I was planning on leaving for another month or so but I got a good deal on some RAM at the weekend and consequently my willpower has snapped and I've gone and bought all the components for my new rig. Naturally, I'm excited about this, however my wife only wants to know how much it all costs, and my colleagues aren't gamers and they only wet themselves over iSCSI devices, so I thought I'd post my proposed spec so that you guys can justify the huge outlay with a few Oooohs and Aaaahs (just fake it if you're not impressed please - it's cost me a small fortunate and it's the least I deserve!). My brief was a upper-range but value-for-money rig that should run quietly and be a good platform for upgrading in the future. I currently have a Dell 4600 which has served me well for nearly 3 years (with a few upgrades along the way) and a Biostar SFF PC. On a hot summers day, the Dell sounds like a hairdryer and the Biostar sounds like Concorde - so noise is the key consideration. This is my first custom PC; all other so far have been branded. My Dell has earned it's keep but, like much of Dell stuff, is it largely proprietary inside. I wanted a case that would last a fair few years and would be able to handle as much kit as I would ever want to stuff inside it. Likewise, I wanted the PSU to have a little headroom too. Anyway, what I have ordered is: Antec P180b - quiet 'n' cool (and stylish) QTechnology Ultra Quiet 520W PSU (with dustproof fan) - quiet but affordable (from QuitePC) 2 x Samsung P120 (250GB) SATA II - quiet and reliable Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 (wanted to be one step above the masses with their E6400s!) MSI 7900GTO 512MB - I'll consider an DX10 card in a years time ASUS P5B Deluxe WiFi (would have been happy with a plain deluxe but couldnt find one for the right price) Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro - affordable but one of the best performers 2 x 1GB GeIL Ultra Low Latency DDR2 PC6400 (4-4-4-12) - £165 (bargain) Samsung 18x Litescribe DVD Writer - Going to recycle another 16x writer from my Biostar as well I've overclocked my GFX card in the past but never my RAM/CPU; once the machine is up & running, I'm going to slowly dip my toe in but I'll be fairly conservative (especially since noise is an issue). What I know about overclocking is what I've read here, so you can expect some questions in due course... I might add a fan controller panel or flash card panel at a later date perhaps. Not quite state of the art, but it's as high-tech as I've ever been. In 15 years of PC ownership, the primary issue has been cost - this is the first time I've indulged myself. I feel great, but that will be tempered when I can't put the frikkin thing together properly or when my 6 months interest-free period at Ebuyer ends! Thoughts/comments/suggestions? Dont forget those Ooohs and Aaahs! CJM
Sounds all nice, good plan getting a mid-high end card, cos nvidia will pull something out of the hat soon due to the X1950 - The powersupply will be enough, but if you plan on getting sli in the future, perhaps its worth your while getting a 600w-650w. As for the Pc-6400 you may want to consider the Hz series of Gskill, which is also a bargain and was used by coolarer, for the World record for Superpi, it overclocks beautifully, check it out on www.Overclockers.co.uk EDIT: Apologies, for that on overclockers, they charge a lot for it, (£220) and its the same latency, however im sure you can aquire it for much less elsewhere. Good luck with the build
Re: Power supply - I've used one of those PSU calculators... I included everything I though I could possibly fit in the machine and it came to 534W (inc SLI) but my mobo isnt SLI and TBH I think I'll just buy whatever is the best value high end DX10 card (8800GS/GT/GTO? we'll have to wait and see) next year and sell my 7900GTO on... The GTO wont even be on sale in a few months - it was only a makeshift card to get rid of the 7900GTX GPUs prior to the 8800s coming out. Re RAM: I've already bought all the kit, but TBH I think this GeIL stuff is ideal. It was a good price and it will be more than good enough for my mild/moderate OC'ing needs. I was going to just going for some standard branded RAM but when I saw this stuff for the same price it was a no-brainer. One notable ommission from my spec was that I'm going to be using the Audigy4 card from my Dell (which will revert back to onboard sound) in the new rig - I couldnt justify another £70+ notes on a X-Fi card.
The only thing about psu calculators, is that sometimes they don't specify whether the card is under load or not, but im sure a 520W could cope with sli, but the fans would be going like crazy, and if there are no fans, then you probably can guess what happens. But like you say for one card it'll be more than enough Have you built a rig before? - Great Mobo choice, outstanding for overclocking,
Yeah I know these calculator are fallible and only very approximate, but I definitely have headroom for the time being. In the future, I may end up upgrading my PSU but I'm hoping the GPU manufacturers will go the same way was conroe - smaller fabrication, thus lower power - on the other hand, we seem to be going in the other direction at the moment. As for my experience, I've fitted every component many times in various machines *apart from the mobo*. This is my first full custom build. I was apprehensive about compatability - so many things should work well together but dont but AFAIK I've picked all the right components. As for the Mobo, this was my weak area. I know for what I need that the P5B is highly recommended among Bit-Tech'ers but it was only last night when I bought this months copy of Custom PC (which had a 30-Mobo review inside) that I finally made my mind up. I know the P5B Deluxe has more than I need, but it gives me scope for the future and it's a good tool for learning the finer art of overclocking. [AFAIK it has a BIOS backup facility so I can rollback to previous settings if I screw something up during overclocking ]
Very similar to the p5n32 sli se - which i use, but it uses a nforce 4 SB, so it likes to crash i've only managed a 3.42Ghz overclock, and stable from 2.66ghz. I wouldn't worry bout overclocking too much, its easy enough, much easier on a asus mobo with Core 2 Duo, all you need to tweek is the external clock + theres a new release bios that unlocks the multipliar downwards. All you really need to change will the Cpu Volts (but not too much the resistance within the cpu takes sometime to build up) The Northbridge - Memory volts (assuming you link the over clock to be in proportion with the ram) Your rams tested up to 2.3v (i think). And your Southbridge voltage. But thats only after playing with everything else first. Might be worth your while investing in a northbridge fan Placing the motherboard in shouldn't be a problem as long as you got an ATX case thats big enough. And for the the motherboard, just read the instructions for the insulating caps. And don't put the pc together on carpets or anything daft. I often plug the 20 and the 4 , or the 24 pin from the power supply, then plug the powersupply into the wall, so that if any static builds up it can travel down the earth. Obviously the socket doesn't need to be on, lol What monitor you using?
