Dave Posted October 28, 2006 Report Share Posted October 28, 2006 I am thinking of putting a new PC together, maybe 64 bit. I'm not too bothered about the speed of the chipset, but want a really reliable board that can handle lots of USB attachments. What do you guys reckon? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thorburn Posted October 28, 2006 Report Share Posted October 28, 2006 What processor are you going for? If its Core 2 Duo then I'd recommend the Asus P5B Deluxe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Posted October 28, 2006 Author Report Share Posted October 28, 2006 Yes, dual Core. I'll look into that one.. thanks! Would you reccomend any specific type of hard drives.. i'm thinking two 80GB in a raid config ?.. what do you think? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thorburn Posted October 28, 2006 Report Share Posted October 28, 2006 Core 2 Duo is the actual name of the latest Intel processor, as opposed to Pentium D or Athlon X2. For hard drives, do you want to run RAID0 or RAID1? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Posted October 28, 2006 Author Report Share Posted October 28, 2006 I don't know the difference, what is the best set up? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexc Posted October 28, 2006 Report Share Posted October 28, 2006 might be worth having a look HERE! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thorburn Posted October 28, 2006 Report Share Posted October 28, 2006 Core 2 Duo is the fastest you can get right now. Personally I'd go for a Core 2 Duo E6300 unless you need some serious muscle, nice low power consumption, not bad price and nice performance. What are you going to be using it for and whats your budget? [ QUOTE ] might be worth having a look HERE! [/ QUOTE ] Wouldn't be a great move buying a Socket 939 board now that its been replaced by AM2. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris_B Posted October 28, 2006 Report Share Posted October 28, 2006 [ QUOTE ] Would you reccomend any specific type of hard drives.. i'm thinking two 80GB in a raid config ?.. what do you think? [/ QUOTE ] If you have the drives already and price is a factor, then perhaps. But, if you want some performance, I'd suggest two 36GB 10,000 rpm SATA drives, one for the OS install and one dedicated for a big swapfile, then either use your 2x 80GB drives as a RAID array for data (mirrored if you don't have a backup solution, striped for speed if you do), or if budget permits, get a couple of >100GB SATA drives and RAID those. Components are cheap enough on http://www.ebuyer.com/ - take the motherboard Thorburn suggested and add some drives as above - you might be pleasantly surprised at the price. If you're not doing 3D games, the cheapest graphics solution that works with the board will cost you very little. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris_B Posted October 28, 2006 Report Share Posted October 28, 2006 From ebuyer: 1x ASUS P5B DLX/WIFI-AP Pentium 4/Celeron/Pentium D/PentiumEE/65nm dual-core/Core2Duo/Core2EE 113963 37 in stock £110.46 £110.46 1x Core 2 Duo E6300 1.86ghz - Skt775 Fsb1066 2mb Cache Boxed In 112704 433 in stock £106.94 £106.94 1x Ebuyer 2GB DDR2 800MHz PC2-6400 240pin Extra Value Ram 2 x 1GB KIT 116357 23 in stock £144.84 £144.84 2x Western Digital Raptor 36.7gb Sata 10krpm 16mb Cache - Oem 115410 26 in stock £75.27 £150.54 2x Western Digital WD1200JS Caviar SE 120GB 7200RPM SATA2/300 8MB Cache - OEM 094405 167 in stock £32.11 £64.22 1x Antec NSK4400 Super Mini-Tower Case Black/Silver - With 380W SmartPower PSU 112648 328 in stock £38.47 £38.47 1x LiteOn DRW-6S160P-05C 16x DVD+/-RW DL Black Bare Drive 112182 133 in stock £16.50 £16.50 1x XFX GeForce 7100GS 64MB Supporting 256MB DDR2 DVI VGA TVO PCI-E 119116 47 in stock £23.00 £23.00 1x Microsoft OEM Windows XP Professional x64 Edition - 1Pk 089195 75 in stock £74.99 £74.99 Cart Total: £729.96 I'm assuming you have a screen, keyboard and mouse you're happy with. Now that might come to £865.17 when you add delivery on, but that should be a bit of a belter and do a pretty good of kicking the c**p out of my PC at anything apart from the most graphics-intensive games, and that cost about £3k to build 15 months ago! Of course, by dropping the spec a bit (one of each drive instead of two) and using a cheaper case (Antec are nice though), you could drop that a bit