First time PC builder

I'd be cautious about the PSU. Lots of hype (Hiper - coincidence?) but no facts. You might like to keep an eye on this thread HardForums

I'd suggest a pair of smaller hard drives. These could be mirrored to give you some data security. 300GB is a lot to back-up when it nears to filling.

Ram

The brand of the RAM is very important for some motherboards. I just had a terrible experience building my first PC. Everything worked right after I put all the components together, but unfortunately, the system was very unstable. I have an ASUS motherboard and Kingston memory. Even though both brands are high-quality and trust-worthy, these two turned out to be incompatible.

I recommend you searching the Crucial site to make sure that they *guarantee* compatibility of their memory with your model of motherboard. Get this in writing so if anything goes wrong, they won't argue with you about the issue.

My problem finally resolved when I got two sticks of RAM from Corsair. I gave the two Kingston sticks to my friend who helped me pinpoint the problem.

i wouldnt get an xfx vid vard, just cus of what ive hear abut it, the evga is suppose to be the best

Go For It

I have built a few puters myself and have had great experiences using Maxtor Hard Drives. Kingston memory is super. The newer Graphics cards by NVIDIA seem to run hot so thats something to look at when purchasing a case. Good Luck and have fun!

Right, thanks for the RAM advice, ive done a quick test on the crucial website and its stated a 2GB that shud be perfect for my motherboard. Hopefully this will go smoothly once ive got all the parts, but I probably wont finish till christmas. (Im currently on fiver a week pocket money , but hoping to get a job during the summer hols).

Heres the best prices ive found for the products so far, if anyones interested:

Case
http://www.xcase.co.uk/acatalog/A-Top_X-Blade_deluxe.html

Motherboard
http://specialreserve.co.uk/Asus-A8NSLI-Deluxe-M_2628_r.html

CPU
http://specialreserve.co.uk/Cpu-AMD-Athlon-64-38_4929_r.html

RAM
http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/MPa...7304&WSMD=A8N-SLI Deluxe&WSPN=CT2KIT12864Z40B

Hard drive
http://specialreserve.co.uk/Maxtor-Diamondmax-10_4813_r.html

Graphics card
http://specialreserve.co.uk/XFX-Geforce-6800-GT-_2708_r.html

DVD/CD-RW DRIVE
http://specialreserve.co.uk/Sony-Combo-Drive--DV_4579_r.html

OS
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Online_Catalogue_Operating_Systems_20.html

Monitor
http://wehavethings.com/uk/product.php?xProd=12022

Finally does anyone have any recomendations for the sound card, and does anyone know where to get the speakers pictured with the case, they look great and go with the cosmetic style, so im shallow...who isnt

A Creative soundblaster live 24bit 7.1 card is pretty cheap and decent. Also audigy 2 value cards are a little better for a little more money.

I think the logitech x530 speakers are good for the price. I don't know what those speakers are in the pic.

I strongly disagree i have a Gefororce 6800 from XFX and it really rocks infact my last three cards have been from XFX other that Bad OC i have no problems with them.

Anyways the system seems to be good except the PSU which is suspect but i think u can keep that as i have Zeebronics 400 watt not the best but it does the job and i think this will to.

Is 2 GB neccesary i dont think so then the more we have the better(all humans are greedy!!)

I am also confused with this statment? Can you show any tests that have been done? i own a xfx card, and have never had any problems..

As for the RAM, why do you need that much? 2GB is more then needed, and with the added latency, i think 1gb at CAS2 would be better. But whatever floats you boat. Other then that the rig is very nice. That CPU is brillant!

Sean

ill have to find it tomorow, busy now, but its something to do with the fan on the xfx and hows its not good at coolong the card

kk, evrything seems to be in order with me setup now...as for the RAM, well, at the mo ive got 127mb and its slow as hell and crashes if I try to run anything more complex than internet games so I relli just want 2 cover me bak with a surplus 2GB, as for the CPU I cant resist temptation at the AMD Athlon 64 FX55, even if it is £598. I know Ill probs never need that power, but I may still go with it.

If youre going to sink that much money into a CPU, and you want to be ready for the future, you could consider waiting untill dual core processors come out..just a suggestion

Sean

Any idea when there coming out? I want my pc to be running by at least this time next year, so buying the CPU last wudnt be a problem, but i wudnt be wanting to wait too long for it as i want to build it as soon as possible. Thanks for your suggestion though, its another thing to consider, but does anyone know whether the Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe Motherboard would support dual core processors?

Amd x2 dual core should be available really soon. I think most any 939 socket motherboard can use one if the mfg has a dual core bios for the board released.
For gaming though, a fast single core is better than a slower dual core. Dual core lets you multitask more, but doesn't really help in todays games. Future games and programs probably will be written to use 2+ cores, so it may be good for the future to have a dual core.

x2's will be available the 7th for order at a few online stores and in 2 weeks it will be available in mny online stores

Yes if your a hardcore gamer, a dual core CPU would not be a good choice. (very few games are multi-threaded)There are really no benefits as of now. So rv13uk if your trying to game stick with the fx-55. Good luck with the build

Sean

i admire your ambitions here is a little advice from me. to save you trouble from possibly frying any components take the computer you have now and take it apart time and time again remembering where everything goes until you can look at a piece of hardware and know what it is. use it to experiment on and if you fry anything with that no harm done really as to where if you fry a 64 bit processor ouch. first thing you want to do is get the motherboard spec and match those with the other components dont get the processor first and try to match the motherboard memory and everything else around the cpu. the 6800 is a sweet card but if your going to spend a lot of money on a machine check around and check specs and benchmarks on everything this will tell you the best choices for your money. radeon 9800's are also great cards and cost about half the price for the same performance. if your going to build a gaming machine check for pixel pipelines the more the better. test your power supply on another computer to make sure its not bad or it may fry your motherboard. also keep in mind that every six months something new is coming out which means that prices in everything will drop well hey good luck hope all goes well for you. and if for some freak chance if you ever fry something before anything else try to stick in the freezer for ten or fifteen minutes it does work sometimes. always make sure to get the static out of your body before touching your hardware good luck

This is a bit random but ive been wondering whether to get 2 or 1 hard drives, if I got 2 theyd be two Maxtor Diamondmax 160 GB Hard Drive 6Y120L0, and if I got one it'd be the Maxtor Diamondmax 10 300 GB (SATA) 7B300S0, the 160GB one would be slower with the differences being (for the 160GB one) a 2MB cache, and transfer at 100MB/sec wheras the 300GB has a 16MB chache and transfers 150MB/sec (due to using a S-ATA connection I think). Ive heard quite a lot that I should go with two smaller drives as If on big one crashes ive lost everything, but if one smaller one crashes id still have some data, and hopefully backups. Ive been wondering how hard it'd be to just buy a CD-RW disc and backup my hard drive onto that (because if I can spend £600 on a CPU I can afford £30 for a CD-rewiter ). Another possibility is I could wipe the hard drive on my current computer and put that on it, its only 20GB but I could back up essential files to it and have a back up, or even use both possbilities. The only problem is the 20GB hard drive is going to be old and incredibly slow, so I was wondering whether having that on the system would affect any other parts, mainly in speed. Finally thanks for all your help, youve been more encouraging than my parents who reckon I'll just blow the whole thing and waste 2k (the total price now being £1918 without the wireless keyboard/mouse set im going to buy, and any extra upgrades I may purchase).

No hard drive out there can take advatage of that bandwith. maybe in the future but not now.

That would be alot of CDs! If you want security get two drives and raid them. If you want performance..that 300GB drive sounds like a winner.