Decided to build... But where to start?

[pixel_attack!]

So instead of buying a pre made gaming pc from eBay I've decided to build it myself.

This is the first time I'm going to be building a PC and any help would be appreciated.

Anyway I thought of going with this mother board:

http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?rb=18670872641&action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=91669

And either the ATi Radeon X1800XT or the Nvidia GeForce 7800 GT

I'm not sure which AMD processor to buy, or the best brand of RAM, Hardrives Etc.

Any guidance would be a lot of help. Thank you.

[tw33k2514]

Re: Decided to build... But where to start?

budget?

[pixel_attack!]

Re: Decided to build... But where to start?

I could possibly stretch £500 if needed. Which proceser would be better for me BTW an intel or an AMD.

[tw33k2514]

Re: Decided to build... But where to start?

AMD is the way to go IMO look for a AMD Athlon 64 3200+ (venice) socket 939

if thats to much the 3000+ is also good at a cheaper price

[pixel_attack!]

Re: Decided to build... But where to start?

Thanks. Which of the two GFX cards would be the best for my PC (or any other if you have some suggestions)

Also, will everything so far be comptible with the hard drive I picked out?

Thanks for the help.

[Eden]

Re: Decided to build... But where to start?

I would look into getting a non-SLi motherboard, it will save you money not to mention you wont be useing it anyway unless you buy 2 SLi grapics cards.

[tw33k2514]

Re: Decided to build... But where to start?

---Video Card

if its the 512MB X1800XT then thats the one to get if its the 256MB one then get the 7800GT

and what harddrive did you pick?

---Memory

i would look into a 2GB kit (2x1GB) with a Cas Latency of 2-3-2-6 (what most good 2GB kits are)

---Hard Drive

HDD's are getting so cheap these days i highly recommend a SataII drive with 16MBs Cache from Maxtor or Western Digital

---Motherboard

if you have no plans on ever using SLI then i would save some money and grab this board http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/102900 its a great budget board and has been known to Overclock very well. (if you ever decide to get into that)

---Sir. Eden

good point. tho one could also argue that in the future if you choose the 7800GT you could just throw another in for an added performence boost

[pixel_attack!]

Re: Decided to build... But where to start?

Wow thanks,that was a lot of help. I can now start gradually buying the pieces. Cheers :) I'll let you know how it goes

[sackynut]

Re: Decided to build... But where to start?

i would not get the x1800xt if your budget is 500 pounds....

[pixel_attack!]

Re: Decided to build... But where to start?

I dont technicalyhave a budget as such, As I can always save a bit extra for those added pieces, but I thought £500 would be a good estimate

[LoD]

Re: Decided to build... But where to start?

I dont know how USD translates to pounds etc.... but as a good general starting point.

Get a 450-500+ watt PSU. Antec, Enermax, Sparkle, OCZ, PC power and cooling, Forton are some of the better name brands. Dont spend an fortun on the PSU, but you dont want to get a "cheap one" Something in the 75-100 USD range is what we are looking at. (check newegg and you can see what falls in that price range, then check your UK sites and see if they work for your budget)

You want a modern ATX 2.0 12V PSU.

As for a CPU, for with a dual core X2 3800+ or single core 3200+ or 3700+.

Video card, the 7900GT is good, but If you want the better of the two, the X1800XT 512MB is currently the best $300 USD card. I would go with that.

For motherboard, the Asrock is good, but i would personally stick with a PCIe Nf4 board. Either the regular NF4 or NF4 Ultra will do you just fine. An SLI board is not bad, and if it has extra features like Firewire, or dual lan (things you might want?) then go for it. Just dont spend top dollar on the absolute best, because you dont need it.

For ram, 2x 1GB kit, but you dont need CAS 2. CAS 2is better but if you cant fit it in your bedget (honestly its a lot of money for an extra little kick of 0-3% range performance gains. Just pick up some Value or cheaper CAS 3 2GB kit. Make sure to pick up regular DDR ram for AMD.

Hard drive you will want a 16MB cache, SATAII drive. Any brand is ok, but western digital is currently one of the fastest, and Seagate has the longest warranty... pick whatever is more attractive to you.

DVD/RW drives you can pick something cheapish. They are comodities, and essentially interchangable. Just get whichever one comes with a nice software package, and a cheap price.

For a case i recommend something solid, steel or aluminum and not the absolute cheapest thing around, or the smallest. Get something with some leg room to grow with some upgrades, and a case that is asthetically pleasing. Flashy neo lights are cool, but if you have to sleep in the same room? Or show this to a GF do you really want it to look like a flipping power ranger all decked out in plastic and with glowing eyes?

Thats about it. For a first build you can get parts that are good at overclocking, but dont focus on overclocking right off the bat, you will probably want to read up on it more maybe in 6 months once you get settled with stock speeds.

As for when to buy... if your buying now socket 939 is the way to go, if your waiting for summer for instance, both AMd and Intel will have new stuff, AMD is launching theirs in 3 weeks. There wont be a significant speed increase, but AMD will switch to DDR2, so there is a little bit of an uograde path there.

Its probably not worth waiting, but im nto sure when your planning to buy this, so just wanted to throw this out there.



EDIT; Sorry for the typos... its early int eh morning i cant use the keyboard for ****

[knghtwhosaysni]

Re: Decided to build... But where to start?

ASRock (939DUAL-SATA2) ALi 1695 Chipset PCI Express 8 Channel sound LAN ATX 102900 104 £35.88
AMD (Venice) Athlon 64Bit 3200+ Socket 939pin 512k L2cache 90nm Retail Boxed Processor 088109 2307 £86.53
Maxtor 6V250F0 250GB 7200rpm SATAII 16mb Cache OEM 106749 131 £48.86
CoolerMaster Centurion 5 Silver Trim With Side Window - NO PSU 085282 34 £37.43
Antec TruePower II 480W PSU 090615 84 £49.99
Microsoft OEM Windows XP Home Edition inc SP2 - 1Pk 066489 5 £50.20
BFG 7600GT 256mb GDDR3 Dual DVI PCI-E 106643 100 £134.92
Corsair (VS1GB400C3) 1024MB, DDR400 / PC3200, non-ECC, 184 DIMM, unbuffered, CL3, 64Mx8 DRAMs, Lifetime Warranty 066405 73 £47.69
SubTotal: £491.50 VAT: £86.06 Total: £577.56

Uh... I guess that could be a starting point. It's all from ebuyer, but there are probaby some other sites (overclockers.co.uk) that have cheaper prices

[imported_Tafty86]

Re: Decided to build... But where to start?

All I can say is check out Newegg, but I don't know if it would be worth the shipping costs to the UK. AND don't skimp on the power supply because the new graphics cards suck soooo much power (get maybe a Antec Truepower 430 or better).

[knghtwhosaysni]

Re: Decided to build... But where to start?

All I can say is check out Newegg, but I don't know if it would be worth the shipping costs to the UK. AND don't skimp on the power supply because the new graphics cards suck soooo much power (get maybe a Antec Truepower 430 or better).

newegg doesn't ship outside the US

[pixel_attack!]

Re: Decided to build... But where to start?

Thanks for the help nightwhosayni. I Will change to a512 graphics if needed, but other than that I will stick tothat:) Thanks,