New system build help!

[Graham-UK]

Big hello to everyone first off and thanks you in advance for any help.

Next week I shall be purchasing all the parts needed for a new system build and just wanted to make sure that they all compatible before I click the buy button and also if anyone thinks some of the parts should be swapped for others (that have better proformance/reliability).

Now I'm also building this computer for the future (SLI/Quad Core), so the PSU requirments/Board need to be able to meet these for TWO GTX's in the future and Quad CPU. Also this computer will be used for almost pure gaming and I shall be overclocking the CPU (3.2-3.4)/GTX/Ram (1000MHz'ish)

All items below will be bought from Scan if possible (although could not find the 120 cooler on the site )

E6600
Tuniq Tower 120
EVGA 680i
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 500gb
850W Coolermaster Real Power Pro
8800 GTX (Probs BFG/Evga)
Vista Retail (Premium 32/64)
Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound

Now for ram I'll be using Cellshock PC2-6400C4 800MHz Dual Channel Kit (2GB), which I already have although all other parts are still to buy.

Now for the fun part and few questions I have...
1)Will the Tuniq tower fit on the 680i board ok?, I know of the problem with the back plate although EVGA have since fixed this to my knowledge. Also is this the best cooler I can get for the price?, even though its hard to get hold of!

2) Whats the best sub £30/£35 DVD-RW?, and sub £20 DVD drive?, I'm looking for them to be quite more than anything, as speed is important but not that much for the amount of DVD writing I'll be doing.

3)Sound, is it worth my buying a sound card?, I shall be buying one in the future, but to shave £50+ (Creative X-Fi Xtreme Gamer) off the build to start with is the sound quality to start with ok for games and music?

4)What nice looking black (must be black ) case will all these parts be able to fit into that has nice cooling and plenty of room for the two GTX's. I don't really have a budget for the case, but if someone could put together some sort of shortlist on the site that would be great!

5)Cables, I've seen the list of cables that both the 680i and the PSU come with, are there any more cables NOT included that I will be needing for the above?

Look forward to your replies!!!

[mosherben]

How about the Antec P-180 for the case? It's £82 inc vat and is supposed to be very quiet (through a guy at work who got one)

[Graham-UK]

How about the Antec P-180 for the case? It's £82 inc vat and is supposed to be very quiet (through a guy at work who got one)

Hello, thanks for the reply!

I've already looked at that case and I've heard there is a problem with graphics cards fitting with the power cables attached, once HD's are installed.

Too give a idea of the case I'm looking at is a Silverstone TJ09B-W although the price tag of £200 is putting me off

[DavidM]

Last time I purchased a case it was around 350 pounds... (although it was heavily modded ) so the Silverstone looks cheap to that

[d3fiant]

Why purchase the retail Vista when the OEM release is so much cheaper. I would go for the 32bit Home Premium OEM for around £70 compared to £185 for the retail. I would also go for the Xfi, I never looked back with mine, especially for gaming if thats your thing

[Lee H]

Welcome to the forums

Firstly, I cannot comment on the tuniq cooler as we've not had chance to get them here and play with them so we can find if there are any incompatability issues, however a quick search of google ( evga tuniq ) found the following statement dated 2/9/2007 .

Installed on eVGA 680i Mobo. Did not fit due to Northbridge w/fan. Had to snip metal and fan casing edges to install.... Spring screws very difficult to get correct tension for contact. Weight of Tuniq a bit too much for the Mobo.... After 1 week my computer shut down.

At the moment the following DVD Writer is very popular due to it's speeds and SATA connectivity. The following DVD ROM is one of the most popular as well.

In regards to the soundcard, I personally would recommend the X-Fi series as these can enhance mp3 quality and it also makes games, movies and such forth a lot better ( that reminds me... I need to buy another X-Fi )

In regards to cases it's a mine-field really as my idea of a nice looking case is another mans tarty looking trash but the most popular black chassis at the present time are the following ;

Akasa Mirage 62
Akasa Eclipse
Silverstone Temjin series
Coolermaster Mystique/Praetorian series
Antec P180

I hope this information helps.

Best Regards,

[staffsMike]

Akasa Mirage/Eclipse for the case. Loads of room and really well built.

Dont bother with a sound card until you've tried the onboard...its very good I have the EVGA 680i.

No more cables are needed than what you will recieve.

dunno about normal dvd drives but for my writer I use this

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=472566

Great Drive.

[Graham-UK]

Why purchase the retail Vista when the OEM release is so much cheaper. I would go for the 32bit Home Premium OEM for around £70 compared to £185 for the retail. I would also go for the Xfi, I never looked back with mine, especially for gaming if thats your thing

As I'm planning on keeping the system for more than a few years (3+), at some point I'd like to be able to upgrade of the 64Bit version once the support is better, also I've heard Microsoft are cracking down on people reusing OEM's on systems when upgrading/swapping motherboards.

Lee@Scan
Thank you for the help, it looks like I’m going to have to re think the CPU cooler, anyone got some ideas??? not looking to spend for than about £30-£35

Will take a look at the cases you’ve posted up everyone and get back to you, although I do think I’ve got my heart set on the Silverstone!

StaffsMike
Thanks for the heads up on the onboard sound card, I think I’ll test it out to see how I rate it, although I’m pretty sure I’ll upgrade to a sound card once my bank balance has recovered alittle from the first dent

[Graham-UK]

Ohh also, as for the DVD drives I really have no idea as its not something I take notice of.

What makes are quite and reliable?, As above I'be got NEC/Sony and Samsung and don't know which is best!

[Lee H]

I think the most popular cooler for the C2D series at the moment has to be the Artic Cooler which can be seen Here

Best Regards,

[staffsMike]

Deffinatly get an arctic freezer...£15 and it keeps my E6600 at about 35 degrees under load (oc'd to 3.1ghz atm)

[Graham-UK]

I think the most popular cooler for the C2D series at the moment has to be the Artic Cooler

Best Regards,

Thanks for that, heard good things about it in the past. Although wow so cheap!

[-ccuk-]

Ohh also, as for the DVD drives I really have no idea as its not something I take notice of.

Pioneer FTW! Awesome drives!

Akasa Mirage/Eclipse for the case. Loads of room and really well built.

Dont bother with a sound card until you've tried the onboard...its very good I have the EVGA 680i.


Great Drive.

QFT! Excellent suggestions. The Akasa Eclipse-62 is a really good case, so much room and it makes building easy and a pleasure.

Just to add; another reason not to purchase an X-fi yet is the poor Vista drivers. It could be late in march before creative release decent drivers.

Since HAL was removed it has caused a whole manner of problems and also sparked the birth of the Creative Alchemy Project to fix the broken EAX and what was direct sound related processing in Vista. Current drivers are awful so in my opinion... stay well away! The onboard is supposed to be very good (y)

[beachboy]

I second Lee@Scan's advice about the case-most definitely the Akasa Mirage. The removeable motherboard tray makes pc building a doddle plus its cooling efficiency is exceptional.
Have a look at PC Pro magazine (December 2006) for a test on several top cpu heatsinks. The Scythe Mine came out top for cooling and quietness with both AMD and Intel cpus.

[Graham-UK]

Yeah I know what you mean about the Vista drivers, although hopefully these will be sorted for those with very soon

What are peoples thoughts on the Scythe Ninja Plus ?, as this was my 2nd choice of CPU cooler after the 120.