Opinions On A New Build

[DLR33]

Hey,

I'm looking to build a PC, and have decided on the following componets. I was wondering if they're alright, and if there was anything better in a similar price range that you may know of?

GRAPHICS CARD: 256MB MSI 8600GT Overclocked, PCI-E(x16), Mem 1600 MHz, GDDR2, GPU 580 MHz, 2x Dual Link DVI-I/HDTV

PROCESSOR: AMD AM2 Athlon 64 5200+ Windsor Core, Dual Core 2.6GHz, 2x 1mb Cache, Energy Eff'''' Retail

OPTICAL: Asus DRW-1814BLT, DVD±R x18, DVD+RW x8/-RW x6, DVD-RAM x14, Lightscribe, SATA, Black, OEM

HDD: 250 Gb Western Digital WD2500JS Caviar SE, SATA300, 7200 rpm, 8MB Cache, 8.9 ms

RAM: 1Gb Corsair XMS2, DDR2 PC5400 (667), 240 Pin, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 4-4-4-12

SOUNDCARD: Creative Sound Blaster Audigy SE 7.1 OEM

MONITOR: 19" Asus VW192S, Black, Widescreen, 5 ms, 1440x900, 800:1, Speakers

MOBO: Asus M2N, NF430, S AM2, PCI-E (x16), DDR2 533/667/800, SATA II, SATA RAID, ATX

CASE: Akasa Zen Case - Black Silent Cool Midi-ATX Computing case w/2 silent 12cm fans w/o PSU

PSU: 500W FSP Blue Storm AX500-A, 12cm Fan ATX2.0 (20+4Pin) SATA/PCI-E

KB&MOUSE: Logitech Desktop LX 710 Laser Cordless Keyboard, USB 1/2.0, 1000dpi Laser Mouse, Silver UK Retail

Do you think any improvements could be made? I dont mind spending abit more to get the best system out of it. The main things i'm not sure about are the PSU, MOBO & monitor.

Any :help: appreciated! :wink:

[sushrukh]

Hi DLR,welcome to our community & enjoy ur stay here.

Get atleast a 600W PSU from Ultra/CM/Antec/OCZ/Silverstone.Any make will do from these.Your 500W is enough to run all the components you've mentioned but you need to save some power too if you add more peripherals or graphics card.And don't go for 1Gb 667 Mhz ram.Get atleast a 2GB DDR2 800 mhz kit.If u can't afford 2GB DDR2 800 right now,then get 1GB & add another later but make sure get atleast DDR2 800.You can get Asus monitor but i prefer going for Viewsonic VX922 (http://viewsonic.com/products/lcddisplays/xseries/vx922/).You can also think about the Creative X-FI cards if you can afford them.Otherwise i think, everything is fine & remember, never compromise on your PSU.

[Bio-Hazard]

One quick question, are you 100% set on a AMD system or are you willing to opt for something in the Intel family, Intel performs much better these days. Also, what is your general budget and what part of the world bo you live in, that makes a big differance.

[Xero (1)ne]

Bio, he can support w/e company likes :wink:

I personally would wait till AM3 system comes out. I don't think there's any problems with your current layout except for the psu like Shush said.

Good luck:icon_tiphat:

[Bio-Hazard]

Just asking to see if he want's the best bang for his hard earned buck.......;) that's all..............:)

['Amp!']

There are a bunch of questions to be asked before an "informed" opinion can be offered.

1. What is the purpose of this machine? (i.e. Gaming, Video editing, HTPC, etc)
2. What is the limit of your budget?
3. How often do you wish to upgrade? (1/yr, 1/3yr, etc)
4. Do you prefer strawberry jelly or grape jelly? (Most important)
5. Will you be overclocking?
6. Why do people park in driveways and drive on parkways?


Answer these questions and we can all give our opinion and maybe even start a flame war! :explode:

[Xero (1)ne]

Well in my opinion AMD's are better for gaming(more instruction sets), and intels are better for video editing(larger cache sizes)

[tyle6]

I prefer Grape... led me to get a core2dou

[sushrukh]

Well in my opinion AMD's are better for gaming(more instruction sets), and intels are better for video editing(larger cache sizes)

I'm an AMD fanboy but i got my mobo which is Intel based & the CPU from Intel.That's why i had to make the intel rig.Otherwise,i would have gone AMD way. ;-)

[DLR33]

New members are not allowed to post links until it is determined if they are attemptimg to SPAM our forums. Non-members are completely prohibited from posting links. We want you as a member but we don't want your SPAM!

[DLR33]

OK... That 'no link' thing was annoying. Mainly because it deleted my post!

The jist of it was:

Why is 800mhz so much better than 667mhz ram and would i really see that big a difference. I'll defintly be getting 2gb of ram now btw.

