New build advice

[Hanzo]

Hello All!

I'm the planning stages of pretty much complete rebuild of my current 3 year old rig, but in my laziness I haven't exactly kept my ear to the ground about every aspect of PC hardware over the last few years so I have a few gaps in my build that I was hoping for some advice on!

So far for the build I have chosen these components:

CPU: Intel Q6600 (scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=643237)
GPU: 1GB Asus HD4850 (scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=837911)
HDD: 640 GB Western Digital (scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=798906)
RAM: 4GB Corsair TwinX XMS2, DDR2 (scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=632574)

Where I need advice is with the Motherboard, PSU and OS, I want to build a certain amount of future proofing into the system but I am also limited in funds and really don't want to let the build head much north of £600 in price (the above components totals £354.60 at Scan). As far as OS's go I am a little confused by the Vista 32bit/64bit situation. Obviously 64bit Vista will let me put in more than 4Gb of RAM but since I'm not buying that much right now should I bother with it or just get the 32Bit version for now?

I'm keeping my case, optical drives, one HDD, monitor, and sound card from my current build as these are all fine and can be upgraded later on with no huge hassle (other than the case but I'm happy with that).

To sum up I need advice on a good PSU, future friendly Motherboard and Vista 32bit/64bit shenigans all for £240 ish! Any help is greatly appreciated.

[richieuk]

64Bit Vista isn't buggy anymore, and is increasingly supported by most things now.

P5Q Pro is a modern P45 based board that will keep you going for a long time

PSU, most people here will tend to agree that Corsair HX520w should be great, its modular, quiet and plenty of power, comes with good warranty too. If your not worried about modular, effiency or volume, corsair do a much cheaper 550w at £55

P5Q Pro Motherboard from ASUS : £83 - http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=818514
HX520w Power Supply from Corsair : £67 - http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=446788
64Bit Vista Premium from Microsoft : £65 - http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=527300

Everything else you've shown is great, only thing you need otherwise might be a heatsink form the CPU, so within budget you can pick up a Xigmatek 120mm Heatpipe.

120mm Skt775 DHT-HSF from Xigmatek : £22 - http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=700899

Total : £237

However! You can knock at least £30 off everything in total if you only buy out of Todays Only items. Also if you keep posting here, then link your accounts across SCAN and HEXUS you can get free postage and packaging.

[NovaSphere]

64Bit Vista isn't buggy anymore, and is increasingly supported by most things now.

P5Q Pro is a modern P45 based board that will keep you going for a long time

PSU, most people here will tend to agree that Corsair HX520w should be great, its modular, quiet and plenty of power, comes with good warranty too. If your not worried about modular, effiency or volume, corsair do a much cheaper 550w at £55

P5Q Pro Motherboard from ASUS : £83 - http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=818514
HX520w Power Supply from Corsair : £67 - http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=446788
64Bit Vista Premium from Microsoft : £65 - http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=527300

You almost look like a clone from me o.O (your complete spec is the same as the one I'm getting, except for the Graphic Card lol) aswell as you recommend the exact same stuff as I would...

[Kodbel]

I was asking for similar advice yesterday and "staff'sMike" helped me to come up with a configuration. You could have a look at the discussion here. http://forums.hexus.net/hexus-hardwa...ew-system.html

[Papipap]

I have just installed the 64-bit version of Vista in my new build and everything I used to use on XP (photoshop cs2, foobar, dreamweaver, foxit reader, feed demon, etc., etc.) all work fine. The only things I have found that don't install properly are "unofficial" tweaking utilities like ATI-tool, which has something to do with the 64-bit version of Vista requiring authorised digital driver signatures (or something). Oh, and ZoneAlarm doesn't work under 64-bit Vista, too. All new software should have compatible versions.

[richieuk]

You almost look like a clone from me o.O

As of the end of Spetember, as of my count, when I'm done too there will be at least 12 people with this setup

[Hanzo]

Thanks for all the help on this guys!

I wasn't too worried about software compatibility in regards to Vista 64bit (but hearing other users having little to no problems with it is always reassuring!), but I am bringing across my Audigy 2 card and that was my main concern but I am fairly certain that creative do a 64bit driver so I should be ok in that case.

Thanks again for you help and suggestions!

[vinnyT]

Sorry, lost the link, ignore me.

[Noksukau]

Hanzo,

What do you want to do with the system? And how long do you plan on keeping it before upgrading again?

Components are only 'good' or 'bad' when put into this context, and only you can help determine that.

With that said, you've chosen some excellent midrange components, although personally I opted for the E8400 3.0GHz dual core instead of the Q6600 2.4GHz quad. That's because the photo software and games I play at the moment aren't optimised for multiple cores so for the same money I will get more from the lower power, lower heat, 25% faster 45nm CPU. But, that's now, in time, applications will be able to use all cores more efficiently, but when? I think if you are planning on keeping the system more than 2 years the quad makes sense. I tend to be on an 18 month upgrade cycle, staggered between CPU/MB and GPU, so for me the faster dual core made more sense.

I am about to upgrade my graphics card to a Radeon 4850, and SCAN's price on the 1GB Asus has me mighty tempted. Excellent choice there, although you may wish to get an aftermarket cooler depending on how hot/loud it gets.

[Hanzo]

Sorry for taking so long to reply Noksukau, my net access has been a bit intermittent over the last few weeks (frickin Virgin Media).

I am planning on keeping the basic set up for around 2 maybe 3 years, thats why I went with the Quad core since it'll probably be more useful right the way through the builds lifespan.

I am still tempted by sticking with XFX for my GPU. I've had one of their cards for almost 4 years now and I'm looking at the XFX 9800 GTX+ (scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=862290) at Scan. But the ASUS is the same price for double the RAM on board.

Does anyone know how these cards compare? I've had a look through the reviews on Hexus but can't seem to see one that has a 1GB 4850.