Finally got a job (yay), so I’m treating myself. Thing is, I’ve no idea where to start, and what to buy.

CPU: Intel C2D E8500
Motherboard: No idea. Seriously, haven’t a clue.
GFX: 9800 GTX
SFX: I’m hoping for something with good onboard sound? I really really don’t want to buy anything from Creative.
RAM: Again, no idea. Would like at least 3-4GB.
HDD: 7200.11
Case: Again, no idea.
PSU: Same as above.
Monitor: 2408WFP
Speakers: Not really researched this
Keyboard: Ditto
Mouse: Ditto

I'm really looking for help in the Motherboard, PSU, RAM and Case area.

I'll give you a quick overview of what the PC will be used for. I'm a avid gamer, currently addicted to ET:QW play atleast 2-4 hours each night. Sisters also use the current PC. One is an artist, who is a mad photoshopper. And the other one is addicted to ET:QW aswell. The rest is general internet browsing, playing music and shit like that.

I won't be overclocking - I just don't have the time anymore.

Price range is pretty flexible, considering as this is my first PC I will be building myself

So please help me!

ASUS STRIKER II EXTREME NVINF790I

If money is not an option

I'm sure there is a better board out there but I've had my eye on this one, it seems to come up a lot in shops around my city.

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo...roductID=788257

Yikes £256. I said it was flexibile lol. I was hoping for something more in the range of £100-£150.

That board seems to specialise in 3-way-SLi. I won't be running SLi, at all.

What about one from this list?

Since I don't like ASUS anymore, I switched back to abit. If I'd buy a new mobo it would probably be the IX38 QuadGT. I currently own a IP35 Pro and it is really stable and I've overclocked my pc.

I hate Creative too. Unfortunately there are not enough alternatives. Most of the mainboards use the same sound chips. If you go for really good speakers you probably should get a soundcard. If not all onboard solutions should be fine.

For a PSU I'd recommend Corsair/Seasonic, my Corsair PSU is really quiet and works just fine 24/7.

I currently don't have an idea what RAM is the best.

Well I wanted a P45 board - was looking at this one, I hear they are coming out soon.

Is this the board you are on about?

I currently got this one.

I've just read a test about the new P45 chipset and it looks like it would be worth waiting for it

I've had Gigabyte mainboards in the past and they worked quite well. They had a problem with the capacitors but this problem should be gone.

I think I might just wait it out, till the P45's are out.

Currently looking at this one (ASUS) and this one (MSI). I've read the review of the MSI here, and it's looking pretty good.

God, who knew it was this hard deciding what to buy!

Whichever motherboard you get, I recommend one with all solid capacitors. That was an important factor in my most recent home mobo purchase. I also don't like ones that require fans. I'm currently using an MSI mobo, and I have had no trouble with it.

The memory is something you should watch out for because some motherboards can be picky, especially with the voltages. I suggest looking through the mobo reviews and see what types of memory others are using with it. For the brands, I know Kingston and Corsair are good. In my most recent purchase, I went with G.Skill memory. I wasn't sure about that brand, but I have had no trouble with them. The first thing I did when I got it was run a memory test overnight, and the memory was fine.

For the PSU, I have two choices these days: Antec or Enermax. Don't go cheap with the PSU. You really get what you pay for.

And yes, I suggest avoiding Creative. I no longer buy Creative products. Now days onboard solutions are fine for gaming. Just make sure the mobo uses "HD Audio" instead of AC'97. Most modern mobos should have HD Audio. Also, now days most mobos either use Realtek or IDT (formerly Sigmatel) for their audio. I prefer Realtek because they manage their drivers better.

For the case, I'm currently using an Antec Nine Hundred, and it is a fine case. It comes with three 120mm fans, and one 200mm fan. It also supports two extra 120mm fans. I like the large 120mm fans because they run quieter and move more air.

And where do I found out if they have solid capacitors? Will it say in the technical specs?

For memory I was gonna go with Crucial. I just want a nice 2x2GB kit. But, hardware isn't my strong area. So what about something like this? That's with the ASUS Motherboard, that I linked to above.

Noted.

Yeah, I'm completly avoiding Creative. Just looking for a good onboard solution. Although ASUS and Auzen have a couple of soundcards out.

TBH, I haven't the slightest clue about cases. I just want a case that promotes good air circulation, and with plenty of room to move around in.

Thanks for helping out guys!

Sometimes they say it in the specs. Or, you could just look at the capacitors themselves. Here's more information on it, and some pictures:

http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/FileList/NewTec...2_all_solid.htm

Just checked, the Asus P5Q Deluxe has solid capacitors.

So here's what I got so far. Does it all look ok/compatible?

