Noob First Build

[mstaxi]

Hi,
I am looking to build my first system,
I can't decide between a Dual E6750 and a Quad 6600, what do you think
It will be used for gaming THE SIMS 2 ect,A lot of Internet, and DVD Burning.
At what stage should I consider SLi, and does Dual graphics = Extra perf
also Nvidia or ATi
What is Raid 0
Should I use 2 Hard drives Or 1 for speed,I want to keep 50% free space for optimum perf, I have a old 30gb with Op system and a 80GB storage.
Which OP system XP OR VISTA. I have New printer and scanner that have Drivers for Both Op Systems.
Finally How Much Ram is optimum and which
Can you suggest a Good Case which has room and cooling case
A P35 Motherboard Suggestion for Each Processors above as I will try Overclock for first time as well as my current Asus board does not facilitate It
I appreciate any help.
PS I live in the UK

 

[Jpain]

1.E8400
2.single card will do just fine.. Ati 3850 nvidia 9600GT
3.one drive 500gb sata2 32mb
4.xp or vista / xp good .. Vista nice
5.xp 2GB ddr2 800 / vista 4GB or 8GB DDR2 800
6.big case is always good if you have room for it...

anteeksi ja kiitos

 

[j3wbagell]

For what you are doing and the types of games you are playing the E6750 is fine, but more programs will be utilizing all 4 cores of the Q6600 in the near future; so if you want to future proof go with the Q6600. I prefer EVGA I've had 3 of their cards with no problems (nvidia=EVGA , EVGA is just the company that produces the card). Raid 0 is a mirror and you only need that if you have dual hdds, i personally have 2 hdds but don't use raid 0 because i like having 2 separate drives instead instead of one and putting in partitions. One drive is fine go with a bigger size like 500GB or 350GB. Depending on the OS you choose 2 gb or 4gb of RAM, 2 for xp 4 for vista. Vista is more user friendly and has a nicer interface but takes 1gb of ram just to run which is why you need 4GB. When choosing ram look for timings and speed, the corsair XMS2 DDR2 800 PC6400C4s are very nice with 4-4-4-12 at 800 MHz and can easily be overclocked to 4-4-4-9. If you go with vista make sure you get 64bit so that you can utilize all 4 gigs of ram. contrary to JPain who jumped on the band wagon the 8800GT is better then the 9600GT in performance if you were to go with a 9 series graphics card I'd wait for the 9900 series. I like thermaltake cases, i personally do not have one but wish i did, the armor jr. has great airflow and plenty of room just wish it had som space behind the motherboard tray to run some cables back there. As for motherboard go with ASUS I'd go with the p5n32-E SLI series. ASUS has a nice overclocking thing in the bios since you are going to do some of that. I also like the heatpipe design on that board, I have the AMD version of that board. I know that the Q6600 can go up to 3.0+ form the stock 2.4 GHz, but do not know about the E6750

Oh and get DDR2 800 RAM whether or not you have xp or vista i think JPain just made a typo. The type of ram depends on your Motherboard not your OS.

 

[redzoneos]

E8400 is definitely a fantastic processor and u should get it over the choices you listed.

If you go HD3850, you're better off with the 9600GT... but I recommend HD3870... I have it, and it's fantastic. Doesn't really matter whether you choose Nvidia/ATI as long as you choose an appropriate motherboard (if you will without a doubt use 2 gpus in the future, you need to pick one of the companies and stick to it...SLI mobo's will only work with nvidia, and crossfire mobo's will only work with ATI)... If you get a P35 without crossfire, then either company will do, and performance is very similar. In this case depending on your budget you can go with the various gigabyte models (I have used 3 different models and all are great overclockers)

samsung spinpoint 500Gb HDD is great (I think it's 16mb cache)

I would go with vista home premium

2Gb DDR2 800 corsair XMS2 (or you can spend more if you're looking for extreme overclocks)

I have the cooler master CM690 case, and love it... it has options for up to 7 case fans, and an 80mm fan behind the motherboard tray to cool the CPU. the chassis is "perforated" as well so air is constantly moving in and out.

Power supply that you didn't mention is equally important, and I would recommend the corsair VX, or HX series.

