Check my spec!

[llihp]

Hi all,

I'm thinking of putting together a new PC for my gaming needs! This is what I've got in mind, just looking for some opinions.

LN12316 LiteON SHW-16H5S/0H6S-05C 16x DVD±RW Dual Layer Lightscribe Black £19.78 £23.24
LN15070 Gigabyte GA 965P-DS3, Intel P965, S775, PCI-E (x16), DDR2 533/667/800, SATA II, ATX £83.99 £98.69
LN15102 Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 S775, 1.86Ghz, 1066Mhz FSB, Conroe Core, 2M Cache OEM (w/o Heat Sink Fan) £112.95 £132.72
LN13427 256Mb Leadtek 7600GT, PCI-E (x16), Mem 1400 MHz, GPU 560 MHz, 12 Pipes, Dual DVI-I/HDTV £93.99 £110.44
LN14911 320Gb Maxtor 6V320F0 DiamondMax 10, SATA 3.0Gb/s, 7200 rpm, 16MB Cache, 9.0 ms £57.49 £67.55
LN2576 Scan 4 Port Firewire 1394A PCI Card 400Mbps (1 Int 3 Ext) No Cable £4.98 £5.85
LN11596 2Gb (2X1Gb) Corsair TwinX XMS2, DDR2 PC6400 (800), 240 Pin, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 5-5-5-12 £125.64 £147.63
LN9857 Asus TA-210 Black Midi Tower Case + 360W PSU £31.99 £37.59
LN13080 Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro - P4 up to 4.4GHz - S775 Dual Core Ready £12.83 £15.08

[ultim8um]

Possibly consider the DS4 motherboard and ditch the firewire card (which means you also get the nice heatpipe cooler for the motherboard). Means 1 slot available for something else... Neater having it onboard IMHO

[llihp]

Cheers. I'll have a look at that.

My only concern is that the PSU in the Asus case won't be powerful enough. Is 360w considered powerful enought?

[scrandman]

Cheers. I'll have a look at that.

My only concern is that the PSU in the Asus case won't be powerful enough. Is 360w considered powerful enought?

I haven't read up on the requirements of the Conroe CPUs, but I'd say it'll be marginal.

[Daneel]

It's the gfx card that eats up most of the power. Conroe has much lower power requirements than the old P4. I'd suggest 360W will be just fine.

[scrandman]

Yes, it'll probably run. Personally I wouldn't be too comfortable with spending all that cash on the system and chancing my arm with a generic PSU though.

[llihp]

Ok. I'm considering removing the Asus case, and using these instead:

LN15198 AKASA Zen case - Black Silent Cool Midi-ATX Computing case w/2 silent 12cm fnas & front I/O ports £26.99 £31.71
LN13695 500W Xclio X12S4P2 SLI Goodpower 12cm Fan Dual 12v EPS SATA PCI-E with Anti-Vibration 24x7 Use Ready £28.95 £34.02

[scrandman]

I recommend you don't get the X-clio. This is a quality supply:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=256335

Other good brands to consider are Tagan, Enermax.

Ultimately it's not just about the number of Watts that the manufacturer claims. A quality 350W PSU will outperform a generic 500W in most cases in terms of stability, quality of power supplied and reliability.

There's also 330W & 380W Seasonics over at scan. Both are a few quid cheaper than the 430W I linked.

Edit: BTW - that looks like a nice case, and reasonably priced too.

Edit2: Did some googling over at SPCR - the X-clio is manufactured by CWT (Channel Well Technology) who used to make PSUs for Antec, so it shouldn't be that bad if you want to go for it.

[Noni]

Xclio power supplys are good quality. They are reccomended in Hardforum and Extremeoverclocking.

But yes, I would get that seasonic over the Xclio

My choice-

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=271185

And the Akasa case you mentioned.

[WLC-1989]

Might I suggest you substitute the Lite-On drive for a NEC offering? This one in particular seems to be very good value for the specification, and has LightScribe-like technology.

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=370156

[Carlm]

Yeh But isnt "Labelflash" a different technology to "Lightscribe" which means different media? Im not sure but ive only seen Lightscribe media about

[WLC-1989]

True, it is different, but it doesn't hurt having it anyway.

http://tomshardware.co.uk/2006/02/14...scribe_dvd_uk/

Certainly, the NEC represents better value for money in my opinion.

[chazt]

why not try one of the sata samsung drives, easier cable management? whoever uses lightscribe anyway?

[llihp]

Thanks for all your help so far guys.

I've been doing a little more research, and i'm concerned about the memory issues surrounding current conroe motherboards. :/

Is the memory/motherboard combination I have chosen compatible?

[trojan698]

Should be fine, Corsair is the most compatible memory around

[pands@scan]

http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculator.jsp

For queiries on what psu wattage will take what