Building a new computer

rogue-entity

::Note to mods, I did start a similar thread before but cannot find it, if you do close it or delete it, thanks::

Anyway, I have an old PC with a few reusable componants but I want to build a brand new one keeping the same case and the reusable componants.

Here are the reusable componants
Sony DRU 510A DVD Burner
A floppy drive.
A fax modem (PCI)
A 10/100 NIC (PCI)
A TV Tuner (PCI)

I dont really need the fax modem and the NIC can be replaced with an integrated NIC instead.

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I need a motherboard that can support the latest AMD Athlon64 X2, up to 4Gigs of RAM, SATA, at least 7 expansion slots [1 16x PCIe for the graphics card, 1x PCI/PCIe shared slot for the TV tuner and 5 PCIe slots for other PCIe hardware that I may add to the system in the future.

I want your suggestions on which motherboard to get that best suits my need, what graphics card I should get that has a TV output, what size HDD etc.

DingChavez

AnCapaillMor

Any of these should support an X2 http://www.komplett.ie/k/kl.asp?bn=10482 .

7 expansion slots, wtf are you putting into it. As for GFX cards and hdd, what are you willing to spend?

DemonOfTheFall

I don't think you're gonna find 7 PCI-E slots on any board out there, short of some uber server board maybe.

Most of them will have a couple PCI-E and a couple PCI, good luck finding 7 PCIE tho.

rogue-entity

Sorry but I never said 7 PCIe slots. I said 7 expansion slots. What I am looking for is future-proofing as much as possible. I dont want to buy a nice shiney new mobo only to have one that I should have gotten being released a few weeks after. So I want a mobo that supports the latest dual-core 64bit Athlon chip which I think will be Socket 939 as 940 is only new and too expensive.

I would like a board that can take up to 4Gig of DDR RAM, SATA, Firewire and USB2. As far as the expansion slots go, a lot of hardware still uses PCI such as the Creative sound cards and a lot of cheap low end hardware. I will need about 3 PCI slots anyway and at least 3 PCIe slots and the single PCIe 16x slot for the graphics card, making a total of seven expansion slots. My current P3 mobo has 1 AGP slot, 5 PCI slots and 1 ISA slot. My processor runs at 550 during the summer and 733 during the winter due to cooling issues.

Cake Fiend

rogue-entity wrote:

1 16x PCIe for the graphics card, 1x PCI/PCIe shared slot for the TV tuner and 5 PCIe slots for other PCIe hardware that I may add to the system in the future.

That's a lot of PCIe slots.

rogue-entity

Oh sorry, I never ment to say that, I had clicked send, but then while the page was loading I got a server timeout. I was not able to access boards.ie for about 30minutes. I went off and did something else and came back, edited what I was going to say and tried posting again, and got the same timeout, I could not access the home page but I was able to ping the server. I tried again after 10 minutes and it went through. I saw the version that I had posted but for some reason boards.ie is now showing the older version. Damn that server timeout.
(also I should probably have waited till the morning instead of posting that at 1am ).

Anyway I probably wont be getting the X2 chip but rather the single core Athlon64 chip which is cheaper. About 1-2GB RAM (depending on how much money I have left over), a 150-200GB SATA HDD, a cheap PCI sound card (if none is integrated onto the board, a PCI slot for my NIC if there is no NIC onboard, a medium range PCIe Graphics card, a PCI slot for my TV-Tuner and about 3 spare PCIe slots. Any thoughts on the board, once I have it sorted the rest is a cinch as I can get the rest cheap from either komplette or one of the local suppliers who give me a decent discount.

rogue-entity

I still have not gotten around to upgrading my PC. I have been working and saving more money. I know of at least two good places to buy the hardware (one being Komplett). So all I need to do is decide which board and chip to get.

