The Official PC building thread!

Yeah, I agree about Plextor (although they are a bit overpriced) but I disagree about BenQ. My experience tells me NEC and LG are a lot better. I've had two drives from the Daxon Group (one Acer, it's warranty replacement BenQ - ain't that a clue?) burn a few CDs, a few more coasters and then fail within 2 months. After the second failure, I gave up and couldn't be bothered to return it, I just settled for my four year old Toshiba DVD-ROM. I've since had a Matshita SW-9581 (Panasonic) DVD-RAM and LG GSA-4163B Supermulti and both have been rock solid.

 

Hey everyone... I've been reading this thread for a while and i am getting a better understanding of what i want. I currently am looking to build myself a beast and am looking to spend about $1500-1700. I was going to just do a BTO alienware PC, but my co-worker told me to just build one (seeing as though i am an IT guy). I trust u guy's judgement, so i was wondering if you guys can give me a breakdown of what u recommend to buy (with my budget)...im talking from case to mobo to everything. I will be using my maching for online gaming and also web-development (i would like to run 3 monitors or more)

Thanks in advance, you guys who post are true life-savers!

 

Hmmm, Benq have obviously come a long way in that department.
shuboy, you could get an alienware PC, or you could build it yourself for 60% of the price. No joke. This of course means you get a better PC for your money. It's not difficult. Online gaming's a bit loose, is this Online gaming as in minesweeper flags, or online gaming as in latest modern FPS, or a little of both?

Generally for that sort of money us folks recommend dual cores now. Let me price something up for you.

X2 3800 $297
X1800GTO $200
2GB XMS $139 (rebate 50)
A8N-SLi Premium $168
Barracuda 250GB $95
Allow $40 for optical drive
allow $100 for case (you may as well choose your own)
Hiper 580W PSU $112

1161
This leaves $300-$400 to get a monitor and peripherals.

 

LOL. I meant the latest fps. Thanks for the re-assurance on the ease of building your own pc. Like i mentioned before, i am very computer savy, but i have never actually built a box from scratch.

I will do a search on everything you listed on newegg and see if i can find them. My co-worker also told me to go with liquid cooling. Recommend any specific one? Also is there any step-by-step guides on here you guys rec to 1st time pc builders?

 

Also that budget did not include monitors and peripherals. All of that was strictly for the inside hardware, so with the money sammorris had left over for me, where could i apply it to get something better? (i.e. vid card or mobo)

 

As a co-worker, I'd disrecommend liquid cooling. It's asking for trouble. One drip and you're $1000+ less well off. Trust me, I've seen people write "I used liquid cooling, and my system's no more. I should have stuck with fans" An endless number of times.
If you get reasonable air cooling, your system won't run any worse than with liquid cooling, and in many cases it'll be just as quiet.

Use the Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro heatsink, it's compact but very effective, and also quite cheap. That mobo is top of the line, so go ups on Video card and/or the processor (assuming you're not overclocking much) I didn't actually include the links last time, so I'll do that now. I "allowed" an amount for an optical drive and a case since optical drives mostly cost the same and you may have a favoured brand, and someone will no doubt criticse my choice, we all have our own opinions. I'd vote LG, Pioneer or NEC but others may suggest BenQ. Above all though, Avoid Plextor. They're twice as expensive as the others and often bring about no increase in quality. Some of their drives are even quite poorly made.

For cases, there are hundreds out there. Pick one you like. My favourites are the NZXT Lexa (high budget), Thermaltake Soprano (low-mid budget) and the Antec Sonata (mid budget).

X2 3800: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103562 $297
or
X2 4200: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103547 $358
A8N-SLi Premium:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131540 $168
For non-SLI (and who uses that, anyway?) there is pretty much no better board.
250GB barracuda http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822148111 $90.
Good quiet drive. If you're after fast windows loading, I'd also recommend one of these in addition to that:
36.7GB Raptor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822144200 $107

You'll also need S-ATA cables, but what's the poitn of me giving URLs for those eh?
X1900XT
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814131006 $435 VERY GOOD graphics card.
X1800XT
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102697 $296 - a cheaper option if that's too much.
Freezer 64 Pro
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835185125 $33 - Very good heatsink.
2GB XMS RAM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145575 $139 after $50 rebate.
Hiper 580W PSU
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817128001 $112 - Top class power supply.
I believe this lot comes to $1303 if you use the 4200 and the X1800XT, with the raptor. This of course doesn't include S-ATA & IDE cables, an optical drive and case. (they should total $100). If that's too much, then take out the raptor (and one S-ATA cable!) and it comes to $1196 plus the rest.

 

Thanks sammorris! You have really laid it out for me and im going to order all of these things at once today. I really appreciate it. Oh, and i think im going to go with an NVIDIA chipset cause im more partial to them. Would you rec the 256 MB 7800GTX?

