-35E) SLi won't be worth it
Coolermaster Real Power 520W - As Lucio says, the Corsair 520W HX is an excellent PSU with a near silent fan and a 5 year warranty (back to scan assuming you buy it from it them )
512MB XFX 8800GT Alpha Dog
Geil 2Gb 6400c4 (4-4-4-12)
Samsung SH-S203D/BEBN
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro
160 Gb Western Digital 16mb cache sata II - I would make this a bit bigger to, 320GB is about £15 more
Coolermaster CM-690 - not a bad case, you might want to check out the antec 900 though, similar money and a its got a great reputation

[Thorsson]

Agree with above. Only other thing is that DDR2 is a steal at the moment. When DDR3 comes down in price though, DDR2 will not only become more expensive it will become scarce too. I'd think about getting 4Gb now.

[juanpablo269]

cheers for the quick replies guys.

had a think about the mobo thing, have been looking at a few:

Abit ip35-pro
gigabyte GA P35-DS4 <-----this one is on offer at scan
asus p5k-e

the one thing is now my mate is saying i'll need to buy a seperate sound card; thinking of the creative x-fi extreme audio, its only about £25.

@Hunain - i saw something about the q6600 price drop, something about Penryns and Wolfdales but one website said 3-4 weeks away, the other said its an unknown launch date.....I've been hanging back with this upgrade for a wee while, will it be worth it to wait in your opinion?

@Lucio & Mike - I'll take your advice about the case and psu, my choices were influenced by overclockers.com doing a combo deal on the coolermasters for under £100. My original choices were going to be:

Corsair 520w
Antec p182 - (I leave my comp on overnight downloading sometimes and my current one has a horrible whine, apparently this case is almost silent)

So! New thinking:

Intel Q6600
Gigabyte GA P35-DS4
Corsair 520W
512MB XFX 8800GT Alpha Dog
Geil 2Gb 6400c4 (4-4-4-12)
Samsung SH-S203D/BEBN
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro
250 Gb Western Digital 16mb cache sata II (I've got an external 320gb Seagate thing for music etc)
Antec p182

[staffsMike]

Oh yes I love the P182 but.. (this but means spending more money of course) my arctic freezer didn't half make a lot of noise in and other silent PC.

I have a P182 for my silent PC and I use this HSF.
Scythe Ninja Plus Rev.B CPU Cooler (Socket 478/754/939/940/AM2/LGA775)
(it's a bit cheaper at scan where I would advise getting everything tbh)

Also the 8800GT will make a noticeable noise in the P182. Maybe look at an aftermarket cooler for that to (another &#163;25ish)

And, the western digitial AAKS is the perfect hard drive for the P182.. it can't be heard inside it which is perfect for overnight downloads.

[Hunain]

Juan, Ive read the same, some where around mid february, but it again depends on your budget, if you prefer to save anything you can, perhaps you could wait? I dont anticipate radical drops in prices, and the drops will take some time to become significant IMO.

So if you really want it right now, go for it, just dont regret about it, TBH, I hate it when I buy a component and right after that a newer model comes up and I can get the thing for half the price, offcourse, its no use then. But thats just me. A good example would be getting the 7 series cards right before the launch of 8 series, they dropped quite alot and soon afterwards became "obsolete" so to say..

Anyways good decision with the PSU and Ive heard nice things about the case you chose, I would second Thorsson about getting 4GB DDR2 while its this cheap, but im doubtful their price would rise by alot, if any, in days to come. But if you go with 4GB ram, you would like to have a 64bit OS as well.

StaffsMike is also right about the 8800GT making some noise, atleast thats what Ive heard from everyone, so as you want to have a silent PC, maybe you would look at some silent cooling.

As for your motherboard, I frankly dont have any experience with GB or Abit, ASUS has been my choice, maybe you get check reviews on all three to check your particular needs, basically overclocking I guess?

[Buzzsaw]

My advice?

