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Ok, building my first PC around christmas, could do woth some help on the parts. Budget of around £1000. Will be used for pretty much everything, mostly music and internet, some gaming. I want it to be quiet though as my current comp sounds like a foghorn (not too sure on water cooling though). So, that's what I want, please give me an idea of what i'm looking for. Thanks people.
Oh, and is there any new technology likely to be coming out soon that would be useful? Cheers.
Oh, and is there any new technology likely to be coming out soon that would be useful? Cheers.
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Ok, building my first PC around christmas, could do woth some help on the parts. Budget of around £1000. Will be used for pretty much everything, mostly music and internet, some gaming. I want it to be quiet though as my current comp sounds like a foghorn (not too sure on water cooling though). So, that's what I want, please give me an idea of what i'm looking for. Thanks people.
Oh, and is there any new technology likely to be coming out soon that would be useful? Cheers.
Oh, and is there any new technology likely to be coming out soon that would be useful? Cheers.
The new wave of ATI cards should be out by then, i'd probably stick one of those in your system.
The new ATI cards should drive the price of the 7800 down as well, so that might be a good option.
Anyway, I suggest you go with an AMD processor, something of a 3500+ or a 3700+, a nice fast high capacity HDD like a 120GB at 7,200rpm minimum. 2GB of RAM (CAS 2 latency), and make sure you get a good PSU, don't go for one bundle with a case, as they're usually poor. Go for an Antec ATX 2.0 or something. For a grand I reckon you could do it.
It's difficult to get a very quiet machine without either spending a lot on cooling or reducing the speed of some of your components. The irony is, if you spend £100 on cooling, that's £100 less to spend on components and that means you won't need as much cooling, etc etc. Whatever you do, a good case with proper airflow and some decent fans will do you better than fancy things like water cooling.
Anyway, I suggest you go with an AMD processor, something of a 3500+ or a 3700+, a nice fast high capacity HDD like a 120GB at 7,200rpm minimum. 2GB of RAM (CAS 2 latency), and make sure you get a good PSU, don't go for one bundle with a case, as they're usually poor. Go for an Antec ATX 2.0 or something. For a grand I reckon you could do it.
It's difficult to get a very quiet machine without either spending a lot on cooling or reducing the speed of some of your components. The irony is, if you spend £100 on cooling, that's £100 less to spend on components and that means you won't need as much cooling, etc etc. Whatever you do, a good case with proper airflow and some decent fans will do you better than fancy things like water cooling.
Thanks gerrid. Yea definately will be going with an AMD processor. (Anyone know if the X2's are any good?). Anyone got any suggestions for a decent quiet case, not looking for anything fancy. Cheers
Thermaltake Xaser III Supertower is very very quiet, and come supplied with 7 case fans. Downside is that it costs a lot - over £100 still I think.
I wouldn't suggest getting a dual core processor. We've discussed it elsewhere on these forums, and basically there aren't really any programs that take advantge of dual core processors. Games certainly don't, and by the time they do X2s in their current guise won't be very good anymore. If you really want to spend your money on a processor, get an FX55. They're about £450, but they are super fast if you can afford it, and faster than dual core processors in games.
Abit AN8 SLi Fatal1ty nForce4 SLi (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard
AMD Athlon 64 3800+ Venice 90nm (Socket 939)
GeIL ONE 1GB (2x512MB) PC3200 BH5 CAS1.5
BFG GeForce 7800 GT OC 256MB GDDR3 VIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express)
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Value 7.1 PCI Sound Card
Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 NCQ 200GB ST3200826AS SATA 8MB Cache
LG GSA-4163BA 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Beige)
Total Price: £942.71 Exc. delivery
That doesn't include a case/PSU, but gives you an idea of what kinda stuff you can get for your money. I'm a bit out of touch with the latest GFX cards and stuff, but I'm sure someone here can point you in the right direction - don't think the 7800GT OC is a bad one though.
