1st PC build

[Knotty47]

hi,

A month ago I had my first experince of PC upgrading, I added some memory to my now quite old system and now I'm hell bent on building a new system from scratch. I must explain that I've been slightly impatient and obtained a few parts already -

ASRock AM2NF3-vsta MOBO
AMD athlon64 3200+ retial AM2 processor
A MIDI tower

The problem is I don't really know what to add to this, I have an idea of things I want it to do but thats all! It will be used primarily for web browsing, but I also play some games (WoW being the main one) and would like to relocate all my music and pictures to this system. Has anyone any suggestions of what I might be looking for? I've no need for the computer to be top of the range, I just want an all rounder that I built myself.

Sorry for going on, thanks for reading this

Alex

[House]

Welcome to the forum. You're gonna get a few post of recommendations on this, but I reckon most will boil down to:
1. What's your budget?

Based on what you've written, I'd say that you ought to look at a semi decent graphics card for WoW and a nice HD for the data storage. Things kind of fall into place after that. Apologies if this is presumptious, but I'm inclined to hedge towards budget stuff based on that MB selection.

Your GPU needs to be AGP, so you'd probably be looking at something along the lines of XFX GeForce 7600GS 256Mb (http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Graphics+Cards/AGP/nVIDIA+GeForce+7+Series/+XFX+GeForce+7600GS+256MB+DDR2+AGP?productId=24358 ).

Next up is RAM. Again, budget over anything else: Kingston Value 1GB 667MHz DDR2 (http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Memory/DDR2/DDR2+667+%28PC5300%2F5400%29/+Kingston+Value+1GB+667MHz+DDR2?productId=23582).

Then HD: 250Gb Samsung / 7200 / 8 SATA (http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Hard+Drives/Serial+ATA/250Gb+Samsung+%2F+7200+%2F+8+SATA?productId=24030) .

DVD Reader/Writer: Any really, just pick something that goes with your case colour!

PSU: Hiper 435W TRUE POWER PSU - this should give a little bit of leaway for overclocking, plus any future additions to your build. (http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Power+Supplies/200w+to+449w/+Hiper++435W+TRUE+POWER++PSU?productId=24511).

If you are going for an all rounder, this should hit the mark (although it is also a budget machine, coming in at abotu £200). There's a little room to update things as you want, but you will be limited by your motherboard. You might want to add a floppy drive, or you could take it out of your old machine if you want it. Also, consider whether you will want to overclock the CPU - in which case you will may want to consider a different HSF to the retail one.

Finally, if you don't have an OS you will need to consider whether you want to go for XP or Vista. If I had a machine at that build level, I would be tempted to go for XP for now and upgrade further down the line if needed. No real reason for this except a gut feeling that Vista prefers the higher end machines and the more knowledgeable PC builder (no offence), and with a paucity of drivers you will find it easier to learn the ropes with XP.

Other thoughts?

[Knotty47]

Thanks for the quick reply. Budget wise I could run for another £350-400 on top of what I've already got (that would include the OS), I'm really new to this so no one feel afraid to really spell things out for me either.


P.S What would be considered a decent MOBO?

Cheers Alex

[stoney]

i reckon if you have around £350-£400 on top of that, i reckon you might be better off trying to go for a motherboard thats better than asrock
also stretching to one of the intel duo 2 chips. though it might be pushing it a bit.

motherboard:http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Motherboards/Socket+775+%28Intel%29/+Foxconn+P9657AA-8EKRS2H+Socket+775?productId=24423
CPU:http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/CPUs+%2F+Processors/Intel/Core+2+Duo/+Intel+Core+2+Duo+E6300+Retail?productId=23826
graphic cardhttp://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Graphics+Cards/PCI-E/nVIDIA+GeForce+7+Series/+Gainward+Bliss+7300GT+256MB?productId=25130

plus a good power supply, a case, a dvd writer, a floppy if you want one, and a hard drive and at least 1gig of ddr2 memory.
that way, the next time you want to upgrade, you dont have to upgrade to the box again. you can just add more memory, or upgrade your chip(or overclock it) or upgrade your graphic card. should come in a bit under your present budget aswell.

[Barley]

[quote:7835148f87=\"Knotty47\"]hi,

A month ago I had my first experince of PC upgrading, I added some memory to my now quite old system and now I'm hell bent on building a new system from scratch. I must explain that I've been slightly impatient and obtained a few parts already -

ASRock AM2NF3-vsta MOBO
AMD athlon64 3200+ retial AM2 processor
A MIDI tower

The problem is I don't really know what to add to this, I have an idea of things I want it to do but thats all! It will be used primarily for web browsing, but I also play some games (WoW being the main one) and would like to relocate all my music and pictures to this system. Has anyone any suggestions of what I might be looking for? I've no need for the computer to be top of the range, I just want an all rounder that I built myself.

Sorry for going on, thanks for reading this

Alex[/quote:7835148f87]

Could you tell us all the hardware currently in your PC? :)

[Knotty47]

Thanks for your replies, nice to know what i should be looking at for a change. I wouldn't mind sticking with the motherboard and processor, it being my first build I was thinking cheap and cheerful and if it goes wrong I don't waste massive amounts of money. Hopefully if all goes well on this build I can replace my old PC and build a better gaming PC the second time round....hopefully!!!? Thanks for all your links and ideas, they've all been really helpful.

The hardware list as of now is - ASRock AM2NF3-vsta motherboard,
AMD athlon64 3200+ processor
MIDI case - has its own PSU (400w)
but I don't mind junking that really.

Thanks Alex

[Barley]

What stuff is in your current PC? you could probably use some of it in your new build.

[Knotty47]

Sorry barley I thought you meant the new one. It was built by a work mate about 2 years ago, I think it was dated then never mind now! 2x256mb ram, soltek SL-KT600RL mobo, Athlon 2700+ processor (thats all I know about the processor!) and who knows what for the graphics card. Nothing I think thats usuable.

Alex

[Knotty47]

hi again, I've had a look round and drawn up a list of possible -

Motherboard and processor as above
2 X 1GB crucial ddr2 PC6400 mem.
XFX GeForce 7600GS 256mb DDRII AGP
Hiper 435W true power PSU
250GB Samsung/7200/8SATA hard drive
Samsung 18XDVDRW lightscribe
Floppy drive

comes in at about £380 due to the 2gb mem, is 2gb overkill on this system? Anymore suggestions welcome.

Alex

[Anonymous]

for vista, i would say that 2gb is best, I have 1gb and just over half is used on background items.

[Anonymous]

[Removed at the request of the author]

[Aaron]

I think its an AM2 system, which uses DDR2 ram.

Knotty - could you just clarify if your A64 CPU is socket 939 or AM2? :)

Edit: PP - did you delete a post where you told him to get DDR and not DDR2 ram?! or am I going mad?

[Anonymous]

[Removed at the request of the author]

[Aaron]

lol! worth a try ;)

As long as im not actually going crazy, thats fine! ;)

[Knotty47]

yeah its an AM2, sorry I mentioned it before but a lot earlier in the posts!
I've tried as much as possible to get every component to be compatible, I think everything is but if anyone knows different, let us know please. Thanks for all your help.

Alex