Any Suggestions

[strokebow]

Hi all

Im new to building my own system. Usually I order ready made. There is so much choice its hard to decide (thats a good problem)...

I want:

Core 2 Duo 3.16GHz (Wolfdale)
Asus P5K64 WS ???

64bit OS

Anyone have any suggestions...

I use my system for things like:
games eg)Supreme Commander
engineering software eg) Matlab
basic stuff eg)office '07

Anyone can suggest good deals and stuff which is easy to set up then it would be much appreciated.

thanks

[alexnifty]

Do you have a budget?

[strokebow]

Id say £1000
(including a new monitor)

Thanks for your interest

[cleggypdc]

Ok, heres one, coming in at £1041.68

Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 3.16GHz (Retail 775) (https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/CPUs+%2F+Processors/Intel/Core+2+Duo/Intel+Core+2+Duo+E8500+3.16GHz+%28Retail+775%29+?p roductId=30244)
ASUS P5N-T nForce 780i Socket 775 Motherboard (https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Motherboards/Socket+775+%28Intel%29/ASUS+P5N-T+nForce+780i+Socket+775+Motherboard+?productId=29 973)
XFX GeForce 8800GT Alpha Dog XXX 512MB PCI-E (https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Graphics+Cards/PCI-E/nVIDIA+GeForce+8+Series/XFX+GeForce+8800GT+Alpha+Dog+XXX+512MB+PCI-E+?productId=29568)
OCZ 4GB PC2-6400 ReaperX HPC Enhanced Bandwidth (2x2GB) (https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Memory/DDR2/DDR2+800+%28PC6400%29/OCZ+4GB+PC2-6400+ReaperX+HPC+Enhanced+Bandwidth+%282x2GB%29+?p roductId=29385)
Antec P182 Advanced Super Midi Tower Black (https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Cases/MIDI+Tower/Antec+P182+Advanced+Super+Midi+Tower+Black+?produc tId=28846)
Xilence 600W Gaming Edition PSU (https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Power+Supplies/500w+%2B/Xilence+600W+Gaming+Edition+PSU+?productId=27930)
320GB Seagate Barracuda SATA2 16MB (https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Hard+Drives/Serial+ATA/320GB+Seagate+Barracuda+SATA2+16MB+?productId=2368 4)

and then adding on the monitor
22'' ASUS MW221U Widescreen 2ms (https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Displays/Monitors/TFT+20+-+23/22%27%27+ASUS+MW221U+Widescreen+2ms+?productId=261 31)

or to lower the price to £1029.93 you can swap the memory for this stuff

OCZ 4GB PC2-6400 Reaper HPC (2x2GB) (https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Memory/DDR2/DDR2+800+%28PC6400%29/OCZ+4GB+PC2-6400+Reaper+HPC+%282x2GB%29+?productId=28852)

[alexnifty]

Id say £1000
(including a new monitor)

Thanks for your interest

What size monitor are we after? And I'm assuming its TFT you want?

Using engineering software I reckon you want a nice big widescreen display, with good quality so your eyes arent going to strain.

[cleggypdc]

for build quality i'd recommend the Asus or the iiyama, iiyama because my uncles an architect and he swears by them, and asus as my housemate uses his for coding (and he's not blind yet). The asus one i recommended also comes with presets to help your eyes in low lighting.

[strokebow]

Thanks for your suggestions I will check those components out.

yes, TFT - no bigger than 24inch

[alexnifty]

Ok, heres one, coming in at £1041.68

Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 3.16GHz (Retail 775) (https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/CPUs+%2F+Processors/Intel/Core+2+Duo/Intel+Core+2+Duo+E8500+3.16GHz+%28Retail+775%29+?p roductId=30244)
ASUS P5N-T nForce 780i Socket 775 Motherboard (https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Motherboards/Socket+775+%28Intel%29/ASUS+P5N-T+nForce+780i+Socket+775+Motherboard+?productId=29 973)
XFX GeForce 8800GT Alpha Dog XXX 512MB PCI-E (https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Graphics+Cards/PCI-E/nVIDIA+GeForce+8+Series/XFX+GeForce+8800GT+Alpha+Dog+XXX+512MB+PCI-E+?productId=29568)
OCZ 4GB PC2-6400 ReaperX HPC Enhanced Bandwidth (2x2GB) (https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Memory/DDR2/DDR2+800+%28PC6400%29/OCZ+4GB+PC2-6400+ReaperX+HPC+Enhanced+Bandwidth+%282x2GB%29+?p roductId=29385)
Antec P182 Advanced Super Midi Tower Black (https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Cases/MIDI+Tower/Antec+P182+Advanced+Super+Midi+Tower+Black+?produc tId=28846)
Xilence 600W Gaming Edition PSU (https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Power+Supplies/500w+%2B/Xilence+600W+Gaming+Edition+PSU+?productId=27930)
320GB Seagate Barracuda SATA2 16MB (https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Hard+Drives/Serial+ATA/320GB+Seagate+Barracuda+SATA2+16MB+?productId=2368 4)

and then adding on the monitor
22'' ASUS MW221U Widescreen 2ms (https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Displays/Monitors/TFT+20+-+23/22%27%27+ASUS+MW221U+Widescreen+2ms+?productId=261 31)

Looks good to me, but I reckon he doesn't need the triSLI motherboard. Especially if your oging to buy an expensive mobo and stick a single cheap GPU in. And XFX? Brr...

