Can any of you Hexus experts care to comment on my shopping list?

[NeilC]

Hi guys,

I'm new here (this was my first post), well, I've been visiting for quite a while now but never knew enough about PCs to warrant a worthy post. I've learnt a lot from this site but still find myself confused with all the options (If you've read the above link, you'll realise that as a Mac user I only ever had 1 option!)... and the goal posts seem to move every day!

I hate the idea of only posting when you have a question but hopefully some of you will be kind enough to grace me with some of your experience and insight?

So, I've got the modding bug and I've spent the last couple of months or so pouring over articles in the attempt to build a 'nice' PC. I'm not a hardcore gamer but I like the odd game of Doom3, Far Cry and Half Life 2. I like speed (for graphic design) and I really must have quiet (Shhhhh!). So what do you reckon to this lot... any bad choices in here?

Thanks in advance!!!

Regards,
Neil


Case: Akasa Eclipse-62
Plenty of space, removable panels, 120mm fans, simple and solid design

Case Fans: Akasa AK-183-L2B Ultra Quiet 120mm
These seem like the quietest?

PSU: Akasa Ultra Quiet 400W Paxpower Active PFC ATX2.0
Based on Hexus PSU roundup - closest model I could find to the ones in the article (OCers.co.uk)

Motherboard: Abit AN8 Ultra nForce4 Ultra
I was looking at an ASUS board until I read the article on OCing a Athlon 64 3000 so I though Abit was the way to go. I don't need/want SLI and as this has passive cooling, it suits my quiet needs. Is there a better nForce, non-SLI board? I don't really want to pay for SLI, Dual Gbit LAN etc as I'll nevver use these features.

RAM: GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC3200 Value Dual Channel
Just saw this on OCers.co.uk and seemed good value?

CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Venice 90nm
Based purely on the OCing article. If the motherboard above will OC half as much as the article then I'll be happy!

HSF: Akasa AK-913 Evo33 CPU Cooler
Seems like a good cooler. Plus, the backplate will fit nicely into the front slot on the 62 case. I know there is a newer 120mm fan cooler by Akasa but it got a poor review???

Graphics: Sapphire ATI Radeon X800 GTO² 256MB
Again, based purely on the article review on Hexus!

SYS Storage: Samsung SpinPoint P HD080HJ 80GB SATA-II 8MB Cache
For windows and stuff. Sounds quick and quiet?

MP3 Storage: Samsung SpinPoint P SP2504C 250GB SATA-II 8MB Cache
Speed is not an issue here, but maybe reliability is? I want to run two of these in a RAID0 so the content is mirrored/backed-up.

Optical: Pioneer DVR-110DBK 16 x 16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter
Dunno about this... just plucked one at random. Any better suggestions?

All in all, comes in at about £980. Although I hate to admit that most of it was from OCers.co.uk... you guys don't seem to like them (not sure why...yet?)

[Tobeman]

After pricing the same system up on Scan, without graphics card as they dont have it in *yet* (its listed but no prices available), it comes to £671.10. That leaves £308.90 for the graphics card, and for that money you can get yourself a 7800GT and have some change

Also, you can subtract another £15 from the £671.10 when you are elligible for free delivery

One reason why I prefer Scan, the other is the first class customer service, and the lack of CS support with OC'ers

[BUFF]

AN8 Ultra is a nice board.
You might want to look at a cooler with a larger, slower fan (Thermalright Si-120, XP-90, Si-97 or equivalent) to keep with your quiet mobo & case fans theme

Don't know about the Akasa PSU but mine runs happily on a Tagan 480, Antec Neo 480 & a Hiper 580.

As for OcUK look at their feedback http://www.romulus2.com/feedback/chart.php?1

[genie_wt]

Couldn't you stretch to the 160gb Spinpoint? an 80 seems a trife small.

[NeilC]

After pricing the same system up on Scan, without graphics card as they dont have it in *yet* (its listed but no prices available), it comes to £671.10. That leaves £308.90 for the graphics card, and for that money you can get yourself a 7800GT and have some change

Also, you can subtract another £15 from the £671.10 when you are elligible for free delivery

One reason why I prefer Scan, the other is the first class customer service, and the lack of CS support with OC'ers

I haven't actually priced up at Scan yet so thanks for this! The £980 price did include £80s worth of keyboard, mouse and wireless network but still, Scan seems considerably cheaper. Mmmm... must go and check them out in detail.

