Help Please Newb embarking on a computer building extravaganza!

[Llixeraxu]

Okay. Building a new computer *as stated in another thread.* I have little knowledge and deep pockets !

Im hoping to learn a few things .. and i would like in the long run to be the proud owner of a fast reliable computer! Use my computer mainly to play DAoC and surf the net. But speed is an issue to me as much as reliablity!

so.. heres what i have so far. All i want from you guys is advise, please Reading threw the other threads seems that with the combined knowledge there is little that isnt coverd!

Here goes..

Asus K8V (Socket 754) Motherboard Price: £73.00 (£85.78 Including VAT at 17.5%)

AMD Athlon 64 3200 (Socket 754) Price: £177.50 (£208.56 Including VAT at 17.5%)

Sapphire ATI Radeon 9800XT 256MB DDR TV-Out/DVI Price: £242.00 (£284.35 Including VAT at 17.5%)

Corsair 1GB DDR XMS3200C2 Pro TwinX (2x512MB) CAS2 Price: £155.00 (£182.13 Including VAT at 17.5%)

Western Digital Caviar 120GB Special Edition 8MB Cache Serial ATA - OEM (HD-009-WD) Price: £60.75 (£71.38 Including VAT at 17.5%)

Western Digital Raptor 36.7GB Serial ATA 10000RPM - OEM (HD-007-WD) Price: £72.50 (£85.19 Including VAT at 17.5%)

Sony CRX230ES 52x32x52 CD-RW (Black) - OEM (CD-018-SO) Price: £18.50 (£21.74 Including VAT at 17.5%)

Sony DDU1612 DVD-ROM (Black) - OEM (CD-020-SO) Price: £19.95 (£23.44 Including VAT at 17.5%)

Chenbro Gaming Bomb with Side Window - Silver (No PSU) (CA-004-CH) Price: £42.00 (£49.35 Including VAT at 17.5%)

Zalman ZM400A-APF 400W PSU (CA-001-ZA) Price: £62.50 (£73.44 Including VAT at 17.5%)


Subtotal £923.70
VAT £161.66
Total £1,085.36


Vantec Stealth Case Fan (120mm) £8.50 ex VAT
£9.99 inc VAT

 

[Spankya]

Nice PC, but even with such a high spec PC, with no lag issues, fast zoning etc, u r still gonna suck

 

[Tom]

Take a look at www.quietpc.com if you want to keep the noise down, especially on the HD.

 

[.Wilier.]

Looks good, but I wouldnt bugger around with the two different size HDD's.
The Raptor is only giving you another 37gb anyway. Why not get another Caviar and stick them in a stiped RAID (which the K8V supports) if you want the extra performance?

The Zalman PSU is excellent. We have one stuck in a Mod project, and you cant tell its running its so quiet.

Otherwise, it looks good (apart from that case which is butt ugly imho). Id go for one by CoolerMaster (the Pratorean is nice, as is the Wavemaster) or LianLi (PC 65 or 68). The build of both manufacturers is outstanding.

 

[FuzzyLogic]

The Zalman CNPS7000A is an excellent cooler that's quiet as well. It's expensive but you mention deep pockets and they get raided


http://www.zalman.co.kr/english/product/cnps7000a-cu.htm


Bit heavy as I mentioned in another thread but they're quiet and cool very well (especially considering how (un)noisy they are)

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Online_Catalogue_Zalman_121.html

Third one down, the copper one, is your best bet for coolage. Although if you want to save a tenner I imagine the alu/cu one can't be all that bad either.


My 2500 runs at 46c under load* and if you saw the lack of ventilation it has i'm happy

*from 12 solid hour stint on Planetside (which seems to love the RAM more than the CPU but meh)

 

[Llixeraxu]

Looks good, but I wouldnt bugger around with the two different size HDD's.
The Raptor is only giving you another 37gb anyway. Why not get another Caviar and stick them in a stiped RAID (which the K8V supports) if you want the extra performance?

The Zalman PSU is excellent. We have one stuck in a Mod project, and you cant tell its running its so quiet.

Otherwise, it looks good (apart from that case which is butt ugly imho). Id go for one by CoolerMaster (the Pratorean is nice, as is the Wavemaster) or LianLi (PC 65 or 68). The build of both manufacturers is outstanding.

Thanks for your posts... but 2 things.

What is a stiped raid? or where can i read up on such things

and

Yeah i wasnt much impressed with the case either but it will be hiden away in my cupboard anyway. But ill look into the ones you suggest.

and

Im gonna buy that quiet fan. Zalamen one. Ill add it to the list.


Keep it coming its all very much appreciated!!!

 

[Krazeh]

As Xavier will no doubt point out if you're planning to buy a AMD 64 chip you'd do well to wait a couple of months until they update to socket 939 as socket 754 is going to become obselete very quickly

 

[Llixeraxu]

seems i cant edit my first thread.

CoolerMaster Praetorian PAC-T01-EK - Black (No PSU) (CA-051-CM) Price: £89.95 (£105.69 Including VAT at 17.5%)


Im also thinking this case comes with case fans so i no longer need the vantec either.

Super Flower Cooler AMD and P4 CNPS7000A-ALCU £29.00

 

[Llixeraxu]

As Xavier will no doubt point out if you're planning to buy a AMD 64 chip you'd do well to wait a couple of months until they update to socket 939 as socket 754 is going to become obselete very quickly

But couldnt you go on saying this all year?? And that would mean ill be without a computer for 2 months.

 

[Tom]

What is a stiped raid? or where can i read up on such things

A stRiped raid is basically 2 or more drives set up within the operating system to act as one drive. You have no control over what gets written to which drive, the os does all that, but basically you get big improvements in speed by setting your drives up in this fashion. Very useful for video/audio editing.

IIRC you should used 2 drives of equal speed/size, so buy 2 or more of the same model.

 

[TdC]

hmm my 2p:

-drop the two sony optical drives and get one panasonic 106D.
-drop the sata drive. if you must have two for some reason, then get two of the 120gb one you selected. on the other hand, if you *must* have sata for some reason then go the whole hog. since you only use your pc for DAoC and browsing pr0n, one IDE drive should be enough imo.

 

[Shovel]

A stRiped raid is basically 2 or more drives set up within the operating system to act as one drive. You have no control over what gets written to which drive, the os does all that, but basically you get big improvements in speed by setting your drives up in this fashion. Very useful for video/audio editing.

IIRC you should used 2 drives of equal speed/size, so buy 2 or more of the same model.

Not 100% correct Tom.

RAID is controlled at a lower level than you make out - actually by the RAID Controller. The Operating System passes data to the RAID controller pretty much as if it were a single hard disk drive, and the striping work is done in the hardware.

That certainly is what I understand of it: Read Storage Review though if you want to understand it more fully and be sure that it's accurate

 

[Tom]

Curse you Shovel! Curse you and your ability to know more than me!

A pox on you!

 

[PLightstar]

pcnextday.co.uk are doing 160gb Maxtor series 9 for £81 inc VAT