AMD Athlon 64 3800+ Venice 90nm (Socket 939)
GeIL ONE 1GB (2x512MB) PC3200 BH5 CAS1.5
BFG GeForce 7800 GT OC 256MB GDDR3 VIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express)
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Value 7.1 PCI Sound Card
Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 NCQ 200GB ST3200826AS SATA 8MB Cache
LG GSA-4163BA 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Beige)
Total Price: £942.71 Exc. delivery
That doesn't include a case/PSU, but gives you an idea of what kinda stuff you can get for your money. I'm a bit out of touch with the latest GFX cards and stuff, but I'm sure someone here can point you in the right direction - don't think the 7800GT OC is a bad one though.
Nimco wrote:
> AMD Athlon 64 3800+ Venice 90nm (Socket 939)
Noooo!! Not the 3800 Venice!! Go with the 3700+ San Diego, 1Mb L2 instead of the Venice's 512k.
> LG GSA-4163BA 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Beige)
Excellent Drive, can't fault it if the bios is the latest.
I'm still trying to decide on what Mobo to go for, but meanwhile:
AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego 90nm (Socket 939) - Retail - £162.25
Corsair 2GB DDR XMS3200C2PT TwinX (2x1GB) CAS2 - £164.95
Western Digital Raptor 36.7GB WD360GD 10,000RPM SATA 8MB Cache - £64.25
Western Digital Caviar Special Edition 200GB 2000JS SATA-II 8MB Cache - £56.25
LG GSA-4163BA 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - £26.90
Hiper HPU-4K580-MK Type R 580W Modular ATX2.2 PSU - £54.95
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Sound Card - £112.95
BFG GeForce 7800 GTX OC 256MB GDDR3 VIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail - £309.95
Gigabyte K8NXP-9 nForce4 Ultra (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard - £99.95
£1052.40 + VAT
> AMD Athlon 64 3800+ Venice 90nm (Socket 939)
Noooo!! Not the 3800 Venice!! Go with the 3700+ San Diego, 1Mb L2 instead of the Venice's 512k.
> LG GSA-4163BA 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Beige)
Excellent Drive, can't fault it if the bios is the latest.
I'm still trying to decide on what Mobo to go for, but meanwhile:
AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego 90nm (Socket 939) - Retail - £162.25
Corsair 2GB DDR XMS3200C2PT TwinX (2x1GB) CAS2 - £164.95
Western Digital Raptor 36.7GB WD360GD 10,000RPM SATA 8MB Cache - £64.25
Western Digital Caviar Special Edition 200GB 2000JS SATA-II 8MB Cache - £56.25
LG GSA-4163BA 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - £26.90
Hiper HPU-4K580-MK Type R 580W Modular ATX2.2 PSU - £54.95
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Sound Card - £112.95
BFG GeForce 7800 GTX OC 256MB GDDR3 VIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail - £309.95
Gigabyte K8NXP-9 nForce4 Ultra (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard - £99.95
£1052.40 + VAT
cookie monster wrote:
> The new wave of ATI cards should be out by then, i'd probably stick
> one of those in your system.
ETA: Oct 5th for the X1800 but price tags flying about rumour this to be near the £500 mark!
> The new wave of ATI cards should be out by then, i'd probably stick
> one of those in your system.
ETA: Oct 5th for the X1800 but price tags flying about rumour this to be near the £500 mark!
I'll let everyone else advise you on what models/makes to go for, for each part, because I'm not that good at that, but here is a checklist of everything you will need for it to actually work, and stay together.
- Case: the metal box that holds it all in place. Cheaper ones tend to be more plain, where one with appealing designs on the front cost a little bit more, but not much. Pick one that you like the look of.
- Power Supply Unit: aka PSU, some cases have these included with them
- CPU: aka processor. Your PC won't work without one. It is the main part of the computer. For this I'd reccommend an Athlon CPU because by my personal experience (other people may say otherwise) I found my Intel Pentium 4 quite hard to install.
