New Budgetish PC

Hi all,

It's been some time since I built a new PC, and this is the first time it's not been a matter of going to the nearest PC World and fetching whatever is on the shelf with a promise to get better working components in the future (never has happened). Anyway, been trawling for a couple of weeks on a lappy which promises to switch off every ten minutes or so and this is what I've put together. There's been loads of help from trawling this forum so thanks to everyone.

Usage will be development under various languages under linux, and gaming (X2 (story line geek!) & X3, Half Life (have had it for years to find out what the fuss is all about but yet to install it), Civ, Rome Total War (intend to get medieval TW2 in the future), BG1/BG2/IWD/NWN1/NWN2 and so on). I probably will overclock in six months or so if the system proves to be stable, but I've no experience of doing it.

Motherboard Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L --- £57.58
http://www.microdirect.co.uk/Produ [...] ctID=28365
Seems to be loved by many.

CPU Intel E2180 Retail --- £54.04
http://www.microdirect.co.uk/(2205 [...] 20GHz.aspx
Best bang for the pennies at the moment.

Graphics MSI Geforce NX 8600GT 256MB OC DDR3 PCI-E, Dual DVI, SLI, Retail --- £66.74
http://www.microdirect.co.uk/Produ [...] iateFuture
Nvidia for linux support, I'm a fan boy of nobody! I know next to nothing about graphic cards, but this seems good for the cost.

Optical drive NEC Optiarc AD-7170S-0B SATA Black 18x DVD ±RW/RAM DL oem Multiwriter --- £18.06
http://www.microdirect.co.uk/(1637 [...] x-DVD.aspx
Have seen a few people recommend this one across various sites.

OS Vista Home Premium 64 Bit OEM --- £65.79
http://www.microdirect.co.uk/(1627 [...] 4-Bit.aspx
Aye nice wee licence to print money for Microsoft. Would have been happy with my current XP if I could continue to use it, or another copy of XP but for the very little price difference and Vista 64-bit seems to be the future. Hopefully the new hardware should have suitable drivers. Have found reports of most of my older games working with this OS. Would get 32-bit but I don't wish to buy another licence if/when I upgrade to 4Gb in the future.

Case Coolermaster CM-690 --- £52.86
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/show [...] =7&subcat=
I would have preferred the Lian Li A05 (preferring a smaller case) but am concerned about the cooling and don't want to mod it into a shoebox. This is the prettiest from an ugly lot as far as I could determine. Need this as I kicked my last (cheapo) tower to little bits when it didn't just die but looked at me and laughed too. I saw red. I am ashamed.

PSU Corsair HX 620W Modular --- £88.11
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/show [...] -CS&tool=3
Not much more (in cost) than the 520W and more future-proof. Seems to be the quietest and one of the most reliable. Because my last PC spiked and everything look miserably at me and said "I will never work again" I'm not going cheapo here.

RAM GeIL 2x1GB 800MHz Value DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400DC) --- £32.89
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/show [...] subcat=813
I wanted funky LEDs or cheaper RAM and more of it, but this is one of the few I can find for sale that Gigabyte says works with their motherboard. I know, I could ignore their advice but I've grown more cowardly as I've become more yellow. I also found a test somewhere (since lost the bookmark) which was quite convincing that currently 4Gb is of limited appeal even for Vista gaming.

Storage Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 80GB SATA-II (two of) --- £30.54
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/show [...] =HD-123-SE
I've never used so much as 20Gb so these will do fine. Reasonable speed and cheap. One for Linux and one for Vista (I prefer to keep them seperate lest they squabble too much).

Total is £497.15 which is much much more than I originally wanted to spend (actually being the nouveaux povo it's a scarey cost), but hopefully decent bang for the pennies. Btw, my monitor/keyboard/mouse are all intact so I'll keep what I have until I can afford better.

What's everyone think? Will this all work well together, or is there somewhere obvious I'm wasting my cash? Is there somewhere I can skimp and not notice much loss in performace? I'm starting to think I've gone from budget intentions to something more expensive than it needs to be. Am I in a muddle or a guddle, or have I done well?!

Hi random1283

Vista
Is there any disadvantage to get 64-bit still? I'll tell you what I was thinking and let you say
"Nope, you couldn't be more wrong if...[any politically incorrect metaphor here]" or "Okay, good
thinking, go for it." I used to be a software architect but it's been several years since I've
had anything to do with computers beyond building an internet site and playing games --- hence why I
came here for advice! Anyways, my train of thought was...

• it will be a tiny little wee bit slower because of its 64-bit architecture but that shouldn't be noticeable
• there's still a problem with drivers but that seems to be more of a perceived problem these days, and there's no older hardware to add to the system (well, nothing which doesn't use generic drivers anyway --- monitor/keyboard/mouse)
• I can put Win98 alongside Linux for very old games which just refuse to work with 64-bit Vista
• I'd at least like the option to up the system to 4Gb if for nothing else other than bragging rights, actually I probably will if prices drop much further
• (assuming I up the system to 4Gb) I've already paid two XP licences in recent years and would have been happy sticking to XP for the momement, so as I'm forced to pay Microsoft again I want to be future proofed even if it gives me a couple of problems
• there's no price difference between 32-bit and 64-bit

Hehe, so that was my train of thought, and thought about it I did too much! If there's something
I'm missing though I would appreciate a head's (heads?) up, for something which (in the ideal world)
should be just there without the user knowing it's a pain in the rear end.

PSU
Yeah I'm in two minds about 520w or 620w and until last night I'd settled on the former. For extra
safe belts, braces and garter I thought I'd spend that wee bit more (£17.62) but you're probably right
and I should stick to the 520w. I'll do my best but I just know it will be one of those things which
depend on my mood at the time I press the purchase button.

Case
Thanks for the advice on the case. Having put up with a cheapo fugly case for seven years or so though
I've spent more time than is healthy looking at them all (seven years of cheapo fugly case misery
does that to a person). It needs to fit in my lounge of my tiny wee old cottage so nothing really
"fits" so plain and smart was needed. Lian Li and Silverstone were the only cases I liked and the
CM 690 was the sacrifice I made for budget and oc cooling. But thanks for suggesting the Soprano,
I'd considered it as the front is quite nice (albeit with a door) but I really don't like the shape of
the window.

Thanks for your reply though, I'd appreciate it to know any other reasons I should chose 32-bit
over 64-bit that I haven't considered. Oh, and I'm not sure if it's available in the UK but I
thought I read somewhere that 64-bit owners can (for a small charge) request 32-bit discs from
Microsoft. Is this true? And does anyone know if it's available in the UK?

(Hope I haven't come across as too "Go away, I shan't heed your advice." )