New Build For An Old Dog!

[Graeme2812]

After almost 10 years of not pokeing my head inside a case, my trusty desktop comp. decided to pack up the other day so I am having to replace it. Now, the problem is things progress, and they progress a fair bit in 10 years! The system will be a general purpose one, capable of playing DVD's, occational video editing and DVD burning, and ocational filesharing. It's usually left on for long periods of time/in pooly ventalated areas, so that's why I've opted for the larger case with plenty fans.
I've come up with the below system and would be greatfull if anyone could give me some advise on do's/dont's and reccomendations. I'm hoping to have the system built and just install the software myself.

The only hardware I don't require will be a monitor, mouse, speakers (5.1) as I'll be opting for the mobo's OB soundcard (Good idea?).

Vista 64 Home Premium (http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials/Other+products/Microsoft+Windows+Vista+Home+Premium+64+OEM+?produ ctId=25906)
MS Office Small Buisness 2007 (http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Software/Office/Microsoft+Office+Small+Business+2007+OEM+?productI d=26141)

Asus Striker II Formula nForce 780i (http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Motherboards/Socket+775+%28Intel%29/Asus+Striker+II+Formula+nForce+780i+%28Socket+775% 29+Motherboard+?productId=32098)
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 (http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Memory/DDR2/DDR2+1066+%28PC8500%29/OCZ+4GB+PC2-8500+Platinum+%282x2GB%29+?productId=30921)
Arctic Cooling Freezer Pro 7 (http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Fans%2C+Heatsinks%2C+Coolers/Socket+775/Arctic+Cooling+Freezer+7+PRO+?productId=20729)
OCZ 4GB PC2-8500 (2x2GB) (http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Memory/DDR2/DDR2+1066+%28PC8500%29/OCZ+4GB+PC2-8500+Platinum+%282x2GB%29+?productId=30921)
500GB Seagate Barracuda SATA2 32MB (http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Hard+Drives/Serial+ATA/500GB+Seagate+Barracuda+SATA2+32MB+ST3500320AS+720 0RPM?productId=29640)
XFX GeForce 9600GT 'XXX Edition' 512MB PCI-E (http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Graphics+Cards/PCI-E/nVIDIA+GeForce+9+Series/XFX+GeForce+9600GT+%27XXX+Edition%27+512MB+PCI-E+?productId=30645)
Thermaltake W0131RE 850W (http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Power+Supplies/500w+%2B/Thermaltake+W0131RE+850W+Modular+PSU+?productId=27 136)
Antec Twelve Hundered (http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Cases/Full+Tower/Antec+Twelve+Hundred+Ultimate+Gamer+?productId=319 81)
Samsung DVD±RW SATA (http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/CD%2FDVD+Drives/Internal/SATA/Samsung+22x+SH-S223F+DVD%C2%B1RW+SATA+-+Black+?productId=31918)




Let the flameing begin!

:S

Graeme

[mlb07165]

Seems fine to me, just wait on a second opinion(can never be too careful!)

It's a very nice spec, but personally I think it's a bit over the top for your uses.

No point in payin £115 for the 9600gt. Best bet is to get a hd4850 for £130.

Apart from that, very impressive for not having looked inside a pc in 10 years.

:mrgreen:

[PeterStoba]

Corsair VX550 (http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Power+Supplies/500w+%2B/Corsair+550W+VX+Series+PSU+?productId=29383) Is a much better power supply, plenty for what you need.

9600GT, as mlb said, £15 more and you get ALOT more performance

I'd change the board to a P35 because of this MSI P35 NEO2-FR (http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Motherboards/Socket+775+(Intel)/MSI+P35+NEO2-FR++Socket+775+Motherboard+?productId=28015)

or Gigabyte EP35-DS3R (http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Motherboards/Socket+775+(Intel)/Gigabyte+EP35-DS3R+iP35+Socket+775+Motherboard+?productId=32055)

Other than that, all good choices, but we've saved you some money now and get more performance.

