[Bifta]

Originally Posted by ntl customer

ATX motherboard with most of the stuff onboard (LAN, USB, parallel etc), with the exception of sound and video. Not a fan of onboard graphics as it consumes system memory, and the performance, is, well, crap. Overlays on this computer don't work on any res higher than 800x600 so all video is jittery and choppy if viewed fullscreen or if I try and view TV, a picture does not show at all. A nightmare for viewing any video fullscreen at 1280x960.
P4 processor. Not too keen on the "equivalent P4 performance based ratings" that AMD use for their processors - is it a marketing tactic? Where can I find a comparison chart for these ratings?

Forget going for a P4, go for an Asus A78NX deluxe Nforce 2 motherboard, 2 x onboard lan, loads of USB 2 ports. A fantastic (and reasonably priced) board. If you don't have a soundcard to use, the soundstorm audio is pretty good, but I'd recommend a decent creative card (Audigy/2/ZS)

Graphics card - not a gamer so the latest £300 model need not apply. However I'd like something better than your onboard graphics - I'm looking at this nVIDIA FX5200 card as it provides most of the features that I would like to have - dual display capability and svideo out for watching the occasional DVD on TV. Also appears to have onboard memory and so won't eat into the system memory.

If you're not a gamer, that'll do you fine.

Hard drives - 2 Seagate ones. Are SATA ones noisier than IDE ones? If so, I'll stick to IDE.

SATA drives just have different interfaces, they'll be no less or no more noisy, the Fujitsu IDE drives are reputedly quiet though, Maxtors and WD's like the whine after a few months (sometimes longer, sometimes sooner)

Case - nothing fancy, no windows on the sides, no blue LED's, watercooling etc. Beige preferably as it usually sits under the desk and most computer parts are that colour. The ability to keep in all the noise from the fans and drives is a must as it's in my bedroom, otherwise I'll end up chucking it out the window.

Go for a white chieftec, solid as a rock.

http://www.overclock.co.uk/customer/...=16141&cat=288

Fans - how many are needed?

None other than your CPU HSF, you won't be having any real performance parts so you shouldn't generate any heat that the PSU fan can't dissipate, if you're not comfortable with none, just stick one at the top of the back of the case (blowing outwards)

Optical drives - must seperate CDRW and DVD drives. I don't like disc swapping and I've always had 2 drives in my computer. Are DVD writers worth getting? What should I look out for and what should I avoid? How long does it take to burn a full DVD?

Optical drives are dirt cheap now, takes around 30 minutes to burn a film on my 4x writer, but I tend to burn more normal CD's as it never seems to fail no matter what media I use.

[quote]Floppy drive - I still have the odd FD knocking around with old data on so that's a must, although it doesn't get used often.[/quote}

You can pick them up for less than a fiver.

Power supply - recommended manufacturers? Typical wattage rating for this set-up? Price?

300 watt minimum, avoid junk like QTEC or any of the ole sh*te sold in PC worlds parts dept, something like http://www.overclock.co.uk/customer/...=17606&cat=266 will do you.

Other general advice?

Make sure you're earthed to at least the case chassis if you're handling components.