My first build - Help needed!

jonny oneball

Hey all,

Its time for me to get a new pc and this time i've decided to build it myself. The only problem is that I dont really have a clue about this kind of stuff but i am keen to learn.I hope to keep this thread going until i have the computer assembled and operational. Hopefully there will be lots of questions answered and i will post updates on my progress.

So to start I spent the last few days educating myself on what products i need to buy. My budget is 1000-1500 euro. I intend for the computer to be multi purpose but mainly used for gaming.

Now I am looking for some advice on my product selection. I have done my best to make sure that everything is compatible. So here it is:

CPU - Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 tray, 12MB, LGA775, 64bit

GPU - Powercolor HD4870 1024MB GDDR5, PCI-Express

Motherboard - Gigabyte GA-X48-DQ6 ,Intel X48, ATX, PCI-Express

Hard drive - Samsung HD103UJ 1TB 32MB SATA II

Internal drive - NEC Opti AD7201S

RAM - 4096MB DDR2 Corsair Twin2X DHX CL5, PC6400/800

Case - Antec P182, ATX

CPU cooler - Noctua NH-U12P New, AM2+/775/1366

PSU - Corsair Memory 750W TX SERIES ATX

This set up is costing about 1250 euro and thats with hardwareversand.de. I still want to cost it with Irish companies. Most of the parts are from a build i came across in an article but i chopped and changed a few.

Does anyone have any recommendations for either upgrading or downgrading certain components to either save money or optimise performance? I am looking for the perfect balance. If it exists:).

All help/advice is very much appreciated. Now i must go and start reading up on how to assemble everything!

Hoser

that is a solid build my friend.
here are some of the parts from komplett.ie preatty good components website and along with my recommendations

CPU - Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz = 179
The reason im suggestiong q6600 is because the extra 140 you pay on the q9550 does not pay off in the end. You can easily overclock q6600 to a 3.6ghz with a decent cooler. If you are still unsure about it then there is plenty of info about q6600 vs q9550 just google it.

GPU - Powercolor HD4870 1024MB GDDR5, PCI-Express = 250
that is a very good card and 1gb for 250 is a great deal

Motherboard - Asus P5Q, P45, Socket-775, DDR2, = 120
The motheroard you picked has alot of stuff you dont need..like 8xsata and 3xfirewire which you hardly will ever use. The Asus p5q is a great board lost of overclocking options and has everything you need. At the moment sli is not popular, it is better to invest in one great card(4870) instead of 2 cards. Depends on you man ..if you want to go sli then there are sli ready boards for around 180.

HD - Western Digital Caviar GP 1TB SATA2 = 109
There has been alot of complaints about samsung hd's and western digital have been really popular and told to be stable and fast. i currently own a 640 one and its really fast and havent had a problem with it.

DVD Drive - NEC Opti AD7201S = 21

RAM - OCZ nVIDIA SLI DDR2 PC6400 4096MB KIT, = 60
Great ram lost of positive reviews and my friend has one of those works

Case - AAntec Performance P182 Miditower, = 130
:d Once again my friend has one of those..its huge compared to my minitower..lots of space..lots of cooling..great case.

CPU cooler - Noctua NH-U12P New, AM2+/775/1366 =50
Looks good..i would read some reviews on coolers see what are better options. sites like newegg.com have lots of reviews on cpucoolers. All the coolers http://www.komplett.ie/k/kl.aspx?bn=10547

PSU - Corsair Powersupply 750W Black, ATX/EPS, =115
lol again my friend has one of those..good psu.

Total= 1034 Which is a well solid build my friend.

If you are really into gaming i would suggest getting the best cooler you can get overclocking the q6600 to 3.8Ghz Which i have seen done..and investing in a 4870 X2(480euro) that should have you sorted.
Otherwise this looks like a solid build.
If you have anymore questions or you are unsure do ask. Building the comp isnt that hard...i learned in 4 days before assembling my system.

sdanseo

A TB drive is grand for storage but add a smaller disk for your OS. Samsung HDDs are excellent tbph - never a peep from my own of over a year - but 1,024GB takes a long time to format, defrag etc

The only thing I'm unsure of performance-and-reliability-wise is OCZ RAM as suggested above; not too sure about their reputation/build quality etc. Maybe someone else will come in on that.

Otherwise I like what I see - the Antec 182 is a little big given only 1 GFX card etc but handy for upgrading.

The rest of those parts shouldn't let you down - and the way prices are going it may not be a bad idea to save the hassle and use Komplett, especially looking at the price above.

Hoser

some reviews on the ram if you are unsure

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductReview.aspx?Item=N82E16820227269

you can also pick wichever ram you would like to buy and just look at the reviews on that site^

good luck with the build