nearer £700 inclusive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thorburn Posted October 28, 2006 Report Share Posted October 28, 2006 [ QUOTE ] Of course, by dropping the spec a bit (one of each drive instead of two) and using a cheaper case (Antec are nice though), you could drop that a bit nearer £700 inclusive. [/ QUOTE ] I certainly wouldn't go any cheaper on the case! Anything cheaper will be pretty nasty and the PSU will be a liability. (That said my two PC's both have £200 Silverstone cases and £80 PSU's) I'd probably buy a nicer graphics card though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexc Posted October 28, 2006 Report Share Posted October 28, 2006 [ QUOTE ] Core 2 Duo is the fastest you can get right now. Personally I'd go for a Core 2 Duo E6300 unless you need some serious muscle, nice low power consumption, not bad price and nice performance. What are you going to be using it for and whats your budget? [ QUOTE ] might be worth having a look HERE! [/ QUOTE ] Wouldn't be a great move buying a Socket 939 board now that its been replaced by AM2. [/ QUOTE ] You're probably right but they do have other boards on there to look at, it's just for reference. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris_B Posted October 29, 2006 Report Share Posted October 29, 2006 [ QUOTE ] I certainly wouldn't go any cheaper on the case! Anything cheaper will be pretty nasty and the PSU will be a liability. (That said my two PC's both have £200 Silverstone cases and £80 PSU's) I'd probably buy a nicer graphics card though. [/ QUOTE ] I like Antec cases (anything better than the Solution series, that is), but I thikn I'm like you in that I like to have a decent setup that feels a bit higher quality; my PC was so expensive because it was all leading edge at the time - Antec P180 case, Tagan PSU, AMD Athlon 62 X2, 4 GB of DDR400, 10k rpm SATA drives and two GeForce 7800 GTX cards in SLI. I just daren;t spec it up now and see how much premium I paid for being an early adopter... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheechy Posted November 6, 2006 Report Share Posted November 6, 2006 Chris - interesting that you have a Tagan and a P180 - I heard they were not compatible with each other. I've got a Dual engine 600W Tagan - dont suppose thats the one you have is it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris_B Posted November 8, 2006 Report Share Posted November 8, 2006 Nope mine's a 580W if I remember rightly. The P180 is a nice case, but there's two problems I had to overcome: 1. Because the PSU and 4-slot HDD caddy sits in the very bottom of the case in it's own little divided compartment, there's a little hole for all the cables to come through, so your power cables need to be very long, and even though the Tagan has long cables, they're not always long enough depending on your motherboard socket placement. On my Asus SINXP, the ATX12V socket is very top left of the board as you look at it, and the tagan's cable isn't long enough and needed extending. The main 24-pin connector is just about long enough, but I did have to stretch the 4-pin Molex for the SLI power connector on the SINXP across the end of one of the graphic cards. The little slot for all the cables gets a bit tight, so I'm glad I have all SATA drives as IDE cables would never have fitted through with all the power cables. 2. The Tagan is quite a long PSU and the cable outlets fouled the deep 120mm fan inbetween the HDD caddy and PSU space on the P180. I used one of the narrower 3-speed 120mm fans from the top vent hole to replace the standard one, and just turned it up from low to medium speed, and I replaced the top blowhole and rear case fans with aftermarket ones with slightly quieter operation and thermal auto-speed. It works, and the CPU and GPUs stay cool enough, but on a warm evening after some intense Half Life 2, the top blowhole and rear case fans do tend to shunt in and out a bit so it alternately whines and then falls almost silent in ten second bursts, which is a little annoying. I just can't be bothered to fix it, I'll just run it for another year or so and then think about replacing it and doing the whole job again but with better matched components. