Good components?

[malfunction]

asus mobos are better than msi and allow better clocking and support also be aware that msi is a pig for memory

I agree on the mobo - Asus are top notch as are A-bit.

tagan psu is one of the top you can buy and will see you right for a long time to come

I've also heard Tagan are good but I'd still go with the CWT. (I have one though so I would say that!)

i went for the geil ram as it is in my opinion better than kingston faster and more stable also you were going to buy 1 stick of 512 but 2 x 256 is better to allow you to use the dual channel on the mobo

I'd disagree here. Dual channel is a only a small benefit and you'd be better off getting 1 x 512MB now and another when you need it / can afford it. Also - bigjonnyauk - your mobo is only single channel.

hard drive you choose ibm bit crap and maxtor well known better all round 8mg cache fluid bearings for quietness

Basically IBM drives have an interesting history that has led many people to stay away. They're meant to be fine now that Hitachi have taken over but there were a lot of failures with their 'deskstar' brand drives (so much so that a class action suit was filed in the US and they're 'affectionately' known as deathstars not deskstars...). I usually buy Western Digital but they are mostly noisier than the maxtors as WD are only just converting over to fluid bearings. Seagate are another good brand. Also that drive isn't specifically IBM it's 'EXCELSTOR' - and there have been mixed reports as to who's manufacturing them - but they are a bit too cheap IMO - I'd worry about reliability. Samsung are relatively new on the scene but I've only heard good things so far. Also - consider a bigger drive - you may need the space later on and the price (£/GB - not total price) is better on bigger drives

i choose the liteon cdrw combo over the sony one as i use to have a sony and it can have real probs reading some data or certain disks liteon are great you could put a newspaper in there and it would read it

That Sony drive is good (got one, used some at work, my brother has one too). The Sony drives are in fact re-badged Liteons.

choose the coolermaster case as well as i think it is better build quality better loking better airflow (coolermaster make some of the nicest cases around

Higher end coolermasters are better. I'd say the Centurion probably doesn't have the edge here (though I doubt there's a lot in it!)

ALL THE ABOVE ARE MY OPINION ONLY AND OTHERS MAY DISAGREE

Aye - as are mine - not meaning to dig at your ideas bigjonnyauk!

[malfunction]

I'm not a big gamer now, but I might buy 1 or 2 later on. I don't think I'll ever need top of the range graphics, so do u think I should stick with what I've got or should I change to a 128 MB instead of 256?

256MB is def. overkill on that card - I'm pretty certain it will never be able to run a game that needs the 256MB at an acceptable speed. It's just marketing and not useful IMO.

Well obviously it all depends on budget. IIRC:

The 9600 non-pro runs at 325MHz core and 200MHz mem (DDR - so 400MHz effective)

The 9600 pro runs at 400MHz core and 300MHz mem (600MHz DDR)

The 9600 XT runs at 500MHz core and 325MHz mem (650MHz DDR)

Also some (but not all) of the 256MB cards use slower RAM again than the 128MB equivalent (to keep the price down).

And as an example the old 9600 non-pro I used to have could be overclocked to 475MHz core, 225MHz mem (450MHz) and the 9600XT I have now can go to 567MHz core and 365MHz mem (730MHz). Even then it can't hold a candle to a proper 9800 pro in today's demanding games - such as far cry - as the 9800 pro is effectively twice as powerful.

The 9800SE (which I mentioned before) will perform around the same level as the 9600Pro / XT but if it 'softmods' you'll get full 9800 pro performance. Having said that my 9800SE doesn't softmod so it is still a risk (and you need to get the right kind of 9800SE to have the potential to softmod - I can advise if you decide to go down that route)

The best price I've seen recently on a 128MB 9800 Pro is at overclockers.co.uk:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatal...k_Only_25.html

£134 + P&P - so twice as much as the 9600.

[malfunction]

Oops - post corrected above - the 9800SE *WILL* perform around the same as the 9600 pro / XT

[bigjonnyauk]

ah malfunction mate we agree to disagree lol

some reasons for my choice are mainly his budget yeah i agree on the coolermaster but i still think in this price range the coolermaster is a better option

i know the sony is a rebadged liteon but i have one and had no end of problems with reading dvds must just be a dodgeylaser


and you can flip a coin for the psu between cwt and tagan only reason is i have one sitting here on my desk waiting to go in my new setup and it looks beautiful lol

as for the memory i think if you are gonna buy a dual channel mobo mayaswell use it

ah i see you noticed my mobo was single channel yeah i know i have just ordered a new mobo and waiting for it to come see my many questions in the thread lol

already got

tagan 480w psu
ge force fx 5900 soft modded to 5950

coming in a few days new

asus an78x e deluxe motherboard
xp 3000 processer
512 2x256 meg golden dragon memory
liteon dvd writer
80 maxtor hardrive with 8mg cache


dreading the build only ever done one before lol

p.s want to make it look as neat as possible aswell


will there be any probs with putting the hardrive (master) and dvd writer (slave ) on the same ide this way i will save on a ide lead going in there lol

