Woohoo! New Computer

[Callum]

Yep, exams are getting close (7 weeks! AHHHH!) so I have decided that I am going to get myself a new computer and build it. This is clearly NOT going to distract me, but will instead serve as stress relief

Gonna be building it myself, 'cos I'll be off to a computer science course in uni, so I need it so I can feel special about myself. [img]tongue.gif[/img] Also looks to be cheaper, and I'll be learning quite a bit. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

Of course, I may not be building it before I actually leave Malaysia, because I'll worry about my precious new baby being shipped and will probably decide to take it handluggage... and etc... but I may buy the components here before I leave, as they may be cheaper. I'm heading off to either Canada (Vancouver), or England (Manchester). If there's anyone who lives in those countries, and could give me some indication of the costs compared to the links I post, I'll check here and see what the best option will seem to be. Or would mail order be cheaper anyway?

Anyway, the plan is...

Processor: AMD Athlon 64 3700+ (~215 US, 260 Canadian, 130 Pounds)
Motherboard: Asus A8N5X Motherboard (~100 US, 120 Canadian, 60 Pounds)
RAM: 2x Crucial 1GB PC3200 DDR DIMM Memory (~150 US, 180 Canadian, 90 Pounds)
Video Card: eVGA GeForce 7900 GT Video Card (~320 US, 400 Canadian, 200 Pounds)
Sound Card: Creative X-Fi XtremeMusic (~100 US, 120 Canadian, 60 Pounds)
Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar SE 160GB Hard Drive (~75 US, 90 Canadian, 45 Pounds)
Optical Drive: Sony DRU500A DVD±RW Writer (~70 US, 80 Canadian, 40 Pounds)
Monitor: Samsung SyncMaster 19" LCD Monitor (~300 US, 360 Canadian, 180 Pounds)
Speakers: Creative Inspire P5800 5.1 Speaker System (~40 US, 50 Canadian, 25 Pounds)
Power Supply: Tagan 480W 2Force Silent PSU or 525W Hiper HPU4S525 (~80 US, 100 Canadian, 50 Pounds)
Cooling Fan: ThermalTake Silent 939 cooler (~30 US, 40 Canadian, 20 Pounds)

And I figure I can pick up a case from whatever is in the store, at not much cost.

Total cost: around about 1500 US dollars, 1760 Canadian Dollars, or 880 pounds.

Any comments/suggestions/improvements/insults welcome [img]smile.gif[/img]

[ 03-16-2006, 08:17 PM: Message edited by: Callum ]

[Mirac Honorguard]

pretty sure your going to need 400W or more PSU with that video card

Some more info here :

I'd take a AMD 3700+ instead of the 3500+ - why?

3700+ has a 1 MB lvl 2 cache and costs 8 euro more (in the Netherlands anyway).

Id take anything but a maxtor for hdd, Ive seen alot of people with crashed hdd's (most get replaced but your data will be **POOF** )

like I mentioned before, the PSU is not strong enough for this system, especially since I also noted your going to put a DVD writer in.

[ 03-14-2006, 11:49 AM: Message edited by: Mirac Honorguard ]

[shamrock_uk]

Prices look ok for the UK to my admittedly out-of-date eye - apart from that keyboard and mouse deal. £70 quid?! Buy a top-notch non-wireless keyboard and mouse for 30 quid, save yourself worrying about batteries and spend the remaining 40 on updating your power supply [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Bungleau]

I'd put in a bigger power supply. 350W isn't all that much today.

[shamrock_uk]

I would caution you to go for a decent branded supply with lower wattage over a generic PSU with higher power output though.

Certainly half a year ago, a decent branded 350W CPU like the Antec was enough to run a top-notch gaming machine. I guess things will have moved on slightly, but you can't underestimate the difference that quality makes to the adequacy of the power supply.

[ 03-14-2006, 06:40 PM: Message edited by: shamrock_uk ]

[RoSs_bg2_rox]

Yeah, 350W doesn't quite cut it these days. Check out the Tagan 480W PSU, it's extremely good, got great output wattage on each amper rail, and has a brilliant name for itself (and yes, I have one to).

If you don't want the Tagan, stick for brands such as Hiper (not hyper!), Enermax, Antec or OCZ.

Prices look OK, but I think I could spec up something slightly tastier for the money - is that about your budget?

[Hivetyrant]

As everyone has said so far, the PSU is not gonna cut it easily, and as Ross said, try out Tagan, my new PC is gonna have a Tagan PSU

[Callum]

Ross: I think the absolute max will be 900 pounds.

I will go with you guys on the PSU. The Tagan it is. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

I wasn't at all sure about what I would need anyway.

And I am going with the 3700+, as geek.com shows it as 11 dollars more expensive. (By the way, what does 2 GHz FSB mean?)

I have heard several recommendations of Maxtor, and never had any problems with the hard drives on our three home computers...

Other things I'm not sure about are the video card and the cooling fan. I don't really know how to compare video cards at all, so any suggestions there would be good. A list of a couple at a level you think appropriate would be nice [img]smile.gif[/img]

And for the cooling fan, I just didn't want to not get one and then have my computer explode or something. I'm not planning on overclocking at all, so what would be a decent one to get?

[ 03-15-2006, 07:12 AM: Message edited by: Callum ]

[Mirac Honorguard]

FSB means Front Size Bus, its the "pathway" between the CPU and the memory (and some devices) directly. The speed will tell you have fast the data will be send from your CPU to your memory (or device).

[RoSs_bg2_rox]

Ok, so you won't be overclocking, point noted. In that case get 1 or 2gbs (if 2 then 2x1gb sticks) of the cheapest PC3200 RAM you can find. Value select will work wonders.

As for video card, it really depends on what you will be doing with the computer; do you game? If so, what do you play, or what would you plan on playing in the nearish future?

Also something to note about the HDD, you can get a 200gb one for only a few quid more, it's well worth it. Get as much storage as you can afford.

If you're not planning on overclocking, the stock AMD cooler will do fine on the CPU, and get a couple of silent Akasa 120mm fans for the case. What case were you planning on getting anyway? I'd recommend one which has at least 2 120mm can slots, as they are quieter and better than 92mm slots.