Can you help a girl out?

[Stormsinger]

Been a while since I posted anything to these boards, mostly I lurk, and for the last 18 months or so my lurking time has had to be whilst I'm pretending to work at my paid employment

However, it's time now to turn my attention to putting a pc in my bedroom, and replacing the huge amount of equipment taking up space (hifi, vcr, dvd, freeview box, crappy 14" tv). I want something on the small side, and I've been looking at the following:

Aplus Case CS-Blockbuster-BAW (inc Window) Micro ATX
Asrock 4Core1333-GLAN/M, iG31, S775, PCI-E (x16), DDR2 667/800 MHz, SATA II, µATX
520W Corsair HX Series Modular PSU, ATX, EPS12V, whisper quiet
Intel Core 2 Quad-Core Q6600 G0 SLACR, 95W, S775, 2.40 GHz, 1066MHz FSB, 8MB Cache, Retail
4GB (2x2GB) Corsair TwinX XMS2, DDR2 PC2-6400 (800), 240 Pins, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 5-5-5-18
500 GB Maxtor STM3500320AS DiamondMax 22, SATA II, 7200 rpm, 32MB Cache, 8.5 ms, NCQ
512MB Asus 8800GT PCI-E 2.0, Mem 1800MHz, GDDR3, GPU 600MHz, Stream 112, 2x DL DVI-I
Hauppauge WinTV-PVR 500 2xTuner MCE READY + NEW MCE REMOTE
Samsung SH-S203P/BEBN 20x DVD±R, 12x DVD±DL, DVD+RW x8/-RW x6, SATA,Lightscribe, Black, OEM inc Nero

Any thoughts? Any glaring errors? The Scan prices are pretty much about what I'm willing to pay as I have to get a 22" widescreen monitor, keyboard and mouse as well.

I've had a hard time finding any review on the box (which I really really like), and I'm wondering if there's any problems with it, or with fitting in the gfx card and pvr. Eventually I want to put a Blu-Ray drive in, but only when they come down to what I consider a reasonable price. I'm not planning on overclocking at present, but I'm planning to be using it as a TV/music storage/surfing/email/gaming/Office stuff, and I tend to have a whole load of that stuff open when I'm online. I've not worked out yet how I want to link it up to my other two pcs (they are cable networked), as I'm really undecided about wireless and it's security aspects.

Looking forward to any advice

[SiM]

If you are not planning to play many games then don't get that GPU... get an ati 3650 or 3850
Also I would suggest you look at Abit, Gigabyte or Asus motherboards as they are generally better
Everything else looks fine... (some people hate maxtor hard drives though)

[Webby]

On the whole looks alright have you considered the Aerocool M40 (Linky) as the case its nice as well

Motherboard wise I would personally go for this

Computer hardware and software at amazing prices, available online from Scan Computers UK

I have one and it has been exemplary so far.

You may want to consider an after market CPU cooler but that will really depend on the clearances you have in the case.

I would personally not go for a Maxtor drive but would look at Weston Digital AAKS instead they are quiet which will be important if your listening to music watching films etc.

Graphics card wise the ATI offerings have superior HD decoding capabilities and are a bit cheaper if your after maximum gaming performance though I guess the 8800 GT is probably the way forward.

Apart from that looks fine to me

EDIT: Just been looking on Scan and the case you have specced, the stated dimensions are wrong or at least they don't correspond to the correct dimension. At a guess I would say they have transposed Height and Depth, just thought I would mention it in case the dimensions were really important

[LegacyOne]

I think 4GB is a waste I run a game & watch TV with 2GB of RAM also what OS will you be using? 32 or 64 bit?

A Quad-Core (to me) is another waste a E6750/E8200 will do just fine.

Your choice for a motherboard is limited for a Micro ATX case but I recommend getting a G33 or G35 over a G31.

[Stormsinger]

I'll be using 64 bit for the OS.

Also, I have a tendancy to have a load of stuff open and flit from one to the other, that can include (and is in no way limited to) gaming with a DVD on (or the TV), with some d/loading going on, and working on stuff in Office if the raid is a bit quiet (or I just died...). This is also a small box, and I really don't want to have to get in there too often to upgrade stuff as I'll probably rip my fingers to shreds, and I have a puppy who thinks that's his job .

I also don't want to limit what I may or may not do in the future. I've always over-spec'd my pcs, whether pre-built or self-built (well, self-built with a lot of help). My last build was 2.5 yrs ago, and I put in a dual core then, it's still running great, but it's downstairs and as it's a huge tower, I don't want to move it upstairs into my bedroom (where the idea is to go smaller and free up the space for me to put other crap )

[Andeh13]

I would personally not go for a Maxtor drive but would look at Weston Digital AAKS instead they are quiet which will be important if your listening to music watching films etc.

I wouldnt touch maxtor with a barge pole and that Western digital is the HDD iv got and i cant fault it at all (and its 98% full). The WD AAKS is Definitley the one to go for!

[DanceswithUnix]

As long as you are happy with a noisy graphics card, that should be fine.

I recently switched from 8600GT to 8800GT, and the biggest change was the fan noise. I mostly play World of Warcraft at 1280x1024.

Again, this is an upstairs PC so I am honestly thinking of switching back!

[Thorsson]

As long as you are happy with a noisy graphics card, that should be fine.

I recently switched from 8600GT to 8800GT, and the biggest change was the fan noise. I mostly play World of Warcraft at 1280x1024.

Again, this is an upstairs PC so I am honestly thinking of switching back!

Set a fan profile in Rivatuner. Though I wouldn't have thought that WoW on 1280x1024 would stretch the 8800GT enough to require fan at 100%, and on my GTS the fan is near enough silent at 60% and nearly inaudible at 70%.

[DanceswithUnix]

No, the fan is not 100%, and I set the sync to 70hz refresh to cap my frame rate and reduce the work the card is doing. It is also not the normal NVIDIA fan, so I shudder to think what the stock single slot card would be like! The fan actually reacts very fast, you can hear it change speed as you step into a big city.

It looks like this apart from mine is a gold coloured heatsink not blue.

For a while I was running one of these 8600GT cards, which also doesn't stretch its legs much under WoW, but is quieter both under 2D and whilst gaming.

Next stage is to take a dremil to my case to improve the airflow, see if that drops the fan speed a little.