Is this system OK?

[ajbrun]

I think I have now chosen everything to be in my new PC (except keyboard, mouse and speakers ), so as this is my 1st build, could you check to see if it will all work. Also, before I buy it all, is there anything I should know, would you recomend something else, or have you found the same thing cheaper?

Thanks - here's this list:

Crucial 512 DDR333 PC2700 DIMM (£76.36)
QTEC 550 Watt PSU P4 ready Twin Fan Retail Boxed (£20.09)
Seagate Barracuda 80Gb 7200rpm UDMA100 Hard Drive - OEM (£47.37)
Chieftec BG-01B-B-SL Silver/Black ATX Case With USB/Audio/1394 No PSU (£23.07)
CTX EX700F 17ins monitor Flat CRT 0.25 72kHz TCO99 (£82.24)
MSI K7N2 Delta-L SKT A 8xAGP DDR400 Nforce2 6ch Sound LAN USB 2.0 Motherboard (£47.15)
AMD Athlon XP2500+ 1.833 GHz Socket A 333MHz, 512KB Barton, OEM (£50.00)
CNet Conexant 56K V.92 PCI HSP Fax/Data Rtl Modem (£6.46)
16xDVD 52r 52w 32rw IDE (£35.00)
52X LG CD-ROM - OEM (£14.86)
Floppy disk drive - internal - 1.44 MB - 3.5" - Floppy (£4.70)
Mediamax Radeon 9600 PRO 128MB DDR ATI TV-Out DVI-I Retail Box (£76.14)
WINDOWS XP HOME EDITION OEM (£63.45)

And one last question - since the motherboard has 6 channel sound, does that mean that there can be 6 speakers attached with 3 sockets on the back of the PC?

Thanks - I hope this is all right

[mike_w]

First thing I would do is get rid of the Q-Tec PSU and get something else, I would get a CWT from http://www.scan.co.uk.

Secondly, I would personally get a different motherboard (NF7-S), but I don't know anything about the motherboard you've chosen.

If you're hoping to overclock the CPU, I would get some PC3200 RAM, as that allows speeds of 200mhz.

Finally, a 9800 Pro might be better if you can stretch your budget that far, otherwise a 9600 Pro is a good choice.

[directhex]

further to those commends, why bother with a cd-reader AND a dvd drive, when the dvd drive will read cds?

otherwise, what mike_w says holds true. the 350w antec on ebuyer is another option, i have one myself in a chieftec bx

[ajbrun]

MIKE W:
* What's wrong with the Qtec? The reviews on ebuyer says it's not bad.
* I'm not going to overclock, but the thought was the if I need more memory, I can always buy more of the same
* I don't really fancy paying anymore than £80 for a graphics card at all, so the 9800 is out.
* Could you maybe say why you'd get that motherboard?

But thanks for the info.

[BUFF]

You might want to add an hsf to the list & some Arctic Silver5 thermal transfer paste .
The K7N2 delta L has realtek 650 sound which is fairly basic - you would be better adding a sound card or getting the ILSR version which has better onboard sound as well as some additional features.

& a dvd drive & a CDRW makes more sense

[ajbrun]

I could get the antec, but why is it better than the Qtec?

[ajbrun]

Yeah - I suppose - good point about the CD drive

[mike_w]

Try searching the forums for Q-Tec, I think you'll find plent of negative comments. While you might be fine with them, it's not worth taking the risk of your PC deciding to blow up.

If you're not overclocking the computer then PC2700 is fine.

For £80 a 9600 Pro is a probablt the best you can get, but if you can stretch it, a 9800 Pro would give a good performance increase.

The NF7-S is just generally a good motherboard (onboard LAN, decent onboard sound) but I haven't had any experience with the one you're considering so I can't comment on it.

[directhex]

i've heard negative commends about msi's nforce2 offerings, which is why i'd pick another brand such as asus.

[Byatt]

I could get the antec, but why is it better than the Qtec?

The antec has a vastly reduced chance of catching fire/destroying your entire system/exploding in a puff of magic smoke.

[directhex]

The antec has a vastly reduced chance of catching fire/destroying your entire system/exploding in a puff of magic smoke.

is magic smoke supposed to smell of exploded capacitor?

[ajbrun]

I'm looking at that motherboard that someone suggested, and it has bluetooth. I've heard of this for phones, but what does it do in a computer?

[Rythmic]

Capacitors are filled with magic smoke! So are chips, but they have to compress it a lot to get it in such a small space, which is why they need those big factorys to do it with

[mike_w]

I think Bluetooth is just wireless technology.

[ajbrun]

But what can you use that wireless technology for?

[mike_w]

I think its used in wireless mice and keyboards.