[NeilC]

AN8 Ultra is a nice board.
You might want to look at a cooler with a larger, slower fan (Thermalright Si-120, XP-90, Si-97 or equivalent) to keep with your quiet mobo & case fans theme

Don't know about the Akasa PSU but mine runs happily on a Tagan 480, Antec Neo 480 & a Hiper 580.

As for OcUK look at their feedback http://www.romulus2.com/feedback/chart.php?1

Thanks for the recommendations, I'll check them out!

[NeilC]

Couldn't you stretch to the 160gb Spinpoint? an 80 seems a trife small.

I could do but I can't see the point. 80Gb will be plenty for Windows, a few games and a few apps! But, I suppose you can never have enough storage! If I'm saving as much as I expect by shopping at Scan then I may as well spend a little extra I suppose!

Thanks for your comments so far fellas. Does anyone have a general comment? Does this all sound like a good rig?

[genie_wt]

Yeah it looks very good.

[mike_w]

I would go for a Seagate for a hard drive- reliable with a five year warranty. Also, for the PSU, I would go for Tagan, although that's purely because I have one in my computer right now and haven't had any trouble from it.

As for graphics, I would buy something a bit more powerful - something similar to an X800XL.

[maranatha]

I would recommend a Seasonic PSU myself but I understand that Tagan PSUs are good.

Also I noticed that you said you wanted to create a RAID 0 array for backup. I think you meant a RAID 1 array as that implements mirroring. A RAID 0 array works using striping and has no redundancy.

[KrEaToR]

I also have a recommendations for a PSU, and thats the hiper 580W Type R. I have had mine for about 3/4 months and i have loads of neons, hard drives, led fans, a cd and dvd drive, a graphics which sucks power up and this PSU just laughs at it, rock solid stable and comes in a nice blue colour with blue led fans, and blue braided cables with red connectors

Makes the pc look real nice if you have a window case. I have put a link below

http://reviews.pimprig.com/power_sup...us_version.php

[DavidN]

I usually buy Seagate hard disks. Once, I bought a Samsung Spinpoint instead. It's slow. Horribly so. Seagate are much better IMHO.

[arthurleung]

I usually buy Seagate hard disks. Once, I bought a Samsung Spinpoint instead. It's slow. Horribly so. Seagate are much better IMHO.

I've no idea why the Seagate 300G SATA I bought is so horribly slow with NCQ on But with NCQ off they're pretty fast. The Access latency is lower than my Maxtor Although STR is not as fast. Good thing is it use half the power my Maxtor DM10 needs

[hardflipman]

i'd maybe consider getting some differnt memory to the geil. i've got an an8ultra with 1gb geil value and an x800gt and half life2 won't run without crashing at some point. everything else is stable and great but not half life2 and from what i've read it may well be the memory.
also check out www.storagereview.com for good reviews on hdds.
and the stock cooler would be fine for the cpu although i think an xp120 or one of those big zalman ones would be a good idea to get air flowing over the motherboard heatsinks.

[YorkieBen]

the samsung SATA 2s are fast as hell. no problems with speed and super quiet

apparently seasonic psus are the choice ones at the moment, but the akasa 400 & 460W are solid, quiet units (akasa's 650W psu apparently sounds like a hurricane)

the evo33 is supposed to be quiet at low levels

Akasa's new 120mm fan unit has got good and bad reviews, I think the bad reviews is because the fan even at 12v is very low cfm and quiet so its cooling isnt awesome, although it isnt bad. the evo33 would be best for overclocking of the two. Also the new gigabyte hsf is supposed to be pretty good.

[NeilC]

Thanks to everyone for taking the time to reply! I can't reply to everyone, but I will investigate all the links and recommendations you've all made with interest.

I should be in a position to buy my new rig soon so I'll post back with what I bought and how I'm getting on.

Again, a big thank you!