Sakey
Member
Right as some of you know I am building a new system. I thought that, as not everyone that goes to the LANs is as technically minded as others, I would basically use this thread to bolg what I was doing. When I go to build it I am gonna take step by step photos and stuff.
Anyway, lets start with the fun bit - Selecting my system.
I am working within a reasonably large budget (?1100) but it is not enough to go silly on the parts (No 8800Ultras) Best place I find to start is actually the CPU. Usually it is either this or the motherboard as once you know what socket/cpu you are getting the rest of the stuff just falls in to place.
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail (?150.39)
Why Intel you ask? Basically because at the present time, Intel are pissing all over AMD. The Core2Duo chips are so far superior to the X2s that they are not even worth thinking about.
I went for the E6600 as it is a good mid range chip at a reasonable price
Motherboard: Asus Commando Intel 965 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (?146.86)
There are two parts of a system you NEVER skimp on. The motherboard is one of them. I have had 5 years of flawless service from Asus boards so I have gone for another one. I was initially looking at one of the nVidia chipset boards until I found out there are major BIOS issues with them. This brings me to a very important point of system building
READ LOTS
Reading not only saved me buying a lemon of a mobo, it also saved me ?50 in the end.
Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2-6400C4 TwinX (2x1GB) (?99.86)
Corsair has been my memory of choice for quite some time now. Ever since using a dual channel set of their Value Select RAM. The thing with ASUS boards is they have the QVM list which is a list of the RAM they recomend for their boards. So the fact that this is on the list, coupled with the high reviews it has recieved, I think it is worth the extra money.
BFG GeForce 8800 GTX OC 768MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (?381.86)
I'm getting this as it is one of the fastest cards on the market and possibly the best value for money performance wise.
Tagan TG580-U15 580W ATX2.01 Easycon SLi Compliant Modular Silent PSU (?82.24)
I mentioned earlier that there are two parts of a PC you do NOT skimp on. This is the second one. I was initially going to go for a 640W PSU but after asking about I realised that it was a little bit of overkill. The other important factor for me here was the modular part. This means that you only attach the cables you need to the PSU. This helps keep the case tidy.
Western Digital Raptor 74GB WD740ADFD 10,000RPM SATA 16MB Cache - OEM (?92.81)
Now the first thing you are going to ask is "Why only 74GB?". Well the answer is simple, Speed. Most Hard Disks only spin at 7400RPM. Raptors spin at 10000RPM. Meaning the access data on the drive faster. Plus the fact, all my movies/music/files are stored on my file server. This drive is for one thing and one thing only. To make my games run quicker. 74GB is more than enough for Steam/WoW/UT2k4/Q3/Stalker/C&C3/SupCom with space left over.
Thats all the internal stuff that tbh, doesn't look that nice done, now for the spinkey stuff
Antec Nine Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case (?64.61)
This case was bought for only one reason. I like how it looks. I like how it looks so much....heres a link so you can see it
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-065-AN
Soundgraph iMON Ultra Bay - Black (?64.61)
Basically a display that fits in 2 5.25" drive bays. I like it as I can use it to read the temps and fan speeds for the motherboard. Means I don't have to alt/tab or have taskmanager open to check the temps.
[Monitor Dropped due to Shuttle not selling]
Now if you actually do your maths. This comes to ?1,083.26. Which is ?1,098.47 with postage.
I will keep you up to date as this progresses
Anyway, lets start with the fun bit - Selecting my system.
I am working within a reasonably large budget (?1100) but it is not enough to go silly on the parts (No 8800Ultras) Best place I find to start is actually the CPU. Usually it is either this or the motherboard as once you know what socket/cpu you are getting the rest of the stuff just falls in to place.
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail (?150.39)
Why Intel you ask? Basically because at the present time, Intel are pissing all over AMD. The Core2Duo chips are so far superior to the X2s that they are not even worth thinking about.
I went for the E6600 as it is a good mid range chip at a reasonable price
Motherboard: Asus Commando Intel 965 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard (?146.86)
There are two parts of a system you NEVER skimp on. The motherboard is one of them. I have had 5 years of flawless service from Asus boards so I have gone for another one. I was initially looking at one of the nVidia chipset boards until I found out there are major BIOS issues with them. This brings me to a very important point of system building
READ LOTS
Reading not only saved me buying a lemon of a mobo, it also saved me ?50 in the end.
Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2-6400C4 TwinX (2x1GB) (?99.86)
Corsair has been my memory of choice for quite some time now. Ever since using a dual channel set of their Value Select RAM. The thing with ASUS boards is they have the QVM list which is a list of the RAM they recomend for their boards. So the fact that this is on the list, coupled with the high reviews it has recieved, I think it is worth the extra money.
BFG GeForce 8800 GTX OC 768MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (?381.86)
I'm getting this as it is one of the fastest cards on the market and possibly the best value for money performance wise.
Tagan TG580-U15 580W ATX2.01 Easycon SLi Compliant Modular Silent PSU (?82.24)
I mentioned earlier that there are two parts of a PC you do NOT skimp on. This is the second one. I was initially going to go for a 640W PSU but after asking about I realised that it was a little bit of overkill. The other important factor for me here was the modular part. This means that you only attach the cables you need to the PSU. This helps keep the case tidy.
Western Digital Raptor 74GB WD740ADFD 10,000RPM SATA 16MB Cache - OEM (?92.81)
Now the first thing you are going to ask is "Why only 74GB?". Well the answer is simple, Speed. Most Hard Disks only spin at 7400RPM. Raptors spin at 10000RPM. Meaning the access data on the drive faster. Plus the fact, all my movies/music/files are stored on my file server. This drive is for one thing and one thing only. To make my games run quicker. 74GB is more than enough for Steam/WoW/UT2k4/Q3/Stalker/C&C3/SupCom with space left over.
Thats all the internal stuff that tbh, doesn't look that nice done, now for the spinkey stuff
Antec Nine Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case (?64.61)
This case was bought for only one reason. I like how it looks. I like how it looks so much....heres a link so you can see it
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-065-AN
Soundgraph iMON Ultra Bay - Black (?64.61)
Basically a display that fits in 2 5.25" drive bays. I like it as I can use it to read the temps and fan speeds for the motherboard. Means I don't have to alt/tab or have taskmanager open to check the temps.
[Monitor Dropped due to Shuttle not selling]
Now if you actually do your maths. This comes to ?1,083.26. Which is ?1,098.47 with postage.
I will keep you up to date as this progresses