CPU: Intel C2D E8500
Motherboard: Asus P5Q Deluxe (iP45)
GFX: 9800 GTX
SFX: ASUS motherboard above has onbound 7.1 HD Sound.
RAM: Corsair TwinX (2x2GB)
HDD: 7200.11
Case: Again, no idea.
PSU: Same as above.
Monitor: 2408WFP

If all that is ok, then onto PSUs and Cases.

What kind of wattage should I be looking at? I'm guessing 700W?

I just checked on what the 9800 GTX recommends for power, and it looks like most of them say 450 watt for single mode and 550 watt for SLI. But even though it's not a SLI configuration, I would still go with no less than 550. A 700 would be way more than enough.

Solid capacitors are the most important... Gigabyte boards had lots of trouble in the past with the electrolytic ones.

The config looks good I think it will be fine if the PSU got more than 500W. Just remember the quality of the PSU is very important to the system stability. Don't get the cheapest one and nothing can go wrong

Avoid Tagan PSUs had one once and the cables were really thick. It was really hard to install it.


Just 2 examples of what you could get:
Corsair 750W PSU
Seasonic 700W PSU

Just thought I'd chime in...

Hardware isn't really my thing but a did a ton of reasearch before building my current machine (and had a thread here too).

I love the Corsair TwinX memory kits, I've used them in my last 3 machines and it's flat out fast and rock stable. They come in 3 flavors (and prices), one basic, one for heavy loads, and one for overclocking. If you're not planning on overclocking save the money and go for the middle one (I do). My Vista x64 box has been under heavy load for almost 4mo straight (VMs & etc) and it's never blinked ... That's good RAM!

I've also got an Antec 900 case, and one thing Chug didn't mention is all of the fans come with individual (3 position) speed controls, so it can be really cool without having to be really loud. The box sits in the floor next to me and the top front USB ports are super handy for tossing my thumbdrive in.

Cheers for checking Chug.

Cheers, for the links. Think I'm gonna go with Seasonic 700W PSU.

Ahhh nice to know someone else has this RAM. Thanks for letting me know Phonics. I would buy a cheaper kit, but I really want 2x2GB. And thats the only model they offer in a 4GB kit (on Scan).

Been looking at the Antec 900 and Antec 1200. I really really like the 1200. But it's def a tossup between the 900 & 1200.

So here is my final list...

CPU: Intel C2D E8500
Motherboard: Asus P5Q Deluxe (iP45)
GFX: 9800 GTX
SFX: ASUS motherboard above has onbound 7.1 HD Sound.
RAM: Corsair TwinX (2x2GB)
HDD: 7200.11
Case: Antec 1200
PSU: Seasonic M12-700
Monitor: 2408WFP
Optical Drive: Pioneer DVR-215BK

Grand Total: £1,285.86 ($2,512.86)

This is gonna sound like a stupid, but will I need a NIC? Or will the ethernet ports on the mobo do (for net)? Also, just wondering. I know the board has on-board sound, but I use VOIP alot (especially in ET:QW) - does on-board sound change anything in regards to that?

Just looking at the reviews for the parts that I've chosen, and a common theme for the 9800GTX is that it's not a great bang-for-buck deal. Most just think it's a OC'ed verion of the 8800GTS. Any recommendations? nVidia only please, ATi drivers for ET:QW suck.

And thanks again guys for all your help, much appreciated

The mobo's two gigabit ports and onboard HD audio should be perfectly fine for the game.

Just chiming in again...

No RAID? (You only have one HDD listed) It doesn't say which RAID levels that board supports, but if RAID5 is an option I'd use it. I've got 3 320GB drives in a RAID5 on my Asus Commando Mboard and it's actually kinda freaky how fast this thing is (not to mention the redundancy makes for a nice warm fuzzy feeling).

Thanks for the confirmation!
RAID I haven't really considered at all. Just been checking the official specs, and it does say:
I'll probably add it at a later date (you have to do a complete re-install right?)

Yes, a complete reinstall would be required ... and harddrives are fairly cheap these days.

Granted some people reinstall as often as they change socks, but I'd hate to have to do a reload after getting my box dialed in just to stay in a budget. Hell I seldom reboot more than 5 times a year.

I use RAID1 on my home file server, but I'm uneasy about using RAID5 on my home computers. You see, at home RAID1 IS my backup for the majority of my files. If one hard drive goes out, then hey, I've got the other. But suppose I was running RAID5 and my motherboard went out. Now it's more trouble to access the content on another computer, especially if I was using hardware RAID. And is there anything proprietary about the different chipset manufacturers' implementations of RAID? Is there any guarantee that one RAID5-supporting mobo will read the RAID5 drives from a different mobo?

Since all the onboard RAID functions are software based, it shouldn't be a problem. At least it works if you get another board with an Intel chipset again. The RAID is automatically detected and works.