[jonwoad]

Cue Mr Wonderlust! :)

Oh yes, P35 Neo2-FR

[wonderlust]

Hmm, so much for getting personal...:D

[jonwoad]

Just saving you some time :)

[wonderlust]

Lol, BTW it would appear that the P45 has some memory controller issues with certain DDR2-800 Dimms (http://www.ocworkbench.com/)

[marsey99]

i would look to a p45 mobo or if you want a nvidia get the 790 as the 780 is just a rebadged 680 with a pcie2 controller chip and all it does is run hot.

88gt alpha dog/4850 are both only slightly more expensive but will give much more performance, they do both run hot tho as they only have single slot coolers.

do you plan on overclocking?

[Graeme2812]

Thanks for the advise.


I don't plan on overclocking, but aimed for a reasonably high spec system so not to have to upgrade all over again in a few years. I opted for the 9600GT as (eventually) I'm planning on replacing my monitor with a flashy HD one but admitadly never looked at ATi (which is in my laptop with no problems!) as I've always had nVidia without any problems....oh, except the cooling fan stopped working a few weeks ago.:eek:

[PeterStoba]

Don't get the 9600GT!

Get an 8800GT for the same price or £35 more for a 4850

[QuickShotProductions]

8800gt is great.

I have to say this, even though its not appropriate anymore since all the posts were before me but..
And they say you cant teach an old dog new builds.......:D nice build mate. I personally wouldnt know what to get if it wasnt for these guys at aria.. Apart from the obvious, buy higher get higher...but doesnt always apply

[Graeme2812]

8800gt is great.

...nice build mate. I personally wouldnt know what to get if it wasnt for these guys at aria..

Thanks:redface:

I think the forums on here are fantastic, I've searched though (litterally) hundereds and hundereds of posts for advise, product information and user experences and feel kinda rude with my first post asking for something!

Thanks for all the advise anyway. I've e-mailed Aria with the spec and am just waiting on there reply. Fingers crossed.

Slightly OT, but when I buy MS Office it'll be primarly for the laptop for work, will I be able to install it onto the newbuild as well do you think, or are they tieing down software with hardware footprints or something similar these days?

[Audigex]

Get openoffice ;)

Not 100% sure, but last I checked it worked on the registration/authorisation idea. Don't think they've put hardware checks on it.

And to answer the one un-answered part of your post, there's nothing wrong with going with onboard sound, most people do now. There's only so much quality a sound card can give, and they've pretty much reached what you'd need with onboard. Dedicated cards are only useful if you need specific connections.

[Graeme2812]

I ran OpenOffice on the system this new one is now replacing, and liked it but I need the Outlook facilities for work and it to have the diary, contatcts, tasks features etc with PDA syncing. I'm using an old version of Office at work at the moment and I need to get my own up-to-date copy to make life easyer.

I'm now even tempted into buiding it myself! It's just the installing the chip and cooler that's worrying me as I have vivid memories of my friends and I failing MANY times in the past and worrieing about static build up etc when they were [chip and cooler] the size of a matchbox and much easyer to install years ago.

[wonderlust]

I ran OpenOffice on the system this new one is now replacing, and liked it but I need the Outlook facilities for work and it to have the diary, contatcts, tasks features etc with PDA syncing. I'm using an old version of Office at work at the moment and I need to get my own up-to-date copy to make life easyer.

I'm now even tempted into buiding it myself! It's just the installing the chip and cooler that's worrying me as I have vivid memories of my friends and I failing MANY times in the past and worrieing about static build up etc when they were [chip and cooler] the size of a matchbox and much easyer to install years ago.

Things are easier as far as the chips are concerned, no more amd chips with no heat spreader leading to damaged cores. The intel ones dont even have pins on the chip to get bent. although the pins on the motherboards chip socket can get bent, it seems to me that it's a lot harder to do.

Go for it, the savings to be had in building your own are very high

[Graeme2812]

I've just disected the old system and, (please don't laugh!) it was an AMD Athalon 1.4Mhz, on a Gigabyte GA-7VAXP motherboard with 512Mb DDR3 ram, a GeForce 4 Ti4200 Gfx card and a Maxtor 120Gb HDD.


