Advice for Newbie on Building Own PC

Gavin1

Hi Folks,
I have been liurking for a week or two on these boards and I`m amazed at the advice that is dispensed(enough licking).
I have a 1.4Ghz P4 and I want to build/upgrade.
The system that I want does not have to be rocket fast, but fast enough to keep up with the Jone`s system. I do not run vastly large programmes and do not do any video editing, however I like gaming.
I have on order a large HD, so I need a motherboard, processor, ram, graphics card, sound and case. If anyone can offer advise on any of the above that would be great.
Regards
Gavin

Dempsey

If ya want to upgrade your existing PC id reckon 2GHz is the maximum but give us your system specs to be sure.

But if your going from scratch. You'll need to give us an idea of what your willing to spend and we'll go from there. What hard drive did you order? If your building a new pc you could get a SATA Hard Drive instead.

carrolls

Probably a nice combination that will keep up with the Jones would be:
Asus P4P800 mother board. €110
Pentium 4 2.4 GHZ €200
Kingston PC2700 333 MHZ 512 MB €100
Western Digital 180 GB hard Drive €160
Freecom DVD+-RW €160
FX 5200 128 MB Video card €70
Total = €800.
All prices are approx incl VAT.
Savastores prices in the UK will be approx above. P/P will add about 10%
This is the combination my brother assembled just before Christmas from Savastore in the UK.

Gavin1

Thanks for the replies I currently have a Gateway P4 1.4Ghz. I have ordered a 120b Maxtor Hd.
I was hoping to scavage the case form the Gateway, is this feasable?
I have a new LG CD burner and the DVD drive I got with the Gateway would be sufficent.
As regards to the finance I suppose €800-900 is my max.

Regards
Gavin

Dempsey

Prices are from www.overclockers.co.uk

P4 2.6GHz 800MHz FSB €187.51
Abit IC7-G MAX2 €162.02
OCZ 512MB (2x256MB) PC3200 €167.13
LiteOn 8x DVD±R/±RW Drive €143.43
Western Digital Caviar SATA 120GB Special Edition €111.51 (Cancel your Hard drive if it isnt SATA)
Sapphire ATI Radeon 9600 Pro 128MB €170.45
Antec LANBOY Aluminum Super Mini Tower case €107.87

€1049.92

A bit of a Stretch but its money well spent

The Gateway case is probably not ATX form factor so your better off Selling that system as a whole or something

silverside

- go for seagate for the hard drive they have a very good reputation for reliability. 160GB drives are not htat expensive now.

- LG GSA-4081B 8X dvd multi format burner 140 euro

- AMD 2500XP are cheaper than Intel and about the same performance

- the radeon 9600 is a fair bit cheaper than the 9600pro so decide if you need to pay the extra to get a bit more speed for your games.

- You will also have to pay around 100 euro for Windows XP unless you already have a licence, or want to run a Linux box.

- Trust 514DX 5.1 SOUND EXPERT OPTICAL - around 45 euro.

Dempsey

Originally posted by silverside
- Trust 514DX 5.1 SOUND EXPERT OPTICAL - around 45 euro.

The Abit Board has 5.1 sound on it with optical in/out

Didnt read the bit saying that you have the optical drives already. That brings the price down to 910. Looking really good. I really like the case, i have the PSU thats in it, its sweet.

Venom

The onboard sound of the Abit IC-7 series of mainboards is pretty messed up do to very poor design of the chip.

Dempsey

My IC7-G is fine. Notice a bit of noise from hard drive when nothing is playing but still good sound quality.

Col_Loki

Well my 2cents worth you have a choice.... AMD or Intel. The AMD system would probable be closer to what your looking for and performs better bank per buck.

For an AMD based setup the best options really have to be.....

Amd Xp2500+ chip
Abit NF7-S (sata, great onboard sound, best Nforce2 board on the market IMO)
Pc3200 Ram 512mb (single stick or 2x256mb really doesent matter trust me)
(Pc2700 ram is the same price as Pc3200, get the Pc3200 might come in handy if your overclocking and it will run @ Pc2700 no probs)
Graphics Card : If your not big into gaming but like a bit of it then definetly the 9600pro 128mb (on komplett for €127)...... big gamer 9800pro (€266 on komplett).

Case wise its a matter of personal choice but DONT use the gateway one.
PSU -> Make sure you get a good quality one as your system may have problems if you dont. Best ones are Antec, Fortron, Be-quiet, Enermax, Thermaltake, Zalman, any of these are excellent and wont let you down (personally id go for Antec,Be-quiet, fortron or Zalman). The higher wattage the better, but 350w in a good brand will be plenty for your setup.

Antec PSU's & Cases-> www.elara.ie , check out the Lanboy (with antec 350w PSU) and Sonata (silent case with 380w Antec PSU).........
Be-Quiet PSU's -> www.hitide.ie , nice blue fans also included, prob quieter than Antecs (which are pretty quiet).
Zalman & Fortron -> www.pc-look.com , great PSU's also.

Enermax , Thermaltake tend to be a little louder. Stay away from no brand PSU's (qtec are also bad) no matter what wattage they say.

[edit] For the general bits like the motherboard and CPU... check out www.komplett.ie , prices in euros, fast cheap delivery, and great prices..... hard to beat (always go with the DHL shipping option unless its over €20 - saves hassle ). elara have a nice range of cases but there stock isint great so give em an e-mail before hand if your thinkin of ordering (ignore the stocks they say on the website) . www.overclockers.co.uk are very good, prices are in sterling, delivery isnt nice , they have a good range but tend to be more expensive than komplett.

You could always have a look in maplins they have some sweet looking cases either.... just dont get there PSU's lol they arent great.

unkel

Everything COL_LOKI said + if you're big into sound, you might want to use a pci soundcard instead of the onboard. The onboard is good, but nowhere near the quality of say an audigy2 (€75 komplett.ie). Have you got surround speakers? Creative 6700 are a great match for the audigy2

Depends a bit on your budget really

BloodBath

Get yourself the sapphire radeon 9600xt on special offer this week on komplett. Only e140 for a great card and a free copy of half life 2. If your into your games i'd seriously recomend this card over the others.


BloodBath