Building a computer!

Jaffa.

Hey all!

I'm planning on a new computer to replace my old one thet I currently use, however instead of going to pcworld and buying one I'm going to buy the parts and build it myself (I've never done this before so I'm quite excited by it )
I just need to know if I've missed anything or if you know of a better part at about the same price, also all this stuff is going to work together... isn't it I already have a keyboard, mouse monitor and printer. I have £500 to spend Max.

Cheers!

GoldenGirl25

Wow thats so cool my flatmate built her own and its really good! She offered to do me one but I dont have the space for a desktop so Im better off with a laptop.

Good luck!

abibee

It's a matter of personal judgement, but I wouldn't spend £100 just for the case and power supply. It looks like Ebuyer's cart, I know for sure they have good case + psu combined for half that price. Instead of a nice looking cable, I'd get an ugly grey one that saves a few quid (it's not going to be seen once you close the case!). Also, the CPU is a retail version, so you don't need the arctic silver.

Money saved from those things means you can get an even better cpu/motherboard/memory. Or a larger capacity hard drive, 320gb isn't that much nowadays.

Those are my thoughts anyhow. I remember when I made my first one, scary! But it's easy really.

NBE

Good for you, you often feel much better having something that is exactly what you want. Don't think you have forgotten anything, although you might wish to shop around a bit, some of your components can be found for less elsewhere. You might then be able to upgrade some of your components.

Have a look around these sites
www.ebuyer.com
www.scan.co.uk

HTH

DatabaseError

any particular reason for a silent video card? the stock AMD cooler is gonna sound a bit like a 747 as the chips get uber-toasty...if you're after a quet PC your gonna have to change that stock cooler for something pretty.
£7 for a SATA cable seems a bit steep..but I've never had to buy one..so it might be right.
Nice to see someone thinking of AS5 from the start!
Hitachiu drive..not my choice...I'm a big fan of western digital caviar blue.
Personally, I'd ditch AMD and go intel E5200 + good hs/fan + overclock....but I'm mean!


(and I used to love AMD)

epz_2

one of the tech journals did a comparison on the thermal pastes a few years back, they we only something like 3% more efficent than toothpaste and marmite so save yourself £7.

given the gpu you have selected i take it you are not a big gamer so why not get a 17" laptop, they are much more usable these days and start well under £500.

Jaffa.

Thanks abibee! I didn't realize it came with the thermal stuff, thats cool
It's an Overclockers UK cart, and I'm glad it's not just me who thinks £100 for a case and PSU is expensive *phew* it's just some of the cases on there went up to 200+ so I thought it was the norm. I'm not even using it for gaming just college work (it says it's a gaming case...) but all the £20 ones had them flappy drive covers that break after a while, yuck.
I have no idea about the cables - they were the cheapest ones on there, well SATA ones anyway, it just so happens they come in orange.

DatabaseError

I think £100 for a case and PSU is cheap!
...well...reasonable

tomsutton529

good for you building your own.remember to take your time doing things and to discharge the static from yourself when i was doing my CISCO course a mate of mine fried a servers motherboard from static.the worse thing is that you never know until you get to the end and nothing works.

i think the case and PSU are about right, yes you can get the cheaper but it looks decent and will do the job.

a few pointers for the future, dont use a hoover to clean inside the computer, use the right stuff. dont bother with water cooling, look after it and it will last forever. ive had my laptop for 5 years and its still as good as the day i got it, granted the power lead is like a patchwork quilt, the fan is louder than my CD player and it over heats sometimes, but its all fixable and i learnt this from building computers and then doing CISCO.

good luck with it all, and dont affraid to come on here and ask for advice when something goes wrong.

Jaffa.

DatabaseError wrote: »

any particular reason for a silent video card? the stock AMD cooler is gonna sound a bit like a 747 as the chips get uber-toasty...if you're after a quet PC your gonna have to change that stock cooler for something pretty.
£7 for a SATA cable seems a bit steep..but I've never had to buy one..so it might be right.
Nice to see someone thinking of AS5 from the start!
Hitachiu drive..not my choice...I'm a big fan of western digital caviar blue.
Personally, I'd ditch AMD and go intel E5200 + good hs/fan + overclock....but I'm mean!

(and I used to love AMD)

Nah, no reason for the graphics card, I had AMD goes with ATI in mind and then, well, I just picked one I guess I also had in mind silent means no fan failure and quite pc - I'm no gamer but i'd like the pc to have it's own graphics card really.

I cant have it sounding like a jet (like the big Dell XPS does) it needs to be "quite" or it's going to keep everyone else awake at night

Whats the difference between the Intel Pentium Dual-Core E5200 and the Intel Core 2 Duo ones? (this is why I picked AMD haha it started to confuse me) they sound the same but they cant be when I look at the prices, the E5200 is a P4 socket?

epz wrote:

one of the tech journals did a comparison on the thermal pastes a few years back, they we only something like 3% more efficent than toothpaste and marmite so save yourself £7.

given the gpu you have selected i take it you are not a big gamer so why not get a 17" laptop, they are much more usable these days and start well under £500.

The reason I'm not buying a laptop is because I'm prone to letting them overheat and dropping them... I'm being serious

The silver thermal paste stuff I picked because I thought i'd need it, then again I'd rather put the good stuff on

Jaffa.

DatabaseError wrote: »

I think £100 for a case and PSU is cheap!
...well...reasonable

I like the style of the case, infact I watched a review on youtube about it and saw you could change the speeds of the fan, full mesh front, nice controls and very small lights at the top with i/o ports.

You know the power supply - could I get away with using this one Antec Basic 350W Power Supply or is that wattage too low?