Should I expect a better performing sytem from this new build d'you think? :lol:


The build price is around £60, but I'm one of those people who like to know whats been done and how it was done etc. (a touch of OCD I guess!) My only concern with a self build is I just can't afford to loose any more of my already short hair! Time is'nt an issue, as if it takes me a week to complete then thats fine, I just don't fancy damaging anything. I'm going to have to install an old HDD anyway to recover some of my lost stuff, so I'll be inside the new one on the day it arrives.

I'm guessing, chip (http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials/Other+products/Intel+Core+2+Quad+Q6600+2.4GHz+95W+G0+Stepping+%28 Retail+775%29+?productId=28356), cooler (http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Fans%2C+Heatsinks%2C+Coolers/Socket+775/Arctic+Cooling+Freezer+7+PRO+?productId=20729), gfx card, ram, onto the board THEN install the board to the case?

I assume the chip/cooler will come with heat paste, or should I buy some/some more? Whats the best way to install the chip/cooler onto the board?

[wonderlust]

ga-7vaxp thats one of amd's first attempts at a chipset iirc,

you could go for a cheap onboard mobo, and get graphics card later, the main problem you are going to have is you are going to need new ram, but 2 Gbs of good ram can be had for under £30! If you looking for a low end intel chip the e1xxx and e2xxx chips can be overclocked fairly well in a reasonable board. I got an e2160 about £35 ish an Asus P5k-vm (good overclocker with onboard graphics mid price range) £65 ish and 2gb of ddr2 800 ram £25 ish, the stock chip is 1.8ghz, mines running at 2.7ghz but it will go faster, i just don't need it to.

[Audigex]

Should I expect a better performing sytem from this new build d'you think? :lol:
Well, maybe on top end games, if you run them at full whack, you might :)


I'm guessing, chip (http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials/Other+products/Intel+Core+2+Quad+Q6600+2.4GHz+95W+G0+Stepping+%28 Retail+775%29+?productId=28356), cooler (http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Fans%2C+Heatsinks%2C+Coolers/Socket+775/Arctic+Cooling+Freezer+7+PRO+?productId=20729), gfx card, ram, onto the board THEN install the board to the case?
I think the general wisdom is that you install what you can into the case and onto the board, then put the two together. and wire it up. Less chance of damaging the board, and less in the way when installing drives.


I assume the chip/cooler will come with heat paste, or should I buy some/some more?
They virtually come with paste, but you might want to get some and re-apply it (many apparently come with too thick a layer on).

[Graeme2812]

Thanks to everyone for their advise, my new system arived (peice by peice) on Saturday morning (ordered Fri afternoon). You can set your watch by City Link....their exelent.

Started off with the motherboard, then chip, then heatsink. Added the ram next then set about installing it all to the case. The origional Antec Twelve Hundered (http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Cases/Full+Tower/Antec+Twelve+Hundred+Ultimate+Gamer+?productId=319 81) case was out of stock so I opted for the Cosmos 1000 (http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Cases/Full+Tower/Cooler+Master+Cosmos+1000?productId=28393). (very nice purposefull case BTW), installing the PSW was as simple as four screws with the PSU resting on rubber beedding, mounting the motherboard was easy as accesability of the case was a dream to work inside. Installed the GFx card, the two HDD drives, and finally the DVD drive. I left the internal wireing until last as I hate that part!

All seems to have gone well, average temps are about 35C, and all is very quiet despite having 7 fans inside the machine (4 alone for the case)

A couple of things I did notice is that on boot up, the system appears to boot for a few seconds, shut down, then reboot sucsessfully a second time. Also there are no HDD's recognised in the BIOS (but their listed on the boot screen), but they apear to be functioning perfectly well as Vista is running no prob.

Oh, and I decided to go for a 1080p HD LCD to finish it off....8)

[wonderlust]

The double boot is normal, and nothing to worry about.