new PC

[mank!]

hello gents. finally time to get myself a new PC, only 5 months since my machine died. i've specced the machine below with some advice from friends, any thoughts?

 

[inactionman]

You can get some better deals on some of those components with scan on their today only page.

Why the USB caddy?

 

[mank!]

i've got stuff on two IDE drives i need to transfer over to the SATA drive.

i'd rather order everything from one place - i'll have a look at scan though, cheers

 

[inactionman]

One suggestion, avoid Hiper, they had some reliability problems and there are better PSU's around, Corsair do a good range.

 

[nath]

580w seems a little low I think... though I could be wrong.

Also, are you sure you need the Audigy? Onboard sound is often very good, that's what I'm using on my PC and it's pretty solid.

 

[Kryten]

Was going to say - the Audigy isn't a patch on the onboard sound as it stands. Even the X-Fi is struggling but only due to software issues.
I'd ditch the hard drive (the spinpoint) and go for a 32mb cache drive for around the same price instead.
Also you can get the same graphics card for a mere £129 from most places. Only a few quid but it's a few quid saved...

Why the FreeAgent though? If you're going to use external storage, find something with eSata, you're board has the facility. That way you won't get annoyed with USB's crapness.

 

[mank!]

cheers all. i've ditched the audigy and will see what onboard sound is like, if not i'll upgrade another time.

kryt - switched the spinpoint for a barracuda with 32mb cache. as for the external, it'll be used on other machines including my work pc which is pretty shite and ancient. the esata drives are more expensive for less space, so i'm not so keen.