Educate me and design my new rig!

[CardJoe]

So, I'm putting together a new PC for home and I'm looking for a little advice. A majority of the PC is scavenged from various places, but I need to buy the rest. Though I have a good idea of what I want to put in it, I thought I'd open myself up to the forums. I've said before that my main role on Bit-tech is a games journalist and that I don't know a lot about hardware, so now is the chance for you to bring me up to speed on a few issues.

True, I could look on the site, but I thought I'd open this up as a community thing.

This PC will be used primarily for gaming and doing the usual office tasks on it. Not wanting to spend more than I have to, bearing in mind that I can update when I need to later.

What I have:

Case: Lian-Li B25 / Hiper Anubis (going to buy one of the two for sure)
GPU: Nvidia 7800 GT (donated by Bindi, thanks mate)
Mobo: ASUS M2N32-SLi Vista Edition (again, Bindi)
OS: Vista Home 32-Bit
Soundcard: SB Audigy 2ZS
Screen: 17"
Other: G15, G7, 2.1 Speakers, DVD drive

The PSU and Heatsink aren't much of a problem because I can easily get hold of one - though if people have specific suggestions then I'm open. The same is true for the GPU and Mobo (I know enough about cases to settle on one of the above).

What I need:

HDD: I was thinking of going for a 400GB Barracuda from Scan which seemed a decent price.

CPU: It needs to be AMD AM2 Socket, I was thinking Athlon 64+ 6000, Dual core, 3.0Ghz, 2x 1MB cache. I don't know a lot about CPUs though.

RAM: This is where I have no knowledge worth anything. Supposedly the SLi RAM is good with this motherboard but, frankly, I'm wide open to suggestions. I don't want to spend more than £100 really on RAM, but I'm looking for some decent performance and amounts.

I'm more interesting in hearing peoples ideas, thoughts and insights than anything else though, so lay it all on me!

[GuitarBizarre]

PSU = Corsair HX620
Heatsink = Freezer 7 pro.

[capnPedro]

Seeing this in Distributed got my hopes up.
(Thought we were going to be speccing out a cluster!)



Anyhoo...

CPU: Not going to wait for Phenom/Am2+ ?

[Gravemind123]

If you aren't opposed to overclocking, a lower end X2 would be a good choice and overclock it, then you can save money for a potential future upgrade next year when Phenom comes out. As for ram, SLI Memory is basically just memory with a special additional SPD(called EPP) for enhanced timings you can do yourself anyway. Crucial Ballistix and OCZ PC2-6400 SLI Edition are good choices for ram, and both have EPP if you really care about that feature.

[Woodstock]

im surprised that tim and rich dont bombard you with infomation

[CardJoe]

Originally Posted by Woodstock

im surprised that tim and rich dont bombard you with infomation

They do, daily. However they are both very busy guys and I was interested to see what the bit community had to offer. These suggestions so far have been very helpful, so keep them coming!

[Mother-Goose]

Any idea what your overall budget is going to be Joe?

[CardJoe]

I don't have a specific budget in mind but I don't want to spend exorbitant amounts. If its £200 for some RAM which is really worth it then I'll go for it, but I'd prefer to spend a maximum of £100ish for each component if possible.

[Mother-Goose]

oh give us a ballpark figure man! Overall there has to be a price that you really don't want to go over....and then one that you really can't go over otherwise the cat or you goes hungry.

[CardJoe]

Say around £200 is my aim if I can get good performance, but I could go up to £300 if its really needed I suppose. No higher than that.

[Mother-Goose]

Excellent And you a psu right?

Edit: Quick question, will you be ordering it through bit and claiming VAT back or are you going to be paying for it with your own hard earned?

Edit2: This is the kinda spec I came up with in your price range, got it all from scan so you don't have to worry about shipping.



The hdd is the 7200.9 varient, the 7200.10's are out of stock at the moment and cost about another £20, apparently they perform marginally better but I doubt you'd notice it, this is just from what I have read though.

[mvagusta]

^ those parts are nice and the freezer 7 pro as mentioned above is approx the lowest priced heatpipe based heatsink BUT with excellent performance & a really quiet rubber mounted fan.
You're not gonna whack some crap psu in there are ya? Fit a 500w minimum from a DECENT brand, 600w would be much better - cooler, quieter & not working anywhere near as hard = smoother power, longer psu life & probably less power usage from the power point as psu effeciency as a psu get's loaded up.
The Corsair HX620 mentioned above would be nice, seasonic, fortron, tagan, silverstone, antec tp3 are some other great makes.

[Mother-Goose]

Agreed on the freezer, but is AM2 going to be the freezer7 or the 64?

As for the psu, with that rig, surely 500watts would be plenty with room left to spare?

[mvagusta]

whoops yes the 64, not the freezer7!
i left out a couple of words: "psu effeciency GETS WORSE as the psu get's loaded up"
So yeah, 500w is enough, the system might only use 400w at max load, but a 600w psu supplying 400w won't get as warm or loud as a 500w supplying 400w. The 600w will last longer, it's dc output will be smoother, and it's effeciency may very well be better meaning the 600w can use a little less power from the power point than the 500w would. The 600w also has more room to handle upgrades such as a better gfx card and/or a couple more hdd, lights, pump, fans, etc whatever!

[Mother-Goose]

hmmm good point on the psu, anything from 500-600(ish) watts should do you Joe, try and get hold of the HX520 though

[CardJoe]

I'll probably recruit a spare PSU and heatsink from around the office, so that's not an issue at all as I'll check our bit-tech reviews/nag Bindi. More worried about getting a decent quantity of RAM at a good price. Would I be stupid to blow a hunk of cash and go for 4GB? Is it not worth paying an extra £20 and going for a 3.Ghz CPU instead of 2.8?

[Mother-Goose]

Personally imo, if you are running stock (like I usually do) then it is always spending a bit more on the old cpu because obviously it is a bit faster.

BUT personally I think you'll see a bigger hike by spending the extra on 4gb, Vista likes it (even 3.25GB of it). The RAM I have chosen there is 800mhz (fastest your board supports). Now the 4gb option is, get 4x1gb sticks with low latency, or 2x2gb sticks with slightly higher latency.

I know the latency makes a difference with C2D (I don't really know why but the lower the numbers the better). I'm not sure if it matters so much with the AM2's though, if that's the case I reckon the 2x2gb sticks would be better. Costlier as well BUT it does save the problem that some boards do not like all the dimm's filled. However that could be 680i related only, I don't really know.

[CardJoe]

I think I'll push the boat out for 4GB then - cheers Mother Goose!

[atanum141]

Komplett has OCZ Platinum 2Gig(6400) kits going for £50.

[wuyanxu]

OCuk had offer on 800Mhz Platinum 2GB for £43 inc VAT, i snatched up another pair for my machine now it's going for £49 inc VAT.

that RAM is very good, marked 4-4-4-15, running at 800Mhz, 4-4-4-10. and have tryed 700Mhz 3-4-4-10 without problem. (700 because using x9 multiplayer)