New PC - Just Checking Before Purchasing

[herman368]

Hey guys been given a budget of £1100 by a friend to build an "ultimate computer" mainly for gaming. Thing is he needs everything, including speakers, card reader (with xd support anyone?), and wireless keyboard/mouse. He's not technically experienced so there will be no overclocking.

About to order this spec:

Core:
256Mb Gigabyte PCI-E GV-NX78T256V-B 7800GT £200.93
AMD Athlon 64 3700 £148.34
Asus A8N-SLi Premium £116.20
Chenbro Gaming Bomb 2 - Silver £81.08
430W Tagan 2Force SLi £55.21
250GB Samsung SpinPoint P120S NCQ £74.91
2Gb Corsair Value Select DDR400/PC3200 £121.60
NEC ND-4550A Silver £29.08 (is this anygood?)

Peripherals:
Samsung 913N 19" TFT 8ms 700:1 £184.23
Logitech Speakers X-230 £26.00
Microsoft Wireless Optical Desktop Elite £34.98

What you guys think? I guess I could save a bit by getting a non SLI mobo

[kempez]

Sounds nice to me tho I wouldn't get the chenbro case if it were me. Its a sweet setup aprt from that - though you may wanna slip in a slightly higher power PSU in case they want SLi

[herman368]

whats wrong with the gaming bomb II, i've read good reviews of it. is the gigabyte 3d aurora better?

[kempez]

Just don't like them much - mind you I'm starting to get bored of my stacker

[ifyouknowme]

i deffinatly would not buy the asus premium mobo imo its a really badly designed board
u would be much better off with a dfi or the asus deluxe
everything else looks sweet

[StormPC]

I agree with kempez815 about the case. Also, if it's a serious gamer I think a GTX is a better choice, even if you have to step down on the CPU in order to stay in budget.

i deffinatly would not buy the asus premium mobo imo its a really badly designed board
u would be much better off with a dfi or the asus deluxe
everything else looks sweet

The Asus-SLI Premium is without a doubt the best S939 motherboard on the planet.

What is your "beef" with the design? They are amazing IMO.

PS The chipset cooler on the deluxe you recommended is pure rubbish!

[RDL]

I agree with kempez815 about the case. Also, if it's a serious gamer I think a GTX is a better choice, even if you have to step down on the CPU in order to stay in budget.



The Asus-SLI Premium is without a doubt the best S939 motherboard on the planet.

What is your "beef" with the design? They are amazing IMO.

PS The chipset cooler on the deluxe you recommended is pure rubbish!

True, but the new cooler is actually very good. Still, the premium is just as good if not better.

[ifyouknowme]

lol the chipset cooler on the premium is my problem lol they get really hot
and the bios was awful
it wasnt as stable with high fsb's as the dfi
and it dont work properly inverted
although mine was an earily one

other than that its cool lol

dfi sli-dr expert is the king of mobos or maybe the asus x32 thingy

[StormPC]

Of course they get hot, they're heat pipes?

[Noni]

LMAO! Yeah they are supposed too.

The heatpipe on the premium works great! You have a sexy setup there herman!

A word of warning on the gaming bomb- The fans included are VERY VERY loud. I suggest buying a fan controller.

Good luck.

[Yohji]

LMAO! Yeah they are supposed too.

The heatpipe on the premium works great! You have a sexy setup there herman!

A word of warning on the gaming bomb- The fans included are VERY VERY loud. I suggest buying a fan controller.

Good luck.

Yeah, but they aren't supposed to get so hot it makes the PC turn off.

[Noni]

Yohji,

The CPU fan should assist in cooling the fins on the heatpipe. Maybe you used a watercooling setup?

Thanks.

[Yohji]

Well it was beefs PC, and he replaced nearly everything, and thus has a general dislike towards most manufactuers.

[arthurleung]

The Deluxe was CRAP because you can't adjust the NF4 voltage (which really kills heavy I/O and overclock). I've managed to reach 305HTT with my Premium (310 on DFI) which is not too bad. Of course ram could run 1:1 on DFI and only 6:5 on Premium.

But in terms of layout and cooling, the Premium is way better than the DFI
(P.S. I killed my DFI probably due to the NB heatsink mod short-circuited the NB)

[davethechamp]

herman368, if you like silver and Aluminum ahve you conciderd a Lian Li PC7+?

Graphics card I think is good, most 7800GT's can OC a bit quite easily (430, 1100ish). This could be done before you give your mate the PC.

If you wanted to save a few quid on the cpu (oem) try with free shipping?

Also if there is not going to be any overclocking is there any need to get that mobo (1 of overclockers choice) eg. this would seem to cover all the bases and save around £40

I agree that a slightly higher rating PSU may be needed, especially if he ever does go to SLI, Tagan is a good choice in my opinion though.

All the best and have fun with the build.

Dave

[ifyouknowme]

The Deluxe was CRAP because you can't adjust the NF4 voltage (which really kills heavy I/O and overclock). I've managed to reach 305HTT with my Premium (310 on DFI) which is not too bad. Of course ram could run 1:1 on DFI and only 6:5 on Premium.

But in terms of layout and cooling, the Premium is way better than the DFI
(P.S. I killed my DFI probably due to the NB heatsink mod short-circuited the NB)

lol that does generally shortten the life of the mobo

the heat pipes didnt work !!
the chipset gets real hot
and if ur mobo tray is inverted they work even worse
the layout on the dfi is better apart from the postition of the chipset fan
becouse the ram is arranaged horizontally so air can flow across the board rather than being blocked by the ram also the ram being horrizontally postioned means the power connectors can all be in the same place apart from the extra ones for the pci-e slots which are in stupid places on all motherboard