Building my own PC

[Ramrod]

Right, certain members here (you know who you are ) have persuaded me that I should build rather than buy. I'm going to have a stab at it but I'll probably need advice from time to time.

I am thinking of using the A8V-E Deluxe mobo with a Athlon 64 FX-55 Socket 939 and a GeForce 6800Ultra--but the 512mb version which should be on sale soon. I was thinking of the coolermaster CM Stacker (STC-T01) for the case as it's huge and appears to have filters for the air intake.

Any comments on this lot? Could I improve on my choices?
.........also, what ram should I go for?

[smicer07]

Is it difficult to build your own PC? I've always wanted to try but never had the guts to try it.

[STONEISLAND]

I cannot advise as I havent got a clue but want to build myself so this is very usefull.

What will the total cost be for that? Whats your budget?

[Nemesis]

Aren't the FX-55 chips hard to get hold of ?

Need:-
Memory
PSU
Disks
CD
DVD
Extra Fans
Screen
Sound Card
Keyboard
Mouse



Have to ask ... why the 512 Geforce ??

[Chimaera]

Think I'll pull up a chair and watch this one!
Well you never know............I might even build one, one day!!!
(BTW Paul says it's a piece of p***, I'm sure you can PM him with any problems! )

[Richard M]

Originally Posted by Nemesis

Aren't the FX-55 chips hard to get hold of ?

Not sure but when I bought my FX53 I got it from scan.co.uk within 2 days.

As far as RAM goes, I've never looked back since getting 2x512MB of this:

Corsair 1GB DDR XMS3200XL Pro TwinX (2x512MB) CAS2 (MY-050-CS)

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Corsair_XL.html

The Athlon64 (939) needs the best low latency RAM you can give it to perform at it's best.

[bopdude]

Good luck mate, I put together a pc a while ago, nout flash but it worked, if I can do it so can you, look forward to reading more on your blood, sweat and tears journey, as mentioned before ............... what sort of cost are you looking at overall ?

[punky]

Originally Posted by Ramrod

Right, certain members here (you know who you are ) have persuaded me that I should build rather than buy. I'm going to have a stab at it but I'll probably need advice from time to time.

I am thinking of using the A8V-E Deluxe mobo with a Athlon 64 FX-55 Socket 939 and a GeForce 6800Ultra--but the 512mb version which should be on sale soon. I was thinking of the coolermaster CM Stacker (STC-T01) for the case as it's huge and appears to have filters for the air intake.

Any comments on this lot? Could I improve on my choices?
.........also, what ram should I go for?

Well personally, i'd probably go for the ATI X800 instead of the NVidia, but thats just me.

For RAM, get decent branded RAM like Crucial or Kingston. Make sure it is DDR 400 or you won't get the total benefit. I looked last night and according to my system monitor I didn't use much more RAM in-game than I did out of it. Like 200meg or so. 1 gig should do you alright. But like we were saying, for the price of RAM, you might as well go 2 gig and at least you know you're covered for the future.

If you want those components, you are going to need some serious juice. I think those 2 graphics cards takes 2 power ports alone, regardless of fans and stuff, so make sure you pick a case with a lot of fans, and a huge PSU. 550w+ at least.

You might want a real nice sound card if you want to buy a decent 7 speaker setup and have decent 3D audio (Imagine hearing an explosion coming from the side of you, rather than having to see it!). The on-board sound support is generally a bit naff. I'd get something like... this Remember to get some nice speakers and a decent woofer. (although you might make 'er indoors regret the descision to allow you to have a new computer) but at least it will sound great while it lasts. Go to a proper Hi-Fi shop, and try before you buy Aim for a good 7.1 THX approved set of speakers.

With the DVD player, make sure you get a dual layer, and you can get 16x now. You might want to look for lighscribe which seems to save a lot of hassle as it writes the label to the DVD whilst its in the drive.

I think thats about it..... Anything else you need, lemme know.

[goldoni]

Its dead easy if you can paint by numbers you can build a PC. Your only problem is if one of the main parts is faulty you could be pulling your hair out trying to find the problem.

[Paul K]

Originally Posted by goldoni

Its dead easy if you can paint by numbers you can build a PC. Your only problem is if one of the main parts is faulty you could be pulling your hair out trying to find the problem.