I am trying to decide between an Athlon64 FX or an Athlon64 X2. I never played many games (cos I never had a PC that could play them) so I am not sure which chip to go with, which one would suit me better. What I would be using the PC for is, Normal Officy stuff, surfing the web etc, Video Editing and DVD Authoring, Watching HD-Video, Playing the odd computer game and other basic stuff. I tend to have a few apps open at once so that is why I am considering the X2 chip.

The mobo that I decided to get is an ABIT KN8-Ultra
It has builtin sound and Gbit ethernet. This suits me for the moment. It also has 3PCIe and 3PCI slots, so I can reuse my old PCTV card, and still have room for a DVB-C or DVB-S card.

All I have to get now is a better PSU (or a case with a better PSU), RAM, a decent PCIe Graphics card and a decent SATA HDD (maybe 2).

All thoughts and suggestions on this are most welcome, especialy as I am unsure of what Gfx card to buy. Something in the mid-range that is DX9 compatable.

mordeith

I receNtly got an XFX 6800GS off Komplett €270. Great card and I'm well chuffed with it. I also got this case off Pixmania. Not sure if they still have em though. Easy case to work with. Comes with two fans and a good PSU.

DemonOfTheFall

The Athlon FX-60 is the exact same as the X2 4800+ except 200 mhz faster. It's absolutely not worth the money.

An X2 like the 4400+ seems to be where it's at now. Personally, I'm just about to buy an Opteron 170. I'm only choosing that instead of the X2 because I want to get some serious overclocking going on though.

Drapper

whats your budget man ?

rogue-entity

I am not planning on spending more then 1000Euro as that is all I have saved.
At first I wanted to just rebuild my old machine with an upgrade. But then I changed my mind and decided to get a new case and either buy the parts seperatly (either from Komplett or my local supplier) and assemble it myself, buy an upgrade kit from Komplett, buy a brand new PC kit from Komplett or just buy a new PC from my supplier custom made.

I have decided on the everything bar the graphics card (although I may check out the XFX 6800GS). But before I go out and buy everything.

Are EPoX motherboards any good? They are being shipped with the Athlon X2 upgrade kits on Komplett but I have never heard of them? Is it better to get an upgrade kit then the individual parts (aside from the U/Ks being cheaper)? Should I just get a PC Kit instead?

rogue-entity

I have finaly decided on everything. I am going to get all the parts from Komplett and just assemble it myself, then I can wipe XP from my old machine and install it on the new one (it was a retail version).

The specs are as follows:
Gigabyte GA-K8N Pro-SLI
PC3200 DDR Ram (2x 512MB)
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+
Maxtor DiamondMax 10 250GB (SATA2)
ATI Radeon X700 256MB DDR (with TV Out and DVI)

All I need to get now is a decent Case and PSU. For the PSU I was considering a NorthQ 500W, but I have not decided on the Case. I am looking for one that has a clear side panel (yes I am vain) to show the inner workings and I will be fitting a CCT as well. Any suggestions?

DemonOfTheFall

The X700 sucks...

Drapper

DemonOfTheFall wrote:

The X700 sucks...

Id agree with this get a 7800 man!

DemonOfTheFall

Avoid the NorthQ power supply aswell, I've only seen bad reviews of them. A cheaper lower wattage fortron would be better than the 500w northq. Something like the fortron 400w.

da4i's

I so need a SATA hdd lol

Anyways; i got a 6800GT (i think thats what its called) and it plays all the latest games and is pretty cheap now ;-)

Oh and btw; making a computer is as easy as pie; i made my one there a year ago at the ate of 14!!!

Best of luck ;-)

Dave

rogue-entity

Cheers for the input guys, I know I have been rather indecisive of late, and I changed my mind more times then John Kerry.

My first PC was a compaq, my second one was also a compaq, but I wanted to build my own one both for the sake of it and because I cant upgrade the compaq at all, it is just too fussy.

My first machine is all second hand parts and some of the useable parts from my old compaq too. I blew two processors and a motherboard but all is well now. The only problem is that I build it in 2002 with hardware even older.

