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"Building a PC mk2"

Ok, finally the finances have been confirmed so looking to build a new tower in the next couple of weeks (Unless CrossFire & R520 arrives in the next 4 weeks!)

Here's what I have so far:

Akasa Eclipse 62 Aluminium Case
OCZ ModStream 520w ATX2.2 Power Supply
MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum nForce4 Ultra (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard
Corsair 2GB DDR XMS3200C2PT TwinX (2x1GB) CAS2
AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Venice 90nm (Socket 939) - OEM
Zalman CNPS7700-CU Ultra-Quiet CPU Cooler
Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound (3.5g)
HIS Excalibur ATI Radeon X850 XT PE ICEQII 256MB DDR3 VIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express)
2x LG GSA-4163BA 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM
2x Hitachi Deskstar T7K250 NCQ 160GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (OA31637)
2x Akasa AK-183-L2B Ultra Quiet 120mm Fan - 3 pin


Viewsonic VP191B 19" LCD Monitor 1280*1024

Apple iBook 12" (Wife)

Windows XP Pro SP2 OEM

Total: £2,409.35

Just got to check that the HIS GFX card will fit on the Neo4!

Tyla wrote:
> RAM s**tuff.

Brand of ram doesn't mean sh*t, in my opinion. I've had two 512 modules, one Corsair and one GELL Value. £40 price difference, and absolutely no difference in performance in any game (Rome : TW, HL2, Doom 3, CS : S and FM) - and none in Photoshop or even WMP.

I dunno. Currently with 1.25GB of RAM (2x 512 + 1x 128 PC3200), all checks seem pretty good.

And whatcha doing with ya old graphics card Tyla?

Tyla wrote:
> Or would sitting in the middle with:
>
> Corsair 2GB DDR XMS3200C2PT TwinX (2x1GB) CAS2
>

I'd personally go with this.

I was going to ask about the whole CAS thing oddly enough.

Another question...

2GB Ram vs 1GB stupidly high spec Ram? Which is more beneficial?

I was looking at getting:

Corsair 1GB DDR XMS3200XL XPERT TwinX (2x512MB) CAS2

instead of the:

Corsair 2GB DDR XMS3200PT TwinX (2x1GB) CAS3

Or would sitting in the middle with:

Corsair 2GB DDR XMS3200C2PT TwinX (2x1GB) CAS2

Be better?

I know Games don't benefit much from 2GB, so would I be better off getting some high qual 1GB DDR (2x512) or some slightly lower qual/cas @ 2GB (2x1024)

Nice.

"CAS latency is determined by dividing the column access time by the memory clock cycle time. Simply put, the CAS latency is the number of clock cycles it takes the memory to respond to an operation request."

:' }

I saw you talking to RoJ about it, and I didn't understand then.

I assume I just look out for CAS3 compatible RAM and RAM ports then? Furthermore, I assume this means it's faster?

Gah. I have so many questions. I irritate myself with them, thus I suspect...

Anyway. To add to them:

Why would a computer need a DVD read/write drive and a CD read/write drive? (Such as the store bought one I currently have?)

Infact I have other questions, so I'll consider just shoving them all into my thread if they don't get any responses in here. Not helping Tyla...

Overclockers by the looks of things.
If I was you I'd make sure to get CAS2 rather than CAS3 memory.

Heh forgot to add to the earlier questions, where d'you all get your stuff from?

Damarus wrote:
> Clazon wrote:
> Also, how much difference does a sound card make to sound quality?
>
> With small speakers absolutely nothing.
>
> However if you have 5.1 etc you can really tell the difference as it
> makes it sharper and cuts out most of the background noise etc.

Just as I thought.

:)

Thanks.



Mobo's and cases are confusing the hell outta me.

Clazon wrote:
> Also, how much difference does a sound card make to sound quality?

With small speakers absolutely nothing.

However if you have 5.1 etc you can really tell the difference as it makes it sharper and cuts out most of the background noise etc.