 

[Onus]

If you can find them, an e8xx dual-core CPU will likely be a good choice for your needs. Consider a quad (wait for q9xx unless your need is NOW) if you run a lot of stuff at once; the things you list, on their own, won't benefit from a quad.
SLI is beneficial in the latest titles (especially FPS games), for higher frame rates at high resolutions, like 1680x1050 and above. I do not believe that The Sims is sufficiently graphics-intense to require SLI.
Both ATI and nVidia have cards that will meet your needs. For ATI, a 512MB HD3850 should be sufficient; for nVidia it looks like the new 9600GT would be a good choice. There are better cards, but these should offer excellent performance for their price. If you can, wait for the March installment of Cleeve's "Best Gaming Video Cards for the Money," which looks at various price points.
RAID-0 stripes data across two drives. It offers marginally better performance, but if either drive fails, you lose your data. Unless you are doing real work where even a little time is a lot of money, and have a good backup procedure, I suspect most people here would strongly recommend against it.
Even your 80GB drive is small by current standards. Putting your Windows swap file on a second drive can boost performance, but otherwise you aren't likely to see much difference unless you're running a lot of I/O intensive applications.
As to XP or Vista, a lot of people are now running Vista with no problems, but some issues remain. If you know that everything you want to run will work with Vista, then feel free to use it. Personally, Vista offers nothing I need to compensate for the higher resource requirements and the fact that some program(s) I use will not run on it; I would stay with XP, a known quantity that works.
2GB of RAM should be sufficient, unless you get a 64Bit O/S, in which case if it is Vista there's a performance benefit from 4GB. 2x2GB sticks (or 2x1GB sticks for 2GB) may offer less trouble on some motherboards than 4x1GB sticks.
Cases are so personal. At the low end of the price scale, CoolerMaster Elite cases are roomy and offer good airflow. At the upper end, the Antec 900 has great cooling also.
The motherboard manufacturers I prefer, and with which I have recent experience are Gigabyte and Biostar. I would also consider Asus based on recommendations from others at THG, but I have not used one lately myself.
Good luck, and have fun with your build.

 

[Onus]

Your PSU is also important. For non-SLI, a quality unit at least 400W should be sufficient. For SLI/Crossfire, 550W should suffice. Add at least 100W if you plan on serious overclocking and/or water cooling. You can figure out the size you need at http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp. Then choose a unit from Tier-3 or better (Tier-2 if you can) from the list at http://www.tomswiki.com/page/Tiered+PSU+Listings?t=anon. Be aware that the list is a little old, and some decent models aren't on it yet, such as Corsair VX and Antec Earthwatts.
Incidentally, RAID-0 is NOT mirroring; that's RAID-1. It maintains two copies of all your data on a pair of identical drives. If one drive fails, recovery is usually fairly easy and no data is lost. If you maintain adequate backups anyway (you should), the cost of RAID-1 is fairly high.

 

[aevm]

I'm voting E8400. A quad may cause trouble in The Sims 2. Read this:
http://forums.thesimsresource.com/showpost.php?p=3585035&postcount=12

 

[mstaxi]

Can someone suggest the network card I use Broadband at 3mb and usb and firewire card as well,
Also a reputable hardware outlet in UK
The knowledge of you guys is invaluable to me many thanks

 

[Onus]

Most mobos have gigabit Ethernet on them now. You won't need a separate card unless you want to go wireless.

 

[aevm]

Lots of mobos have Firewire too, like the aBit IP35Pro or GA-P35-DS4 or P5K Premium/WiFi-AP and so on.

Some online retailers in the UK:
http://www.scan.co.uk/
http://www.ebuyer.com/
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/

 

[aevm]

BTW, when you look at a mobo's specs online, sometimes the word "FireWire" does not appear, but "IEEE 1394" appears. It's the same thing.

