Advice on building and buying pc

T

Teaser

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Hi,

I'm speccing a new PC, buying components separately (mainly from Dabs). It's been 10 years or so since I built a PC, so my first question is how difficult is it? I'm literaly expecting to fit the motheboard to the case, screw in the PSU then, put the cooler on the CPU, fit said CPU, then start fitting the drives,etc. I've read something about a syringe and thermal paste?

The specs are here can you let me know what you think and can I get better for the same money? It'll be doing programming and gaming mainly.

Do I really need a 650W PSU? It's £64 I'd rather keep!

Part Model Price (inc)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mobo Gigabyte S775 Intel X48 DDR2 ATX Audio Lan 1600FSB 6xSATAII 128.70
CPU Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 2.83GHz 12M Cache S775 1333MHZ 207.58
FAN OCZ Technology VANQUISHER CPU COOLER 13.47
RAM Corsair Memory 4GB (2X2GB KIT) DDR2 1066MHZ 240PIN DIMM UNBUFFER 80.24
GFX MSI GeForce 9600GT 1GB PCIE DUAL DVI HDMI READY 127.06
HDD Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 500GB SATA-II 32MB Cache 49.34
PSU Corsair TX 650W ATX2.2 SLi Compliant PSU 64.61
CASE XClio Coolbox Midi Tower Case - Black (No PSU) * 31.71
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total: 702.71


Thanks
 
Firstly, welcome to the Forum :)

Initial thoughts. Don't skimp on the power supply, that's the most important item of all as everything depends on it. The one you've chosen is an excellent choice - stick with it.

I'm not familiar with the OCZ cooler but for that price you may be just as well off sticking with the cooler that comes with the CPU if you buy the retail version.

Here's a link to the final page of a review for the OCZ cooler, the conclusion - make your own mind up -Link. Myself, I wouldn't buy it, I only think it's worth buying a seperate cooler if you spend a little more money, Thermalright, Noctua, Scythe & Zalman are good.

Yes, you do need thermal paste and general consensus has it that Arctic Silver is best. Last I looked it was about a fiver a tube, there are instructions on it's application at the Arctic Silver website.

You could save money on the processor and get a Q6600 at 2.4Ghz and quite easily overclock it to 2.8Ghz, especially with the memory you've chosen. Even running it at stock 2.4 speed there's little difference to be discerned.

Putting a machine together now is pretty much the same as it was when you built one ten years ago, if you're unsure of anything, ask away here. And the components you've chosen look good to me.

And how's firecat? ;)
 
Hi,

Thanks for reply.

Not sure who Firecat is but am sure he's fine :)

Since posting I've noticed this machine from an Ebay shop:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/CORE2-QUAD-Q9...39:1|66:2|65:12|240:1308&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

It has better specs than my original and is cheaper, the shop also has 98% good feedback. The GFX card is a 9800GT with 1Gig memory but I can't actually find one on Dabs,etc.

What are your thoughts on that machine?
 
The problem with that machine is that you don't know the specs of the components - i.e. the make/model of the PSU and RAM.

I'd bet you can make one cheaper than buying one still :thumb:
 
Yes, I've dumped the Ebay idea, now I'm on to PC Specialist website and have custom created this:

Mobo: ASUS® P5N-D
CPU: Intel Q9550
RAM: 4GB CORSAIR XMS2 800MHz
GFX: 1024MB GEFORCE 9600GT
PSU: 600W Quiet Quad Rail

Plus 250Gb hdd, case, DVD rewriter. Total is £661 inc VAT and delivery which is not bad.

I will upgrade that RAM to 1066 at some point later.
 
Your first choice is still the best choice, but be my guest.....

So what make is the 'PC Specialist' PSU?

You can get really rubbish '600W' PSU's for very little money and they usually fail after a certain time, often taking out other components like the motherboard and video card when they die. And they never deliver their quoted power rating continuously, they only peak at it.

If your only objective is to save money on what you originally specced, then downgrade a little, only do the downgrading knowing what you're getting.

And you won't upgrade the RAM and you know it.
 
Added this up on aria

Intel QX9450
ASUS P5ND
4GB Patriot Viper @ 800Mhz
Nvidia 9800GTX +
OCZ 780W Modular
Artic Paste
320GB SATA HDD
Liteon Lightscribe DVD

£585

Leaves you with plenty for a case.

Oh and you can't put 1066Mhz RAM on an ASUS P5ND it onlt supports upto 800Mhz.

Hope this helps
 
Well I've been convinced and I've decided to go for my original specs. My only remaining question is about the motherboard. I've noticed that its specs has "ATI CrossFireX technology support" , but there's no mention of SLi, so as I'm going down the NVidia root, should I look for a mobo that has "SLi support"?

I'm not particularly fussed about having more than one graphics card at the moment, but I don't want to limit myself.


Original Mobo: http://www.dabs.com/productview.asp...=11143&NavigationKey=11143,42620000,405070000
 
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