Advice needed, building pc

jozi

My brother wants to build a pc soon, below is what we came up with on komplett.
He's looking at spending about 800 euro, without monitor.
The parts below are roughly what he's willing to spend on each item.
I know most parts will be avalable else where for less, itdirect hitide shop4memory to name a few.
I dont think he's looking for any fancy leds here and there more a quiet pc (dont blame him) that will handle new games (ut2004) without to much problems

Where i'd be looking for advice is mainly the mobo and graphics card, i lost touch with what nvidia is up to and haven't a clue about ati's range (~150 euro for that)
The mobo, s-ata, nforce 2, 400mhz fsb, overclocking abillity, ~120 euro or there abouts (rather less than more)
I Suppose the advice needed is mainly in what parts to use that have proven to be good performers

Also what shop do you recomend round dublin city centre and for mail order



Chenbro Gaming Box Black/Metallic Silver 350W ATX12V SPI PSU, with PFC
90.51

MSI DVD recorder DR4-A IDE Black Retail DVD+R/+RW and DVD-R/-RW
95.59

Sony CD recorder 52x/32x/52x IDE black OEM
32.67

AMD Athlon XP2500+ 1.833 GHz Socket A 333MHz, 512KB Barton, OEM
78.14

Thermaltake Perfect Light Smart Fan 2 A1506 80x80mm fan with light/temp contro
13.15

Cooler Master AERO 7+ AMD ASB-V73 til AMD XP3000+ CPU and Higher
37.98

Sony Floppy Drive 3,5" 1,44MB MPF-920 Floppy Drive, Internal
15.58

Sapphire Radeon 9600XT Atlantis 128MB DD AGP,ATI9600XT,DVI-I,TV-Out, Lite-Retail
158.51

Abit NF7-S V2.0 Mainboard Socket A S-ATA nForce2-SPP/MCP-T2/Ultra 400, ATX,1394
110.11

Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 120GB S-ATA 8MB cache 7200RPM
102.72

Corsair Value S. PC3200 DDR-DIMM 512MB Unbuffered, Non-parity, 64Megx64, CL2.5
111.32

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Microsoft Intelli Mouse Optical ver 1.1 Mouse PS/2 & USB, Bulk
29.68

Logitech Internet Navigator Keyboard (English), PS/2 and USB, Retail
34.36

Hansol 17" CRT 730E TCO-99 Monitor
127.05


Total: 1050.52


I think thats about everything.

Cheers,
Jozi

Conlai

Looks like a grand little setup. Gfx card is pretty good, mate has one & says its great.
You don't really need the CDRW as the DVDRW will do the job for you and check to see if the case comes with a floppy as a some cases do. might save you a couple of quid.

tuxy

if hes a big gamer it would be worht getting a radeon 9800 pro for 100 euro extra if not the 9600 xt should be enough for him

Superman

nice setup but have a few suggestions

1. keep with that graphics card but DO NOT get the "lite" one, i'don't know about the 9600XT lite, but i have heard crap reviews about other lite cards.
2. Get a dvd burner, preferably pionner, they are reliable (then again msi could be good i just have a good pionner)
3. Get rid of the cd burner, its not needed the dvd has one in it! and get a standard dvd drive, this means if a dvd has no protection (i.e back-up or home movie) you can do a straight 1:1 copy.
4. Value ram is good but crucial XMS is slightly better.

I'm not being over critical, its just i built a poc about 6 month ago and crossed these hurdles before!
also if you want to really save, i can offer you a 17" crt for 30 euro. Just cause i'd say if you saved your cash now in about a year LCD's will be alot cheaper.
PM me about this

good luck to ya!

Creamy Goodness

i don't know much about the case but normally psu's that come with cases ain't up to stanards (except antec which i've tested)

aaf

Get an Antec Sonata case Antec Sonata case with 380W TruePower Silent PSU and case fan installed. You can also get this case from .IT Direct. With regards sound card, the difference between retail and OEM and lite retail is usually the games or lack of they include in the package. I bought the 9600XT OEM from JES and it works fine. You should also get the NEC ND-2500A from JES as it's only €80.99. You don't need any other optical drive like a cd-rw or a dvd drive. The DVDRW drive will do everything you need it to.

jozi

Ill mention the antec case to him, he was hoping to build something quiet.

I'm not sure if i can get him to spend another 100euro for a better graphics card, dont hink he'll be going to crazy playing games mind you.

He wanted a cd and dvd burner, dont ask?

So its a pretty good setup then?
Wont be getting the parts for a while, he has to save a bit first.

About the graphics card, has anyone used the lite model? is it any different to the normal model? Was thinking of selling him my geforce4 Ti4200 and getting the ati myself.

Anyway cheers for the replies

Jozi

Woden

Originally posted by Superman
1. keep with that graphics card but DO NOT get the "lite" one, i'don't know about the 9600XT lite, but i have heard crap reviews about other lite cards.

hmm this is not true, lite cards just mean that they are not retail cards and dont come with the games and such just the card itself which is identical to the card that comes with the full package. so don't be put off by lite cards unless you want the games and what not. perhaps your thinking of the SE radeon cards which are fairly crap, typically with lower frequencys or less pipelines

with regards to the coolermaster hs, don't bother wasting your money on the 38euro version the 22euro lite version i think it is just as good best put your money into something else.

thats good motherboard you going for although there is a slightly newer version the AN7 with which has microguru basically the ability to overclock within windows but i didn't read great thinks about the first revision of this board for overclocking i think people struggled with high fsb's but you don't mention overclocking anyway so the nf7-s is probably fine.

Adeptus Titanicus

Originally posted by jozi

About the graphics card, has anyone used the lite model? is it any different to the normal model?

The Lite models just don't come with the games and stuff like that. I got the Lite version of the 9800Pro based on advice here. Money well spent! Didn't need any more games that I won't get time to play

Edit:
Beaten to it!

Col_Loki

Thermaltake Perfect Light Smart Fan 2 A1506 80x80mm fan with light/temp contro
13.15

Cooler Master AERO 7+ AMD ASB-V73 til AMD XP3000+ CPU and Higher
37.98

Chenbro Gaming Box Black/Metallic Silver 350W ATX12V SPI PSU, with PFC
90.51

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Definetly think about getting the sonata case, its far better build quality and has a fantastic very quiet power supply. It is built for silence and comes with a 120mm case fan.

If you get the cheaper "lite" version of the Aero7 as data suggested, loose the case fan and pick up a sonata as aaf suggested the system would be alot quieter and generally better quality.


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MSI DVD recorder DR4-A IDE Black Retail DVD+R/+RW and DVD-R/-RW
95.59

Sony CD recorder 52x/32x/52x IDE black OEM
32.67
__________________________________________________________________

I think the main reason he wants the seperate cd burner is because DVD burners cant burn as fast as the regular CD ones........... ie he has alot of cds to burn. Think about the LG dvd burner its one of the fastest all round drives and is cheaper than the MSI.

try www.jes-computer.de (LG 8x burner for €90 ish). The difference between the two burners for a cd would be 20-30 seconds roughly.

jozi

Cheers for the reply col_loki

He did want the seperate cd and dvd burner cause the cd would be faster than the dvd at burning.

Most of the parts where added in for the rough price he's willing to spend on each part just so we could get a total, not all some i recomended that i knew where good parts.

jozi