This new machine of mine is a major project, and one that is well needed. So I am taking my time picking out the componants. I have decided on everything except the Case (and PSU). I will avoid the X700, (which a friend recommended) as per your suggestions. I will check out the onces you have recommended and will get which ever one has the best balance of price, performance and features.

So Graphics card aside, I need to get a decent Case and a good quality PSU to run the lot, bear in mind that I plan on adding more HDDs later so I will probably go for between 550-600w. Any ideas guys?

Drapper

rogue-entity wrote:

Cheers for the input guys, I know I have been rather indecisive of late, and I changed my mind more times then John Kerry.

My first PC was a compaq, my second one was also a compaq, but I wanted to build my own one both for the sake of it and because I cant upgrade the compaq at all, it is just too fussy.

My first machine is all second hand parts and some of the useable parts from my old compaq too. I blew two processors and a motherboard but all is well now. The only problem is that I build it in 2002 with hardware even older.

This new machine of mine is a major project, and one that is well needed. So I am taking my time picking out the componants. I have decided on everything except the Case (and PSU). I will avoid the X700, (which a friend recommended) as per your suggestions. I will check out the onces you have recommended and will get which ever one has the best balance of price, performance and features.

So Graphics card aside, I need to get a decent Case and a good quality PSU to run the lot, bear in mind that I plan on adding more HDDs later so I will probably go for between 550-600w. Any ideas guys?

Compaq do the work of the devil !!

L31mr0d

Where are you getting the RAM from? shop4memory.com are better than komplett if you live in Ireland.

Also imo I think the WD Caviar HDD (SATA2) would be a better buy. Look up some comparison reviews.

DONT GO NEAR NORTHQ PSUs. I got one a few months back and it was a big mistake, the 12v rails are all over the place at full/medium load. Although my system is pretty power hungry with a 6800 Ultra and 2xWD SATA2s in RAID0.
If you are going to try and play games like FEAR on this system, you'll need a great PSU.

A guy on these boards recommended me an Enermax Liberty PSU, and i'm probably going to go ahead and get one. The 400w model should be all you need for your system. Remember the wattage is not the most important aspect, stability is, you don't want a 1KW PSU that its 12v rails drop to 7v on full load. So read around, you can't have enough information about your system before you buy it. Remember their are people who are paid in compaq to work out compatibility issues. So you have to do their work now.

Check that the PSU has 2x12v rails at least. It should be ATX12v 2.* (* being what ever incarnation they come up with next, i.e. 2.0, 2.2)

Shop around aswell, Komplett are good, but they aren't the best for everything. Try ebay as well. I know they have pretty cheap, new PSUs on there.

Remember with Komplett, if you buy it and use it, and there is nothing wrong with it but it isn't compatible with your system. Sorry no refunds.

uberpixie

would suggest the ye olde favorite: antec sonata II case with 430W psu.

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=311799

good case with a dacent quality psu all for 130 euro.

B00MSTICK

I'd go for an opteron 165 over a 4200+

rogue-entity

Ah, I finaly decided on everything, for the most part I may still change my mind on the Case and PSU. But, this fits into my budget, and what I was looking for.

Mobo: Gigabyte GA-K8N Pro-SLI
Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+
RAM: 1GB PC3200 DDR RAM (2x512) (CAS 2.5)
HDD: Western Digital Cavair SE16 250GB SATA
Graphics: PoV GeForce 6800GS 256MB GDDR3
Case: Chieftec Dragon Medium Tower case (black)
PSU: Antec NEOHE 430 GB 430W PSU
DVD/CD Existing Sony DRU-510A

So far this is a total cost (less shipping) of €1104. The only thing I am unsure of is the shipping charges. Komplett lists An Post, GLS Ireland, DHL Europlus and DHL as couriers, each one with a seperate price. Tell me, does this represent the total shipping charges (adding up the different ones) or do you pick which ones you want to go with.