Help on new build

[stavroshamster]

Hello,
I built my first self-build around 4 years ago, and now its too slow to cope with.
I am a moderate gamer, although recently haven't played much because my hardware is not up to scratch.
Examples of games I will be interested in playing with a new computer include Spore and Grid. I will be playing these games on a 22 inch TFT monitor with resolution of 1680*1050, but also have a secondary monitor which is 19" with resolution of 1440*900.
The PC will also be used as a HTPC. I have a TV tuner already, but this is not compatible with Vista 64 so I will be limited to Vista 32. I have a surround sound system which accepts 5.1 through the analog outputs of the motherboard.
The PC will also be used in moderation for video and photo editing.
I want to overclock it a bit, but not massively, so air cooling is fine.
I have a budget of around £600, although this is somewhat flexible if much better components are available for slightly more, and will be looking to buy components from scan.co.uk or aria.co.uk probably
I probably don't need a new case, but might consider getting a new one if I have some spare cash as my current one is a very cheap one.

I have done a bit of research into components on Scan and have come up with the following core components which I think would be good:

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo, E8400, Wolfdale Core, S775, 3.0 GHz, 1333MHz, 6MB Cache, Retail £127.59
GPU: 512MB EVGA 8800GT PCI-E 2.0 (x16), Mem 1800MHz, GDDR3, GPU 600MHz, Stream 112, 2x DL DVI-I £126.77
Memory: 4GB (2x2GB) Corsair TwinX XMS2, DDR2 PC2-6400 (800), 240 Pins, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 5-5-5-18 £58.33
Hard Drive: 1000 GB Samsung HD103UJ Spinpoint F1, SATA 300, 7200 rpm, 32MB Cache, 8.9 ms, NCQ £99.63
OS: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1* 32Bit 1Pk OEM (DVD) £60.50
DVD-Writer: Pioneer DVR-215BK 20x DVD±R, 10x DVD±DL, DVD + RW x8/-RW x6, DVD-RAM x12, SATA, Black, OEM £17.85

Questions I have:
What mobo and PSU should I get? What wattage PSU is sufficient, given that SLI wont be used probably. For the mobo, I don't need anything too fancy apart from 5.1 output for surround sound, and something which is easy to overclock.
I have only used ASUS mobo/GPU before, what are EVGA and the others like?
Is 800Mhz memory fast enough?
Can factory overclocked GPUs be overclocked further? If a factory over-clocked GPU is only a few pounds more than the base model which should I get?
Is this the right time to buy a new comp? Or should I wait a while for the next round of GPUs to come out?
General advice on the above components...

Thanks for your help!

[TAKTAK]

First off, Welcome to heXus!

You'll need a 64 bit o/s to utilise all of the RAM as a 32 bit O/S will only be able to 'see' 3.5GB. but something like vista 64bit is reccomended over vista 32bit anyway

RAM=good choice
CPU=good choice (but i would consider a Q6600, insignificantly slower in games and faster at everything else)
GFX=OKAY, but i would spend a little more and get a 8800GTS
HDD=Again OKAY (but not my cup of tea, i prefer WD AAKS's)

PSU wise i would get a corsair HX520w or an enermax unit (500w will be more than plenty, but if you want future proofing then i would consider a 600-700w unit) as long as you stick to good brands such as seasonic/corsair/enermax you can't go much wrong.

Mobo wise, alot of people reccomend the Abit dark raider (it appears on todayonly very frequently)

also instead iof going for onboard sound (because it tends to be a little flakey) i would get a separate sound card such as a creative x-fi

if you wait till next month (new GFX cards coming out) then it should be a little cheaper.

as for which companys GFX card wise i would tend to stick with BFG and EVGA

for O/Cing you should look at an aftermarket cooler such as the TRU120E or Scythe Mine etc, these will enable you to have lower temps and lower fan speeds resulting in a quieter computer overall, quiet is good especially if it is cold as well

[vinnyT]

Hi, welcome to the forum;

For the mobo many peolpe suggest the Abit IP-35, Dark Raider, iP35 Express, S 775, PCI-E (x16), DDR2 533/667/800, SATA II, SATA RAID, ATX £67.79 (scan) is a great choice (though I've not used it myself).

PSU, I like the corsair range, and have the 620W Corsair HX Series Modular SLi PSU, ATX, EPS 12V, whisper quiet, 5 year warranty £85.41 (again scan) and have had no trouble with it, the only gripe is the cables are a little stiff.

"Is 800Mhz memory fast enough?" Yes

Can factory overclocked GPUs be overclocked further? In most cases yes.

"Is this the right time to buy a new comp? Or should I wait a while for the next round of GPUs to come out?" If you can wait, then do so.

[stavroshamster]

Thanks for the responses so far...

Recarding the mobo, can you give me some reasons why the DarkRaider is so good?

Is a cheap soundcard eg Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi Xtreme 7.1 Audio PCI-E Soundcard OEM (30SB082000000) £25.79 going to be significantly better than onboard sound? I can't afford anything too flashy.

