First Build - Opinions wanted

N

nic087

First sorry for the long Note.
Getting bored buying retail PC with limited Upgades, so looking to
build my own (Uk Based). Never done this before so after many days
surfing PC site for rewviews and test results. With a buget of £1500
I,ve decided on the following spec.

Case - Antex Mini Tower Plus660AMG with 330W True Power PSU
Case Fans - 3*Akasa Amber Series 80mm (AK-182-L2B)
PSU - Antx NeoPower 480W ATX12V v2.0
Mobo - Asus P5GD2
CPU - Intel P4 530 3.0GHz SKT lGA775 with HT Tech
CPU Heatsink/Cooler - Zalman CNPS7700-Cu
Memeory - 2*Crucial 512MB 240 Pin DDR2-533 (CT6464AA53E)
VGA - Sapphire Hybrid Radeon X700 Pro PCI-E (256MB)
HDD - 1. Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 SATA 80GB -Retail
2. Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 SATA NCQ 250GB -OEM
3. Future upgrade
DVD - Aopen DVD-ROM 16x (DVD1648/AAP PRO)
CD - Aopen CD-RW R52x,RW32x,ROM52 (CRW5232/AAO PRo)
FDD - Mitsumi 7 in 1 card reader with FDD (FA404M)
Speakers - Creative megaworks THX 2.1 250D
Wirless Card - Belkin 802.11g Wirless Desktop Card PCI (Owned)
USB2.0 card - Belkin USB2.0 5-Port PCI card (Owned)
Mouse - Logitech MX1000 Laser (Owned)
Keyboard - Logitech (Suggestion's Welcome)
Moniter - 19" CTR (Suggestion's Welcome)
Printer/Scanner - Owned
OS system - Windows XP - retail

The PC main use will be Gameing, not online just yet, some photo
editing, graphic design(AutoCad) and the usual surfing and word
processing. Looking to source componets from PC world Componet Center,
Overclockers UK, SavaStore and Dabs.
Would love some opinions on my components and anything I might have
missed and the retail sources.

Thanks for you thoughts.
Paul
 
D

Dave C.

First sorry for the long Note.
Getting bored buying retail PC with limited Upgades, so looking to
build my own (Uk Based). Never done this before so after many days
surfing PC site for rewviews and test results. With a buget of £1500
I,ve decided on the following spec.

Case - Antex Mini Tower Plus660AMG with 330W True Power PSU
Case Fans - 3*Akasa Amber Series 80mm (AK-182-L2B)
PSU - Antx NeoPower 480W ATX12V v2.0
Mobo - Asus P5GD2
CPU - Intel P4 530 3.0GHz SKT lGA775 with HT Tech
CPU Heatsink/Cooler - Zalman CNPS7700-Cu
Memeory - 2*Crucial 512MB 240 Pin DDR2-533 (CT6464AA53E)
VGA - Sapphire Hybrid Radeon X700 Pro PCI-E (256MB)
HDD - 1. Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 SATA 80GB -Retail
2. Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 SATA NCQ 250GB -OEM
3. Future upgrade
DVD - Aopen DVD-ROM 16x (DVD1648/AAP PRO)
CD - Aopen CD-RW R52x,RW32x,ROM52 (CRW5232/AAO PRo)
FDD - Mitsumi 7 in 1 card reader with FDD (FA404M)
Speakers - Creative megaworks THX 2.1 250D
Wirless Card - Belkin 802.11g Wirless Desktop Card PCI (Owned)
USB2.0 card - Belkin USB2.0 5-Port PCI card (Owned)
Mouse - Logitech MX1000 Laser (Owned)
Keyboard - Logitech (Suggestion's Welcome)
Moniter - 19" CTR (Suggestion's Welcome)
Printer/Scanner - Owned
OS system - Windows XP - retail

The PC main use will be Gameing, not online just yet, some photo
editing, graphic design(AutoCad) and the usual surfing and word
processing. Looking to source componets from PC world Componet Center,
Overclockers UK, SavaStore and Dabs.
Would love some opinions on my components and anything I might have
missed and the retail sources.

