Building a new pc

[Chris_huh]

Ah yes, i was thinking of getting a pebble - look damn niiiiice


So do you think the Abit I35-E motherboard would be better than the Asus P5B Deluze WiFi or the Asus P5K?

Is there anything else that i would need. I have a keyboard and mouse, and speakers. gonna get that Hauppauge Dual DVB tuner and a mulitcard reader in the 3.5" external bay. On that note, do you know of any multicard readers that have bluetooth built in. Dell has one as an option but i was wondering where i could get one - save having a bluetooth dongle.

 

[Chris_huh]

Another thing (sorry keep forgetting to say stuff) i will be putting on ubuntu, but i will also buy Vista home premium (£60 OEM i think) and maybe even have XP on there if vista gets a bit annoying.

Since i use dreamweaver and photoshop a lot i reckon i will be using vista most of the time, but i will have to see.

 

[V_R]

Well i have the P5B Deluxe so am biased, but i was working to your budget mate,

Newer chipset is always good and the P35's are very good, if i was in the market for a new board it would be a P35 no question.

 

[V_R]

Another thing (sorry keep forgetting to say stuff) i will be putting on ubuntu, but i will also buy Vista home premium (£60 OEM i think) and maybe even have XP on there if vista gets a bit annoying.

Since i use dreamweaver and photoshop a lot i reckon i will be using vista most of the time, but i will have to see.

So i did guess right! Thats why i speced you a DX10 card. Vista is ok, i will get it sooner or later. Not to sure on the whole Linux thing, somebody else can answer that!

 

[Chris_huh]

I think the problem is that i have read too many reviews on the P5B wifi thing which all say its pretty much awsome that i have no worked myself up so much i want one. But its only about £30 more than the abit, i can probably live with that.

I was gonna wait til SP1 for vista but i just cant be bothered any more, not since they keep putting the date back. I have put linux on my current pc and it works great.

Thanks for the list of stuff, i might look into ordering some of that stuff soon then.

 

[floppybootstomp]

I have the Hauppage T-500 twin digi tuner card on my media system and it's very very good indeed.

Has a remote control, and the reception is very sensitive, I'm in a poor reception area and am still picking up lots of channels, both TV & radio, with a very simple aerial system.

The Asus P5B Deluxe is a fine motherboard (see my sig ) but as V_R said, he was planning to budget.

I used to love Abit boards but they lost the plot about 4 years ago, imo.

 

[floppybootstomp]

btw, if you're thinking of going Linux as well, here's a link to a recent thread about dual booting Linux with XP.

Much the same rules would apply to Vista I'd guess.

Look through it to the end, cos I had a bit of a false start, lol

Linux Dual boot

 

[Chris_huh]

Hey, you're in Greenwich, me too.

Anyway... despite the price issue do you think the P5B is just simply better than the Abit would be then?

 

[floppybootstomp]

Hey, you're in Greenwich, me too.

Anyway... despite the price issue do you think the P5B is just simply better than the Abit would be then?

Yes .

 

[V_R]

Yes the P5B-D is the better board, if you can strech to it, then go go go!

 

[Chris_huh]

So with the SATA ports i will only be able to have 2 optical/3 hdd/1 mediacard thing. Unless i use IDE for the optical. Would IDE on the optical make any difference - SATA would be best wouldn't it? Is that right?

 

[Abarbarian]

The cpu and the psu are both cheaper at Airia by a total of £15 ,

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Comp...20W+HX+V2+Series+Modular+PSU+?productId=27955

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Comp...re+2+Duo+E6550+2.33GHz+(775)+?productId=27971

for £114 you could get a E6750 2.66GHz cpu,

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Comp...re+2+Duo+E6750+2.66GHz+(775)+?productId=27972

Wouldn't a Radeon X1950 Pro 512MB card be a better choice for a graphics card , witht he money you save you could get one .

IDE optical drives should be fast enough for a few years yet and you'll have less compatability problems with them and they are cheaper .

Just my half pennies worth .

 

[Abarbarian]

Don't know if this is better than the Crucial memory but its ultra cheap .
Corsair 2GB PC2-6400 XMS2 2x1GB kit only £ 45.99 inc vat,

http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials...ir+2GB+PC2-6400+XMS2+(2x1GB)+?productId=27405

 

[Chris_huh]

hey thanks. i had a look at aria and it seems to be a little bit cheaper for most things.

