My new build

[Powderhound]

I'm going to be ordering this rig in the next few days and wondered whether anyone has any suggestions for it. I'm on a limited budget of £1400 absolute tops, and I intend to use it as an all-rounder, including gaming and with particular regard to flight sims. I'll also be running it with Ubuntu as a dual boot.

Q9450 (Scan) £197.39
P5Q-E (Scan) £98.69
Corsair 4GB Dominator 1066MHz (Scan) £82.24
Gigabyte HD 4870 (Scan) £173.89
Samsung Spinpoint F1 750GB (Scan) £59.97
Optiarc/NEC AD 7200S-0B (Ebuyer) £14.99
Xigmatek HDT S1283 (Scan) £22.27
X-Fi Xtreme Gamer OEM (Scan) £51.52
Antec P182 (Ebuyer) £85.99
Corsair TX650W (Scan) £65.79
Vista Home Premium 64 bit OEM (Ebuyer) £58.75
Logitech G5 (Scan) £30.89
Saitek Eclipse II (Ebuyer) £23.50
Logitech X-540 (Scan) £53.69
HP W2408H (Microdirect) £302.98
Linksys Powerline AV (Ebuyer) £74.99

Total: £1,397.54


The homeplug adapters are needed because my parents refuse to let me use wi-fi and would murder me if I was caught drilling holes in the walls for ethernet cables.

Any opinions?

[SiM]

Looks great... A few comments:
1) Don't Nvidia cards work better in Linux?
2) Corsair TX650W is cheaper on ebuyer
3) Do you actually need a separate sound card?
4) 1tb or 640gb hard drive, they are usually faster (you want drives with ~330gb platters)
5) Monitor has a TN panel, which is not the best type. Have a look at the Dell 2408

[staffsMike]

Looks pretty good to me. I would try onboard sound before you drop £50 on the X-fi, I'd go for the 640GB Western digital AAKS drive.

Unless you have plans for dual GPU which with that card and that board you probably aren't, I'd go with a modualr PSU (corsair 520W HX), especially with that case. You will thank me later I'm sure

[Zhaoman]

Logitech G51s - £85

Much, much better choice. Ditto with the hard drives.

[Powderhound]

Looks great... A few comments:
1) Don't Nvidia cards work better in Linux?

ATI have pulled up their act with the 48XX series I thought, and I don't do any real 3d work in Ubuntu.

2) Corsair TX650W is cheaper on ebuyer

It was until this weekend, when it disappeared.



[QUOTE[3) Do you actually need a separate sound card?[/QUOTE]
I'd prefer to have one because I'm something of an audiophile, being a keen classical and jazz musician, and this PC is going to be used as a sound system and for transferring a large quantity of records to CD.

4) 1tb or 640gb hard drive, they are usually faster (you want drives with ~330gb platters)

I was considering this, and I'll see if Scan gets them in stock in time.

5) Monitor has a TN panel, which is not the best type. Have a look at the Dell 2408

Which is £150 more expensive, and having seen it in various shops, the image quality isn't bad; it's got some pretty good reviews as well.

Looks pretty good to me. I would try onboard sound before you drop £50 on the X-fi, I'd go for the 640GB Western digital AAKS drive.

Unless you have plans for dual GPU which with that card and that board you probably aren't, I'd go with a modualr PSU (corsair 520W HX), especially with that case. You will thank me later I'm sure

Are you sure that's got enough headroom?

Logitech G51s - £85

Much, much better choice. Ditto with the hard drives.

Where? Even so, I'd prefer to stick with Scan and Ebuyer for the majority of the components.

[wzix]

Looks good, i think that the 520HX is deffo enough, check out the super specials on aria.co.uk on the day you buy some real good bargains.

From what ive read yes Linux has better support now from radeon.

[Nelsaidi]

P182's are on sale at £75 this week at ebuyer, which is why i may be getting that over a antec 900.

Hope u enjoy ur pc

[Powderhound]

P182's are on sale at £75 this week at ebuyer, which is why i may be getting that over a antec 900.

Hope u enjoy ur pc

*Hugs repeatedly* Well spotted. Now if I can just get my parents to hurry up with agreeing to this...

[Katar]

Any reason you chose 1066Mhz memory over the cheaper 800Mhz?

As for the sound card you might want to try a non creative card. They haven't done a great job with vista drivers so far. I tend to just go for onboard sound nowadays so I can't recommend a decent replacement.

[Powderhound]

Any reason you chose 1066Mhz memory over the cheaper 800Mhz?

As for the sound card you might want to try a non creative card. They haven't done a great job with vista drivers so far. I tend to just go for onboard sound nowadays so I can't recommend a decent replacement.

I'm planning to do a fairly large OC on the CPU to get it up to 3~3.2GHz, but I could go for 800 if the real world difference is minimal.

Sound card wise, I'm also looking at the Asus Xonar DX.

[joz12345]

hes got 1066mhz ram cos hes overclocking a q9450, and that will go over a 400mhz fsb due to the 8x multiplier. He could overclock the ram, but thats adding to the possible instabilities, making overclocking harder. He can just ignore the ram if he gets 1066 mhz

[Zhaoman]

Where? Even so, I'd prefer to stick with Scan and Ebuyer for the majority of the components.

Logitech G51s have much better sound quality than the Z-540s:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=695483

Here's a nice roundup of current audio hardware:

http://www.custompc.co.uk/labs/17306.../products.html

[Powderhound]

But they cost £50 more, and the X-540s have still got good reviews.

[Katar]

hes got 1066mhz ram cos hes overclocking a q9450, and that will go over a 400mhz fsb due to the 8x multiplier. He could overclock the ram, but thats adding to the possible instabilities, making overclocking harder. He can just ignore the ram if he gets 1066 mhz

Heh my mistake, didn't notice that it was a Q9450 not a Q6600. But if going to a max of 3.2Ghz then you won't be overclocking 800Mhz RAM, beyond that you might need 1066Mhz. The higher memory has it uses but not for an all round or gaming machine.