Thanks for you thoughts.
Paul

For less than the cost of your two optical drives, you can get a dual-layer
DVD burner. The DVD burner can do everything you want to do, and it can
also burn DVD media. I realize you already own the USB 2.0 card, but
doesn't your motherboard have enough USB 2.0 ports already? You might be
better off leaving that PCI card out, to free up resources. Everything else
looks good. For your monitor, think Viewsonic/Optiquest or NEC. -Dave
 
F

Fitz

Why not look for a case without a power supply if you are going to buy a
NeoPower? You could get a better quality case for the same money, or save
some money on a case without the power supply. You may also be able to
upgrade the 330W to the NeoPower if you are ordering online.

Fitz
 
N

nic087

With one optical drive dont you run the risk that is thare is a problem
with the drive you are unable to access any saved data or go gaming
until the drive is fixed or replaced.
After a miss-calculation of USB ports required I can leave out USB
card.
Paul
 
N

nic087

Thanks for the replay will look into alterantive cases and upgrading
online but do you have any suggestions. Paul
 
D

Dave C.

nic087 said:
With one optical drive dont you run the risk that is thare is a problem
with the drive you are unable to access any saved data or go gaming
until the drive is fixed or replaced.
After a miss-calculation of USB ports required I can leave out USB
card.
Paul

I don't know about that. Optical drives do fail, but not very often. If I
wanted redundancy, I'd be tempted to go with (2) dual layer DVD burners.
But that's me. :) I'm not a gamer, but isn't the saved data going to be on
the hard drive? For that matter, don't games run better if you do a (all on
hard drive) install, instead of running off of CD-Rom?

I still think it would be better to have a DVD burner than to NOT have one.
If you want redundancy and to still save a little money, maybe you could go
with (1) dual layer DVD burner and (1) DVD-Rom drive. The DVD-Rom drive you
picked out earlier should work fine, just substitute a DVD burner for the
combo drive. IMHO -Dave
 
D

Dave C.

Fitz said:
Why not look for a case without a power supply if you are going to buy a
NeoPower? You could get a better quality case for the same money, or save
some money on a case without the power supply. You may also be able to
upgrade the 330W to the NeoPower if you are ordering online.

Fitz

That's not a bad suggestion. Unfortunately, many vendors have a severely
limited selection of cases with no power supply, if they carry them at all.
Ironically, some GOOD cases (with crappy power supplies included) tend to be
cheaper than other GOOD cases with no power supply. In a few recent builds,
I found the best deal was to buy a good case with a crap power supply and
then replace the crap power supply with a good one. :) So I didn't
question the OP when it appeared that he was buying two power
upplies. -Dave
 
R

Ruel Smith

Dave said:
That's not a bad suggestion. Unfortunately, many vendors have a severely
limited selection of cases with no power supply, if they carry them at
all. Ironically, some GOOD cases (with crappy power supplies included)
tend to be
cheaper than other GOOD cases with no power supply. In a few recent
builds, I found the best deal was to buy a good case with a crap power
supply and
then replace the crap power supply with a good one. :) So I didn't
question the OP when it appeared that he was buying two power
upplies. -Dave

Solution: Get a good Antec case, with a good Antec power supply. Works
everytime... You can get a nice Antec Plus1080AMG case with an included
TruePower 430 power supply that'll fill the bill for just about any build
that isn't full of UV lights and other mods that can be power hungry.

http://www.antec.com/us/productDetails.php?ProdID=91082

Personally, I'm turned off by the fancy outsides of cases, which most of
them have very crappy insides, with little features. I go for nice internal
designs. The case sits under my desk, anyway, so looks are a little less
important.
 
F

Fitz

I went for the overpriced Lian Li case, and it has served me well through 3
builds. Plenty of room, thumbscrew takedown, and lots of cooling. The only
mod I did was add a top "blowhole". I agree with the next poster- I prefer a
good quality, "stylish" case over see through sides and flashing lights.

Fitz
 

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