First Build Ever Advice

[mgt]

Hi Guys,

I'm looking to replace my aging Vaio Laptop with a do-it-all desktop that I have decided to have a bash at building myself. I have come up with the following shopping basket so far.


LN15102 Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 S775, 1.86Ghz, 1066Mhz FSB, Conroe Core, 2M Cache OEM (w/o Heat Sink Fan) £99.50 £116.91

LN15070 Gigabyte GA 965P-DS3 iP965, S775, PCI-E (x16), DDR2 533 / 667 / 800, SATA II, SATA RAID, ATX £81.89 £96.22

LN11461 250 Gb Samsung Spinpoint P SP2504C, SATA300, 7200 rpm, 8MB Cache, 9.0 ms, NCQ £40.69 £47.81

LN8448 Microsoft Windows XP Media Center 2005 Edition Software SP2B OEM Single Pack £60.90 £71.56

LN14778 Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Music Sound Card OEM £48.15 £56.58

LN13548 Samsung SH-W163A/BEBN Black SATA 16x16 ±R Dual Layer DVDRW Writer OEM UK inc Nero 6.x £20.29 £23.84

LN11320 530w Tagan EasyCon - TG530-U15 - 2Force Silent Modular PSU £55.89 £65.67

Coolermaster Cavalier 3 Black Tower Case w/o PSU £36.00 £42.30
1 LN8138 Coolermaster Cavalier 3 Black Tower Case w/o PSU

All from SCAN = £537.34 (including VAT and carriage)


GX-044-CO Connect3D ATI Radeon X1800 XT 256MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-044-CO)
£119.99 £119.99

HS-006-SY Scythe Infinity Heatpipe CPU Cooler (Socket 478, 775, AM2, 754, 939, 940) (HS-006-SY)

£29.95 £29.95
MY-058-GL GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC6400 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400UDC) (MY-058-GL)

All from OCUK = £358.30


I need absolutely everything for this build including OS and peripherals and its turning out to be more expensive than I would like it to be

The following questions are running through my mind:

Does this look like a well balanced system so far?

Is there a nice keyboard and mouse combo available?

What is the best PCI based Digital TV Tuner card?

Will the RAM have any issues with the ds3?

should I pay an extra ten pounds for an IceQ X1900GT over the X1800XT?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated - I am looking to build soon before I return to uni in 3 weeks.

Cheers

Matt

[danroyle]

seems pretty good to me do you mean an x1900gt over x1800xt

all your bits seem compatible

keyboard and mouse i buy seerate personal preference is the logitech mx510 and g15 keyboard


can't hekp with the tv card as no idea sorry

should be a good little gaming rig

[mgt]

Oops, yes I did mean the x1900gt over the x1800xt - thanks I have edited it now!

Can you see any obvious areas where I can cut the price down a bit?

[nvening]

of you are not getting MCE http://www.nebula-electronics.com/in....asp?Code=0001

and i would get two of them.

However i really recomend MCE its great.

I have two black gold cards which are better value 4 mce as u can just get the bare cards

[Brocken]

What about some sort of cheap secondry hdd to back stuff up onto etc?

[danroyle]

just buy a second 160gb hdd western digital or whatever for about £50 and then use it for backup and if you wanna save a little cash go through the today only and this week only on ocuk and scan and see if any of the bits you need come up or similar products for less money then you might save a bit

good luck with the build

[mike306dt]

Hello mate,

Ocuk do a Terratec card, dual tuner PCIE 1x jobbie if you have a spare pcie slot on that motherboard. Its around £80 but its two tuners on one card, ideal for recording one channel and watching another. Do you get done over in your uni for a tv license for every single room like some others do?

[kalniel]

Welcome to Hexus!

Just wanted to say that looks like a nice balanced build to me.

The only area I'd recommend shaving to cut some price is the powersupply - you only need around a 430W rated PSU to cope with core2duo + any graphics card of your choice

Keyboard mouse combos.. my parents love their mx3000 or something like that, but generally I'm not sure they're actually all that good value. I'd advise getting the mouse you're most comfortable with and ditto the keyboard - for me I love logitech mice and hate their keyboards!

I can't answer the ram question - email gigabyte direct maybe? Worth checking IMO, though it's likely bios updates will soon remove some of the problems people are having at the moment.

Decision on video card is purely down to accoustic preference IMO - the 1800xt is a noisy beast and I would personally pay 10quid (max) for a quieter card such as the ICEQ 1900gt.. but everyone has different criteria/noise tolerance

[mgt]

wow thanks for all the advice so far,

it is mainly due to this forum that i have the confidence at building for myself so thankyou all!

Matt

[mgt]

Yeah its a licence in every room jobbie unfortunately!

I'm trying to build a do-it-all machine so i dont have to cart a tv, hi-fi, xbox etc, up there all the time, hopefully cover all aspects of room based entertainment with a new build!

Just another quick question - do i need any fans for the case?

The specs show a single 120mm fan bay - which would be reasonably quiet?

Thanks again!

[amjedm]

I'd recommend the Sharkoon Golf 1000 rpm fan or

Sharkoon Golf 2000 rpm with a Zalman Fanmate 2 or other Fan Controller or control it via the Fan Header on the motherboard.

I've got the 1000rpm and in IMO one of the best.

[kalniel]

Just another quick question - do i need any fans for the case?

The specs show a single 120mm fan bay - which would be reasonably quiet?

Thanks again!

The case has a 120mm fan bay at the back, and a 80mm at the front. It should actually come with both fans included (my centuron 5 did), though you can replace them with other models I've not seen a need too (infact you can just run without the front fan if you want it quieter, it's not needed).

[amjedm]

According to the Coolermaster Europe website the rear 120mm fan is included.

[mgt]

Excellent, not needing a fan has saved me about 10 quid!

Sorry to keep going with the questions but I'm wondering whether there would be any benefit in choosing the ds4 over the ds3?

Is it worth waiting for the AW9 Max, and does the P5B deluxe beat them all?

Arghhh i'm so confused!

[kalniel]

Differences in motherboards don't equate to an equal gain in real performance - if a game is limited by the graphics card speed it doesn't matter how fast the motherboard is - you just need something that doesn't hamper the gfx card for eg.

That said, it is worth looking at different boards for their features, but it's up to you what you need and what you don't - I'm not someone to ask about that as I'm more than happy with my cheapo-ASRock