Could you explain to me which widescreen monitor native resolution is best (eg. 1440x900) & how i would set it up in XP so theres no stretch, black bars etc... And possibly recommend a good monitor, fairly cheap, available in the UK.

Also, C2D sucks, strawberry jelly rocks, and the UK doesnt have parkways :wink:

[tyle6]

NO PARKWAYS! WHERE DO YOU DRIVE? LoL. CORE2DOU ROCKS!


i have also takin up spamming.

[westy87]

In regards to your widescreen question, you really wont have to do anything like that. Pretty much every game I have has widescreen support, and for my older games that don't I could either find a patch some 1 had made to make it support widescreen, or ran it in windowed mode :)

And general windows applications just resize to fit screen, but they don't stretch what you actually see, if that is what you mean.

Personally, the monitor im using (specs in sig) was really good bang for my buck, and i know others here have the same one and are pleased with it.

[sushrukh]

There's a performance gap b2in the 667 & 800 & i think that's noticeable.Go for any Viewsonic monitor.They are all good.Just make sure they have atleast 8ms or less.The cheapest Widescreen monitor you'll find in UK is ViewSonic® VA1912wb.It's widescreen,supports 1440x900 & less pricey than others.

[DLR33]

Westy87: Are you using vista?

I just had a look around, but cant find that monitor anywhere sushrukh... (and importantly not on scan.co.uk, where i'll be buying my components) so i'll probably just stick with the Asus. I 'm tempted to get a 22" one tho lol.

Back on point, i'm pretty much locked in on everything but the PSU. Theres a deal on a PSU on scan.co.uk (since I cant use links, please search 'XClio-SCF') I havnt really heard of the make to be honest, but apparently they're good, and reviews of ofther PSUs from that company have been good. What do you think? Xcilo or FSP Blue Storm?

[Xero (1)ne]

Idk about non-brandname psu companies. One thing to remember about psu shopping though is that the heavier the psu is the better.

I have a 550W CoolerMaster in my box and it's most of the weight.

[Schwarz]

Not sure for how much the Mushkin 650W goes but this is what I have and sucking every once of it don't even make it twitch.
Anyways as far as AMD or Intel I used to always buy AMD until the clear performance lead of the new Core 2s.
But if your mind is set then go for it.
One more thing between 667 and 800 I personnaly would go for the 800 as ram is getting much and much cheaper.
But as far as performance go, if you don't oc all that much and are a cusual gamer then you won't notice much difference.
Unless you like to OC you can also get some 1066.
I got my Crucial Ballistix Tracer 1066 with the led things for only 175 canadian bucks.
Its really not much.

[DLR33]

OK... I wont skimp on the PSU & stick with the FSP. I might buy this rig tomorrow if you tell me whether the 22" Iiyama PLE2200WSV-B1 is a good monitor ;) . The reviews look good, but one thing that concerns me is the max refresh rate of 60hz at max resolution. I heard that LCD refresh works abit differently to CRT, and if this is true, 60Hz wont flicker on the screen?

[westy87]

Nah just WinXP

[Xero (1)ne]

Nah just WinXP

Lawls :lol:

[the_dope_chaud]

If you plan on running an athlon x2 and not overclocking it, ddr2 800 is really useless, shush is pressuring you for nothing.
And also, once again, what is going to be the purpose of this pc?

[sushrukh]

Im not pressuring him for anything.I've said what i think because he asked us.Btw, i've never seen that DDR2 800 is useless.

[the_dope_chaud]

Sorry, I meant that spending the extra dough is useless, ddr2 6400 I believe is usefull for overclocking Intel 6*00, 6*20, and new 6*50 (not to mention quads) series...but hey I'm no expert

[Bio-Hazard]

I totally don't understand why most people try and tell people that aren't interested in OC'ing to over buy their components, it's a complete waste of money, just buy what you need for the speed you intend on running the system at. I think that's fairly simple to understand, after all, money doesn't grow on trees, at least for most people anyways.

[sushrukh]

I think, he has never said that he's not interested or not gonna OC his rig.Did he ?

I was just saying him to buy the DDR2 800 modules because the price diff are very small b2in the 667 & the 800.And,i was also saying that because he has said this in his ist post.

Do you think any improvements could be made? I dont mind spending a bit more to get the best system out of it Any :help: appreciated! :wink:

So, if he wants to pay a bit more to get better performance out of his rig,why should we have a problem with that ?

[DLR33]

I think, he has never said that he's not interested or not gonna OC his rig.Did he ?

I was just saying him to buy the DDR2 800 modules because the price diff are very small b2in the 667 & the 800.And,i was also saying that because he has said this in his ist post.



So, if he wants to pay a bit more to get better performance out of his rig,why should we have a problem with that ?