For the PSU what about? 550w Corsair VX Series PSU, ATX, PS/2, 5 year Warranty £55.21
I am not overly familiar with exactly how PSUs draw power? Will a higher wattage unit always consume for energy or is it totally dependent on what the system needs? e.g. will a 620W PSU be more power hungry than a 550W?

Thanks

[TAKTAK]

Corsairs HX seires are better than the VX series so i would reccomend the HX520 over that VX550.

as for powerdraw the PSU doesnt draw that amount of energy all of the time it depends on how much the machine is using, so the computer uses less while idling than while at full load. most systems will only use 300w full whack but it's always best to have some headroom, plus the corsair PSU's are more reliable than cheap generic stuff anyway (well practically anything is more reliable than generic stuff)

as for the mobo, i haven't used it myself, but it has lots of favourable options for O/Cing and is a good all round board

as for the onboard sound, it varys between motherboards and manufacturers but generally yes a seperate SFX card is better, it might be an idea to get someones opinion on the dark raiders sound quality.

basically if you want a P35 chipset then go with ABIT and avoid ASUS like the plague
if you want an X38/X48 chipset then it is the exact opposite, avoid ABIT and go with ASUS

but i would reccomend going with a P35 chipset (which the dark Raider is)

[stavroshamster]

Anothercouple of questions:

I guess if I am going to overclock I need a new CPU cooler.
Tom's hardware seem to recommend this one highly as they say its very cheap and effective: Coolermaster Hyper TX 2 Universal CPU Cooler AMD AM2/754/939/940 socket £9.34
Any thoughts?

I have also had the Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L, iP35 Express, S 775, PCI-E (x16), DDR2 1066/667/800, SATA II, ATX £56.27
mobo recommended to me?
So, Dark Raider or this one?

[TAKTAK]

IMHO I don't think anything can beat ABIT for the P35 chipset side of things so the Darkraider

as for a cooler, i would splash out a little more (around the £20 -£40) mark and get a thermalright ultra 120 extreme (note the extreme) HERE or the scythe mine HERE as they are better coolers overall and would allow a quieter experience and also more O/Cing potential

also remember that now you have signed up to heXus you are entitled to free shipping on all orders over £20 from scan, you just need to link your heXus account with your scan account

[stavroshamster]

How do I link my Hexus account to my scan account? Thanks for the tip!

Also,
Whats the advantage of a WD AAKS over other HDDs?

Thanks for your help!

[TAKTAK]

the WD AAKS is very quiet and still nice and fast. so it's a win win situation really, but that IS the only advantage (apart from IMHO WD is a more reliable manufacturer and the drives are better quality, but some people will try and contest this) plus i like to use smaller drives such as 2 500GB drives instead of 1 1TB drive, as if the terrabyte drive breaks you lose everything whereas if you lose one of the 500GB's then you still have the other one (but TBH it IS personal preference)

Free shipping setup:

Rules are here

this explains how to do it

and seeing as though you cannot PM (so you can't follow the guide accuratly yet) your account number is: 37117 (you need this to sign up on scan)

edit: just remember that if you want to order something for less than the total of £20 then you will have to either add a few more items to get up to the £20 mark or phone the order through (scan are friendly over the phone anyway)

[Eddd]

How do I link my Hexus account to my scan account? Thanks for the tip!

Also,
Whats the advantage of a WD AAKS over other HDDs?

Thanks for your help!

http://forums.hexus.net/scan-care-he...tup-guide.html

Western Digitals are considered a better quality over Seagate and samsgung.

EDIT: TAKTAK beat me to it

[TAKTAK]

TAKTAK beat me to it

only by 1 minute...

[stavroshamster]

I think I might upgrade my case as well,

I have seen this: Antec Three Hundred Case £40.53
which looked quite good. I especially liked the fact that this case has washable air filters as my current rig gets very dusty (I hoovered it out the other day and the CPU temp dropped 20C!!).

Any opinions/alternatives? I am looking for something at this proce range or less as I have no spare funds really.

[kietsmark1975]

also remember that now you have signed up to heXus you are entitled to free shipping on all orders over £20 from scan, you just need to link your heXus account with your scan account

just can't help to post for excitement! i am such a newbie! how come i don't know this! thanks man!

[Eddd]

Any opinions/alternatives? I am looking for something at this proce range or less as I have no spare funds really.

Antec 300 looks like a very nice case, never used it but if it lives up to it's cousin the antec 900 then I'm sure it'll be great!

I'd also look at the Coolermaster cases. I've never used them, but I've heard they're very good quality cases.

[TAKTAK]

the antec 300 is fairly new and has alot to live up to as Eddd says, it's cousin is the antec 900 and is a very very popular case.

if you decided that you could wait a little while and saved a little bit more money it is well worth a look at some lian-li cases (scan don't stock them unfortunatly) or also the silverstone kublai series are very good cases, as Edd says it may be worth a look at the coolermaster cases (not my cup of tea TBH, but some people love the looks of them) and they are a very capable case manufacturer

[Thorsson]

Antec 300 is really a cutdown 900, cutdown not only in size but also in features.