Update: Ultimate Self-build Pc

[1nteger]

I'm gonna post a spec below as a starter. It's AMD based, but someone may want to spec out an Intel one too. Based on comments from members and visitors, I'll amend it over time as a constantly changing reference spec. This system is to be based on performance, rather than value-for-money, and it's only including existing hardware. As new stuff emerges, no doubt it will change. It's my thread so I reserve the right to have the deciding vote if views are split, but i'll go by the majority view as far as possible. In some cases, you may have difficulty convincing me, but I'm willing to argue!! Note that the system is intended to provide best performance for ALL applications...so as gaming is included in that, a TFT/LCD monitor won't stand a chance for quite some time!!

CASE: Lian-Li PC70 Full Tower
PSU: Antec TrueBlue 480W
MOBO: Asus A7N8X De-Luxe
CPU: AMD Athlon 'Barton' XP3000+
HSF: Coolermaster Silent Heatpipe
RAM: 2x512Mb Corsair XMS3200 CAS2 Low Latency
HDD: Western Digital 1200JB (120Mb 8Mb cache 7200rpm)
GPU: MSI GeForceFX5800 Ultra-TD8X
TV: Hauppauge Win TV PVR250
AUDIO: Audigy2 Platinum Ex
SPEAKERS: Creative Megaworks 510D
DVD: Philips DVDRW228 +
CD: Plextor PX-320 CDRW/DVD/ROM20x10x40x12
MONITOR: Iiyama 22" VM Pro 514 CRT
KEYBOARD: Apple Keyboard Pro
MOUSE: MS Intellimouse Explorer V3.0
PAD: Ratpadz Ratpad
JOYSTICK: Hotas Cougar Flightstick

OK...over to you...anyone want me to add or change anything to the 1NTEGER Mk1 ??

8)

 

[muckshifter]

OK...over to you...anyone want me to add or change anything to the 1NTEGER Mk1 ??

I'm thinking ... :brow:

 

[Quadophile]

The performance of Plextor Premium would be better since you already have a DVD drive in your system. A DVD writer may be actually a better option.

Just a thought, unless I am missing something.

 

[1nteger]

Originally posted by Quadophile
The performance of Plextor Premium would be better since you already have a DVD drive in your system. A DVD writer may be actually a better option.

Just a thought, unless I am missing something.

Yup...u r missing something m8! The spec includes a Philips DVDRW2288) ...I always like at least 2 optical devices

 

[Eric Portelance]

DVD/CD-RW combo drives often get a bit skimpy on some of the features. In my opinion, it's always better to get two separate drives for these features. The price is about the same, anyway.

Nice specs, though. You're making me envious.

 

[1nteger]

Compare the spec in my sig with the one I set out above and you get some idea of what i'm looking to upgrade to by the end of the year. Obviously, things will change, so i want to use this thread to monitor everyone's views. I hope people will pop back every now and then and suggest changes as they discover new kit

Today, for example I am updating the spec's vid card...adding the new Gainward FX Powerpack Ultra/1000. Same performance as any GeForceFX vid with the 5800 Ultra chip set, but supposedly much much quieter. Current price is almost £480 (UK)...but by the time i come to upgrade (for when Half Life2 is released on 3oth Sept. this year), I hope it will have become a little more reasonably priced8)

So, the benchmark spec is now:

CASE: Lian-Li PC70 Full Tower
PSU: Antec TrueBlue 480W
MOBO: Asus A7N8X De-Luxe
CPU: AMD Athlon 'Barton' XP3000+
HSF: Coolermaster Silent Heatpipe
RAM: 2x512Mb Corsair XMS3200 CAS2 Low Latency
HDD: Western Digital 1200JB (120Mb 8Mb cache 7200rpm)
GPU: Gainward FX Powerpack Ultra/1000
TV: Hauppauge Win TV PVR250
AUDIO: Audigy2 Platinum Ex
SPEAKERS: Creative Megaworks 510D
DVD: Philips DVDRW228
CD: Plextor PX-320 CDRW/DVD/ROM20x10x40x12
MONITOR: Iiyama 22" VM Pro 514 CRT
KEYBOARD: Apple Keyboard Pro
MOUSE: MS Intellimouse Explorer V3.0
PAD: Ratpadz Ratpad
JOYSTICK: Hotas Cougar Flightstick

Mmmm...that heatsink needs an update methinks

 

[muckshifter]

The word ...

TWINX

... is missing from your spec'

 

[1nteger]

Re: The word ...