I'm not going to overclock... I went into detail about everything in the post that *annoyingly* didnt go though because there was a link in it.

Anyway, I'm not going to get ddr2 800mhz because for me the perfomance increase would be marginal. This isnt my primary computer, the most intensive app the computer will have to handle is photoshop. lol.

OK... I wont skimp on the PSU & stick with the FSP. I might buy this rig tomorrow if you tell me whether the 22" Iiyama PLE2200WSV-B1 is a good monitor ;) . The reviews look good, but one thing that concerns me is the max refresh rate of 60hz at max resolution. I heard that LCD refresh works abit differently to CRT, and if this is true, 60Hz wont flicker on the screen?

Any views about the monitor? I know iiyama is a good brand, but as said above the refresh rates make me have second thoughts. Once I know thats a good monitor i'm ready to buy...

Final Specs are the same as my first post, with the following changes:

2Gb Corsair XMS2, DDR2 PC5400 (667), 240 Pin, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 4-4-4-12

Coolermaster RC-330 Elite Black Midi Tower Case w/o PSU

480W XClio-SCF aPFC Super Silent SLi (21Db) 12cm Fan 8/20/24 ATX2/2.01 12vEPS + SATA+PCI-E Hi-End (Spoke to someone who has one, the loading seems fine)

22" Iiyama PLE2200WSV-B1 ,Black , Widescreen ,5 ms ,1680x1050 ,1000:1

[Bio-Hazard]

Refresh rates on LCDs are all pretty much the same, some og the newest ones might have a bit higher, but even at 60 you will not see any screen flicker due the the refresh rates. With LCD's there is not any screen refresh in still screens like CRT's in the past have had. Once a LCD is lit to any one color, it stays on, no refresh until the color is changed, so no flicker...........;)

This might say it a bit clearer than I did.

Much of the discussion of refresh rate does not apply to LCD (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LCD) monitors. This is because while a phosphor on a CRT will begin to dim as soon as the electron beam passes it, LCD cells open to pass a continuous stream of light, and do not dim until instructed to produce a darker color.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refresh_rate

When dealing with LCDs, refresh rate is not much of a concern since they use a different technology to draw the image. Refresh rates as low as 40Hz or 60Hz are perfectly acceptable with LCD monitors.

http://news.digitaltrends.com/featured_article6.html

[sushrukh]

I'm not going to overclock... I went into detail about everything in the post that *annoyingly* didnt go though because there was a link in it.

Anyway, I'm not going to get ddr2 800mhz because for me the perfomance increase would be marginal. This isnt my primary computer, the most intensive app the computer will have to handle is photoshop. lol.



No worries, i wouldn't have told you to buy DDR2 800 if i knew that you won't be OC'ing this PC & it will only handle Photoshop because even a DDR1 would be sufficient then. ;-)

[Bio-Hazard]

I'm not going to overclock... I went into detail about everything in the post that *annoyingly* didnt go though because there was a link in it.

Anyway, I'm not going to get ddr2 800mhz because for me the perfomance increase would be marginal. This isnt my primary computer, the most intensive app the computer will have to handle is photoshop. lol.



Any views about the monitor? I know iiyama is a good brand, but as said above the refresh rates make me have second thoughts. Once I know thats a good monitor i'm ready to buy...

Final Specs are the same as my first post, with the following changes:

2Gb Corsair XMS2, DDR2 PC5400 (667), 240 Pin, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 4-4-4-12

Coolermaster RC-330 Elite Black Midi Tower Case w/o PSU

480W XClio-SCF aPFC Super Silent SLi (21Db) 12cm Fan 8/20/24 ATX2/2.01 12vEPS + SATA+PCI-E Hi-End (Spoke to someone who has one, the loading seems fine)

22" Iiyama PLE2200WSV-B1 ,Black , Widescreen ,5 ms ,1680x1050 ,1000:1
As for the X-Clio PSU, it should be more than enough for a basic rig like you intend on building...........:smile: I've reviewed several in the past for a different site some time ago and they are still working just fine. They are made for X-Clio by a the large OEM supplier Chanel Well and they are known for Qualitly PSU and supply PSU to basicly all the big name vendors, so nothing to worry about there. If you were to start OC'ing (I know you said you wouldn't) you might want a little larger unit, but I used a X-Clio 550 on my water cooled AMD X2 rig for a long time and it was OC'd to the max 24/7.............:ahhhhh:

[westy87]

http://www.tweakguides.com/Graphics_7.html

Read through that and the next few pages to get a nice description of why LCD's are set to 60hz

[AJ.]

Everything looks fine especially if this computer is only for photoshop. If it were for gaming I'd suggest a better gpu. But there's no need for that ;-)

[AJ.]

