About to take the plunge

[philip]

Hi everyone, I have compiled a list for my first build. I want a fast, quiet, all-around pc with the option of some nice gaming. I am undecided on the case and I am also unsure about cooling. How much cooling do I need to consider, # of fans, size of fans, fans for cpu, fan for graphics card etc.?? I don't mind paying extra for quiet fans. Below is the list so far

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 LGA775 'Wolfdale' 3.00GHz (1333FSB)
Asus P5Q-E Intel P45 (Socket 775)
Corsair 4GB DDR2 XMS2 PC2-6400C5 TwinX (2x2GB)
Asus ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB GDDR3
Western Digital Caviar Green 640GB SATA-II 16MB Cache
Samsung SH-S223F/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter
Corsair TX 650W ATX2.2 SLi Compliant Power Supply
Samsung T200 20" Widescreen LCD Monitor

Case perhaps either
Lian-Li PC-7B PLUS II Aluminium Midi-Tower Case
or
Antec 300 Three Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case


Thanks for all your expert advice.

 

[fullmetall]

For your HDD Drive, look into a Western Digital Black 640gb. Has seen to be the best out of them all.

For ram, Look into Timing, for the same price, g.Skills PI Blacks at 2x2gb are at 4-4-4-12.

650w would probably be a bit much on a 4850,

look into 450-550w range

 

[shortstuff_mt]

+1 to the WD Black drive and G.Skill PI Black RAM.

Your motherboard supports crossfire, so if you were trying to leave the option of crossfire open I would just stick with your original 650W PSU.

I personally like the Antec 300, but cases come more down to personal preference.

 

[WR2]

I think a bit more GPU power w/ HD 4870 and a less expensive E7400 CPU to keep the price the same would be useful for gaming.
E7400 / E8400 and HD 4850 / HD4870

That Antec 300 case has the two standard 3-speed fans and is very quiet on low speed. You can switch the fans to high speed for gaming. I don't think you'd need any additional case fans.

For a CPU cooler:
XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 w/ 775 bracket or XIGMATEK Dark Knight-S1283V (no bracket needed) or ZEROtherm ZEN FZ120
are all very good coolers.

 

[Why_Me]

I would go this route. A 650w is one of those "in between" psu's. It's not really enough for crossfire or SLI, yet is a bit over kill on a lot of cards. You can get by on a decent 550w like this one down below. Get a E7400 and that Xigmatek heatsink and punch the dog crap out of that cpu. This way you can put the money towards a 4870. Also take a look at that monitor down below...it has a quicker response time than the Samsung you posted and it's on sale. That RAM is a steal right now at that price and the mobo comes out cheaper than the Asus and it's a more than decent board....especially when it comes to overclocking.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129042 $59.95
Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341022 $69.99 ($49.99 after $20.00 Mail-In Rebate) Free Shipping*
OCZ Fatal1ty OCZ550FTY 550W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Modular Active PFC Power Supply - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128359 $114.99 ($99.99 after $15.00 Mail-In Rebate)
GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3R LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail 2 oz copper PCB + Easy Tune 6 for OC

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231209 $43.99 Free Shipping*
G.SKILL PI Black 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835186020 $6.99
ARCTIC COOLING MX-2 Thermal Compound - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236050 $169.99
($149.99 after $20.00 Mail-In Rebate)
ASUS VW224U Black 22" 2ms(GTG) Widescreen LCD Monitor w/ HDCP Support 300 cd/m2 1000:1 (ASCR 5000:1) Built in Speakers - Retail

 

[philip]

Thanks for the input guys. I should have prefaced my original post with the fact that I am based in Ireland so newegg is not an option for me. I will more than likely be using this site http://www.overclockers.co.uk/index.php. Regarding DDR2 what's the main difference between PC2-8500 and PC2-6400? If I stayed with the E8400 but when for a 4870 would I still get away with a ~550W supply? If I went with the Antec 300 would the CPU cooler be the only other cooling I would require? Thanks again

 

[Why_Me]

Thanks for the input guys. I should have prefaced my original post with the fact that I am based in Ireland so newegg is not an option for me. I will more than likely be using this site http://www.overclockers.co.uk/index.php. Regarding DDR2 what's the main difference between PC2-8500 and PC2-6400? If I stayed with the E8400 but when for a 4870 would I still get away with a ~550W supply? If I went with the Antec 300 would the CPU cooler be the only other cooling I would require? Thanks again

A good 550w psu like a Corsair will push a 4870 without any problems, and still leave you enough juice to run multiple fans and to overclock.

 

[xthekidx]

What is your budget?

 

[philip]

Hi xthekidx, my budget is up to around €1200 maximum, about $1500. I'd like to keep it between €900 and €1,000.

 

[xthekidx]

I'm going to suggest you go with a Phenom II 940 build.

AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 940 Black Edition 3.0GHz (Socket AM2+) / Asus M3A32-MVP Deluxe AMD 790FX (Socket AM2) DDR2 Mobo / Corsair 4GB DDR2 XMS2 Dominator PC2-8500C5 TwinX (2x2GB) Bundle.
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=BU-015-OE&groupid=701&catid=339&subcat=1334
437 inc VAT

4870
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/155499/show_product_specifications?spectype=extended
172.50 inc VAT

HDD:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-244-WD
£63.24 inc VAT

Cooler:
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/158603.
£41.26inc vat

PSU:
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/134677
£101.18inc vat

Case:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-145-CM
£64.39 inc VAT

Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=SW-037-MS&groupid=33&catid=20&subcat=
£91.99 inc VAT

£972 inc VAT. For monitors I suggest you go to a store and try them out in person. The PSU and mobo allow you to add another GPU later if you want. The GPU I chose should play any game on a 20" monitor and high to highest settings. If gaming isn't that important you can go with a 4850 or 4830 instead and get a cheaper PSU. The case I chose is pretty quiet, but if you want really quiet I'd look at this:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-144-CM

 

[IzzyCraft]

No need to buy slower fans asus mobo's have adjustive fan speeds with it's q-fan thing. Quiet fans usually benefit from not radding but most fans are quiet enough when compared to your gpu or cpu fan at 800-1300 rpm just get 120mm or larger fans set them to 800-1300 rpm and the most annoying thing in your computer is if your HDD makes sounds.