or will it be better to put both on seperate ide

[malfunction]

ah malfunction mate we agree to disagree lol

some reasons for my choice are mainly his budget yeah i agree on the coolermaster but i still think in this price range the coolermaster is a better option

and you can flip a coin for the psu between cwt and tagan only reason is i have one sitting here on my desk waiting to go in my new setup and it looks beautiful lol

as for the memory i think if you are gonna buy a dual channel mobo mayaswell use it

ah i see you noticed my mobo was single channel yeah i know i have just ordered a new mobo and waiting for it to come see my many questions in the thread lol

already got

tagan 480w psu
ge force fx 5900 soft modded to 5950

coming in a few days new

asus an78x e deluxe motherboard
xp 3000 processer
512 2x256 meg golden dragon memory
liteon dvd writer
80 maxtor hardrive with 8mg cache


dreading the build only ever done one before lol

p.s want to make it look as neat as possible aswell


will there be any probs with putting the hardrive (master) and dvd writer (slave ) on the same ide this way i will save on a ide lead going in there lol

or will it be better to put both on seperate ide

Better on different cables (with both drives set to master). You can get single ended rounded IDE cables if you want to keep it super tidy though (or just chop off the 2nd plug at the end of the first one...)

[bigjonnyauk]

WHAT!!!!!!! you men i can just cut the thing i always though the ide cables that have connectors for 2 devices board>h/d>dvdwriter

i always thought the middle one was just like a pass through to the end and cutting it made it poorly lol

so in effect i can chop it just after the middle connecter

[BUFF]

My 2cents on your choice,

PSU CWT OK, Tagan better (but it is 2x the price ). I've got both so I know.

Excelstor HDD, for only a few £ more you can get an 80Gb Maxtor or WD which imho are better

Chieftec cases are OK & ludicrously cheap at eBuyer at the moment (your choice is down to £15 inc. now) but you might want to consider a Dragon etc. with an extra 5.25 bay

Gfx, I'm out of touch with mid level cards so I'll leave it to the others but do watch out for all the carr. charges from different suppliers adding up - sometimes it can outweigh the savings.

Motherboard, my fave the Abit NF7 or NF7-S V2.0 depending upon which features you need.
The MSI should be fine, it has dual channel capability (unlike the A7N8X-X, not that it is really worth more than a few %) but is rumoured to be a bit picky on RAM.

Processor I would go for an XP2500+ & you will need an HSF.
I would recommend a Tt Volcano 12 or for less how about an Arctic Cooling Copper Silent 2l?

Keyboard & mouse - that 99 days on ebUyer means you'll be lucky to see it.

CDRW/DVD combo - remember that oem = no software so you might want to consider the Aopen Chameleon retail pack which is about £1.50 dearer.

FDD Alps/Mitsumi/Panasonic all pretty much of a muchness.

[MadAsABadger]

No doubt that Tagen is a top notch PSU but we all have budgets to stick to, so why not consider a case that comes with a psu? Antec do several and they are not as expensive as you may think. remeber that you may end up working with/looking at the case a lot, so get one you like the look of, not some random piece of cheap metal for £10, when it slices up you hands and bends, as you may regret it!

If you get a chance consider one of the Antec cases.

Also consider the Albatron boards, same spec as the Asus/MSI but several pounds cheaper. A good brand in Europe, not yet had a impact in the Uk but that will change.

Best of luck with your new system!

Cheers

Removed the slight pimpage. Cheers, Kez.

[ajbrun]

for hard drives, is it best to get a larger buffer size? (8MB rather tahn 2MB?)

[ajbrun]

OK, for a hard drive, I think I'll change to a Seagate Barracuda 80Gb 7200rpm UDMA100 Hard Drive - OEM, but it's a 2MB buffer size - is this good?

Also, I'm not too bothered if the CD drive is OEM and doesn't come with software as I already have some DVD and CD-RW software

[ajbrun]

Sorry to be such a pain, but as someone correctly said, I'd have to wait 99 days for the keyboard/mouse bundle. Does anyone know of another place that sells the same thing, or something very very similar, as I'd like to get it in about a month I think (not 3!)?

[atifds9]

i belive if it shows 99 days, it's actually out of stock and not likely to be in stock again, in a sense discontinued, this is for ebuyer by the way.

[ajbrun]

AUGH!!!!

I REALLY wanted that keyboard/mouse bundle too!!!!

Is there anywhere else in any shop or internet shop where you've seen a Chic Internet Wireless Keyboard Combo Optical Mouse colour Charcoal black? I've loked everywhere!

If not, is there one VERY VERY similar anywhere? It must have the following features:

1. Be a similar colour
2. Be wireless with a charging cable so that you can use the mouse whilst charging

I wonder why it's being discontinued - it was so popular.

[BUFF]

You can buy the wireless keyboard on its own in black for £9
http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/produ...duct_uid=42135

KEY-GEN-W0B is the code for a package at Aria that looks remarkably similar.

Tbh you are probably better off looking at the Logitech & MS wireless packs.