My First Project

Ebbs

Hello,

Sorry that my first post is a blatant cry for help but what can you do

Recently my Vista machine died,simple problem but I decided that I needed away from Windows and wanted to work with Ubuntu. I am now building a PC from scratch, I will hopefully be installing Ubuntu on it. I have never built a PC before and hence the need for advice.



Graphics Card: Need funds
CD Drive: Have one from old PC, perfect working order.

Case: I cant decide between the antec or Cooler Master Centurion 590, any advice. The CM looks better but the open vents surely gather dust. The Antec is also cheaper...

Im not 100% on the PSU either, dont know too much on that and will have to look and see if any of my old PSUs will fit the job.

I would appraciate if anyone could offer tips or even if there was an cheaper place to order goods.

Thanks

Spear

Ebbs wrote: »

Hello,

Sorry that my first post is a blatant cry for help but what can you do

Recently my Vista machine died,simple problem but I decided that I needed away from Windows and wanted to work with Ubuntu. I am now building a PC from scratch, I will hopefully be installing Ubuntu on it. I have never built a PC before and hence the need for advice.



Graphics Card: Need funds
CD Drive: Have one from old PC, perfect working order.

Case: I cant decide between the antec or Cooler Master Centurion 590, any advice. The CM looks better but the open vents surely gather dust. The Antec is also cheaper...

Im not 100% on the PSU either, dont know too much on that and will have to look and see if any of my old PSUs will fit the job.

I would appraciate if anyone could offer tips or even if there was an cheaper place to order goods.

Thanks

One comment at least, you're going for three sticks of RAM which would potentially lessen performance, since it's a dual channel memory system. This would be fairly marginal though, depends on whether more RAM is worth the reduction in bandwidth.

Ebbs

Here

The Crucial memory thing shows the above list. I have no idea if I would be taking a hit installing 3 rather than just 2. Anyway of finding that out apart from benchmarking once bought

Thanks for your input.

Spear

Ebbs wrote: »

Here

The Crucial memory thing shows the above list. I have no idea if I would be taking a hit installing 3 rather than just 2. Anyway of finding that out apart from benchmarking once bought

Thanks for your input.

With 3 DIMM's and two channels, it means that two of the DIMM's must be on the same channel leading to saturation if both are being access simultaneously. You'd need to be doing something very memory intensive for this to be an issue. In reality it may not cause any issue, but it's something to be aware of in case bandwidth is more important than capacity for you.

marco_polo

What do you intend on using it for? It just seems a bit of overkill for just a home ubuntu install. You could save yourself a nice wedge of cash (60-80) straightaway by getting a X3 720BE and a UD4P board instead and hardly notice the difference at all. Also I would get 4GB of 1333 or 1600 DDR3 memory instead. though from what I have read it can require a bit of effort to get 1600 stable (I have that UD4P board with 1600 OCZ memory running at 1333 on auto settings at the moment - I haven't had the time to speed it up and I am not sure I even need to TBH

Ebbs

Ill be using it for gaming and surfing, Ubuntu WINE can run the games I want Without the graphics card it will take a bit longer for the gaming aspect but I would hope that will be coming soon after.

The 1333 memory is only 1€ extra on Komplett, so I guess thats 1 upgrade I will be sure to get.

marco_polo

Ah forgot about wine for gaming. Carry on then

Still I can't hep wondering if you wouldn't be as well off with 3 X 2.8GHz cores instead of 4 X 2.6.

Ebbs

No idea tbh.

Any advice on which case or a cheaper site to order from...

What watt PSU should I be looking at? Can you over do it?

marco_polo

Ebbs wrote: »

No idea tbh.

Any advice on which case or a cheaper site to order from...

What watt PSU should I be looking at? Can you over do it?

Well I am biased because I got that case recently enough, but at that price the build quality is excellent, has load of room inside and the cable management is excellent.

I am not an expert on PSUs and ultimately it depends on what Graphics card you intent to get down the line (and that in turn depends somewhat on the monitor you will be using), but Corsair are a good brand and that 650W will easily be able to handle any single higher end graphics cards (GTX 290, HD 4890 for example ) or mid range sli (X2 cards) configurations. I am sure someone like Soltaire will be along to give you the real expert opinion. (I also have the TX650 are you stealing my build? ). Can you overkill, yes. I got one for a HD 4870 when a 550W was plenty, but I suppose at least I have upgrade options in the future.

I bought off Komplett myself as well, instead of the hastle of organising a bank transfer to HWVS (check the stickies at the top for more info), who are a little cheaper, because I don't work near a bank. Also as I could collect in Dublin I negated some of the price difference by saving on delivery.

I agree with the others about the dual channel memory as well, from what I understand unless you will use the extra 2G capacity (unlikely I would think), you will be lowering the overall speed performance a little.

Solitaire

What kind of games were you looking at? Or indeed what kind of graphics card? And do you need an optical drive?

A more no-frills multimedia-oriented build:


The mobo doesn't have any advanced features like ACC or CrossFire, but its dirt cheap. HD4850 is fine for hardcore gaming up to 1650*1080 (1080p gaming is possible with reduced settings). The Glad is supposed to be a wee bit quieter than the 300 and has a switch so you can turn the front LEDs off if you need to.

As for case... you could economize and drop down to a CM330 for €30. Anything as good or better should suffice. So long as you stick with the HD4850 you could get by on 300-350W but its not a very clever trick; far better to get a decent-ish 500W+ PSU and try to keep peak power consumption (i.e. gaming) below 80% of the PSUs capacity. That Superflower is the absolute lowest you should go (SFC isn't the best OEM, but its far from the worst); HWVS doesn't have many killer deals in the 500-550W range until you hit the Corsair TX550W... which is the same price as the EarthWatts 650W (ouch).

Ebbs

Games: CoD, Football Manager, other stuff would be graphics editing, and other such.

Not really sure on what graphics card, it depends on how much I can get together to buy it. I have an LG optical drive, its on my desktop so not sure of the model number.

If I got a Corsair 650w would I harm my system if it didnt require the full amount.

Solitaire

Nope, its just a bit pricey given that HWVS is almost giving the EarthWatts 650W away.