Sorry, didnt notice. I'm new here.

He got my 2 cents either way lol.

[DLR33]

. . . . .

[hatakezetsumei]

from what i heard from inquierer that k10 stomps on intel and even the upcoming peneran. if i were u i would wait for k10 and get a decent 2x amd for now.


I am on my Wii so i may have many typos.

[Frag Maniac]

from what i heard from inquierer that k10 stomps on intel and even the upcoming peneran. if i were u i would wait for k10 and get a decent 2x amd for now.


I am on my Wii so i may have many typos.There's no official test results to confirm that yet, and I think you mean Penryn.;-)

[sushrukh]

LightScribe Super Format 18x DVD Writer (X2)

Is that the company called Super Format ? I've not even heard of them.Btw,i'll still say that go for the DDR2 800 memories.I'm not much into OC'ing but i've used both the 667 & 800 & the later one infact provides some performance boost over 667.It may not be that much but the price diff is also not much.You can ask anyone,the most favourable DDR2 memory is DDR2 800. ;-)

[Bio-Hazard]

from what i heard from inquierer that k10 stomps on intel and even the upcoming peneran. if i were u i would wait for k10 and get a decent 2x amd for now.


I am on my Wii so i may have many typos.
If you trust anything those guys print, I've got some great vacation land for sale at a great price..........;)
Anyways, the Inq story changes daily and it does look like at some point the AMD may scale to the point where it will become competitive against Intel again, but that not going to be until sometime next year. As for it crushing the C2D, not anytime soon and Intel isn't sitting still either, they will release at least one maybe 2 new cores by the time AMD gets the K10 out the door, after all, the K10 is already 6 months late at least.

[sushrukh]

I'm more interested in AMD K11 which is codenamed Bulldozer, is the chip that is scheduled for early 2009. This will be the chip that should take care of high end market and co exist with overhyped Fusion.

K11 will have 8 to 16 cores and it will be developed in 45 nanometre.Intel should have switched to 32 nanometre at the same time.

The year 2008 is reserved for K10.5, a 45 nanometre shrink of Barcelona / K10 architecture while K11 is promised to provide the first SSE5 support.

[DLR33]

Hi everyone,

I just want to say thanks for all your advice helping me to choose components :grin:! I will definitly be buying this week. Here are the specs I have decided on:



Your Basket

1 LN11680 Xclio SuperTower Black Hi-Performance Gaming (w/o PSU) see details - Hi-End

1 LN13700 700W Xclio X12S4P4 Modular SLi U-Quiet 14cm Fan 87%+ Efficiency Quad+12v EPS 4SATA 4 PCI-E

2 LN19211 LG 18X GSA-H62NBAL DVD+/-RW, 12X RAM SATA Black OEM

1 LN16673 Asus M2N-E SLI NF500 SLI MCP, S AM2, PCI-E (x16), DDR2 533/667, SATA II, SATA RAID, ATX

1 LN19293 AMD AM2 Athlon 64 5200+ Windsor Core, Dual Core 2.6GHz, 2x 1mb Cache, Energy Eff'''' Retail

1 LN18141 22" Cibox SC-C2201 ,Titanium/Silver , Widescreen ,5 ms , DVI/VGA ,1680x1050 ,1000:1 ,Speakers

1 LN12200 2Gb (2X1GB) Corsair TwinX XMS2, DDR2 PC5400 (667), 240 Pin, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 4-4-4-12

1 LN13120 250 Gb Seagate ST3250620AS Barracuda 7200.10, SATA300, 7200 rpm, 16MB Cache, 8.5 ms, NCQ

1 LN18229 256MB XFX 8600GT, PCI-E (x16), Mem 1400 MHz, GDDR3, GPU 540 MHz, 2x Dual Link DVI-I/HDTV


I'll definitly be ordering this week(if not tomorrow) , but one thing i'm not sure about is the mobo... The specs on it look pretty solid, but the mixed reviews are abit worrying. Have any of you had experience with the mobo above?

Sushruka, I'm definitly not going with 800 ram because I still dont think it's necessary for me.

[DLR33]

Oh, also, I cant seem to find my old XP cd, so may have to buy a new one. If i am forced to buy a new one, I'll probably buy vista HP. I know it would run fairly well on the system above, but would I have any compatability issues?

[Xero (1)ne]

You shouldn't see any compatability issues unless you try to run The Elder Scrolls: Arena :ahhhhh::lol:

[DLR33]

LOL. I guess i should avoid it then... I wouldnt want to get any dust from that old game on my new pc :roll:



About the specs on page 4: I heard that the mobo only supports a maximum 1.95v for the ram. Does anyone know the stock voltage of the 2gb corsair twinx xms2 pc5400?