Re: Overclocking - I'm going in at stock until I'm happy that everything is working fine. It will give me time to read up on the finers arts - the basics are simple enough but I always want to know more than I need to - just for reassurance. Plugging the PSU in is a good idea. Obvious really. I'm going to be installing it all on a glass table so there will be no obvious static sources - apart from my nylon tank-top! I'm keeping my 17" Acer TFT. It's been fine so far, but I'm looking at a 19" (poss. widescreen) in the new year. There is a cheap but effective Xerox one out at the moment, but I might splash out on a Dell 207WFP when they come out - depends on finances and what I think I can get past the Mrs!
Ahaha, well me being 18 doesn't have that problem not yet anyway, No wifey to tell me what to spend the dosh on Well good luck with the build etc, and i was suprised to hear you got a misses, when you mentioned nylon tank top
At 18, I had the time and the freedom but no dosh.... I'm sure there was a time in the middle where I had both but I can't recall! Cheers
Swap that PSU out pronto - you've spent £229 on a CPU, £150 on a mobo, £100 on a case, but you can't factor in £80 for a better PSU? Daft to trust all that hardware to a bag of shite imho.
yeh get a decent psu! ........u dont want a cheapo psu burning out your motherboard and cpu! ...............antec's have good no quibble warrentys!
You want me to spend £165 on a PSU??! lol A diamond-encrusted one perhaps? At £85, and a suitable spec, these were personally recommended to me; and given the reputation for lousy acoustics of many of the 'silent' variants for the big name brands, I think it's a good choice. But I certainly wouldnt regard it as cheapo.
Tagan, Seasonic, PCP&C, Corsair, Antec, Enermax. Tagan's are great. Seasonic's are an excellent, silent, efficient PSU. Corsair's are the high-performance PSU of choice I'm led to believe, but with almost any of the above, you can't go wrong. Qtech PSU's are NOTORIOUS for going wrong and taking lots of equipment with them. Skimping on a PSU is an utter sin, and I'm getting sick of saying it, but I'll carry on until people get the message. The PSU is the heart of your system and should NEVER be skimped on. Simple as.
The Core 2 Duo E6600/6400 with 2GB PC6400, P5B Deluxe and a high end GFX is the bare bones of choice at the minute, and rightly so. Performance out of the box is superb - no AMD machine can really match this sort of performance even at stock at the minute. You have also picked silent components I see (I also suggest replacing the triflow fans in the P180 with a Nexus 120mm or Silent Eagle 1000 120mm fan, which significantly reduces fan noise, see SPCR for more info on this). On top of this, it overclocks so damned well, even on air. Even with a Silent Eagle @ ~900rpm on my Scythe Ninja, my E6600 is dual prime happy at 3.35GHz/1.4V. With your slightly better airflow, I wouldn't be suprised to see that machine hitting 3.4-3.5GHz range. One thing I do suggest is to buy some Arctic Silver 5. Don't use the gunk that comes with your HSF.
http://www.hardware.info/en-US/prod...ewproduct/QTechnology_Gold_560_Watt_QT08560G/ http://www.quietpc.com/gb-en-gbp/products/powersupplies/qt-psus I think people are confusing QTec which are cheap and nasty and QTechnology which aren't. This QTechnology PSU matches your Seasonics/Tagans/Enermax's for performance and reliability (i.e. in the same ballpark), but is a lot quieter. This unit is £85, the specs are good, the reviews are good and someone I trust has first-hand experience of this actual unit. I agree that the majority of units from the big suppliers that you have listed are great PSU's, but even the 'silent' ones aren't even remotely silent. I was considering a semi-fanless Nesteq unit which really is VERY quiet but give the price increase and given the favourable reviews that QTechnology have had, I decided to opt for this unit. Dragontail: The blurb says the triflow fans are quiet especially on lower speeds, but I've heard in a few places that they are OK but only OK. For the time being, I'm going to see how they perform in terms of cooling and noise, but I'm prepared to invest a few more quid in the new year on some better fans if necessary. Regarding Arctic Silver - it's on offer today coincidentally on Aria, so I might take this as an 'omen' - I'll obviously end up buying even more junk to justify the postage.... Speaking of which...what do I do once I have got my PC built up and working?? Nothing more to look forward to... Well, some things to look forward to perhaps, but no more dosh to spend!
I wouldn't. For 85 lbs, you can get better. http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Seasonic_Power_Supplies.html 99 lbs, for a seasonic M12 600w.
I've got an FSP Epsilon 600w in mine for about 80 Quid i think, and its great + IT GLOWS GREEEN at least mine does...
QuietPC actually went to great lengths to point out the QTechnology <> QTec. Apparently people had bough QTec on the cheap thinking they were getting QTechnology and they were getting crappy kit.
