5punk

ok so it seems like my motherboard is indiscriminately killing new hard drives and i don't have the know how or patience to fettle around trying to sort it out, so its going, and as its AGP it basically means i'm gonna be building a whole new rig

while i like to think i am relatively knowledgeable about computers i'm not really all that competent, so i would like a bit of advice as to what to get. i will use the budget thread of joy to make a parts list with links and i would like some advice on whether it is all going to work together without problems, whether there are any bits that are excessive or underpowered in comparison to the rest and so on and so forth

i will be using ebuyer and overclockers, depending on which is cheaper for each component, unless anyone else can recommend a cheaper and/or more reliable source for any of the components

Case

I'm going to go with the <a href="http://www.ebuyer.com/product/118268">Antec 900</a> if no one can give me a reason not too, i think it looks pretty good, it has plenty of fannage and although it will be a little on the loud side it probably can't be much worse than my current machine

One thing that concerns me is that i've read a few complaints about the fact that the psy is mounted at the bottom meaning some of the cables don't reach the mobo very easily, anyone got any experience with this?

£70 on ebuyer


Motherboard

Budget says <a href="http://overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.p ... ">Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L</a> don't know any better myself so i'll go with that

£65.79 on OCUK


PSU

i currently have an Antec trueblue 480 watt PSU but i don't know if that will be powerful enough for my new rig so i'd appreciate some input on that

if not then i guess the <a href="http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showprodu ... 1">Enermax Liberty 500W"</a> should do the job

£69.31 on OCUK


CPU

As per budget thread <a href="http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showprodu ... 793">Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 G0 (slacr)</a>

£160 on OCUK


Fan

No idea what to get here, advice would be good


Thermal paste

I think <a href="http://www.ebuyer.com/product/126410">THIS</a> is what i've used before, less than a fiver on ebuyer


RAM

I'm not too sure here, here seems to be lots of different types and i'm wary of getting the wrong thing so input here would be nice

I don't want to get the 4gb ocz kit from the budget thread cos i'm going to go for 32bit Fista i think and it won't recognise it all so seems a waste


Graphics card

Again not totally sure, i think i want an 8800GT but i'm not sure which one would be best, advice again here please


HDD

Not sure what the best thing to do here is. I think what i want to do is have windows separate from all my data, but i don't know whether it's best to use 2 separate physical drives or just 2 partitions n the same drive.


Optical Drive
I already have a perfectly fine DVD writer so don't need a new one


Ok apart from the stuff i'm not sure on i THINK thats it, feel free to correct me, and of course advice on the items i'm unsure of would be greatly apreciated

Go for a 8800GTS instead, they're not much more expensive but significantly more powerful, apparently.

I get my cooling from here QuietPC: http://www.quietpc.com/gb-en-gbp/products/intelcooling
The Zalman CNPS9700 is what I have, it's very big but you'll never have to worry about heat and you'll have plenty of space in that case.

spoodie wrote:Go for a 8800GTS instead, they're not much more expensive but significantly more powerful, apparently.

I get my cooling from here QuietPC: http://www.quietpc.com/gb-en-gbp/products/intelcooling
The Zalman CNPS9700 is what I have, it's very big but you'll never have to worry about heat and you'll have plenty of space in that case.

The 8800GTS is about 5 fps faster than the GT at best but you might aswell spend the little bit extra since the GT prices are inflated to almost the price of the GTS.

I've been looking into fans and stuff since I'm planning on building a silent PC probably around the middle of this year. The noctua fans/heatsinks offer the best noise to performance ratio by a huge margin, they're aparently inaudable and perform better than the zalman fans and as well as the uber noisy ones. The thermal paste included is also supposed to be the best around, better than arctic silver.

For the Heatsink/fan, I've never had a problem with the intel standard ones, they work fairly well, they're fairly quiet and they're free.

Ram:, Personally, I use a 4gb set on windows xp32, it sees about 3.25GB of it, but if you're not keen, I'd suggest going for one of the 2gb kits recommended in the budget machine thread.

Graphics:
Depending on your remaining budget, i'd go for a

GeForce 8800 GT 256MB (any old one, they're all the same) should run you about £135

Or

BFG GeForce 8800 GTS OC 512MB, about £205, should be velly fast indeed.

The Incredible... wrote:Thermal paste

I think <a href="http://www.ebuyer.com/product/126410">THIS</a> is what i've used before, less than a fiver on ebuyer

OK, I've seen this stuff mentioned before.


.... erm ... what do you do with it... and does it come with self-explanatory instructionamifications?

/edit; thx, that's sort of what I thought but wasn't sure

you squidge a bit of it onto the top of your cpu, it fills all the gaps and imperfections between the cpu and heatsink, allowing the heat to transfer better, making your cpu cooler.

and their website has instructions for most cpus, so that's nice.

OMG bargain.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showprodu ... =GX-043-BG

Can has munny back pls?

Shitting crikey. I paid £100 more than that for exactly that card, only half the RAM. If people don't have 8800s yet, then this is one to snap up!

Oooh, £135. That ain't bad at all. After the performance of my BFG 7900GT (still going strong and running CoH in big-widescreen-native-res-o-vision) I'd be reluctant to buy anything else. Question is, would I notice the difference?

It was a big step up for me from my previous 6800GT, but since I can still run all normal games with maximum shineyness, I currently have no need to upgrade the rest of my ageing rig which is nice. Therefore I reckon it was a worthwhile investment for me.

.

ok thanks guys thats sorted some of the problems out i think

Graphics wise i'm thinking <a href="http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showprodu ... G">this</a> bargain

fan i think <a href="http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showprodu ... 1">this</a>

and ram <a href="http://www.ebuyer.com/product/128019">this one</a>

is there anything i'm still missing?

So will I be able to run COD and stuff in lovely res? I usually stick at 1024 x 768 max. I still don't suffer performance issues with my old card you see, so the only advantage would be extra lovelyness in the form of better resolutions. Hell, at that price I'd get two in SLI if I didn't think it would cause my PSU to spontaneously combust (and Mrs Pants for that matter, as I could get a new and badly needed bookcase for the cost of an 8800GT).

amblin wrote:
Fan For the CPU the stock fan would be fine unless you're overclocking. Also, if noise is that big an issue you might want to upgrade it, but why not go with stock, save £30 and see how it goes.

That's all I can really offer.

will <a href="http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showprodu ... N">this</a> come with a fan? it doesn't seem to say so, it says OEM and i think when i got an oem processor before it was literally just the processor in a tiny little box with a bit of foam for padding

.

The wonders of incremental upgrades - unless you're buying a new case, the missus will never know. Depending on the rest of your rig, you should be able to turn all settings to 11 with that card.

The Incredible, I suggest you buy that graphics card before it disappears.

ok i'm still not sure on the HDD front and the PSU

is it worth hanging on to the latest non working HDD to see if it works in the new rig?

or am i better off getting a 500gb and making a smallish partition for windows?

mrbobbins wrote:OMG bargain.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showprodu ... =GX-043-BG

Can has munny back pls?

Holy Twatmangles Batman!

.

Lateralus wrote:The wonders of incremental upgrades - unless you're buying a new case, the missus will never know. Depending on the rest of your rig, you should be able to turn all settings to 11 with that card.

The Incredible, I suggest you buy that graphics card before it disappears.

i've added it to my cart, will that reserve it for me? or am i best just buying that separately while i wait to decide on the rest?