- Motherboard: provides a means of connecting everything together and sometimes has it's own cool little features like onboard graphics card and sound)
- Graphics card: If your motherboard doesn't include onboard graphics, you must have one of these in order to get a picture on your monitor
- Hard drive: The bigger the better, but the ones with a bigger storage space on them will cost more. I reccommend one by Seagate. Without one, your computer has no way of storing permanent files like your saved game positions
- RAM: aka memory is a temporary storage place which you computer needs. It won't run without it. The more you have, the better, especially for gaming. I'd reccommend a minimum of 512MB I think, but that depends what sort of games you like to play.
- CD/DVD ROM drive: I reccommend a fast DVD ROM drive, like about 16x speed. You'll need one so that you can install an operating system onto your computer.
- Monitor: Pick a nice big one. You can fit more on a bigger monitor. More picture, I mean.
- Keyboard: To control your computer when you start it up for the very first time, because it won't support a mouse yet
- Mouse: Once you have the operating system installed, you should be able to use the mouse
- Operating system: Although the computer will turn on without one and you get lights, fan activity and a picture on the screen, you cannot use a computer without one. I reccommend Windows XP Home Edition.
I hope you have found this list helpful and will use it. It's only a checklist though, as I said, because I don't really know about "specs" so much. Other people here will advise you on that. If you want gaming and music, you'll also need a soundcard, but the computer will run fine without one.
I think you'll enjoy the experience of building your computer very much. I have only ever built one computer and I remember being at this stage last year, just before I started building it, where I didn't know what parts I would need. When you actually start building you will realise almost instantly how easy it is to build one and you will feel very pleased with yourself at the end of it all, when the operating system is all up and running and you can do whatever the hell you like wiht it as if you just bought it from a shop.
- Case: the metal box that holds it all in place. Cheaper ones tend to be more plain, where one with appealing designs on the front cost a little bit more, but not much. Pick one that you like the look of.
- Power Supply Unit: aka PSU, some cases have these included with them
- CPU: aka processor. Your PC won't work without one. It is the main part of the computer. For this I'd reccommend an Athlon CPU because by my personal experience (other people may say otherwise) I found my Intel Pentium 4 quite hard to install.
- Motherboard: provides a means of connecting everything together and sometimes has it's own cool little features like onboard graphics card and sound)
- Graphics card: If your motherboard doesn't include onboard graphics, you must have one of these in order to get a picture on your monitor
- Hard drive: The bigger the better, but the ones with a bigger storage space on them will cost more. I reccommend one by Seagate. Without one, your computer has no way of storing permanent files like your saved game positions
- RAM: aka memory is a temporary storage place which you computer needs. It won't run without it. The more you have, the better, especially for gaming. I'd reccommend a minimum of 512MB I think, but that depends what sort of games you like to play.
- CD/DVD ROM drive: I reccommend a fast DVD ROM drive, like about 16x speed. You'll need one so that you can install an operating system onto your computer.
- Monitor: Pick a nice big one. You can fit more on a bigger monitor. More picture, I mean.
- Keyboard: To control your computer when you start it up for the very first time, because it won't support a mouse yet
- Mouse: Once you have the operating system installed, you should be able to use the mouse
- Operating system: Although the computer will turn on without one and you get lights, fan activity and a picture on the screen, you cannot use a computer without one. I reccommend Windows XP Home Edition.
I hope you have found this list helpful and will use it. It's only a checklist though, as I said, because I don't really know about "specs" so much. Other people here will advise you on that. If you want gaming and music, you'll also need a soundcard, but the computer will run fine without one.
I think you'll enjoy the experience of building your computer very much. I have only ever built one computer and I remember being at this stage last year, just before I started building it, where I didn't know what parts I would need. When you actually start building you will realise almost instantly how easy it is to build one and you will feel very pleased with yourself at the end of it all, when the operating system is all up and running and you can do whatever the hell you like wiht it as if you just bought it from a shop.
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