 

[mstaxi]

OK I see that peeps are saying about a heatsink for the processor i am going to go with the E8400.and the aBit IP35Pro ,do I need one and if so which
God I am MUCH more than a NOOB than I thought eh

 

[aevm]

Yes you do need a heatsink because you said you intend to overclock. Here's a few things you need to know:

- some heatsinks are a pain to install, and some are very easy.
- some are noisier than others
- some are huge and may not fit in your case
- some are very expensive and don't even come with a fan, you need to pay for that separately

The Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro is probably best for a first-time builder/overclocker. It won't come close to record highs, but it still does a pretty good job and it's cheap/small/quiet/easy to install.
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=340995

You can get better performance at a higher cost with a Thermalright Ultima-90/SFF21E combination.
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=679602
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=533395

If you're willing to buy a large full-tower case and some DDR2-1066 and try a very high overclock, here are some high-performance options:

Thermalright IFX-14
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=679598

Ultra-120 Extreme/SFF21F
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=676579
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=533394

 

[Zorg]

Pulled from another post.

The Tuniq Tower 120 is good and now it's only $39.99, and it includes the fan. This is the one you should get on a budget. Check the height and width for clearance before you order it.

 

[mstaxi]

Ok do these coolers need pasting onto the chip with heat paste ect and what about stability issues

 

[mstaxi]

Ok I am thinking of this as a set up any suggestions very welcome, any tips on putting it all together.

Processor - Intel E8400 = £132
Motherboard - Gigabyte GA-P35-DS4 iP35 Socket 775 8channel audio ATX = £99
Hard Drive - samsung spinpoint 500Gb HDD = £60
Power - corsair VX,550watt = £60
Ram - 2x1GB DDR2 800 corsair XMS2 = £32
Windows XP Home Edition = £59
Graphics = EVGA 8800GT = £135
Case - thermaltake cooler master CM690 or antec 900 = £70
Net Card - Onboard Mobo
Sound Card - Onboard Mobo
CPU cooling - Thermalright Ultima-90 92/120 mm £30 with
120mm Scythe S-FLEX SFF21F Fan 1600 RPM £11
A 2ms 19" LG DVi Monitor - £140
Microsoft wireless Keyboard and Mouse - £45
Sony Soundblast 2.1 200w Speaker Set up - £69
Plus a 20x LG DVD/CDR Combo - £27
and a Standard 18x LG DVD Drive - £18
Total - £987.00 Incl Vat

 

[aevm]

Ok I am thinking of this as a set up any suggestions very welcome, any tips on putting it all together.

GA-P35-DS4, 550VX, Corsair XMS2: great choices.

Spinpoint 500Gb is not a bad hard disk, but it's not as fast as the Spinpoint F1 1TB or the WD7500AAKS. If you want something in the 500GB size check what Seagate 7200.11 and Western Digital have to offer too.

EVGA 8800GT. No. Normally eVGA is the best brand (I also like BFG, I own one in fact, or XFX), but their 8800GT has a single-slot cooler and I don't like that. Either get an 8800GTS G92 512MB (eVGA, BFG, or XFX, doesn't really matter), or get a version of the 8800GT with a dual-slot cooler (Gigabyte, MSI, Leadtek, probably others too, I dunno.)

Case - thermaltake cooler master CM690 or antec 900 = £70 - if prices are close, I'd get the Antec 900.

2ms 19" LG DVi Monitor - £140 - if you can afford the difference and get a 20" or 22" widescreen do it, even if it's 5ms. With an 8800GT or 8800GTS G92 you can easily handle 1680x1050 and it's nicer than 1440x900. For example get some cheap wired keyboard and mouse to save money there and put it toward a better video card or a better monitor. BTW, wired mice work better in games than wireless.

20x LG DVD/CDR Combo - £27 and a Standard 18x LG DVD Drive - £18 - WHY??? Just get one DVD-RW drive, it's cheaper than those two together and you get the ability to burn DVDs too, not just CDs. A blank DVD costs 3 times less than a blank CD where I live and it holds 6 times more data. I like the Samsung SH-S203B for example.

 

[aevm]

Ok do these coolers need pasting onto the chip with heat paste ect and what about stability issues

Yup. Any cooler will require some sort of paste. However, lots of them come with it included so you don't actually have to buy it separately. If you prefer to spend another 4 quid or so for one of the leading brands you can do it. Some people say it's worth it, some say it's not. Here's one that gets good reviews:

Arctic Cooling MX-2 High Performance Thermal Compound
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=353109

 

[aevm]

Read the comments here. Apparently it's worth getting the MX-2 for that Ultima-90, even though it does come with its own paste.
http://forum.ncixus.com/forums/inde..._id=25999&msgcount=7&overclockid=0#msg1460072


(Why won't THG let me edit my previous message???)

