Looking to build a new PC

[NRF19]

So anway i have decided over the last week or so i want to build my own desktop PC, i have chosen to do this having watched the gadget show the other week when they showed the difference in task performances by similar Specificated computers that had the same processor etc., they used an example from an online retailer, a packard bell pc from PC world, and a Own built PC,

The built PC performed best by miles in this task and so from this i have decided to build my own PC, So far i have set a budget of around £600-£700 and the retailer i am going to use to buy my stuff from will be AWD-IT ( a retailer i found from a previous PC forum "Tech PC"

What i wanted to know is what am i needing to buy. Say if i were to start from scrap, please could somebody list all the components i will need to buy e.g. motherboard power units etc.

 

[Adywebb]

Building your own is great, it won't necessarily be cheaper than a pre-built machine but there is no doubt its the way to go if you want quality components and also get a sense of immense personal satisfaction

I don't know anything about AWD-IT, but the prices on their site seem competitive - others to look at particularly if they don't have exactly what you need are Scan, OveclockersUK and Ebuyer.

Firstly we need to know what use you are going to put it to....Gaming/Office/General Home use etc.

Then we need to look at form factor - an Intel or AMD system? Personally I would recommend an Intel based machine if building from scratch, the processors generally give better performance at the moment.

If you give us some more details about your requirements I'm sure you will get a whole load of suggestions.

 

[NRF19]

Well i want to build the computer for both general home use and gaming but i dont want a super gaming pc, a computer that will support COD4 and other similar games will be good.

I would prefer an intel system, i was looking at a motherboard bundle including: motherboard
intel core 2 quad Q6600 2.4GHz
some form of Nvidia graphics card
2GB DDR2 RAM
for about £250


The computer will be used for gaming and general home use mostly web browsing and word proccessing etc. also a decent monitor priced around £100 - £150

 

[psd99]

Basic essentials:

motherboard
cpu
cpu fan
memory
graphics card
psu (power supply unit)
hard drives
case

Then there is PCI/PCE cards, optical drives


Get 4GB of memory at the least and definetly go down the Intel route. Make sure you get a decent motherboard, a crap motherboard is like a footballer without legs, very useless.

 

[NRF19]

right so i have found these things, just wanted the go ahead really, wanted to know if they are any good

Motherboard - Asus P5N-E SLI
CPU - Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz
RAM - Corsair 4GB 4 x 1GB PC5400C4 DDR2
CPU Cooler - Thermaltake CL-P0391 Ruby Orb Cooler - Socket 775, AM2, 939, 754
Graphic Card- Zotac GeForce 8800 GT 1GB 1024MB GDDR3 PCI-Express 2.0
PSU - Corsair VX 550W Ultra Quiet PSU SLI & Crossfire Ready
hard drive - Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 250GB ST3250820A ATA100 8MB Cache
Case - Antec Three Hundred Silent ATX Tower Case
Cables - Akasa AK-CB20-24, 20-pin to 24-pin Cable Adapter

Total cost - about £450

 

[Adywebb]

Not alot wrong with that setup.....only things I would comment on:


RAM - I would get 4GB of PC6400 800MHz RAM....Corsair is good but THIS Patriot is excellent stuff and cheaper.

Is that Seagate HDD a SATA drive? - if not it should be.

What is the Akasa cable adapter for?

 

[psd99]

looks alrite but get a samsung hard drive

 

[Adywebb]

OK, I see you've got this Motherboard/CPU/RAM bundle from AWT-IT for £258.44 (excluding P&P)

You can get the same Motherboard and CPU and the better Corsair 800MHz RAM as individual items for £262.54 including P&P from Scan:

MOTHERBOARD

CPU

RAM

looks alrite but get a samsung hard drive

Agreed with getting a Samsung - and make sure its SATA!!!!

 

[Abarbarian]

Try this to see what size power unit you'll need ! Them 8800GT's need a decent supply of power .


http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp

 

[Phaeton]

right so i have found these things, just wanted the go ahead really, wanted to know if they are any good

Motherboard - Asus P5N-E SLI
CPU - Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz
RAM - Corsair 4GB 4 x 1GB PC5400C4 DDR2
CPU Cooler - Thermaltake CL-P0391 Ruby Orb Cooler - Socket 775, AM2, 939, 754
Graphic Card- Zotac GeForce 8800 GT 1GB 1024MB GDDR3 PCI-Express 2.0
PSU - Corsair VX 550W Ultra Quiet PSU SLI & Crossfire Ready
hard drive - Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 250GB ST3250820A ATA100 8MB Cache
Case - Antec Three Hundred Silent ATX Tower Case
Cables - Akasa AK-CB20-24, 20-pin to 24-pin Cable Adapter