Originally posted by muckshifter
TWINX

... is missing from your spec'

...Mucks, ever the stickler for detail (but that's what I was hoping for )

Latest spec is now:

CASE: Lian-Li PC70 Full Tower
PSU: Antec TrueBlue 480W
MOBO: Asus A7N8X De-Luxe
CPU: AMD Athlon 'Barton' XP3000+
HSF: Coolermaster Silent Heatpipe
RAM: 2x512Mb (TWINX) Corsair XMS3200 CAS2 Low Latency
HDD: Western Digital 1200JB (120Mb 8Mb cache 7200rpm)
GPU: MSI GeForceFX5800 Ultra-TD8X
TV: Hauppauge Win TV PVR250
AUDIO: Audigy2 Platinum Ex
SPEAKERS: Creative Megaworks 510D
DVD: Philips DVDRW228
CD: Plextor PX-320 CDRW/DVD/ROM20x10x40x12
MONITOR: Iiyama 22" VM Pro 514 CRT
KEYBOARD: Apple Keyboard Pro
MOUSE: MS Intellimouse Explorer V3.0
PAD: Ratpadz Ratpad
JOYSTICK: Hotas Cougar Flightstick


Happy now, Mucks? I am 8)

 

[muckshifter]

Well it was the only chink I could find ... 8)

 

[floppybootstomp]

Sweet system

My own preferences would be:

Abit NF7-S V2 board
ATI Radeon 9800 AIW
Thermalright SLK900 cooler w/Panaflo lo noise
Pioneer A05 DVDRW
Logitech corded double Optical Mouse

Other than that though - steamin'

 

[1nteger]

Originally posted by floppybootstomp
Sweet system

My own preferences would be:

Abit NF7-S V2 board
ATI Radeon 9800 AIW
Thermalright SLK900 cooler w/Panaflo lo noise
Pioneer A05 DVDRW
Logitech corded double Optical Mouse

Other than that though - steamin'

Some good things for me to think about, Floppybootstomp! But, you'll have to to more to convince me about the Abit mobo...all the reviews I've seen rate the Asus well ahead of the competition.

The Radeon vid? That's a little more difficult...ATI and nVidea are almost neck and neck and always just bringing out a little bit more than each other. For now I'll stick with the nVidea...but I wouldn't be surprised if i don't switch to ATI by the time i get to buying!

Pioneer A05 DVDRW...I don't really know much about the pro's and cons of DVDRW drives etc...so I'm looking for more information. But I tend to agree with Eric's advice about having seperate opticals rather than combos, so this one may be the way to go...I'll add it for now in place of the Philips combo but does anyone else rate the Pioneer? Anything better?

Logitech Dual optical mouse...had one, liked it a lot, but it wasn't a patch on the Microsoft Intellieye Explorer V3 that I use now...so i'm afraid that it can't be included in my spec

Thermalright SLK900 cooler w/Panaflo lo noise...Mmmm...this is one area I definitely want to improve in the machine. I think I'll add this to my system spec. Is the 'Panaflow lo noise' really that quiet?

Along with the new DVDRW, I have also swapped the Plextor combo for the new PleXWriter Premium, so that i have two dedicated drives for all CD and DVD functions. I've swapped the HSF and also upped the hardware to include another HDD and an internal 6-in-1 card reader to use one of my spare 3.5'' drive bays. So the full spec of the ''1NTEGER 1'' is now:

CASE: Lian-Li PC70 Full Tower
PSU: Antec TrueBlue 480W
MOBO: Asus A7N8X De-Luxe nForce2 SATA
CPU: AMD Athlon 'Barton' XP3000+
HSF: Thermalright SLK900 + Panaflo low noise fan
RAM: 2x512Mb (TWINX) Corsair XMS3200 CAS2 Low Latency
RAID: 2X Western Digital 1200JB (2X120Gb 8Mb cache 7200rpm)
GPU: Gainward FX Powerpack Ultra/1000 (5800 Ultra Chip set)
TV: Hauppauge Win TV PVR250
3.5'' BAYS: FDD + Asus Internal USB 6-in-1 card reader
AUDIO: Creative Audigy2 Platinum Ex
SPEAKERS: Creative Megaworks 510D
DVD: Pioneer A05 DVDRW
CD: Plextor PleXWriter Premium (52X32X 8Mb Buffer)
MONITOR: Iiyama 22" VM Pro 514 CRT
KEYBOARD: Apple Keyboard Pro
MOUSE: MS Intellimouse Explorer V3.0
PAD: Ratpadz Ratpad
JOYSTICK: Hotas Cougar Flightstick

Mmmmm....it's coming along nicely...thanks for the cool ideas Floppybootstomp8)

 

[floppybootstomp]

Originally posted by 1nteger

Some good things for me to think about, Floppybootstomp! But, you'll have to to more to convince me about the Abit mobo...all the reviews I've seen rate the Asus well ahead of the competition.

