PC Building

[PrOnEsSim]

my brother buildt my comp!

[tahkis]

I may build a laptop (well my friend is gonna build it for me, cause i can't )
My budget would be around 1000e. Any suggestions?

Sorry but I don't see any reason to build laptop...

[Rab]

OK so my old mobo is fried, time for new everything! This is where my plan is right now, questions and comments much appreciated, gonna start ordering things at the weekend.

ASUS P5W DH Deluxe : http://ebuyer.com/UK/product/113951/rb/21331856605
Core 2 Duo E6300 1.86ghz : http://ebuyer.com/UK/product/112704/rb/21331863134
BFG GeForce 7900 GT : http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/7900_Series.html
Ebuyer 1GB DDR2 667MHz : http://ebuyer.com/UK/product/115961/rb/21331912063
Seagate ST3120813AS 120GB SATA II 7200rpm 8MB Cache : http://ebuyer.com/UK/product/99772/rb/21332468990
LG GSA-H10NBAL 16x16DVD±RW 12x RAM Dual Layer Writer Black : http://ebuyer.com/UK/product/112582/rb/21332500192
LG GDR-8164BL 16x52 DVD-ROM Internal IDE (Black) : http://ebuyer.com/UK/product/98199/rb/21332499713
Thermaltake VC3000BNS Armour Jr SuperMidi Tower - Black : http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatal...ake_Cases.html
Antec NEO HE500GB 500W Modular PSU With 80mm Low Speed/noise Fan 18db : http://ebuyer.com/UK/product/99137/rb/21332532557

[tahkis]

Looks good. Except if you have some more money, at least I would pick E6600 as CPU and Radeon x1900XT as GPU...and bigger HD. Also 430W NeoHE is enough and I really suggest to buy 2x1GB RAM.

[Rab]

yep agreed on the psu, i didnt notice the smaller one.,

and how about this ram: gets 800mhz too instead of 667!
GEIL PC2-6400 DDR2-800 2x1GB : http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatal...R2_Memory.html

[tahkis]

Now that I upgraded to a 3.2 GHz Pentium D Dual Core (All AMD processors seem to pricey for some reason). The low-end Dual core chips work miracles and are great for multitasking.

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applicatio...CP2-P4-840%20C
Top selling Intel Processor so far, and worth every penny. I recommend it highly.

I'm sorry but even the singlecore socket 939 AMD beats that. And hey, AMD is even cheaper. Actually all AMD CPU's beats Pentium D series hands down. There are only few games that support dualcore and also singlecore works fine unless you are working on multiple image/video editings which gives dualcore some advantage.

I'd recommed you not go above the Radeon X1200/GeForce 6200.

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applicatio...0201&CatId=318
512 MB video memory just in case you become more hardcore as you go on. It's pretty cheap too and runs pretty good considering it's AGP.

I don't see any good reason to buy AGP GPU nowdays when there are cheap and powerful PCI-e cards available. And suggesting some 2 years old low-end models is even worse. Hell, those cards were horrible back when they were released. Why not buy some Geforce 2 while we're on to it.

[tahkis]

a PSU failure can be more disastrous than a failure of any other component

Indeed, PSU failure can actully break your whole computer - or at least some components of it.

Also PSU measurement is a black art and the watt ratings are often not to be trusted.

True, some quality 350W can or most like is more efficent than some unknown 500W. Also nowdays you should be watching what PSU gives from 12V lines - some unknown may give most of its power from 3.3V and 5V lines.

I think for gfx cards either ATI or NVidia is fine nowadays.

True. Both make excellent cards and have good drivers nowadays. Currently best power/price is most likely Radeon x1900XT. Other good card would be Geforce 7900GT. Radeon is bit faster but also costs a bit more.

[K2Grey]

I would recommend AX500-A as PSU: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatal..._Supplies.html

1) The Antec is modular
2) Antec's reputation is not that good these days; Fortron's is
3) You don't need 550W

2x512MB should be better than 1x1GB. And I'm not sure if I'd trust that RAM. It doesn't have to be really fast or low timing or anything, just that I've never heard of this EBuyer brand. Something like this ought to be fine: http://ebuyer.com/UK/product/91126/rb/21367064561

It's really hard for me to recommend stuff because these are UK sites. But again, I feel that 939 is a better choice than AM2/Core2Duo right now because it is tested and true and all the bugs have been worked out. Right now AM2 is not any better than 939 performance wise isofar as I know and while Conroe had a great deal of hype I wouldn't be confident that it actually holds up in real applications other than SuperPi.

[tahkis]

2) Antec's reputation is not that good these days; Fortron's is

It's not? How come I've seen it winning tests etc. Antec NeoHE, Seasonic S12, BeQuiet or Fortron(=nexus/aopen/zahlman) should all be quality PSU's.

[K2Grey]

It seems to be more of a reliability thing than an amps on 12V line thing.

[Subjugation]

I've had this Fortron 600w for the last 9 months. I've had no issues with it thus far and would buy another one for my next build.

[Displaced]

K2 the conroe setup does have a sizeable performance boost over A64's in the "real world", atleast based on the time ive had to test one out for tbreak.com

if i were upgrading now, conroe all the way.

if i had a s939, i wouldnt upgrade yet.

[Rab]

Any tips for the actual building process?

[Mr. Peanuts]

It's just like a jigsaw really, the only part I hate is wiring it all up, for the LEDs, just look in the motherboard manual I think it should all be there.

Nail the motherboard, add the hard drives, disc drives and PSU, then put the rest in. Thats what they tought me at work experience as far as I remember. I'm thinking of building my own when I get my student loans through so I might just copy your spec. :grin:

[Money]

www.frys.com - when you decide to get your parts this is about the best damn place to get em from. I am lucky enough to have one near where I live.

i have 3 near me $

and its www.outpost.com for frys, not frys.com