Get this:

Asus Extreme 8800GTS 512MB PCI-E (https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Graphics+Cards/PCI-E/nVIDIA+GeForce+8+Series/Asus+Extreme+8800GTS+512MB+PCI-E+?productId=29809)

Better than a GT because of higher memory bandwith and texture fill rate. It's cheaper than the suggested XFX and has a 3 year warranty not 2.

Also two 160GB HD's is what I would recommend as you can stick your games and engineering software on the 2nd and have it running independently [in terms of the HD access] from what the OS is doing. Also provides you with a way of backing stuff up should one of the drives fail, you can still limp along with one until you get a replacement.


EDIT: Aria website seems to be going really slowly for me, so can't suggest a different mobo right now :S

[cleggypdc]

Ah yeah agreed (didn't read that), perhaps then the better mobo would be

Asus P5N-D NF750i Socket 775 Motherboard (https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Motherboards/Socket+775+%28Intel%29/Asus+P5N-D+NF750i+Socket+775+Motherboard+?productId=30252)

Although its not a 780, but should be fine

[strokebow]

Looks good to me, but I reckon he doesn't need the triSLI motherboard. Especially if your oging to buy an expensive mobo and stick a single cheap GPU in. And XFX? Brr...

Get this:

Asus Extreme 8800GTS 512MB PCI-E (https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Graphics+Cards/PCI-E/nVIDIA+GeForce+8+Series/Asus+Extreme+8800GTS+512MB+PCI-E+?productId=29809)

Better than a GT because of higher memory bandwith and texture fill rate. It's cheaper than the suggested XFX and has a 3 year warranty not 2.

Also two 160GB HD's is what I would recommend as you can stick your games and engineering software on the 2nd and have it running independently [in terms of the HD access] from what the OS is doing. Also provides you with a way of backing stuff up should one of the drives fail, you can still limp along with one until you get a replacement.


EDIT: Aria website seems to be going really slowly for me, so can't suggest a different mobo right now :S

What mobo would you recommend?

Is it better to have built in wirless (g) or get seperate?

What is HDCP?

Thanks for your help guys

[marsey99]

i would say a quad not a duo and maybe a p35 mobo to give the best performance for the chip;

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Motherboards/Socket+775+%28Intel%29/Gigabyte+GA-P35-DS3R+iP35+Express+%28775%29+Motherboard+?productId =29584
and

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/CPUs+%2F+Processors/Intel/Core+2+Duo/Intel+Core+2+Quad+Q9300+2.5GHz+%28Retail+775%29+?p roductId=30245

these are a bit more than the e8300 and the nf780i but i think for what you do/play it will give you more performance. i got a gts over the gt too as the gt needs a better cooler and the price of a gt and a better blower are about the same as a gts.

you could also save a tenner by getting
https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Memory/DDR2/DDR2+1000+%28PC8000%29/OCZ+4GB+PC2-8000+Platinum+XTC+%282x2GB%29+?productId=30158
instead of the reapers, its the same stuff just the reapers have the heatpie cooler on them.

cas, well i think the p182 is nice but its a bit weak in the airflow department but it is a veery classy looking unit. i went with a
https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Cases/MIDI+Tower/Cooler+Master++CM-690+Dominator?productId=28807
because its got the best airflow and its dirt cheap, the
https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Cases/MIDI+Tower/Antec+Nine+Hundred+Ultimate+Gamer+?productId=25541
is good too but only if you get the revised version as the first one was pants for cable management.this is imo a very personal thing tho as you might hate the look of all of them.

[strokebow]

thanks for your reply m8.

I think I will go with a P35 chipset now.

Either, Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R or Asus P5KC.... I cant decide between the two.


I did like...
https://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Cases/MIDI+Tower/Antec+Nine+Hundred+Ultimate+Gamer+?productId=25541

But how do you know whether its revised version?

[strokebow]

Anyone know of a good quality optical drive:
fast DVD/CD RW
lightscribe
black

(w/software)

Thanks

[PeterStoba]

28800
26558

[strokebow]

nice1....

Anyone have suggestions for cool keyboard/mouse
(black)
preferrably wired

[PeterStoba]

Budget?

[strokebow]

I want value for money

Say £50 for both

although if there is good value I could push it

Thanks

[Jiggles]

Just go for what you like the look of :) THats what i do and hasnt let me down!