I'm using 2x500 GB RAID 0. I don't have the space to add an additional one so I can run RAID 5 and I need the capacity so RAID 1 is not an option.

I unserstand your concerns, but...

The first Commando I got went tits up in two weeks (long story/short ending - not entirely the boards fault...), Newegg RMA'ed the board and the replacement has been running fine ever since. It detected the already configured array and booted up just fine.

The Intel Matrix RAID controller is fairly common so all you'd need (in the event of catastrophic failure...) is a Mboard that featured the same controller and the proprietary aspect is covered. Besides, even if you were using a full-zoot commercial RAID you'd still need to get a replacement controller similar to the one that blew to recover the data so it's not really that different...RAID is as RAID does.

RAID1 on a home machine seems kinda pointless as the configuration of a home machine is (generally) never that complex ... and you'll still likely have a few (RAID) issues putting Humpty Dumpty back together if the Mboard blows. Granted it won't be as many issues as RAID5, but it won't be Plug-N-Play either.

When my old machine with a RAID0 fried RunTimeSoftware's RAID Rebuilder did a fine job of rebuilding the array, and allowed me to get most of the really critical data back. The reason I lost 80% of the other stuff was a quirk of timing not the array's fault and not a deficiency in the recovery software. I was doing a compairison and acidentally had several defrag managers fighting for control of the "disk" when the board desided to (slowly) go over the edge so the ensueing battle had plenty of time to scramble the data.

RAID5 gives both speed and redundancy, so in the event that the Mboard survives and a drive blows (which is generaly more likely) you still have redundance and you have the speed increase while everything is running fine.

These days I am a bit paranoid, so all of my data gets backed up to my (commercial/Supermicro) server on a nightly basis. Why? because my home network and my work network are kinda merged due to the 24/7 network management contracts we offer ... so everything on both is Uber critical. Hence my usage of RAID5 because I can't afford any downtime and I need speed!.

RAID isn't something want right now, not sure if I need it either. But I will no doubt implement a RAID config with the new rig, somewhere along the line. I re-install every 18 months or so, it'll be then.

So, just got to order the components now. Just gonna wait till everything gets back in stock.

Oh yeah, do I need any after market coolers? Stuff like "thermal paste" etc etc? Or will air cooling suffice?

No, I use the cooler that comes with the processor. That's what they bundle with it, so it sure as hell better work. You don't need anything more unless you're overclocking.

And there's no need to buy thermal paste, because the heat sink comes with a layer already on the bottom of it. At least that's how it is with AMD processors. It's dry in the box, but once the processor heats it up then it gets all gooey sticks to it.

But if you ever remove the heat sink after the computer has been running a while, then it would be a good idea to clean off the old thermal paste and put a new layer on. It should be spread thin and even. Not lumpy.

The cooler that comes with your CPU is really good. It will do the job even if you slightly overclock. Just like it's with AMD processors, the Intel coolers come with already applied thermal paste. Be sure not to scratch the surface when you mount the cooler.

I remember when the guys at tomshardware overclocked an E6300 to 3.2GHz with the stock cooler.

Ahhh right gotcha.

Thanks for the heads up.

Gonna be ordering it soon. /me excited.

Have you ordered your graphics card yet?

http://www.nvidia.com/object/io_1213610051114.html
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/nvidia-gtx-280,1953.html

Heh heh... That's always the way it goes.

Yeah I saw those today on Scan. But the price is ridiculous, so I'm not to bothered. If anything it'll push the 9800GTX price down.

If you still haven't bought your graphics card yet, then you might want to reconsider ATI. They are just coming out with the Radeon HD 4850, which really beats out the 9800 GTX in Quake Wars. In BioShock it even beat out the GTX 260. It's priced pretty cheap also, at $199. From the early results, it appears to easily be the new bang-for-buck champion.

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3338&p=8


NewEgg already has these cards on sale. I don't know if they're available in the U.K. yet, but I bet they'll get them pretty soon.

Nah not yet, I decided to spend a big chunk on my first paycheck on some clothes. So I gotta wait for the second one to come in (couple of weeks time).

OOooooo, nice find, will check it out. Cheers Chug.

Well, looks nVidia are gonna answer with a new SKU.... 9800GTX+. So I'm gonna wait for that, should be here around the same time as mai paycheck!

Yeah, the benchmarks seem pretty close though, and the ATi card is a new model that still has immature drivers. You could see its speed improve some more within a few months.

Yeah, plus the HD4850 is now available here. And the price is alot cheaper than the 9800GTX - £120.39 vs £157.98.

Just been looking at the reviews of the HD4850 and comparing the results of ET:QW.

http://www.guru3d.com/article/amd-ati-rade...--powercolor/12
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3338&p=8

Looking at 1900x1200. Guru3D has 57 vs 55 FPS. But AnandTech has 59.3 vs 75.4. Or is that down to them using different settings? (AA and all that shit)

Well a couple of things could be involved. Different settings, different drivers, different hardware, different background applications, or a different area of the game to benchmark. No score is going to be an exact measure.

