Building a new PC
 

Hi guys,

I'm going to build a new PC and have been scouting round looking at various options. I know there's a million threads like this but I'd really appreciate any advice or if there's any problems with the components I've chosen:

Extra Value ATX Midi Neon Case with 400W PSU Ebuyer £29.99

Gigabyte GA-P31-S3L Intel P31 Express Socket 775 8 channel audio ATX Motherboard £47.94

1GB MicronMajor, DDR2 PC2-6400 (800), 240 Pins, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 5 £18.79 X2 = £37.58


256MB MSI 8600GT Overclocked, PCI-E(x16), Mem 1600 MHz, GDDR2, GPU 580 MHz, 2x Dual Link DVI-I/HDTV £65.67



Dynamode WLGI600XA 54mbps Wireless LAN PCI Adapter £9.99 Ebuyer

500 Gb Samsung HD501LJ Spinpoint T, SATA300, 7200 rpm, 16MB Cache, 8.9 ms, NCQ £62.73

Asus DRW-1814BL, 18x DVD±R, 8x DVD±DL, DVD+RW x8/-RW x6, DVD-RAM x14, IDE, Black, OEM, Lightscribe £18.67


Intel Core 2 Duo E6550 2.33GHz 1333FSB Socket 775 4MB Cache Retail Boxed Processor £101.89

Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium x64Bit OEM 1PK DVD £62


Would appreciate any guidance, thanks :D

Simon.

Re: Building a new PC
 

Buy better ram and buy an x1950pro instead for the gfx

Re: Building a new PC
 

Thanks for the advice :)

Re: Building a new PC
 

might be worth looking at a better PSU than the one that comes with the value case. - i usually use Seasonics.

Re: Building a new PC
 

Just built mine, Zing adviced me to get the x1950pro and i like it ;-)

Re: Building a new PC
 

Thanks :)

Re: Building a new PC
 

what are you using your pc for?

Re: Building a new PC
 

I want it to run the latest games as well as possible, without spending shedloads of money, basically!

Re: Building a new PC
 

Hi guys, I've decided to go for this:

1 Extra Value ATX Midi Neon Case with 400W PSU - Extra Value ATX Midi Neon Case with 400W PSU £29.99
1 Sapphire RADEON X1950PRO 512MB GDDR3 DUAL DVI TVO PCI-E - Sapphire RADEON X1950PRO 512MB GDDR3 DUAL DVI TVO PCI-E £92.23

Optiarc (Sony/NEC) AD-7170S-0B 18x DVD±R, 8x DVD±DL, DVD+RW x8/-RW x6, DVD-RAM x12, SATA, Black, OEM £14.97 £17.59

500 GB Western Digital WD5000AAKS Caviar SE16, SATA II, 7200 rpm, 16MB Cache, 8.9 ms £53.75 £63.16

Gigabyte GA-P35C-DS3 , iP35 Express, S 775, PCI-E (x16), DDR2/DDR3 1066/1333/667/800, SATA II, ATX £58.99 £69.31

Intel Pentium Dual-Core E2160, S775, 1.8 GHz, 800MHz FSB, Allendale Core, 2x 512KB Cache, Retail

2GB kit (1GBx2), 240-pin DIMM, DDR2 PC2-6400 memory module

Had to cut a few corners due to lack of funds... any thoughts? :)

Re: Building a new PC
 

psu in the case will be crap

Re: Building a new PC
 

Ok I'll order a decent PSU too :)

Re: Building a new PC
 

As you don't want to spend 'shedloads', and as Christmas is just around the corner, I would go for the things you have said to keep the cost down.
You can update things then one at a time in slow time starting with the power supply.

Re: Building a new PC
 

Get a good main board might cost more,but you should be able to upgrade your ram and cpu in the future.I went for the abit ip35 pro

Re: Building a new PC
 

There's 1 problem with that idea: if any of the other components are crap & fail after a short period they are unlikely to take other components with them, whereas if a crap PSU dies it can take other components with it. Using a cheap PSU is a false economy.

Re: Building a new PC
 

in my experience its not often u upgrade ur cpu+ram u tend to get a whole new system and treat ur self ;)

Re: Building a new PC
 

I'd wait, intels new quads hit the market on the 9th.

Prices of their other quads/c2ds should drop a little after that.

Re: Building a new PC
 

Hi guys

Well, basically, the system is built, however the CPU didn't come with SATA connectors so I'm going to have to buy adapters tomorrow in order to install the HDD and DVD recorder drive. I've tried booting without these, but I get a beep (1 long, 2 short). I've read this means the graphics card is playing up? But I've taken the PCI 16 graphics card out and it's still the same beep- is this because I have no HDD installed yet? Cheers.

Re: Building a new PC
 

have you powered the gfx? when you say no sata you mean no sata on the mobo as the cpu wouldnt have sata;) what mobo did you go with?
If its this Gigabyte GA-P35C-DS3 then it has 4 sata connectors(yellow things in 2 blocks of 2) and would have shipped with at least one cable
The last Gigabyte board I bought(about 2 weeks ago) was older than yours and shipped with 2 sata cables

Re: Building a new PC
 

Hi mate, I've got the graphics card working now, user error ;)

The SATA thing.. I need to connect the HDD drive to the motherboard, which I've done using the yellow SATA cables provided in the box.. but I cannot attach the PSU to the HDD directly to power it up, since the DVD drive and HDD both have a SATA port in the back (and the PSU doesn't have any SATA connectors to connect to them). Hope I make sense!

---------- Post added at 21:12 ---------- Previous post was at 21:04 ----------

Update: Now just one beep when the computer boots up, I assume this is good. Still no bios coming up though...

---------- Post added at 21:13 ---------- Previous post was at 21:12 ----------

http://www.itreviews.co.uk/hardware/h1400.htm

this is the mobo I went for..

Re: Building a new PC
 

Arrr I see so you didnt go with a good psu then as a fairly good one should have come with sata power. I understand now:) 1 beep should be post however I do not know why your not seeing bios

Re: Building a new PC
 

Yeah as soon as this boots up into the bios and everything is sorted I'm going to buy a new PSU anyway I think. Was trying to keep costs down but didnt realise there was no flipping SATA!

Re: Building a new PC
 

Id second getting a decent PSU asap.

Actually I may be on the lookout for one soon, since I'm thinking of replacing the PSU in my dell when I put the next vid card in.

Re: Building a new PC
 

Can anyone recommend a decent one? Preferably one around the 50 quid or so mark with 2 SATA connectors? ;) Cheers!

Re: Building a new PC
 

have a look for a seasonic from what I see your not using an over power hungry machine so one around 400/450 will do

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Compo...roductId=25565

Re: Building a new PC
 

Cheers. Am currently posting from the new PC! Need to tidy the cabling up a little bit but I'm currently installing all the drivers for Vista! Fingers crossed!

Re: Building a new PC
 

nice one matey well done:)

Re: Building a new PC
 

Thanks, my first build, so I'm (quietly) proud of myself. Just hoping I don't have any problems!!!