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colmartin Posted November 10, 2006 Report Share Posted November 10, 2006 Dave, I think the following spec is ideal for all aspects of day to day use including games: E6400 Core 2 Duo Asus P5W DH Motherboard X1950 Pro 256 MB Graphics Card 1GB Crucial Ram (1000 Mhz) 2 250 GB Western Digital Hard Drives 16MB Cache Antec Sonata 2 Case (for silent running) DVD RW Windows XP Pro All of this comes in at about £920 including VAT which I didn't think the other quote included. The reasons behind this recommendation are as follows: CPU - Is the best value/performance on offer at the moment Mobo – Has added features such as wifi, remote, up rated soundcard. RAM - There is no need for 2 GB of ram unless you use Vista, if you buy XP Pro, then there is no point using vista! HD - There is no real benefit to get a Raptor in real terms, you might as well have the additional space and save your self some money! Graphics - This offers great performance for a fair price Case - This case is fantastic value for money, is silent and has a very good quality power supply and offers great cooling. If you want to save money on this spec: CPU - 6300 will save £30.00 Graphics - 7300 will save £80 HD - Buying 1 Drive will save £58 Motherboard - £15.00 This would cost about £740 and will be a very good system for non gaming general use! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thorburn Posted November 10, 2006 Report Share Posted November 10, 2006 [ QUOTE ] Asus P5W DH Motherboard [/ QUOTE ] Can't agree with you there, the P5B Deluxe is a far better choice. The P965 chipset is more advanced than 975x and it features the ICH8R instead of the ICH7R of 975x, which has some nice extra features. I've used both and if I had the money I'd be swapping my P5W DH Deluxe for a P5B Deluxe. Also, you mention the remote control, absolutely rubbish. Only useful button on it is 'mute' and the volume controls. The software for it is far too intrusive and somewhat buggy. Get an MCE remote and receiver instead with the money you save on the motherboard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colmartin Posted November 10, 2006 Report Share Posted November 10, 2006 to be fair, I’ve only just started looking at Intel again recently having been with AMD for the last 3 years so I’ll give you that one, looking at the spec list though it does look good (also supports crossfire which in my mind is better than SLI but that's personal preference!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thorburn Posted November 10, 2006 Report Share Posted November 10, 2006 [ QUOTE ] to be fair, I’ve only just started looking at Intel again recently having been with AMD for the last 3 years so I’ll give you that one, looking at the spec list though it does look good (also supports crossfire which in my mind is better than SLI but that's personal preference!) [/ QUOTE ] I had ATI Crossfire and hated it, the drivers are ok for 'popular' games but anything more niche and it simply doesn't work. Switched to a 7950GX2 and now just part-exchanged it for a 8800GTX which I should have in a few days. The 7950GX2 is flawed because SLI is never perfect, its better than Crossfire but it still has games that simply won't work quite right with it or perform better with SLI disabled. If you want multi-GPU then get the superb new EVGA board based on the NVIDIA nForce 680i chipset and go SLI, its a £200 board though and with the new 8800 cards theres not much point getting SLI right now as they are faster than a pair of X1950's in Crossfire anyway! Price/performance the P965 is the best choice and generally better than 975x. With the latest Catalyst drivers it supports Crossfire too but not SLI. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BertieBassett Posted December 21, 2006 Report Share Posted December 21, 2006 Depending on what you buy, take a look at the following link. They're instructions for installing AMD X2 drivers, with a hotfix for a 'freezing' problem that can occur. Been building one in the last couple of days and had to use it, just thought I'd give you the heads up if you were to encounter the problem aswell. Sounds like a great system you're gonna be putting together. Crucial memory is very reliable, can't go wrong with an Asus board and wrapping it all up in an Antec case is the one true way. You know its a mean piece of kit if its in an Antec case, designed for use rather than looking fancy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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