New PC - Need Some Advice

[NovaSphere]

Ok first of all hello! I wasn't sure if this was the right place to post this here, but I figured it's worth a shot.

I'm thinking to buy a new PC, I guess it's about time hence nowadays iPod's perform better than my PC.

I tried to get some information about a few things, and worked out a small list on what to get, my budget is arround 800 to 850 euro.
I've had some help finding things, but I want some clarification and of course, I want to hear some more opinions from people who probably know more about computers in their left toe than I do in my entire body.

So here's the list on what I'm thinking to get;

1. Motherboard - Gigabyte GA-EX38-DS4

2. Processor - Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 "Wolfdale"

3. Graphic Card - Asus EN9800GTX TOP/HTDP/512M (It's partly OC'ed, normally wouldn't take it as you can OC it yourself, but it only cost 4 euro more than the stock one, and I never OC'ed something before in my life, so that didn't matter that much)

4. Memory - Corsair 2GB XMS2-6400 DDR2 TWIN2X (4 4 4 12)

Also thinking of - OCZ 2GB DDR2 PC2-8500 Intel® Optimized Titanium Edition Dual Channel (5 5 5 15)
Not sure yet.

5. Harddisk - Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 SATA 3.0Gb/s 250GB Hard Drive

6. PC Case & PSU - Antec Sonata III Quiet Super 500W

Adding to that an extra PC Fan - Antec TriCool Fan 120mm

7. Monitor - Benq G2200WA


This setup, at the shop where I'm buying it costs in total 848 euro's, so that's really close to my budget.
I already have a monitor at home, but it's 15", I think most will understand why I want a new one. I also have a CD/DVD drive at home, already have a mouse/keyboard and a sound system, also have an OS. (Windows XP Home and XP Pro, might get Vista one way or another)

Now the question is, is this any good for this money? Will this setup work correctly, for example will the power supply be enough? Will I have enough room in the PC case or will I encounter any problems or what so ever.
Or maybe there are better things out there for that money?

Any advice or simple thoughts are welcome and highly appreciated!

Thanks in advance.

[staffsMike]

Why not lower the spec of the Motherboard. You can get them to do the job for half the price, P35 or P45 based boards

I'd probably go for the Q6600 over the E8400. Plenty of threads about it if you search and lots of opinions. The Q6600 overclocks really well though and matches the E8400 in games. It also allows far better multi-tasking potential.

memory, with the money saved from the motherboard I would get 4GB of RAM and a 320GB single platter HD D if you can.

Also if you can push the budget a little for the antec sonata plus (with 550w modular PSU) or coolermaster CM-690 + 550 corsair VX, you will have a much better case and PSU comobination. The sonata III is ok though

Graphics wise the HD4840 from ATi does the same job as the 9800GTX for less money

Where are you buying from and what country are you in?

[FifthFreedom]

Thats system looks good - But some changes I would make:

Motherboard - http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=787775

This would save you £40 and has all the features you need except PCI-E 2 which is still not needed and crossfire.

For the GFX I would go for a new HD 4870 as it has better price/performance ratio

Memory - You could buy 4 gig of RAM just for the hell of it as its so cheap right now.

[NovaSphere]

Ok first, thanks for the fast replies.

I'm pretty sure I want the E8400 though, it looks fine and it was actually the first thing I ran into and I haven't changed the setup at all when it came to Processor, I kept comming back to the E8400, can't say the same about the Motherboard though.

I don't know anything about Motherboards, so any help on that platform is welcome ^^
As you say, I could get the same thing for less money, I had a previous motherboard in my config, which was the; Asus P5Q
It's close to 50 euro's cheaper, and would do the trick aswell I think?
I read somewhere X38 Chipsets are very good chipsets, the X48 are newer and slightly better, but what's the difference between those and the P35 and P45?

I'm really curious on what would be smarter to get, 800Mhz RAM with low Latency or getting 1066Mhz RAM with a little higher Latency?

Once again thanks for the fast replies!

@staffsMike - I'm from the Netherlands, I'm buying this from centralpoint.nl/ (I'm not allowed to post full link, don't have 5 posts yet)
Prices are without TAC (or what is it called in English? Government adds like 19% to original prices) which I luckily don't have to pay, which saves me some money ^^ (getting a discount of 20%)

[staffsMike]

If you intend to overclock the E8400 massively passed 4.0GHz I think it is, then you will want 1066MHz but 800MHz will be fine for modest overclocks or stock settings.

P35 is a little old now but still a good board imo but P45 is probably your best bet and the P5Q in one of it's various flavours isn't a bad choice. Don't bother with X38 or 48 when you are trying to save money.

[NovaSphere]

I doubt I will Overclock anything myself, but I might give it a shot later on.