Wise words Best thing to do is take your time and read the documentation that comes with the mobo as that is where things are likely to be confusing if anywhere. After that just go through it logically, double check all connections prior to powering up and have fun

[punky]

Originally Posted by goldoni

Its dead easy if you can paint by numbers you can build a PC. Your only problem is if one of the main parts is faulty you could be pulling your hair out trying to find the problem.

Too true. My first computer build was a frigging nightmare. which made things worse some components were second hand, and others were unbranded. I kept turning it on, and it would shut straight off.

I had to take out every piece one by one and restart to see if at least I could try and get the system to stay up. In the end I got down to the motherboard and processor. It still did it. Last gasp I took the mobo out of the case in case it was shorting and.... it was Re-did all my spacers, put it back and worked just peachy.

My language was quite colourful up until I found out what the problem was.

[Ramrod]

Originally Posted by Richard M

As far as RAM goes, I've never looked back since getting 2x512MB of this:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Corsair_XL.html

The Athlon64 (939) needs the best low latency RAM you can give it to perform at it's best.

So whats the difference between the pro twinx/platinum twinx/pro cas2...etc.......'cos they are all XMS3200XL

Well personally, i'd probably go for the ATI X800 instead of the NVidia, but thats just me.

You are looking at a nvidia fanboy here

Have to ask ... why the 512 Geforce ??

'cos it's the biggest and baddest

what sort of cost are you looking at overall ?

I'll try to stay at the £2k-£2.5k mark........obviously the less it costs the less Mandy will complain
__________________

Once I start building I will provide pics of the process



Anyone have any comments on the case I'm thinking of using?
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I think those 2 graphics cards takes 2 power ports alone,

I'm not going the SLI route (sorry KP) 'cos I can't really see the benefit

[punky]

Originally Posted by Ramrod

I'm not going the SLI route (sorry KP) 'cos I can't really see the benefit

Oh, no sorry, I meant each of those graphics cards will take at least 2 power plugs from the PSU. Why is why you need a huge PSU, with loads of plugs

[Ramrod]

Originally Posted by punky

Oh, no sorry, I meant each of those graphics cards will take at least 2 power plugs from the PSU. Why is why you need a huge PSU, with loads of plugs

I'm thinking of at least a 600W psu

As for HDD's, I would like two 10 000 rpm SATA's in raid 1 (which I believe will mirror them) 'cos I've had HDD's fail on me before..........am I correct in thinking that a raid 1 setup will allow me to boot off either one if the other goes down? I am a complete novice at HDD setup
Anyone know if it is possible to get 10 000 rpm drives bigger than 74 mb?
__________________

Originally Posted by punky

You might want a real nice sound card if you want to buy a decent 7 speaker setup and have decent 3D audio (Imagine hearing an explosion coming from the side of you, rather than having to see it!). The on-board sound support is generally a bit naff. I'd get something like... this Remember to get some nice speakers and a decent woofer. (although you might make 'er indoors regret the descision to allow you to have a new computer) but at least it will sound great while it lasts. Go to a proper Hi-Fi shop, and try before you buy Aim for a good 7.1 THX approved set of speakers.

I'm not interested in speakers as I am pretty much forced to use headphones but I have a pair of Sennheiser PC150's (headset/mic)
I will either pull my existing audigy 2 zs soundcard out of my current machine or perhaps go for a M-Audio card

[Aragorn]

That case certainly looks pretty serious stuff. Unlikely to get overheated in there!

You can get 10K 140Gb disk mechs, but only in corporate disk arrays (EMC, HP etc). If you need more than the 74Gb mirror, you could either add a large IDE drive or get a PCI Sata RAID controller (such as http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/s...tml?ADA-105715) and a couple of slower large SATA drives, eg Maxtor DiamondMax10's, in RAID 1 again.

As far as the memory goes, I think the main difference between some of those Corsair chips is the number of LED's attached! If you're going to have a window on your case then get nice flashy LED memory, otherwise just get the lowest latency matched Corsair sticks you can afford. Personally I went for GEIL, but afaik both have a good reputation.

Sounds like one big mama of a system your building - let use know how you get on!

HTH