This is what i have put into the baskets:

It is a bit more than i was looking at before - i think what is makign it cost more than i had anticipated is the screen (~£40 more than i thought - but it looks nice), the PSU (i hadnt thought it would be that much), and the motherboard and CPU are maybe a bit more than i thought. But since the motherboard and CPU are only about £40 more and i am getting a much better CPU its probably worth it.

There are loads of 500W PSU going for much cheaper - does it make a great difference having an expensive one - is it worth saving money there.

 

[V_R]

What happened to your budget?

 

[Chris_huh]

yeah, i was wondering that. I think i need to look through ti again but i realised that i want this pc to last quite a few years so would want to get a good one. The screen is a dit of an extravagence but since it is the thing you look at all the time i might as well get a nice one.

Just a few things, do you think the CPU is a bit much (could i get a cheaper one without losing out), could i get a cheaper PSU, and the GPU - is that a bit much for light gaming and a 20" widescreen (looking at hd content here too).

Some things i obviously cant cut down on - vista, Tv tuner, RAM so i suppose the things i can look at reducing would be the PSU, GPU, CPU, motherboard and screen. Any thoughts on cutting them back a bit?

 

[Abarbarian]

A decent psu is a given .

You can save £10 at Aria by going with V_R's original cpu.

You can get a better deal on some 22" monitors if you look around . Aria do some with a dead pixel guarantee . You'll be looking at it for some time so its worth doing some in depth reading on everything though .

Try shoping around E-Buyer are pretty good and do free shipping on big orders .

 

[V_R]

yeah, i was wondering that. I think i need to look through ti again but i realised that i want this pc to last quite a few years so would want to get a good one. The screen is a dit of an extravagance but since it is the thing you look at all the time i might as well get a nice one.

The screen is a damn good one, i have the 22" version which is the same res as the 20" (1680x1050) I am a big gamer so a big widescreen monitor is a must imo.

Just a few things, do you think the CPU is a bit much (could i get a cheaper one without losing out), could i get a cheaper PSU, and the GPU - is that a bit much for light gaming and a 20" widescreen (looking at hd content here too).

Do you intend to overclock? The CPU could be cut down if you need to save money and dont mind overclocking it, most C2D's will easily hit 3Ghz on air.

The GFX is ok not fantastic, Its a DX10 card so a good match for Vista if your not a big gamer. How much gaming do you do? If your serious gamer go for the best you can afford.

Some things i obviously cant cut down on - vista, Tv tuner, RAM so i suppose the things i can look at reducing would be the PSU, GPU, CPU, motherboard and screen. Any thoughts on cutting them back a bit?

Imo, the PSU is the most overlooked part of any system, its what make a ps stable or not in most cases. If you have an alternative in mind post a link and i'll have a look.

So what is your absolute maximum budget to spend?

Oh and i know OCUK aint the cheapest, but i have spent lots of money there and have never had a problem and that includes RMA's.

 

[Chris_huh]

Well i have thought about it and i guess i could stretch to the current price (ie about 880). I don;t intend to overclock as i have no idea how to do it, and i think it would just be easier to leave it as it is.

At the moment i don't do much gaming (what i do do i do on the 360 [lots of do's]) but i might start doing a bit more, been thinking about getting flight sim X which could use a bit on graphics, but the graphcis card would mostly be used for HD videos etc, which i doubt needs half as much as a high end game would.
What GFX would you suggest for about the same amount as the one i listed (by the way the £62 is some special deal - should be £75). As i intend to put linux on nvidia is a good choice as the have brilliant coverage for opensource stuff, i am not too sure about radeons etc.

Might just stick with the PSU, had a think about it and realised that this is the component that could destroy the rest of the pc if it went wrong - worth spending a bit more to be safe.

 

[Abarbarian]

You could save £50 or £60 on the cpu with a E2140 or E2160 . Have a look at the reviews .

http://xtreview.com/review204.htm

http://www.custompc.co.uk/news/119011/intel-pentium-e2140-review---core-2-for-50/page2.html