Whoaaa! Now don't go taking my preferences as reccomendations, 1nteger, that's all they are, preferences, I'm not saying my choices are better products, just more to my liking. I do believe the Asus is a better board, it's just that I'm a big Abit fan.

The Radeon vid? That's a little more difficult...ATI and nVidea are almost neck and neck and always just bringing out a little bit more than each other. For now I'll stick with the nVidea...but I wouldn't be surprised if i don't switch to ATI by the time i get to buying!

All reviews I've read state the ATI 9800 Pro is the best gaming card on the market atm. Nuff said

Pioneer A05 DVDRW...I don't really know much about the pro's and cons of DVDRW drives etc...so I'm looking for more information. But I tend to agree with Eric's advice about having seperate opticals rather than combos, so this one may be the way to go...I'll add it for now in place of the Philips combo but does anyone else rate the Pioneer? Anything better?

Now this is an area there doesn't seem to be too much info available for. I really don't know which DVDRW is best, all I know is the Pioneer is selling like hot cakes atm and the suppliers have hiked the price up twenty quid to reflect that. I figured there must be something in that if it's so popular and Pioneer have always made good DVD drives, even if they are a little pricier than some. The only thing I've been able to determine for sure from reading around is stay clear of NEC DVDRW's - lots of bad reports about them.

Logitech Dual optical mouse...had one, liked it a lot, but it wasn't a patch on the Microsoft Intellieye Explorer V3 that I use now...so i'm afraid that it can't be included in my spec

This is just personal taste. I could never get on with Microsoft mice but my daughter really likes her MS Optical, so whatever you prefer, really.

Thermalright SLK900 cooler w/Panaflo lo noise...Mmmm...this is one area I definitely want to improve in the machine. I think I'll add this to my system spec. Is the 'Panaflow lo noise' really that quiet?

Generally reckoned to be the king of AMD coolers atm, it's worth checking the Thermalright website to see if it will fit an Asus board. It can only be fitted to the Abit NF7-S by bending a few capacitors out the way - it's a huge beastie.

I'm using a Panaflo LoNoise atm, yes, it is quiet, and gives the best cooling in ratio to noise that I've experienced, and I've tried quite a few. There's a HiNoise version as well, higher noise, better cooling, a bit like ohm's law really, hard to have one without the other, so to speak :crazy:

Anyways, that looks like a top system you're putting together there, keep us posted on it's progress

 

[1nteger]

Originally posted by floppybootstomp


Whoaaa! Now don't go taking my preferences as reccomendations, 1nteger, that's all they are, preferences, I'm not saying my choices are better products, just more to my liking. I do believe the Asus is a better board, it's just that I'm a big Abit fan.

LOL...don't worry m8, I'm the one who, over a period of the next few months, is going to be buying this rig (I've already got the case and PSU ) so there's no way I'm gonna just take a personal preference from one person (even your good self ) as a recommendation. I'm putting in some things just to try and start some debate:spin:

Anyway, I appreciate your comments and, yes, of course many parts are down to personal preference and purpose.

I have been checking out Plextor DVDRW today, and also i'm looking at the new Coolermaster Aero7 HSF...it may well replace the Thermalright, if i can find a UK supplier. Apparantly extremely good cooling, and it has an external fan control that will fit one of my external 3.5'' bays. I like the idea of being able to turn it up for games and down when watching DVD8)

I've put in a couple of HDD's in a RAID config, but the liklihood is that i'll just add a single 120Gb to my existing 80Gb and leave them as seperate drives.

Any more ideas tho' Floppy, just shout

 

[1nteger]

...revised spec...

OK, I've revised the spec again to move down the serial ATA route, but moved away from RAID. SATA doesn't offer many benefits yet, as data can't really exploit anything faster than ATA66, so switching to ATA100, 133 or 150 is a bit like increasing the headroom of a 6 foot doorway to 8 feet when you're only 3 foot tall! But i do like the thinner SATA cables8). Oh, and I've chnaged the HSF...again.