 

[croc]

Hi everyone, I have compiled a list for my first build. I want a fast, quiet, all-around pc with the option of some nice gaming. I am undecided on the case and I am also unsure about cooling. How much cooling do I need to consider, # of fans, size of fans, fans for cpu, fan for graphics card etc.?? I don't mind paying extra for quiet fans. Below is the list so far

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 LGA775 'Wolfdale' 3.00GHz (1333FSB)
Asus P5Q-E Intel P45 (Socket 775)
Corsair 4GB DDR2 XMS2 PC2-6400C5 TwinX (2x2GB)
Asus ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB GDDR3
Western Digital Caviar Green 640GB SATA-II 16MB Cache
Samsung SH-S223F/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter
Corsair TX 650W ATX2.2 SLi Compliant Power Supply
Samsung T200 20" Widescreen LCD Monitor

Case perhaps either
Lian-Li PC-7B PLUS II Aluminium Midi-Tower Case
or
Antec 300 Three Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case


Thanks for all your expert advice.

Lian-Li does not seem to have that model...

Look at the Silverstone ft01b case if you want cool and quiet, or the -w option if 'bling' is really important. But cases are failry personal, so...

I'd have to agree with other comments that the 640 black drive is a better over-all choice, at the expense of a wee bit of extra noise and power consumption.

Ram, look for best timings / price. Unless you are into serious OC'ing (and I mean WC'ed or LN) then any more than ddr2 800 is pretty much a waste. Kingston has some good value ram at nice prices, but no 'bling'.

I'd look at the 22" Samsung, or even a 24" Samsung or even the 24" Dell, but I have eyesight that needs correction. (I wear glasses.) Too small of a screen, I get headaches. Suggest you go to a B&M store, browse a bit.

 

[philip]

I'm moving towards this setup now

Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 LGA775 'Wolfdale' 3.16GHz (1333FSB)
Asus P5Q-E Intel P45 (Socket 775)
GeIL 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-6400C4 800MHz Black Dragon EVO ONE DDR2
Asus ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB GDDR3
Western Digital Caviar Green 640GB SATA-II 16MB Cache
Samsung SH-S223F/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter
Corsair HX 520W ATX Modular SLI Compliant Power Supply
Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate SP1 64-Bit
Noctua NH-U12P CPU Cooler
Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound
Antec 300 Three Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case

I was also looking at going with this as an alternative, changing the CPU, MOBO and RAM but keeping the rest of the components the same. The price difference won't be that much. What would you guys think?

Intel Core i7 920 2.66Ghz (Nehalem)
Gigabyte EX58-UD3R Intel X58
OCZ 6GB DDR3 PC3-10666C9 Gold Low-Voltage Triple Channel Kit

 

[xthekidx]

If you can afford that then is a good deal, I would go with the i7, but make these changes; the GTS 250 1gb does better than the 4850 and is a better deal, and then get this mobo to SLI on later. SLI is finially recommedable again with the cheaper sli capable x58 boards.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127421
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128386&Tpk=ud3r%20sli

 

[philip]

Sorry to bump this but I have re-appraised my build. It will be first build and I think I'm getting carried away with what I want compared to what I need. I won't be gaming I imagine, I will mostly use it for writing code, i.e. C. A lot of report writing, watching some movies and the browsing the net. I do want it to do all of these things smoothly though to look good. I plan to use overclockers.co.uk. Any sage advice you could impart? Any great build ideas? Thanks guys.

 

[fullmetall]

Well the build you already have just change the E8500 to a Q8200, if you dont want to oc, you can take off the noctua and just go for the stock cooler. Change the WD green to a WD Black 640gb if you can find it. GTX 250 is probably a more best bet for you. the modular 520w will be enough but is probably priced up because of the modular type.


Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 LGA775 'Wolfdale' 3.16GHz (1333FSB
Asus P5Q-E Intel P45 (Socket 775
GeIL 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-6400C4 800MHz Black Dragon EVO ONE DDR2
Samsung SH-S223F/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter
Corsair HX 520W ATX Modular SLI Compliant Power Supply
Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate SP1 64-Bit
Antec 300 Three Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case
Asus ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB GDDR3


Stuff you looked at

 

[philip]

I know I'm still jumping between choices a lot but it's all knew to me.
How do you think this would perform?

Intel Core 2 Duo E7400 LGA775 'Wolfdale' 2.80GHz (1066FSB)
Asus P5Q Pro Intel P45 (Socket 775)
Kingston HyperX 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 PC2-6400C5 800MHz
Western Digital Caviar Green 640GB SATA-II 16MB Cache
Samsung SH-S223F/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter
Corsair HX 520W ATX Modular SLI Compliant Power Supply
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-Bit
Antec 300 Three Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case

 

[fullmetall]

Its a descent set for a low end.

Im guessing you couldn't find a wd black anywhere for your area in hdd's.

which gpu did you find.