Looking for a couple of suggestions

[Ash McD]

Ok if you take a look in the "My Computer" bit thing, you'll see my computer is in serious need of updating!

Anyway, here's what I was thinking as I'm going to be putting together a new machine.

Chip

Board

Memory

Now, if possible I'd like a graphics card reccomendation?

Oh and I was going to get this PSU.

Apologies for being such a n00b, I'm sure you get idiots like me posting all the time and hate it. I just want to make sure I'm not making a big mistake before shelling out a fair bit of cash!?

Any ideas or suggestions would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Ash

[herulach]

Looks, good, although id consider more value select over the twinx stuff, as unless youre planning on hardcore overclocking you wont notice the difference, also maybe an asus board. What kind of price are you looking for? Id go for something like:

LN12330 Asus A8N-E S939 PCI-E NF4-Ultra DDR400 SATAII GbE Lan 8Ch Audio USB2 £56.71 £66.63
LN10608 AMD Athlon 64 3700 32/64Bit CPU S939 "San Diego" Retail inc Heat Sink Fan & 3 Years Warranty £135.37 £159.06
LN5993 480W Tagan TG480-U01 Quiet ATX2.0 SLi 12v EPS/SATA/XEON 3 Years Warranty ATX/BTX £44.89 £52.75
LN11240 1Gb (2x512Mb) Corsair Value Select PC3200 non-ECC unbuffered CL2.5 Lifetime Warranty Matched Pair £48.62 £57.13
LN11521 256Mb Gigabyte PCI-E GV-NX78T256V-B 7800GT (256bit) ViVo 2xDVI SLi Ready £179.53 £210.95

Totals at 558

[Ash McD]

Thanks for the advice .

To be honest I probably wont be overclocking at all, it's not something I've ever toyed with.

Maybe I'll give it a try.

I didn't even know SLI ready cards would work in board that wern't SLI .

Ok I'm willing to go with what you've said, sounds good to me. Just on the memory point though, might it be worth going for some XMS?

[herulach]

Thanks for the advice .

To be honest I probably wont be overclocking at all, it's not something I've ever toyed with.

Maybe I'll give it a try.

I didn't even know SLI ready cards would work in board that wern't SLI .

Ok I'm willing to go with what you've said, sounds good to me. Just on the memory point though, might it be worth going for some XMS?

The performance difference is pretty negligible (2%-5% ish, in somethings, nothing in others) Youre better of with 2 gigabytes (as 2x1gb sticks, rather than 4x512) especially if youre planning on playing games like battlefield 2, fear etc.

Actually looking at your spec, if that value select is pc3200 it will be good in the new system. too.

[MSIC]

General advice is to steer clear of a PSU that costs £25. Otherwise looking good.
Herulach mentions a great Graphics card, or as an alternative for a bit less power but also cheaper, a GeForce 6800 GS.
Don't worry too much about overclocking, to be honest if you just get used to the components you have when you buy them they will feel really fast, and then, if you want down the road, read up on o/c'ing and get a free boost of power extra!

As for RAM, i'd advise you to stick with your current RAM. Xbit in fact have an article on getting 2 Gigs here and although they announce "Yes you need 2 GB" I find the article a bit contrived. You might benefit from that much in a whole balanced system ie every other component is worth hundreds of pounds, but for what you are talking about it's just throwing money away.

Let us know if you want us to post back some specific suggestions / links, with a specific bugdet in mind. Oh - and what it is you want the computer to actually do is always helpful!

[Ash McD]

Thanks for that guys. Really appreciate the advice.

I'll add the 2 x 1g sticks of value select from scan £117. Stick my 2 x 512 on ebay .

On the silverpower PSU, I'd read a couple of reviews on it that said it simple out did the more expensive ones, that's why I added that (i've only got a budget 400w £13 jobbie in now, my poor graphics card!)

As for what I use it for, I play UT 2004, COD2, that's about it really.

If I have the chip and board in my first post, the 2g of value select and get a decent PSU. What kind of card do you think I'd need to get to play COD2?


Are the any cards in the 100-150 range that would let me play those two games?

[herulach]

IN the 150 range id say either an x850xt, or if you can stretch to it you can get 7800GTs for around 185, cant recall where its from though, its in the bargain forum.

[MSIC]

UT2004 will play well on any lower-range card, so that's no problem. The 3700+ really is a properly good chip, so good choice. As I said, 2 GB RAM might be overkill but if I were buying new to be honest I might also get it, at the very least it'll give you more breathing space in the future.

As for graphics cards, the £100 - £150 price range puts you smack in the GeForce 6800 GS range.
Scan is great for us all as we get free delivery, so it's a shame that THIS is currently out of stock.
This one is in stock, costs a little more but also runs a little faster.
For ATI fans, the newer X1600 seems quite good here but the slightly older X800 GTO2 here is the traditional 'rival' for the 6800GS. All of these are good cards, all will do the jobs you want, and all are in the right price range.

[Ash McD]

Ok, after much research and other such stuff I have come up with the following! If you could scan your trained eyes over it and comment I would be very grateful. Main area of unsureness is GPU and fans. It really is my aim for this computer to be as quiet as humanly possible so any tips/advice/suggestions would be wonderful.

Budget it slightly expandable.

Item--------Product
CPU-----------Athlon 64 3700+
GPU-----------256mb MSI 6800 GS
Board---------Abit An8 Ultra
Memory------Corsair Twin X 1G
PSU-----------580w HiperPower Type R Modular
Hard Drive ---300g Seagate Barracuda
Case----------Antec P180
Sound Card--Sound Blaster Audigy-4 7.1
Fan 1---------Akasa AK-859 (For CPU)
Fan 2---------Arctic Cooling NV Silencer (For GPU)
Fan 3---------80mm Silverstone FN82 Low Noise Case Fan (x2)
Fan 4---------120mm AK-174BK

Many thanks

Ash

[johnny02004976]

that does look better - the Hiper is an excellent addition also

[teachmech]

A possible alternat to the nv silencer is the zalman vf900
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=369640

[Ash McD]

that does look better - the Hiper is an excellent addition also

! Thank you!

I was going to go for a silverstone one given the reviews they've gotten but I really really wanted a modular PSU.

A possible alternat to the nv silencer is the zalman vf900
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=369640

That looks tough to fit, I like the DB ratings though! Do you know how difficult it is to fit or is it just a couple of screws? I've never done anything with graphics cards, my 9800 pro has sat there happily (and noisily!) for a couple of years.

I do like the look of that fan though.

[Ash McD]

Just a quick question.

How much better than my current system will this machine be do you think?

[Hans Voralberg]

In term of game, considerably more frame rates and eye candy (compared to the 9800)

[nvening]

silverstone psus are ok but are as loud as hell acording to custompc

[Ash McD]

In term of game, considerably more frame rates and eye candy (compared to the 9800)

Super .

That's what I was hoping to hear, I just need to wait for scan on a couple of things now and I can go for it .

Thanks a lot for all your help everyone, unless of course there are any other ideas/suggestions to chuck into the melting pot?