New PC
 

Attached is a quote of a system I want to purchase. This is not for me, just for a friend as a new system. They currently have a Celeron 1.7, 256 RAM old Packard Bell system.

As I haven't built a PC up for some time from scratch, can somone advise if they see any problems with this one.

Thanks

Re: New PC
 

I would rather go for a PATA (also known as ATA, IDE or ATAPI) dvdrw drive, as they are slightly more compatible when installing the OS.

Also, since your using a SATA hard disk, dont forget to feed windows a SATA driver disk?

Re: New PC
 

It really depends what he will be using it for, and how long it want's to keep it before upgrading again. You haven't listed a graphics card. The mobo only has AGP with is now getting dated. The memory is a bit slow, you should really go for PC3200 at least.I'd be more inclined to go for a newer board with DDR2, PCI-E and a Core2Duo. Probably a bigger power supply too.

You really need say what sort of things it will be used for.

Re: New PC
 

My sharp eye is failing me :P

I didnt notice the graphics card. Unless its onboard.

Re: New PC
 

Thanks for pointing that out, the board doesn't have on board graphics, thought it was cheap! Noted about the DVDRW. Will check memory out as well.

The system is only going to be used a basic system. Needed something cheap and better than the previous system.

Re: New PC
 

Made a few changes, what do you think?

Re: New PC
 

Seems good :) Just ensure the power supply is good enough.

Re: New PC
 

you wont need sata drivers very rare you do nowadays

---------- Post added at 19:19 ---------- Previous post was at 19:10 ----------

that psu is really poo too

Re: New PC
 

Not if your using XP. Unless the SATA device is ancient, you will need a SATA drive to feed in during setup bootstrap, cause XPs hardware detection sucks (hopefully it will be better by SP3).

Vista and Linux's hardware detection amazed me, EVERYTHING :O

Re: New PC
 

i would beg to differ

I have not come across a motherboard that has need a boot up floppy to install windows in a long time and dude ive set up a fair few systems with xp in my time ;)

Edited to make things neater

Re: New PC
 

Ever tried an nForce 4 (CK804, M2N) SATA?

my asus mobo even has an image on cd, marked SATA Drivers for Windows XP setup ;)

Re: New PC
 

Because the SATA normally goes into weird IDE compatability mode when being searched for. Or so my BIOS makes out (Gigabyte 965p-DS3 F11 BIOS).

Re: New PC
 

That is true, it does show up as IDE-1 during POST.

Re: New PC
 

SATA usually gets seen as an IDE port on most modern motherboards
unless RAID is on.

Re: New PC
 

Its been a long time since I seen a none native sata chip as I said. Often drivers are on the cd still does not mean you need them as I said I set up a few systems I DO knwo what im talking about

---------- Post added at 20:26 ---------- Previous post was at 20:22 ----------

may I point you at scan Matt

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=605379 I used this board with my old E6600 this week

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=600158 same cpu

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=567853 Hdd

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=689181 The 340 version of the case

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=472566 I prefer these drives

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=291364 equivilent ram

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=518661 dlink card same price as linksys

all thats left I think is a psu now I knwo this is 25 quid more than the ebuyer one but this one should last (maybe) http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=138556


main reason I gone to town on this for you is I fell out with ebuyer lol lol