Is this system OK?

[-mb-]

I would say, scratch the NF7-S, unless you are planning on adding SATA drives later. and get the far cheaper NF7.

You still get the advantage of the better onboard audio.

The issue with QTec Powersupplies, is that they are not high quality i.e. they do not provide high tolerances, or stable voltages, and therefore even high-voltage QTecs are not as good for your system as low voltage Antecs...

[daverobev]

Getting two optical drives does eliminate the need for swapping if you're copying a CD.

Personally would go for an enermax PSU, but that's just personal preference, Antecs are sposed to be good too. You have to remember that the PSU is (kinda) the root of the computer, the electricity it passes out powers everything, so using a dodgy one is like powering your car on chip oil....

And as I've read numerous times, if you get a Qtec and Enermax/Antec and hold one in either hand you can easily feel the difference. Qtec have a reputation for a reason; for powering one mobo, one stick of ram, one small hdd and whatnot they'll probably be fine, but for £20 more...

OTOH, this board is full of computing fanatics If you're going to ask a question like 'is this bit of hardware okay' you'll always get 'yeah not bad, but why not get a 2Gb Opteron watercooled system with PCI-X that'll get 800FPS in quake 3??'

**Edit re-reading this- I do mean 2Gb Opteron, or rather I mean an opteron system with 2Gb RAM, I didn't mis-put Gb instead of GHz...**

[-mb-]

@ daverobev:

OTOH, this board is full of computing fanatics If you're going to ask a question like 'is this bit of hardware okay' you'll always get 'yeah not bad, but why not get a 2Gb Opteron watercooled system with PCI-X that'll get 800FPS in quake 3??'

That is just so true...

[Applecrusher]

OTOH, this board is full of computing fanatics If you're going to ask a question like 'is this bit of hardware okay' you'll always get 'yeah not bad, but why not get a 2Gb Opteron watercooled system with PCI-X that'll get 800FPS in quake 3??'

whats the use of 800FPS??? except for bragging rights as a monitor is usually at 85 htz.... which means you only NEED 85 FPS...

[ajbrun]

Is this PSU any better?

420W HiperPower Quiet Dual Fan (Active Fan Control) Active PFC

[Byatt]

Is this PSU any better?

420W HiperPower Quiet Dual Fan (Active Fan Control) Active PFC

yes.

[ajbrun]

Should I get speakers with a monitor, or sepakers and a monitor separate?

Are surround sound speakers for a PC really neccessary, if so, can anyone recomend some REALLY cheap 5.1 surround sound speakers?

Thanks

[Byatt]

Should I get speakers with a monitor, or sepakers and a monitor separate?

Are surround sound speakers for a PC really neccessary, if so, can anyone recomend some REALLY cheap 5.1 surround sound speakers?

Thanks

all depends on what you want - you gets what you pays for with speakers...if you want anything to sound vaguely good I'd recommend shoving £30 or so on a decent 2.1 system (think logitech do an entry-level system like that)

If you're not an audiophile there's speakers to be had for £6 off ebuyer that will be better than monitor based ones, imo.

[GAteKeeper]

my £0.02:

Monitor speakers are pap, get a set of 2.1 or 5.1.

not had any experience with MSI nForce boards but both the Abit NF7-S and the Asus A7N8X dlx are excellent boards.

Get a resonable PSU - I have had a enermax and now I use an Antec 430W - it made a big difference to my stability even before I started overclocking.

Not had

[BUFF]

I would say, scratch the NF7-S, unless you are planning on adding SATA drives later. and get the far cheaper NF7.

You still get the advantage of the better onboard audio.

Not true, the NF7 uses the Realtek 650 for all sound processing whereas on the NF7-S it is only used as a DAC for the analogue output with main processing being done in hardware by the nVidia APU.
If you use spdif out on an NF7-S then the Realtek isn't used at all.

[ajbrun]

I think I'll probably just go for my original choice of motherboard. I can't see any real advantage of getting the MSI K7N2 Delta-ILSR.

I also won't get surround sound speakers - there's no point - it's not as if I'll be watching loads of DVD's etc. Surround sound should be for a TV only. Can someone just say what the pink, blue and green sound ports do - is it just left, right and some other?

[directhex]

green is front speaker out

pink is microphone

blue is line in

[ajbrun]

So how come the speakers on the monitor i'm using now are connected to blue and green?

Are there any good, but fairly cheap monitors with speakers out there, otherwise, would two detatched speakers (left and right) do a better job?

[chris123]

hi,

i'm just posting a suggestion of a good place to shop.

overclockers

it's cheaper for your CPU and has next day delivery (could also be cheaper for other itms but i'm too tired to check )

Just a suggestion, hope it helps! (also another knowledagable forum board if you need help, but obviously not as good as here )

[Agent]

Why do i get the feeling its about to get very hot in here ?

[Stoo]

*snip*

it's cheaper for your CPU and has next day delivery (could also be cheaper for other itms but i'm too tired to check )

Try adding VAT

Next Day postage is at least £5 on top, Courier is £8.50 on top..

That would make OCUK one of the most expensive places to get the cpu..

That and most people here are of the opinion that OCUK suck