building a new baseunit for £600 help needed

[chazt]

the one you posted or the one i posted? try and get hold of an x1800xt while they're still cheap. For crossfire compatibility you'd need a compatible motherboard like this one http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=335776

[Matt KB]

Well this is currently how it stands at the moment:

1 x Abit KN8 Ultra SKT939 NF4 chipset Dual DDR400 PCI-E SATA ATX 96984
1 x Antec Sonata II Piano Black Quiet Midi Tower - With 450W SmartPower2.0 PSU 93403
1 x NEC ND-4570 16x DVD±RW/RAM Double Layer Internal IDE (Black) - OEM 106565
1 x Western Digital WD800JD Caviar SE 80GB 7200RPM SATA/150 8MB Cache - OEM 59556
1 x Netgear WG311TGE WireLess 108MBPS PCI Card Adapter 84359
1 x NEWLINK UK KETTLE LEAD - UK PLUG - IEC SOCKET 20293
1 x Sapphire X1800GTO 256mb Dual DVI VIVO PCI-E 107033
1 x AMD (Venice) Athlon 64Bit 3200+ Socket 939pin 512k L2cache 90nm Retail Boxed Processor 88109
1 x WD 250GB SATA150 7200rpm 16mb Cache - OEM 97634
2 x CRUCIAL 1GB DDR PC3200 400MHz 184-PIN UNBUFF 128MX64 Memory Modules 65719
1 x Ebuyer Extra Value IDE cable Rounded UDMA Ultra 133/100 18" Black 88068
1 x Mitsumi OEM Silver Internal Floppy Drive 1.44mb 3.5 Inch

That comes to just over £620 which is about my limit. I don't think I will need anything else? The Floppy Drive is to load SATA drivers apparantly.

[toolsong]

The Floppy Drive is to load SATA drivers apparantly.

If you are installing from XP SP2 you shouldn't have to load any additional SATA drivers, I didn't for my DFI.

[Matt KB]

Ah ok thanks, tbh I've no clue as I've not built a PC before so it's going to be a bit of plug and pray (it works). I understand you just plug in one hard drive first and boot from the disc to load up Windows and then the second hard drive at a later date? Do you need to then load up drivers from discs of all the other parts you have installed?

[itswesty]

Perhaps an opteron 144 in place of the 3200? Just an idea, they seem to be very popular at the moment.

[latrosicarius]

nvidia is better than ati.

got any sites/info to back that up?

No, I only said that to spark off an argument lol.

I don't have any sites, but I do have experience with building 20+ systems in my life, some with ATI, and some with NVIDIA, and ever since the 6800, ATI has been slacking. I recently bought a X850Pro almost a year after a 6800GT, and the 6800GT still beats the crap out of it. It was a total let down... and that's just one example. I built other people's computers with a 7800GTs and a X1800XT for example, and NVIDIA still beats ATI hands down.

I'm just telling the FACTS, not the fudged, made-up benchmarks and fanboy alliances.

In addition, ATI's drivers SUCK ASS! The Catylist Control Panel is weedtarded omg.... just had to throw that in there

[ExceededGoku]

No, I only said that to spark off an argument lol.

I don't have any sites, but I do have experience with building 20+ systems in my life, some with ATI, and some with NVIDIA, and ever since the 6800, ATI has been slacking. I recently bought a X850Pro almost a year after a 6800GT, and the 6800GT still beats the crap out of it. It was a total let down... and that's just one example. I built other people's computers with a 7800GTs and a X1800XT for example, and NVIDIA still beats ATI hands down.

I'm just telling the FACTS, not the fudged, made-up benchmarks and fanboy alliances.

In addition, ATI's drivers SUCK ASS! The Catylist Control Panel is weedtarded omg.... just had to throw that in there

7800GT better than X1800XT ...

[MantisCSS]

i wud put a 144 or maybe an OEM 146 inplace of the 3200, more funa nd u will get better speed out of it .

[chazt]

7800gt is not better than an x1800xt. The 7800gt and x1800xl are about on a par, but the xt is better compared to a gtx.
I wouldn't bother buying either of the cables that you've specified as you'll get them with the motherboard and case.
Just wondering why you need 2 hard drives? why not just get one big one? Oh and don't go for western digital; hitachi and samsung are very highly rated so look for those brands. Get sata300 frives, because they're backward compatible and may provide benefit if you upgrade to a sata300 motherboard at a later date.
I would suggest adding a more effective CPU fan like the arctic cooling freezer 64 pro, as it will make the system quieter and keep the cpu at a much cooler temperature. The reference fan is fine but a little noisy.

[MantisCSS]

the 64 pro is a good shout!

[DanceswithUnix]

Chazt, why do you dis' Western Digital? Fine drives IMNSHO. I buy Samsung if I want something really quiet, but I think WD are a good quiet/quick compromise.

I recently upgraded to an Arctic Cooler 64 Pro, and though on idle my CPU temps are down, a session of Halflife 2 saw it go past what the stock cooler would have managed. I think the cooler is blowing air across the PSU fan, so the PSU can't vent out as well as it used to. I now think that I should have gone for a more conventional layout, and leave upright fans to people with cavern like full tower cases rather than little midi ones like mine (which personally I still think are bigger than need be).

[this_is_gav]

Best drives in my honest opinion, though not renowned for being quiet. I'm still waiting for one of my many WDs to fail, while I've seen many, many Maxtors fall along the way. You'd also have to be nuts to recommend Hitachi over WD frankly, given their recent history.

Seagate or WD all the way, with some Samsung perhaps thrown in for good measure.

[chazt]

to be honest a hard drives a hard drive to me. I've read a lot of good reviews on the hitachi drives, and i think they have the best access times, and are generally considered quietest

[bassjunkie]

Got WD drives that are 5 years old and still going strong (bit slow now) same for maxtors I have a few dell p400 etc which were on 25/7 in work for 3 years and still work great. had 2 new 200G seagates and both died with in 6 months?