I'm looking into the motherboard now, since I can save money on that part as you all said.
Especially looking at the Asus P5Q, the Asus P5Q Pro and Asus P5Q-E, which cost from 90 euro to 120 euro (at the store I'm buying from)
Main difference between those is the BIOS Memory size, and some extra features and connections. Does the size of the BIOS memory make a big difference? 8 MB or 16 MB?

Maybe I'm repeating the question a bit now, but; what would be better for my setup to get? The simple Asus P5Q, the Asus P5Q Pro or maybe the Asus P5Q-E? There's also the Deluxe but that one comes very close to the original price of my other motherboard so that wouldn't help much.

I'm thinking now when getting a cheaper motherboard, to buy either more RAM or better RAM and maybe a slightly better HD.
Not sure yet =)

Thanks for the help again.

[staffsMike]

Since overclocking is not the major concern here, looks at the boards connectors liek firewire, eSATA, how many sata ports it has etc.. and find the cheapest one that ticks all the boxes you need

P5Q will probably do the job though, the PRO almost certainly will as it has most things people require.

Just found that link sorry, I'll go and have a play to see what I can come up with

For ease, here it is http://centralpoint.nl/

[Noxvayl]

I'd get a Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS4... got all the features you need and more plus is a very good performer Imo a better choice than either of the Asus motherboards.

For me I'd rather spend more money on a motherboard and save money on memory, HDD ect. That way you can easily upgrade your memory later and not have to change the motherboard. Also I'd get the HD4850 rather than the 9800GTX... the HD4870 is more expensive but also performs better if you have a little extra to spend.

[Zhaoman]

novasphere, dont lie you are a pro, you're setup is rock solid. if you were really picky you could get a hd4850 instead, or wait for the 9800GTX to drop in price.

an asus p5q or equivalent will do everything you need at a much cheaper price, although slightly higher specced models will offer spdif connectivity etc.

your PSU is absolutely fine but i'd opt for a modular one, being able to leave out the cables you dont need is simply priceless

[staffsMike]

Depends what you mean by perfomer though doesn't. Taking overclocking out of the equation makes them both pretty much the same but the gigabyte is a fair bit more..

[Noxvayl]

Depends what you mean by perfomer though doesn't. Taking overclocking out of the equation makes them both pretty much the same but the gigabyte is a fair bit more..

Well the Gigabyte has more fancy power saving features which helps it not only to save on power but last longer as well. Overclocking is more commendable on the Gigabyte but with that out of the equation you have more features like stated above plus better customer service(imo anyway)

As I said I'd pay extra for a good motherboard so you don't have to upgrade it in the next few years you can just swap components connected to it

[staffsMike]

They have the same crucial specs and compatabilities though I'd want an Abit board personally but they dont seem to be on that site.

[Pob255]

If there's no overclocking involved then any p45 or p35 board will be fine, it's as mike said, look for a borad that has the features you want.
Although I'd add to that also pay attention to the layout as well.
eg I'd personally go for the asus P5Q Pro over the P5Q, the reason is the power connector on the plane P5Q is in the middle of the board behind the rear connectors, where as the Pro version moves it to the far better location of the fron edge of the motherboard.

As to graphics card, the 9800gtx is still a good card, all depends on the price involved.
heck a 8800gt 512mb would still be good.

One last thing don't get the Benq G2200WA specs the reason is it only appears to have D-Sub and no DVI

[NovaSphere]

novasphere, dont lie you are a pro, you're setup is rock solid. if you were really picky you could get a hd4850 instead, or wait for the 9800GTX to drop in price.

Uhm thanks but really the 'credit' wouldn't go to me, I've bugged pretty half my MSN list from those that knew a bit about computers, they explained me a lot about Graphic Card naming and gave me a lot of good components, I had a lot of help ^^

About the motherboard, I'm probably going for the Asus P5Q Pro, at that shop it's only 8 euro's more than the Asus P5Q, the Pro version simply gives some nice extra's.
This will mean I will save arround 40 euro, which I can use to either get better/more RAM or get a better HD, which I will look into now anyway.

Thanks for all the help so far, especially to staffsMike ^^ sad enough that site is in Dutch but I hope you can figure it out.

[staffsMike]

Tech is Tech and it looks a bit like german which I know lol (hope that wasn't offensive lol)

[Pob255]

Must admit that's a pritty yucky site, not becuase it's not in english but the bad filtering of stuff.
Had a look at the motherboard list and could not even see an AMD/intell filter, just price and brand name.

One of the things I've always liked about scan they break them up by chipset makes life so much eaiser.

For a basic case the Antec 300 looks quite good. (anyone know much about this one?)
http://computerbehuizingen.centralpo...hree-hundred-/

Add in a corasir VX 550w Power supply
http://power-supply-units.centralpoi...atx-550w-24p-/
this appears to be a OEM unit for €60 excludeing BTW