Buying a PC

Thenotsowyzewun

wolfman wrote:

Not a bad setup. Budget may be of importance, but I'd be tempted to spend a fraction more to improve quality and make it more future proof.

Firstly, don't get an OEM AMD64. The retail is about 50p more (quick code 88105) and will come with warranty and a heatsink/fan. The OEM version won't.

The one I've picked is a retail boxed copy (check my quickcode).

Also, I don't like Asrock mobo's. They're very cheap and have never done well in any tests. For an extra £10 you could get the Abit KN8 Ultra (quick code 96984), a solid motherboard with SATA and PCI-E.

Because of the PCI-E on the mobo I've suggested, you'd need a different graphics card. You can pickup X300 for around £28.

Firstly, the mobo came very well reviewed and it already supports both SATA and PCI-E aswell as AGP!
Secondly graphics are of nil importance to me, thus choosing almost the cheapest card on the net!

With regards to the hard drive, I'd get a SATA drive instead. More future proof and faster for pretty much the same price as an IDE drive. The 160gb sata version of the WD (an extra 40gb) comes in at £45.50 (quick code 55236).

The computer this is replacing has 12GB spread across 2 drives. I think 120GB will be acceptable :P. Furthermore this drive is SATA (ATA-100).

Next I'd steer well clear of the 600W eBuyer psu (just because it's 600W doesn't mean it'll be any good). It's definitely worth spending a little more. The Tagan 380W psu (about £48 at Microdirect) is worth spending the extra money on. For stability, and future upgrades it's worth getting a decent psu first time round.

I've bought Antec and Hiper PSUs in the past and I don't think theyre worth the extra money - theres pages and pages of people on ebuyer saying how surprised they are with the quality of this PSU, so, worse case scenario it breaks and I have to spend more buying another.
BTW I'd recommend Hiper PSUs if you like expensive PSUs - theyre cheaper than others and better reviewed too.

Alternatively, if your current case isn't great, have a look at the Antec Sonata II. It's a brilliant case, and it comes with a decent 450W psu. At £80 it's very well priced considering the quality you get.

Personally I'd go with the Antec Sonata. That'd take you added expenditure to £100, but you'd have a decent case for future systems, and a power supply that is reliable and will be able to handle any upgrades.

I'm not too into pimping my PC... enough said hehe.

I know it may be out of your budget range, but then my advise would be to save for an extra few weeks, or try to stretch your budget as it'll be worth it.

If It was a question of that, ebuyer offer 0% finance for 6 months on purchases this large (and if you pay it all off at the end of the 6 months you don't pay nowt).

Nevertheless I can afford it, so I've paid for it upfront.

Thanks for the advice, but I'm a bit of a techie myself (you know how pompous we all are... lol).

wolfman

Thenotsowyzewun wrote:

The one I've picked is a retail boxed copy (check my quickcode).

The quickcode you put in that post (91935) goes to a OEM version, try it. But if you're sure you're getting a retail, then no probs.

Thenotsowyzewun wrote:

Firstly, the mobo came very well reviewed and it already supports both SATA and PCI-E aswell as AGP!

It gets ok reviews, I wouldn't say great. For a value board it is very good, although does have its flaws. One of my housemates got the board as he has a GeForce 6800GT (AGP) and didn't want to dump his graphics card yet, but wanted the possibility of upgrading to PCI-E, hence the dual AGP/PCI-E being handy. I'd only buy the motherboard in this scenario, otherwise if you're buying a new pc, you may as well just stick with PCI-E and avoid the complications. The Abit board I mentioned performs well, and for the extra £10, you get an inbuilt gigabit nic (not 10/100), better layout (you'll see what I mean if you get the Asrock) and firewire ports (not essential but handy).

Thenotsowyzewun wrote:

Secondly graphics are of nil importance to me, thus choosing almost the cheapest card on the net!

Yeah I noticed, just mentioned the X300 as it was the cheapest PCI-E card I could find inline my my recommendation of mobo.

Thenotsowyzewun wrote:

The computer this is replacing has 12GB spread across 2 drives. I think 120GB will be acceptable :P. Furthermore this drive is SATA (ATA-100).

Again, if you put in the quick code you mentioned (27486) it'll come up with a 120gb ATA100 IDE Western Digital drive. SATA runs in UDMA mode 150. I only mentioned a 160gb drive, as you could get that in SATA for the equivalent price of the 120gb IDE hard drive you referenced. IDE is old technology, and the AsRock (or Abit I mentioned) both support SATA so you may as well get a SATA drive.

Thenotsowyzewun wrote:

I've bought Antec and Hiper PSUs in the past and I don't think theyre worth the extra money - theres pages and pages of people on ebuyer saying how surprised they are with the quality of this PSU, so, worse case scenario it breaks and I have to spend more buying another.
BTW I'd recommend Hiper PSUs if you like expensive PSUs - theyre cheaper than others and better reviewed too.

I've had a number of psu's in the past, and wouldn't recommend Hiper. Only the very recent ones are starting to look up, previous ones ran quite hot (and noisy) and generally had an under powered 12v rail in terms of amps. I actually sold a previous 420W Hiper and got a Tagan 380W psu, which was more stable across all rails, ran cooler and was silent.

I can only see one person that's reviewed the psu on eBuyer. Generally, if it's a good quality psu, you should never need more than 480W. I ran my AMD64 3500+ with a GeForce 6800GT on a 380W psu and then was only on the limit of the psu, I've since upgraded to a 520W psu, but don't use a fraction of its potential. Here's a good article about psu's that explains why to choose a decent one.

Thenotsowyzewun wrote:

I'm not too into pimping my PC... enough said hehe.

I wouldn't call the Antec Sonata a pimp case, for £80 to get a decent case and quality 450W psu is very good. I've yet to read a bad review about it. For anyone building a computer it'd be my recommendation as it provides a solid structure to build your pc around.

Thenotsowyzewun wrote:

Thanks for the advice, but I'm a bit of a techie myself (you know how pompous we all are... lol).

No probs, just giving my advise.

chrb

Firstly, don't get an OEM AMD64. The retail is about 50p more (quick code 88105) and will come with warranty and a heatsink/fan. The OEM version won't.

That's not true. The OEM version will have the same warranty. The only difference is the retail version comes in a nice box and has an approved cpu cooler.

wolfman

chrb wrote:

That's not true. The OEM version will have the same warranty. The only difference is the retail version comes in a nice box and has an approved cpu cooler.

From the AMD website:
http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/TechnicalResources/0,,30_182_867,00.html

To be honest I'm not entirely sure as you hear all kinds of things. I was under the impression though, that you get 3 years warranty with a PIB (processor in a box) and a limited 30-day warranty with an OEM product.

Not sure if Intel are different, but I did have an old P3 500Mhz OEM ages back that broke and Intel wouldn't cover me.

maxamos

I've just bought this processor and motherboard combo. Very easy to setup and at the moment seems very stable - put it through a few burn in tests

If you do buy this and you're a bit of a techie as you say can you give me any help on overclocking the processor as it seems to be locked at 1800mhz. I've flashed the bios to give me more options but can't get above that and on all the forums I've looked at this processor is just dying to be overclocked