 

An nvidia chipset? That'd be an nForce 4 Ultra then. Do you mean nvidia graphics card? The 7800GTX isn't bad, but the X1800XT listed will beat it. However, the 7800GTX does use an ungainly amount of power. If it has to be nVidia, then go with the 7900GT. Don't be fooled by the lack of an X, it's the best thing nVidia have made so far.

 

Ok thanks. Got everything down on a list and priced and im pretty much just ready to order. Is there anything else I am going to need on the inside (besides cables)?

sammorris: is it ok if I PM you if i have any other more detailed questions with my setup and BIOS config?

Thanks.

 

I'm going to be building a computer with these components:

AMD Athlon 64 4000+
Asus A8n32-Sli deluxe
VisionTek XTASY Radeon X850 XT 256mb PCIE
OCZ Titanium (2x1gb)
Maxtor DiamondMax 10 6V250F0 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
2xCD drives
DVD drive

I will be overclocking the cpu and gpu so I expect to have a significant amount of heat. Are there any specific cases (or features) I should look for? Also, do you think a 500w PSU will have enough power?

Thanks

 

Can anyone tell me where I can get some of those memory sheilds for heat? I just purchased 2 gigs of memory and crucial sent them with none and i went to their site and found nothing... are they worith hunting down?

 

I read in a past PC mag. that Maxtor DiamondMax HDs had some problems with Asus A8n32-sli deluxe Mobos... thats what i was going to get in till i read that- got a western dig. instead... just passing on what i read, do not no if others had any problems?

 

eparker89, 500 watt PS should work fine ,to cool your rig i would go with the Zalman 9500 cooler or the Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro heatsink both great fans, Antec makes great cases

 

Hey guys. I'm about to commit to building my first PC. I have looked into the building aspect of it and think I can manage. The one thing that i'm still unsure of is what goes on between finishing the build and installing windows. Do I have to modify any BIOS options or anything like that?

Also, if someone can spare the time, can you confirm if this is a compatible/bottleneck free setup?...

WWW.DABS.COM

NEC DVD+-RW/RAM 16x IDE Black LabelFlash Dual Layer - £29.43

Trust 511 5.1 Sound Expert Digital Surround - £13.21

Antec Sonata II UK Piano Black Quiet Midi Tower - £70.27 £70.27

Seagate Barracuda 7200.7+ 200GB UDMA100 8MB cache 7200rpm - £46.94

Corsair Memory 512MB DDR PC3200 - £81.23 (x2)

Asustek A8N-E S939 nForce4 Ultra ATX - £62.65

AMD Athlon 64 3700+ Socket 939 1MB Inc Fan - £151.41

Gainward GeForce 6800GS "Goes Like Hell" 512MB GDDR3 TVO - £154.92

Totalling £622.03 (inc. del)

 

shuboy: PM away!

eparker: Where are you finding a 4000+ for 939? I thought they only did those in AM2, in which case its M2N32-SLi and DDR2 Memory you need. 500W'd be OK, but I'd recommend something of the order of 580. Maybe a Hiper Type-R?
As for the case, NZXT Lexa or maybe Antec Lanboy.
There's very unlikely a compatibility issue between some hard drives and some motherboards (if all you heard it from was things like newegg reviews, ignore it anyway) but WDs are better drives anyway.

aabbccdd: Freezer64 all the way!

oedekerk: A few tweaks would see you get more performance out of that system.
Firstly 512MB RAM is NEVER Enough. Fine for officing but not gaming, and a 512MB GPU shows you're not just about officing. Second, a "Goes Like Hell edition" card certainly does not. Go for this one instead:

http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/109760

Get some more stuff from ebuyer if you like, they're nice and cheap.
Case is expensive and boring, are you that nuts about quietness? There are some far more lively cases about, check out http://www.xcase.co.uk if not to buy but browse around and see what you like.
Oh and erm
http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/52471

CPU and MB both good.

 

The RAM is 512(x2), so its 1024mb.
The case is pretty boring, those xcase ones are sweet.
Was thinking of gettin a 256mb 6800gt?

Thanks for the advice!

 

Xcase is basically just a massive case outlet, so pick one from any manufacture, but avoid any that come with power supplies, or at least don't use the power supplies they come with, they're always bad and it usually ends in tears. A 6800GT isn't bad, but I tell you the X1800GTO i linked to will kick its backside. I see you're obviously an nVidia man but tbh at the same price range there isn't anything that's as powerful. I seriously suggest you take a look. The next nVidia thing that tops it is the 7900GT which is £50 more. If you can afford it, great, then http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/96312 but I'm trying to save you a few quid in the process of getting top performance.

 

I like Nvidia, but obviously want the best for my money!

Looks good

 

Best for the money is ATI i think also graphics should be better according to magz. Mushkin Ram are good and Enermax Liberty as a power supply and very important is cpu cooler will recomand a Zalman CNPS9500 MOBO theirs or kinds out their my opinion is gigabyte as for dvd i go for nec and for hardrive samsung will be safe for your data