Total cost - about £450

what i'd change:
Get a P45,X48,X38 or P35 motherboard, with an SLI mobo. you'd pretty much have to stick with nvidia. choosing the intel chipsets with give you more choice for GPU.
The Q6600 is good, but you can spend abit more on the newer 2.5ghx version based on 45nm tech. (less heat and power consumption).
If you're going to buy 4x1 GB, you migh as well get a 2x2GB set
The stock cooler actually does i's job believe it not
but if you want to get an aftermarket cooler (which will void your warranty with intel) get something abit more classy like a Zalman, Noctua, Asus or Coolermaster.
The 8800GT is a real sweet card, but dont get the 1GB version. Save yourself some cash by opting for a 512mb version.
corsair produces real nice PSUs but look for modular versions, it will make your life easier and improve airflow as you can remove and add power cables when you need to. If you ever decide to get aPSU over 750W then consider Enermax Galaxy or Thermaltake toughpower. modern psu's and motherboards really dont have 20 pin to 24 pin compatibility problems.
the case is important, you migh want something that looks classy etc but it depends on your taste. just dont get the antec 300, its abit too budget. try the coolermaster dominater or something around that price point.
the optical drive you choose can be either ide or sata (just get yourself a round ide cable if you do go ide)
the samsung sata hdd drives other people mentioned are also good.
you forgot the OS...get vista 64bit home premium or ultimate. several reasons, vista 32bit is just a glorified XP. XP is on the way out so support will slowly stop even if people protest. XP 64bit sucks so bad you dont want to touch it at all. theres nothing sweeter then knowing that all 4GB of RAM is being utilised by vista 64bit and compatibility issues are almost non existant now-things were only incompatible because software developers didnt follow recommendations set up by microsoft.
well proly got other stuff to say, but i tried to keep it short.
will make more recommendations in due course but everyone else's ideas are very good.

 

[Adywebb]

what i'd change:
Get a P45,X48,X38 or P35 motherboard, with an SLI mobo. you'd pretty much have to stick with nvidia. choosing the intel chipsets with give you more choice for GPU.

For SLi you will have to use the Nvidia NForce chipsets which mean those you listed will be no good as they support ATi Crossfire not NVidia SLi.

The Q6600 is good, but you can spend abit more on the newer 2.5ghx version based on 45nm tech. (less heat and power consumption).

Agreed, but its going to mean more cash and he is on a budget.

If you're going to buy 4x1 GB, you migh as well get a 2x2GB set

Agreed again - my link to the Patriot and Corsair sets are 2 x 2GB.

The stock cooler actually does i's job believe it not
but if you want to get an aftermarket cooler (which will void your warranty with intel) get something abit more classy like a Zalman, Noctua, Asus or Coolermaster.

Yep, if not overclocking then the stock intel one would do fine, if a tad noisy - If overclocking I would also add a recommendation for the Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme.

The 8800GT is a real sweet card, but dont get the 1GB version. Save yourself some cash by opting for a 512mb version
corsair produces real nice PSUs but look for modular versions, it will make your life easier and improve airflow as you can remove and add power cables when you need to. If you ever decide to get aPSU over 750W then consider Enermax Galaxy or Thermaltake toughpower. modern psu's and motherboards really dont have 20 pin to 24 pin compatibility problems.
the case is important, you migh want something that looks classy etc but it depends on your taste. just dont get the antec 300, its abit too budget. try the coolermaster dominater or something around that price point.
the optical drive you choose can be either ide or sata (just get yourself a round ide cable if you do go ide)
the samsung sata hdd drives other people mentioned are also good.
you forgot the OS...get vista 64bit home premium or ultimate. several reasons, vista 32bit is just a glorified XP. XP is on the way out so support will slowly stop even if people protest. XP 64bit sucks so bad you dont want to touch it at all. theres nothing sweeter then knowing that all 4GB of RAM is being utilised by vista 64bit and compatibility issues are almost non existant now-things were only incompatible because software developers didnt follow recommendations set up by microsoft.
well proly got other stuff to say, but i tried to keep it short.
will make more recommendations in due course but everyone else's ideas are very good.

Agreed, but again we need to remember he is on a budget.

 

[Phaeton]

hmmmm he did mention he is on a £700-800 budget in his first post.

 

[Waynos_Face]

I think he said £600-700 and needed a monitor in there as well.

 

[Adywebb]

Yep, I think we have a £500 budget for the PC and £150 for a monitor.

 

[Abarbarian]

The guy is not after a super gaming machine . So a SLI mobo is a waste of money ,so he could save a chunk of money with a non sli mobo . I recon he could save money on the cpu by getting a E7200 see a review here ,

http://www.techspot.com/review/100-intel-core2-duo-e7200/page12.html

An surely its possible to play games with 2GB of memory which would save anothe large chunk of money .

 

[Waynos_Face]

I have gone over budget as well

From Scan.co.uk

Antec 300 Case
Q6600 Quad Core 2.4Ghz
Asus P5NE-SLI Motherboard
4GB (2x2) Corsair XMS2 RAM
BFG Tech 8800GT OC2 Graphics
Asus Lightscribe DVD (SATA)
Seagate 250GB HDD (16MB Cache)
Vista Home Premium 64 Bit
19" Haans G LCD Widescreen Monitor
Corsair 620Watt Modular SLI Power Supply

£717.95

Take away 2 gig of RAM £695.92 Yay woo.

 

[Waynos_Face]

I see your point on the RAM Abarbarian, but with the Quad Core and SLI Mobo, then he hasn't gotta get a new CPU for ages and upgrading the Graphics is simple cause he can get another one, i think spending the money when you start makes it easier and cheaper later.