 

[redzoneos]

good choices on the components! I still feel like you should purchase vista home premium instead of XP but at the end of the day, it won't matter that much (it will however if you intend to keep your computer for some time, as XP does not directX 10 and future games will need it).

I agree with aevm on several points...

1. If the prices are similar then go with the Antec 900. I have the CM690 but I paid 20 USD for it!!! don't get me wrong, it's a fantastic case with excellent cooling but for similar prices I would still get the antec.

2. 8800GT = nono. if you're sticking with Nvidia, go with either the 8800GTS or the 9600GT (can't really recommend brands, but aevm has). I use the HD3870 and it's fantastic, so that may be an option too if you don't mind ATI...

3. You do not need 2 burners. Stick with a 20X DVDRW and you should be set (unless you specifically want 2 drives... but I don't really see the point, it's a waste of money)

4. Wired keyboard/mouse is definitely better in games and if you can save money to invest in a better display I would also recommend you do that.

I DO NOT agree with aevm on 1 point.

1. Samsung spinpoint 500Gb L1J (not sure if that's the exact model number) is an excellent drive and should suit your needs very well. I highly doubt you will need 1TB, and Western Digital HDD's... well, I despise them because I've had 6 of them fail on me... BUT that's personal experience and maybe the newer ones are better...

By the way, that PSU you chose (VX550) is amazing, you will be very happy with it.

On a side note, the P35-DS4 in U.S. pricing is rather expensive... wouldn't it be better to spend just a bit more and get the lower cost X38 boards?? The foxconn X38A can be purchased for a mere 30 or so dollars more here... Just a thought, but either way great build!

 

[aevm]

Hey, I didn't say don't buy the Spinpoint, I just meant he should look at all 3 leading brands and get whatever is on sale. For example among the 500GB models the benchmarks show negligible speed differences that you'd never notice in real life.

You had 6 WD disks failing??? So far I've had perfect luck with both Seagate (at work) and WD (at home). My horror stories are all about Maxtor :lol:

 

[amd_fanboi]

mine is about WD... reliability my foot... my AAKS tanked yesterday!!! and i didn't even do anythign to it... i will prolly never buy a WD internal again

 

[mtyermom]

2. 8800GT = nono. if you're sticking with Nvidia, go with either the 8800GTS or the 9600GT (can't really recommend brands, but aevm has). I use the HD3870 and it's fantastic, so that may be an option too if you don't mind ATI...

What's wrong with an 8800GT? They can be had for around $200USD (and less with mail in rebates). There are some nice models out there with upgraded coolers. Nothing wrong with them if you find a good price. (Just make sure you stick to the 512MB versions)

3. You do not need 2 burners. Stick with a 20X DVDRW and you should be set (unless you specifically want 2 drives... but I don't really see the point, it's a waste of money)

Ever heard of disc to disc? That would be the point of 2 drives. Though, you don't need 2 burners for that. I'd recommend one DVDRW drive and one low cost basic DVD-ROM.

4. Wired keyboard/mouse is definitely better in games and if you can save money to invest in a better display I would also recommend you do that.

I use a Logitech MX1000 wireless laser mouse and it performs perfectly in games. They are hard to find now though. The newer wireless mice get mixed reviews. Some people swear by them, some people have nothing but trouble. Getting a wired mouse you are pretty much guaranteed safe, but wireless sure is nice to have if it works out. The Logitech G5 2-Tone 7 Buttons 1 x Wheel USB Laser 2000 dpi Mouse is a very popular wired gaming mouse.

On a side note, the P35-DS4 in U.S. pricing is rather expensive... wouldn't it be better to spend just a bit more and get the lower cost X38 boards?? The foxconn X38A can be purchased for a mere 30 or so dollars more here... Just a thought, but either way great build!

I'm not sure about the quality of Foxconn motherboards, but I have never used one. Be sure to do some research on the brand first.