Anyway...here's the current spec:

CASE: Lian-Li PC70 Full Tower
PSU: Antec TrueBlue 480W (+ SATA adapter cable)
MOBO: Asus A7N8X De-Luxe nForce2 SATA
CPU: AMD Athlon 'Barton' XP3000+
HSF: Coolermaster Aero 7
RAM: 1Gb (2x512Mb TwinX) Corsair XMS3200 CAS2 Low Latency
HDD: 120Gb Maxtor DiamondMax Plus9 SATA 8Mb cache 7200rpm
GPU: Gainward FX Powerpack Ultra/1000 (5800 Ultra Chip set)
TV: Hauppauge Win TV PVR250
FDD: Panasonic 1.44Mb
CARD READER: Asus Internal USB 6-in-1 card reader
AUDIO: Creative Audigy2 Platinum eX
SPEAKERS: Creative Megaworks 510D
DVD: Pioneer A05 DVDRW
CD: Plextor PleXWriter Premium (52X32 8Mb Buffer)
MONITOR: Iiyama 22" VM Pro 514 CRT
KEYBOARD: Apple Keyboard Pro
MOUSE: MS Intellimouse Explorer V3.0
PAD: Ratpadz Ratpad
JOYSTICK: Hotas Cougar Flightstick

An alternative vid would be the 128MB ATI Radeon 9800 Pro. The Hercules Prophet version would seem the best of the bunch at the moment.

 

[kristel]

I'd have to say I'd stick with my current Videologic (now Puredigital) SonicFury Soundcard with XG daughterboard. I've had nothing but trouble with Creative and their driver support and lack of customer care.

So I'd say that there are plenty of alternatives to creatives newest offering from a variety of manufacturers that could be worth checking out

Hercules have been doing good stuff lately I hear.

 

[1nteger]

Mmmm...interesting points...and i've recently been thinking of sticking with the asus on-board sound and just going for the speakers rather than going for the soundcard as well. I think the improvement in sound wouldn't justify £140 that i could spend on performance boost, through faster cpu, more ram, bigger, faster HDD, etc. Also, I've just been checking out some other aspects of the setup i posted and i've had to consider some major revisions:

1. Athlon 'Barton' XP3000 and 3200 are matched or beaten in many benchmarks by the existing XP2700 and XP2800 Thoroughbreds...the additional FSB just ain't doin it's stuff to justify the increased cost. I reckon the best buy at the moment for poke and cost is definitely an XP2800...but I can't find any for sale now. At £140, I think a good buy would be the XP2700 Thoroughbred...'cos i reckon they're going to be dropped soon to push people towards to more expensive Bartons.

2. Low Latency RAM...interesting that it isn't easily compliant with the asus A7N8X mobo and that it's aggressive pre-set memory timings can probably be matched by standard CAS2 ram with heatspreaders. TwinX looks increasingly like a load of bollix designed to make the LL Ram look more 'special' than it is and to encourage idiots like me to buy 2 sticks instead of one. Is there such a thing as standard TwinX ram? If not, why not?

3. GeForceFX 5800 is not up to scratch, but it looks like the 5900 is going to be the biz, so that's where i think i'm going to be shifting my focus on the vid.

4. Coolermaster aero 7 looks interesting, but I think the thermalright SLK800 witha quiet fan will be the way to go.

5. A7N8X...version 2 of this board is out and is improved.

6. I've dropped the TV card, as the 1nteger 1 is now focussed on gaming performance.

7. I've removed incidentals like the FDD...definitely on the way out!

So...the revised and more focused 1NTEGER 1 is now as follows:

CASE: Lian-Li PC70 Full Tower
PSU: Antec TrueBlue 480W (+ SATA adapter cable)
MOBO: Asus A7N8X De-Luxe nForce2 SATA (Version 2)
CPU: AMD Athlon XP2800 T'bred
HSF: Thermalright SLK800
RAM: 2x512Mb Corsair XMS3200 CAS2 RAM + heatspreaders
HDD: 120Gb Maxtor DiamondMax Plus9 SATA 8Mb cache 7200rpm
GPU: GeForceFX 5900
SPEAKERS: Creative Megaworks 510D
DVD: Pioneer A05 DVDRW
CD: Plextor PleXWriter Premium (52X32 8Mb Buffer)
MONITOR: Iiyama 22" VM Pro 514 CRT
KEYBOARD: Apple Keyboard Pro
MOUSE: MS Intellimouse Explorer V3.0
PAD: Ratpadz Ratpad
JOYSTICK: Hotas Cougar Flightstick

Comments??

 

[Rage2000]

Good, but what about the Radeon 9800

Its looking good.

Isn't the Radeon 9800 a better graphics card.
It has a kick-ass bandwidth, so surely its smoother.

Also, howabout a faster hard drive. A 10,000-er.

