building a pc

MyPeopleDrankTheSoup

Right.. I currently have a dell laptop which is great and portable an' all, its crap for gaming and I want a desktop. So I've decided to build a pc. I built one 3 years ago around an AMD chip and its worked grand but my brother owns it now.

I havent really been keeping up with hardware stuff and dont know what to do. Should I build it around a conroe chip or get some of the cheap AMDs out there? I was thinking of watercooling as well, not really for overclocking, but more so for a quiet PC and no dust coming in from the air cooler.

I've a budget of around €2000 euro for everything, any recomendations?

sock puppet

There will be conroe shortages for a while so if you want it soon go for a cheap AMD but if your prepared to wait get a conroe. The e6300 is good value but you have a fairly big budget so maybe go for the e6600.

For graphics i would suggest a 7600gs or 7600gt to last you until dx10 is released. i dont know much about watercooling and IMO its not really worth it.

PogMoThoin

E6600 conroe FTW
Wait till conroe is released proper, it'll be easier to make your mind up when you see how much Amd price drops. Also ther'll be a better selection of conroe boards.
Watercooling is pointless unless u oc. good job with the hoover every so often keeps it clean. go for good air cooling and adjust speeds down to keep quiet.
Gpu depends on what res your monitor supports. dx10 will be out next yr so you'll prob upgrade again then so keep that in mind

DirkVoodoo

Yeah, the biggest problem at the moment isnt the supply of conroe, but knowing which motherboard to buy. Pocket your 2000 euro for now and wait for the storm to pass. €2000 + Intel Core 2 Duo = Serious Gaming Rig with all the bells and whistles.

Of course, you can pick out the other components now. You want some nice DDR2-800 or 1066, a nice case like a LianLi V1000 and a good strong PSU by Tagan or Seasonic. Avoid the whole SLi thing and buy a nice, top of the line, single card solution, or a 7950 if you are so inclined.

knipex

folowo the advice above and you wont go far wrong.

On watercooling however I disagree. It is a big plus for silence. Have a look at Alphacool, aquacomputer and swiftech all good kits.

MyPeopleDrankTheSoup

Yeah, I'm set on watercooling, I want to mess around with overclocking and, mainly, really want a quiet pc.

K.O.Kiki

Hehe... according to plenty of reviews I've read, the 7300GT is a performance bargain -- it's basically an underclocked 7600GS, OC'ing to 450mhz+ core/900mhz memory on average* Around €86 at Overclockers, AND silent!

*of course this is just from reviews

MyPeopleDrankTheSoup

I got this spec from a friend, looks decent. all from komplett.

Cooler Master Real Power 550W w/Power indicator, SLI, ATX/EPS, 20/24pin
Corsair TWIN2X 6400C4 DDR2, 2048MB CL4, Kit w/two 1GB Dimm's, E.P.P Technology
Creative I-Trigue 3330 (2.1 Speaker system)
MSI 975X Platinum PowerUP Ed., I975X, Socket-775, ATX, GbLAN, ViiV, PCI-Ex16 - dont know about this, mite wait for a better board
NEC DVD±RW burner, ND-3550A, 16x, Dual, Black OEM
Samsung 20" LCD Syncmaster 205BW TCO03, Silver, 1600x1050, 6ms, VGA/DVI, 700:1
Western Digital Caviar SE16 500GB SATA2 16MB 7200RPM x 2= 1TB. U can never have too much :-)
XFX GeForce 7900GT 256MB GDDR3, PCI-Express, 2xDVI/HDTV, 470/1370Mhz - should i get a more basic gpu and just wait for directx10
XION II BLACK PEARL W/green led, X Factor metallic design (without PSU)
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 2.4GHz Socket LGA775, 4MB, BOXED w/fan

what ye think?? its going to be expensive enough, i still have to get decent keyboard/mouse and watercooling kit.

MyPeopleDrankTheSoup

that all comes to €2300. pricey. i mite cut back on the graphics card.

PogMoThoin

Just get 1 hd 2 start. can always add another.
I got this ram 4 sale:http://cgi.ebay.ie/OCZ-2Gb-2x1GB-DDR2-PC2-5400-Gold-GX-XTC_W0QQitemZ270013109115QQihZ017QQcategoryZ172QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
Google each item 2 see if you can find them any cheaper.
You got no cooler in that list. Dunno what heatsink and fan with conroe chip is like, but i'd say you best get 1. I got Zalman CNPS9500-LED Aero Flower:http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Zalman_CPU_Coolers.html
Read this thread before deciding on the monitor (especially 8T8's link 2 reviews): http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054970072

I bought most of my parts off OCUK. They charge £22 for bulk deliveries. Worth comparing prices. Sterling is a bitch tho. Some parts will work out a small bit cheaper, others not.
Good luck,
Pog

MyPeopleDrankTheSoup

I was thinking of watercooling. A newbie to that, so still reading up on stuff before i pick parts

K.O.Kiki

PogMoThoin wrote:

Sterling is a bitch tho

Use xe.com for currency conversion