Recommend me components

BigCon

Ok, so this probably as been asked a 100 times before but I'm too lazy to do a search...

I'm getting a 3.2 Ghz P4 for free where I work (no prizes for guessing where!) and I'm thinking of building my own PC. I haven't built one before but I have installed drives etc so I'm not completely useless!
Anyone got any suggestions on the specs I should go for.
Total cost to be less than €1000...

Thanks!

silverside

i'm building up a PC at the moment and all the components (except monitor) are coming to around 1000. You already have a CPU so should come in under that.

heres what I am getting
Seagate Barracuda 8MB 160GB SATA savastore.com 128 - quietest around, or samsung spinpoint are also good
Biostar Ideq SFF Case silver overclockers.co.uk 229 - better than shuttle - that price includes mobo,case, 200W PSU
Creative SBS 270 speakers savastore.com 32
512MB 3200 DDR RAM (one piece) crucial.co.uk 114
Pioneer DV107 8X DVDRW OEM White blankdiscstore.co.uk 108
9800Pro ati oem overclockers.co.uk special (sold out now but other specials are out there) 209
Terratec soundcard from EBAY 60 odd

If you don't want an SFF case I recommend the Antec Sonata, black, half height tower, quiet and attractive, comes with a PSU, cost around 155 euro. Don't know what mobo to recoomend.

Col_Loki

Kühler S478/S754 ZALMAN CNPS-7000-AlCu € 27,99
DVDR IDE LG GSA-4082B 8x +/- bulk € 98,98
128MB Sapphire Radeon 9800 Pro Lite-RTL € 208,98
HDD SATA 160GB Samsung SP1614C 8MB € 107,85
Logitech Cordless Desktop MX € 88,55
MB ATX S478 Abit AI7 € 109,89


Sub-Total: € 642,24 -> www.jes-computer.de (€20 shipping)

512Mb kit DDR PC-3500 Level1 Dual Channel - Mushkin

Total €175 incl vat & delivery -> www.pc-memory-upgrade.co.uk (based in kildare)

Speakers www.creative.ie €57 for 4.1 surround sound.

Total -> €874

A case is very muc personal choice so ill just give you some links and see what you think.

www.elara.ie (sonata highly recomended, silent case with excellent PSU. Also lanboy)
www.xcase.co.uk (huge selection)
www.overclockers.co.uk (expensive delivery but nice cases)

The price includes everything except a monitor. Im not sure what your main use is, this is a gaming machine with high performance..... Let me know either way and i can change spec.

BigCon

It won't really be a gaming machine, just usual office stuff, and DVD/Mp3 player. Speaking of which, is there any easy way of remotly controlling the Pc and using it as a sound system (with sorround sound etc) for the sitting room - I have a few thousand MP3's and I'd like top be able to do this??

Any help much appreciated...

Col_Loki

Well since your not going to use it for gaming the expensive graphics card isint needed. Mabye better speakers and an Audigy for excellent sound? And mabye more hard disk space?

How much of a problem is noise, i love quiet systems but its hard to get a performance / quietness ratio. PS do you need a screen?

[edit] How about adding a Tv card with a small remote? Usefull for volume etc or would you want a more detailed controller?

Basically tell me whats important, and ill put the best spec i can toghter with your budget.

silverside

Bigcon,

I looked into this. Sounds like you could use an SFF system from Biostar or Shuttle.
they are literally shoebox size.

Some have onboard graphics which are ideal if you wont be playing games.
For playing mp3's etc you can add a front lcd panel into one of the drivebays to display track details.
These are available from either CrystalFontz or Matrix Orbital - some have buttons which can be mapped to input keys, couple this with winamp playlist and you can control it even without switching on the monitor.
There are various infrared and radio frequency remotes - ATI make one.

You can either put the PC in your sitting room, or leave it elsewhere and stream wirelessly to a reciever beside your tv, these cost from 150euro upwards. You could also stream to a hacked XBOX, either wired or wireless.

The easiest solution for surround sound is to get something like a creative 5.1 speaker set. In that case dont bother with a soundcard if your PC has onboard sound with digital out.

Alternatively you could hook it into a proper dolby digital speaker setup but that is obviously more expensive.

tman

Originally posted by silverside
There are various infrared and radio frequency remotes - ATI make one.

http://komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=116192&cks=SER

i'm not entirely sure if this will work without an aiw card...
it'd usually cost roundabout €30

according to this it should work with any hardware.
komplett won't be stocking them again, i'd snap it up at that price if i were you.

BigCon

Thanks to all the replies I've re-thought what I need:
A small system just for playing music, remotely controlled, with stereo surround sound. The shoebox size SFF system sounds good. The only question is would this be a waste of a 3.2 Ghz processor??

silverside

any full pentium (not celeron) should be fine. You will only notice a speed difeerence when ripping cds/dvds, or when playing newer games (but they mostly depend on the graphics card).

tman

definitely sounds like a waste of a p4 3.2...

i'd go for something like an athlon xp 2500+ and spend the savings on a decent sound card (audigy 2 all the way)

silverside

you can get an athlon xp 2500 mobile version for around 90 euro. These are unlocked and can either underclock/undervolt for quietness or overclock up to 3200+ for performance.

I'm coupling that with an NForce2 SFF case from Biostar (200N) which has onboard soundstorm sound with digital out etc etc.

Audigy2 are not the best choice for sound quality when playing music as they work of an internal clock of 48khz. This means CD music, originally at 44.1KHZ, has to be resampled with a loss of quality.

Either go for the onboard sound and digital speakers, or go for a card from M-Audio or terratec if you are serious about good sound quality.