More likely, the processor:
Guru 3d: Core 2 Duo X6800 Extreme (Conroe)
Anandtech: Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9770 @ 3.20GHz

I *really* hate sites that use $1500 processors for their video card reviews, especially their *mid-range* video card reviews. What person is spending $1500 on a CPU and $200 on a video card? Worthless.

Well the faster processors will more accurately show the abilities of the cards. It's not really a fair benchmark when the CPU is limiting what the card is capable of.

But since most of us don't buy the $1500 CPU it would be at least interesting how it performs on a more comparable pc. Most of the cheaper more mainstream CPUs won't be limiting the card either.

Apparently the Core 2 Duo X6800 Extreme does, and it is a $1000+ processor.

Went to place my order last night....only to find that the GFX I had chosen had mysteriously disappeared from Scan! I really didn't want to order from multiple sites, but looks like I'm gonna have to.

The fps in the game also depend on the CPU. Physx and a lot other things are not processed by the GPU so a faster CPU will of course result in a higher fps rate.

http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/po...r_hd4850/14.htm

3DMark06 GPU Score is almsot the same between guru3d and this site but they used a slower CPU and the score is almost the same.

Just been looking around for it, and it looks like it's been discontinued. Oh well, I'll wait till the 9800GTX+ arrives to see how it fairs with the HD4850.

Doing been doing alot more research and asking around, and decided on this. Crits?

CPU: Q9450 (Retail)
Motherboard: Asus P5Q Deluxe
GFX: BFG 9800GTX+
SFX: n/a
RAM: Corsair TwinX (2x2GB)
HDD: Samsung Spinpoint F1 750GB
Case: Antec 1200
PSU: Corsair HX Series Modular 620W
Monitor: Dell UltraSharp 2408WFP Widescreen 24in LCD Monitor
Speakers: n/a
Keyboard: n/a
Mouse: n/a
Optical Drive: Pioneer DVR-215BK
CPU Cooler: Thermalright Ultra-120A
CPU Fan: Noctua NF-S12
Thermal Paste: Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound

Would have gone with the Tuniq Tower, but Scan don't currently stock it I've now set myself a budget of £1,500 ($3,000). Currently doing pretty good at £1,300.61 ($2,599.53)

Looks like your video card is out of stock also. You could get a 4870 for £30 more.

Yeah I know. The 9800GTX+ has only just become available on Scan. Didn't expect it to be in stock straight away. Good point on the 4870, but then I could say the same thing about everything - "x for y more". It's a tossup between the 9800GTX+'s and the HD4850's for me. 9800GTX+ wins it for me, because the heat issue with the HD4850's.

Quick update, everything arrived together (which is strange seeing as I ordered the GFX 2 days later) and the PC is all built. Took me 4 hours, not bad considering this is my first build.

Thanks for your input guys!

I remember when I tried to build my first PC. It took me hours too

So how is it working? Performance as expected? Any problems so far?

Well the only problem right now, is that 3 of the 4 cores are running in the 45C's whereas the one core is running at 32C. Looks like I'm gonna have to sort out the thermal paste, must have applied it wrong.

Hardest part of the building was the CPU Cooler more specifically screwing the bracket to the backplate. Nearly had to bend the mobo in half!

I did fuck up slighty with the CPU Fan, but thats fixed now.

Yeah, I hate using custom cooling fan brackets. That's odd about the temperatures, but they seem to be within the safe range so I probably wouldn't worry about it. I looked around and found this info about Core 2 Duo/Quad temperatures:

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/221745-2...mperature-guide

Temperatures sound pretty ok. My overclocked C2D is currently about 50-60°C and works like a charm.

I've got a Scythe Infinity. The space between the Cooler and the 4 mounting pins is so small that I have to use a screwdriver to push them down. I don't like the way coolers for Intel CPUs have to be mounted. Hopefully they change it sometime in the future.

Good to hear that everything works fine.

Yeah, I know they are in a safe range, but with a 10C+ difference it's bugging me, plus I think I did put too much Thermal Paste on So yeah, I'm gonna clean it off and re-apply it PROPERLY

Cheers for that link Chug!

Mine isn't even overclocked...yet

Got a Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme with a Noctua NF-S12-1200 fan. Screwing the heatsink to the backplate, was a two man job for me - roped my sister in to help me That being said, now I know what I'm doing, I'd dis-assemble and re-build on a whim. Gonna have to do that on the weekend to sort out the Thermal Paste issue.

Regarding the Thermal Paste, what should I use to remove it, and more importanly how? Was thinking about rubbing alochol/isopropyl alcohol using cotton swabs.