New Build

[Memphis`]

My first time building a computer, just wanted to see what people thought of the spec and if i should go for any specific parts or avoid others.
Heres the spec:

CoolerMaster Praetorian 730 black
Asus A8N-E nForce4 ultra
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4400+
Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 NBQ 250GB
Hyper Type R 580W PSU
OCZ 1GB PC3200 Gold GX XTC series
Sapphire ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512MB
LG DVD ReWriter
Saitek Eclipse Keyboard
Floppy drive

Comes to about £1200.

Tell me what you think and if you'd change anything.
Also i need to get a nice monitor as well, any recommedations? ty.

[NightshadowUK]

A few minor changes I'd make:
- Get a well known brand of PSU [Tagan / Seasonic / Enermax etc...]
- Go for 2GB Value RAM unless you're a 1:1 overclocking junky
- For graphics card recommendations we'd need to know how much you plan on playing / at what resolution?

[johnny02004976]

A few minor changes I'd make:
- Get a well known brand of PSU [Tagan / Seasonic / Enermax etc...]

Mate stick with the Hiper

as for the monitor what is your budget?? - personally id go for a nice 20" widescreen but it does all depend on the budget

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=278555

[Hans Voralberg]

2Gb of RAM, 1Gb gets you some hipcups at max settings on the X1900 i would imagine

[RavenNight]

Yeah stick with the Hiper, they're awesome. Corsair Value ram gives great performance but at a much lower cost, I'd go for two gigs of that.

[Memphis`]

So 2 gigs of value RAM is better than 1 gig of good stuff if im not planning on overclocking?
What about timings? should i get some with good timings? im not very knowledgable when it comes to RAM, as you can probably tell.

[RavenNight]

If you go for value RAM you don't get much choice about the timings, this stuff should do the trick:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=117457

[johnny02004976]

If you go for value RAM you don't get much choice about the timings, this stuff should do the trick:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=117457

This is good RAM - i use it all the time on builds

[Memphis`]

Isnt it better to get good ram? Quite alot of people think that you can skimp on ram but doesnt it bring the whole system down?
I know AMD's thrive off tight timings and low latencies, so surely if you get high quality ram it gives the cpu better performance than low quality value stuff?

[sgoaty]

I reccomend the Zx from this page. Nice timings and good price

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/G_Skill.html

[NightshadowUK]

I find tight timings give less than a 4% increase in performance so they're not worth the price you pay for them.

As for running a 1:1 ratio, I'm not too sure what you gain. I know some higher speed RAM (like the G.Skill above) can run at 250MHz+ but I was under the impression S939 couldn't itilise more than 200MHz so you may as well just run a divider, am I right?

[Nox]

There have always been a big arguments between tight timings or high fsb ram. And as time goes on the high fsb ram is getting tighter timings too.

Not too sure what you mean by utilising more than 200Mhz though?

If you're not overclocking, get tightish timings, if you want the extra few %, but it is a very small perfomance increase.

re PSU's, Hiper are fine, Hyper aren't. erm, I think thats the right way round.

Nox

[RavenNight]

He's just spelt it wrong, I did a couple of googles and there isn't a PSU manufacturer I could find. The whole issues people have with Hiper stem from the very first batch, a few of these were faulty, as picked up on by Tom's where the PSU was very unstable under heavy load. Hiper then totally revised it and brought out a new batch (which I have) which is rock solid, completely silent 99% of the time and extremely good value. They have since revised it yet again the newer ones come with even more features like a 3 pin fan output so it can be monitored/controlled on the mobo.

[johnny02004976]

The new Hipers are spot on - i splashed out on one of these, they would come with the highest of recommendations from me

[NightshadowUK]

Not too sure what you mean by utilising more than 200Mhz though?

I was just under the impression that anything above 200MHz (RAM wise) was wasted as all the S939 motherboards are rated to work with 'up to DDR400'. I've never really checked into it so I wouldn't know.

Hiper are fine, Hyper aren't. erm, I think thats the right way round.

In my defence that's what threw me, I just saw 'Hyper' and thought, "Ah, cheap!".

[Memphis`]

In my defence that's what threw me, I just saw 'Hyper' and thought, "Ah, cheap!".

Yeh sorry my bad, it is Hiper im going for.
I didnt realise there were two different brands, one with an i and the other with a y so i just typed it as it sounded.
But it is the Hiper Type R 580W.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Hiper.html