First Stab at a PC

bringitdown

Hi, firstly thanks to the boards for a great archive of information on build-your-owns

Secondly I am hopefully going to start building soon, around the following core components.

Intel Pentium 4 3.0 GHz PC800 Socket PGA478, 512Kb cache, Northwood - E140 / s/h
Abit IS7-E2 Mainboard for S478/800mhz I865PE, SATA, ATX, Dual-DDR, LAN - E77 Komplett
TwinMOS PC3200 DDR-DIMM 512MB CL2.5 Memory184-P (for DDR-PC400MHz) E79 - Komplett - (edit - suggested by grimloch)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 80GB S-ATA 8MB cache 7200RPM E70 - Komplett
Powercolor Radeon 9600XT 128MB DDR AGP, ATI 9600XT, DVI-I, TV-Out, Retail E141.01 - Komplett (edit - suggested by Grimloch/dbfarrell)
Antec SLK1600 ATX 350w PSU - E68 computerbits
MSI CD recorder 52x/32x/52x IDE Retail - E29 Komplett
Plextor DVD Drive 16x/48x IDE Retail - E29 Komplett

Total so far - E640,

I have a budget of around E700 for everything excl. the monitor. will be using the system for gaming mostly ... but not overly interested in having games running at top detail (Doom 3 I'm looking at you) just like them playable! Not into overclocking etc yet.

Feel free to butcher this and suggest alternative components altho I have already gotten the CPU so that stays....

[EDITED] To reflect suggestions...

grimloch

righto
you might want 512 of RAM and get faster ram like pc 3500/3700, anyway 512 is sort of minumum for games most will say

maybe a SATA hard drive?

instead of that gfx id get a 5700 or something, cheaper 256mb graphics cards are really a marketing strategy, you'd be better getting a better 128mb IMO

take a look at this have a read through it

Diddy Kong

maybe a SATA hard drive?

second that or maybe a bigger one that 80gb, there fairly cheap these days, and good choice on the Barracuda, less noise and less heat than competitors,
what bout a case and power supply, do you have them already??

bringitdown

Can't get RAM faster than DDR400 / 3200 as the mobo doesn't support it, have switch the graphics card to a 5700, would a Radeon 9600XT or a 9800SE be better?

Have put in 512Mb RAM matched... and a SATA hard disk tho'

bringitdown

dbfarrell wrote:

second that or maybe a bigger one that 80gb, there fairly cheap these days, and good choice on the Barracuda, less noise and less heat than competitors,
what bout a case and power supply, do you have them already??

80Gb will do for now, can always add later...!

Case and PSU have not been selected, but I have been advised to go Antec or similar and stay away from Q-Tec despite their very attractive cheap prices. The final choice will depend on the rest of the gear selected - the less I spend the better the case so to speak.

Mouse etc - getting these free!

Diddy Kong

Antec is a great choice for both psu and case, very silent, lovely big 120mm fans....9800 would be the better choice imo, plus you might be able to flash it to an xt

[edit] what about dvd/cd drive, do you have these already??

Dempsey

Compare those prices with www.overclocker.co.uk Even with the conversion rate you might save yourself money.

I'd advise against a Powercolor, its a cheap card. Go with Sapphire because you'll probably end up having to RMA a powercolor.

The motherboard is fine if your not overclocking otherwise id be recommending another one

Dont like the nVidia FX range. Id get a 9800Pro if you could stretch it

Col_Loki

Can't get RAM faster than DDR400 / 3200 as the mobo doesn't support it, have switch the graphics card to a 5700, would a Radeon 9600XT or a 9800SE be better?

Even though the board says it doesent support higher speed RAM it actually does. You will only need faster RAM if your overclocking, Pc3500/3700 is a good choice like grimloch said . But if your not overclocking PC3200 is fine........ just make sure to get 2x256mb over 1x512mb as it makes a big difference performance wise.

On the graphics cards, the 9600XT or 9800PRO are the cards to go for really..... generally avoid the SE cards there pretty crippled versions, and like was said 256mb is a marketing stunt with no performance gains (on cheaper cards).

I'd advise against a Powercolor, its a cheap card. Go with Sapphire because you'll probably end up having to RMA a powercolor.

From what ive seen powercolor are pretty decent, ive had them and quite a few around here have them aswell....... no complaints. Generally i think theres not much difference TBH, but i suppose Sapphire are a better choice as there slightly cheaper and bigger (but watch out for the sneaky 128bit memory interface ones).

airetam_storm

C Grim BIT and others ar getting there new pcs so why u still waiting?
Stuffll be outa stock soon!

Ciaran500

I've had no problem with my Powercolour 9700 from release.

airetam_storm

but a stick of 512 leaves upgrading an option as the board realisticay<sp?> only supports 2 chips

Col_Loki

but a stick of 512 leaves upgrading an option as the board realisticay<sp?> only supports 2 chips

Very good point, i forgot the IS7-E2 only had two memory dimms. From that point of view then mabye 1x512mb isint a bad option........

Dempsey

Col_Loki wrote:

Very good point, i forgot the IS7-E2 only had two memory dimms. From that point of view then mabye 1x512mb isint a bad option........

Dual Channel Mode on Intel systems should be taken advantage of. About 15% increase in memory performance

BloodBath

Ya there is no point getting faster than pc3200 unless you are overclocking which you said you weren't so stick with the pc3200.

There is nothing wrong with powercolor cards. They are made by Sapphire as well and will be just as reliable and perform the same. The Sapphires are cheaper though so i'd go with them.

If you only have 2 memory slots then get one 512 stick for now and another one down the line as a gig of RAM really is recomended for most new games especially if your running windows xp.


BloodBath

bringitdown

Dempsey wrote:

Compare those prices with www.overclocker.co.uk Even with the conversion rate you might save yourself money.

Yes they seem a bit cheaper (excl. Delivery) any +/- feedback (will search boards)

Apart from that thanks for all the suggestions, I have to take it all in mulch it around my brain and do some googleing and will post the final spec (incl. case, DVD et al up here soon)

The mobo, and HDD seem to be the least contentious so looks like they stay.

RE: Powercolor vs. Sapphire have not decided but regardless I doubt the budget will stretch as far as a 9800.

RE: 1 512Mb stick vs 2 256Mb, will prolly take one stick at the mo and as has been said can add a further one in the future.

Dempsey

BloodBath wrote:

Ya there is no point getting faster than pc3200 unless you are overclocking which you said you weren't so stick with the pc3200.

There is nothing wrong with powercolor cards. They are made by Sapphire as well and will be just as reliable and perform the same. The Sapphires are cheaper though so i'd go with them.

If you only have 2 memory slots then get one 512 stick for now and another one down the line as a gig of RAM really is recomended for most new games especially if your running windows xp.


BloodBath

Ya dont go above PC3200 if yer not overclocking.

You ask a 100 Powercolor users and a 100 Sapphire and see which users had most problems. Powercolor dont use the same quality checks as Sapphire do

You'll lose 20% bandwidth by not using matching pairs with the P4

Col_Loki

You ask a 100 Powercolor users and a 100 Sapphire and see which users had most problems. Powercolor dont use the same quality checks as Sapphire do

The difference is only slight if any TBH, a fair bit away from the "buy a powercolor and get ready for an RMA" remark .

You'll lose 20% bandwidth by not using matching pairs with the P4

With only two memory slots, using two of them for your Ram means no upgradability...... and like bloodbath said 1gb is becomming the standard so chances are he will be upgrading a little later and then will have Dual DDR and extra bandwidth.