Antec 900 - very quiet.
8800GTS, the larger cooler means its both qieter and cooler in my opinion. I have yet to feel any hot air from the vent.
Core2Duo, or wait for a new quad core.
Abit IP-35, has almost everything the pro does, and EQ covers most of the rest. Also, 7.1 sound is built in, and mine sounds fine. And will probably sound even better with some decent speakers/haedphones!
geil DDR2 PC6400- very good value ATM. What OS are you planning on using? If its vista, you'll need 4Gb.
PSU, corsair or Enermax liberty - make sure its modular.
HDD - 250+ Gb. the extra cost is minimal.

Odly enough, the list above looks very similar to my new PC.

[CrazyMonkey]

Ok, do not listen to the mumbo about the 8800GTS (above) the GT is just as quiet and is more powerfull for just the same price...

The Q6600 is an excellent choice and will overclock nicely (could wait for price drops but who enjoys waiting?)

The Abit IP-35 has had excellent reviews so

RAM is currently cheap as chips, i used to believe in buying high spec top brand stuff but what happened... 3 dead sets in a year (Lite overclocking) Im now using some cheap and cheerfull stuff which is running strong and requires less voltage - 4GB is so cheap atm its worth getting

Im using a Corsair HX 520W - It's incredibly silent and stable (perfect choice for you)

A larger HDD wont cost much, i orignally bought smaller drives and have found myself with now 4 drives

Personally i think the Antec 900 is an ugly looking piece of plastic... but thats entirely up to you...

As for the rest (Sorry about poor layout )

[juanpablo269]

@ Mike - yeah the 182 gets good reviews and recommendations everywhere i've looked and its not too much more expensive (think i was just going a bit crazy with bargain-hunting after the last few weeks!). I've got the above list priced on scan at £680 which is a bit over my budget.....meh

I don't know much about cpu coolers, just that the freezer 7 pro was recommended. quick question - as i've never installed one; do the coolers come with the paste stuff or do i need to buy that seperately?

as for the noise the 8800gt is going to make....i think i'll just have to put up with it. I must have read about 50 reviews of ati 3850's, 3870's and geforce 8800gt's and they all say that for the £20-£30 extra, the 8800gt is a better choice (bang for buck is the term i keep seeing). I currently have an old ati 9800pro that has served me reasonably well until now, but i'm pretty sure i'm going to jump ship!

@Hunain - think you're right about the price drop thing, if i wait a month and the price drops by only £30 or so I'll kick myself (probably because all my money will have been spent on beers....).

All three of the motherboards get good reviews, the abit and gigabyte probably better. I think I'll get the gigabyte as its on offer (and looks pretty good as well! shame they dont adopt asus's black board idea). I do want to have the option available to overclock in the future (once i get someone to show me...how without frying things), but its not a necessity right now.

[juanpablo269]

whoa, more replies in the time it takes me to write back - cheers fellas (or ladies too?)

Buzzsaw - i reckon i'll spend a little more and get the 182, my uncle has the 900 and i saw it at christmas. looks good with all the blue led's, but its basically a big bit of mesh (on top too) - my comp is going next to my desk on the floor. I'd be **** scared of spilling something on my desk and it dripping down into the case......(my mate did it a few years back, hence my paranoia).

The new gts is too expensive, i'm pretty certain the 8800gt is my baby!

@Crazymonkey & Buzzsaw - I'm using xp sp2 for the time being, cant afford the extra &#163;60 for vista 64 yet - maybe in a couple of months. Hence the reason i'm only buying 2gb, i saw somewhere that 4gb is pointless with xp because it can only see 3 or something....?

[juanpablo269]

also - where's the 'thank user' button?

[pauldarkside]

also - where's the 'thank user' button?

Right next to the "Quote" button

And for those in black & white, the blue ball is next to the pink.

Oh, the 8800GT isn't that loud. I have one in my rig and the only time it's noisy is when booting up the PC. Apart from that it's pretty good, at least it'll do until I water cool it.

[juanpablo269]

nope.....i got 'quote' 'multiquote off' & 'quick reply'