I've got a sexy montior, and the speakers. I am tempted to pick up this kit too.

Also how about SDRam or have I missed that out.
What this all going to cost, excluding the monitor?

 

[1nteger]

Re: Good, but what about the Radeon 9800

Originally posted by Rage2000
Its looking good.

Isn't the Radeon 9800 a better graphics card.
It has a kick-ass bandwidth, so surely its smoother.

Also, howabout a faster hard drive. A 10,000-er.

I've got a sexy montior, and the speakers. I am tempted to pick up this kit too.

Also how about SDRam or have I missed that out.
What this all going to cost, excluding the monitor?

Radeon 9800 was better vid than the GeForceFX 5800, but nVidia have admitted they got that one wrong. The new GeForceFX 5900 in my spec is all that the 5800 was supposed to be and more...and it is a better card than the top ATI's at the moment...according to most of the benchmarks I've seen...but wait a while and the tables will turn yet again!

10,000rpm HDD...I think the Western Digital Raptor is the only one at the moment and i reckon it's still only available as a 36.7Gb...so it's alittle small. of course a nice SATA RAID config of 4 raptors might do the trick 8)

As for SDRAM...
That stands for 'Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory'...it improved performance over the earlier EDO DRAM by synchronising with the computer's system clock and using a process called interleaving, which basically means accessing one data cell at the same time as finishing one. SDRAM has now effectively been improved to become DDR or 'Double Data Rate' RAM, which is twice as fast as older SDRAM, but still operates in synch with the clock. So the DDR ram in my spec is still SDRAM. ...at least I think it is:crazy:

As for cost...
CASE: Lian-Li PC70 Full Tower (£130)
PSU: Antec TrueBlue 480W (+ SATA adapter cable) (£90)
MOBO: Asus A7N8X De-Luxe nForce2 SATA (Version 2) (£100)
CPU: AMD Athlon XP2700 T'bred (£140)
HSF: Thermalright SLK800 (£50 including fan)
RAM: 2x512Mb Corsair XMS3200 CAS2 RAM + heatspreaders (£185)
HDD: 120Gb Maxtor DiamondMax Plus9 SATA 8Mb cache 7200rpm (£130)
GPU: GeForceFX 5900 (£400-£500 ??)
SPEAKERS: Creative Megaworks 510D (£250)
DVD: Pioneer A05 DVDRW (£230)
CD: Plextor PleXWriter Premium (52X32X52, 8Mb Buffer) (£100)
MONITOR: Iiyama 22" VM Pro 514 CRT (£500)
KEYBOARD: Apple Keyboard Pro black (£50)
MOUSE: MS Intellimouse Explorer V3.0 (£25)
PAD: Ratpadz Ratpad (£20 if u can get an original one)
JOYSTICK: Hotas Cougar Flightstick (£250)

Total = £2,750 or £2,250 without the monitor.

Some items could be got cheaper if bought OEM rather than retail (like the optical drives for example), and I've over estimated the vid possibly by as much as £100-£150. So with some shopping around, excluding the monitor, you could buy the whole system (self-build) for around £2K.

Waddya reckon, Muckshifter...about right?:brow:

 

[1nteger]

Note: The XP2700 cpu which was £140 when I posted the above message has now dropped to around £110...soon be time to upgrade!

 

[DarkJedi]

A couple of preferences from a newbie here:

For teh video card: I'd rather go for the ATI 9800 route, it'll be cheaper, and perform just as well as the FX5900, and also won't sound as if you've got a lawnmower going off in your machine!

If you're not gonna be upgrading for a couple of months yet, keep an eye out for teh new breed of Raptor drives, I've heard news that WD will be releasing sizes of up to 80Gb in the very near future.

Good choice of CPU, I assume you've selected it for overclocking abilities? If that's the case, the Abit NF7-S board is a bit special when it comes to that: someone on another forum has claimed to get 3.5Ghz out of a 2700+ chip with the same HSF as you. He said he could get it up to 3.7 with the SLK900, provided there's plenty of good airflow in the case. Hope you'll be getting a few quite but powerful fans...

For memory: I would always choose TwinMOS PC3200 with CH5 chips as it outperforms the corresponding memory from Corsair, and is at home once you've clocked your CPU.

I notice you haven't stated what sound card your using, so I'm going to assume you're using onboard sound? Hardly the choice of a complete system, I'd go with the Audigy 2 for that myself, particular with that speaker set, as they were BORN to go together (digital connection: speaks for itself really).

Other than that, that's a kicking spec, and I LOVE that case