nariman1977
Posts: 6 +0
Hi,
Firstly I must say what a wonderful site. It has opened my eyes to so many things.
Secondly, I like your help in getting a spec sheet together to build my PC.
Just a back ground info: I built my last PC 7yrs ago and it has lasted me 7yrs! It started life with windows98 and now am runnig XP professional. Originally was built with 256ram and 40Gb HDD. But now it is running 1Gb RAM and 40+80GB HDD.
Processor it has a P4 1.6Ghz runnig at normal speed.
Grafix it is running NVIDIA Geforce2 MX/MX400 card
So you can see when it was built 7yrs ago it was a pretty decent spec for the time.
I think it is now time to finally replace it as it seems to not only be runnig out of HDD, but also tends to run a bit slow.
So my intention is to build something again that is goin to last me for a good few yrs still to come.
Budget wise I don't wanna go crazy, but maybe in the region of £500 if thats feasible? Obviosuly anything less will be better.
I am not a big PC gaming fan. Have a PS3 and Wii for that side of things, so I won't be doing any gaming, however I will be doing lots of photo and video editing. I would also like to have the option of watching TV on it, whether online or digital tuner I am not too sure.
I am based in the UK and don't mind ordering things over the internet. It certainly in most of my past experience is much cheaper than going to the shops like Maplin or PCWorld and ...
I would like to build a full ATX size desktop pc rather than a mini. But again it is not a necesity as I am here for advice.
Now here is the list of items I have got together that obviously I am gonna need:
1) CPU: AMD Athlon 64 6000+ 3.2Ghz £60 ( AMD2 socket), is this a good enough processor?
2) Motherboard : Asus SOcket AM2 + M3N WS motherboard £85: I have searched lots and I think this might be a good enough mobo for my needs? Again any other suggestions will be much appreciated.
3) RAM: 2GB DDR-2 PC6400 800MHz £45 the above mother board is capable of handling up to 8Gb, however I don't think I need anything more than 4Gb to begin with?!
4) Graphics Card: ATI HD 4850 £80 I have heard a lot of good things about this card and how it compares against Nvidia 9800Gt. So it this good enough? or am I better off going for the HD 4870 instead?
5) PSU: Now this I don't know much about. I think my current one is a 40W PSU and I have never had any problems with it. But if I start to use the above grafix card, then I guess I will deffo need to go for something better? Any suggestions?
6) O/S: Windows XP I am gonna keep my O/S as it is. It has been out for along time and it is stable. I am not sure if Windows7 is as stable as it is relatively new and ought to have lots of bugs. What ya reckon?
7) Case: I don't know much about case, but I guess that would depend on the mobo that I go for. I like to have a case which is quite cool looking and I can show it with pride instead of hiding it under the desk. So any cool suggestions?
8) Drives: I have looked aorund for blueray drives to be able to write bluerays and read them. But they seem to be a bit over priced at the moment, About £150. Am I better off getting a good DVD RW for now and wait a few more months, prices might come down a bit? ANy suggestions for good DVD RW drives and also blueray ones?
9) HDD I take it as most of the new mobos have SATA drives now instead of the good old IDE ones. And they seem to be quite cheap compared to the old IDE ones. What I have thought about is to have 2 Sata Drives: a 300Gb one and a 1T byte one. I will then partition the 300Gb to 100 and 200 Gb and use the first one for the O/S only and use the 200Gb one for the programme files. The 1T byte one will be used for general files and application stuff like videos and .... Is this the right way to go about it?
10) Monitor and speakers I guess these are pretty standard whatever I do. I could even get a 20" HD ready TV and use that instead maybe for the monitor? What I like to do is though, have 2 monitors if I can. I have seen lots of people using them and it seems to be an ideal choice if I have to do lots of diff things at once. instead of keep minimizing and maximising. So how does that work? Is it a feature of video card or do I need to have a separate controller?
11) Any thing else I have forgotten? Anything else that you think I might need?
one thing I have noticed with the new mobos nowadays is that you don't get that many PCI slots. Is this normal? Has the standards changed for adding diff hardware? If they are not internal PCIs anymore, what is the alternative?
Also as regards to grafix card, is it better to go for a twin 4850 instead of a single 4870?
anyhelp and pointers is much appreciated.
Firstly I must say what a wonderful site. It has opened my eyes to so many things.
Secondly, I like your help in getting a spec sheet together to build my PC.
Just a back ground info: I built my last PC 7yrs ago and it has lasted me 7yrs! It started life with windows98 and now am runnig XP professional. Originally was built with 256ram and 40Gb HDD. But now it is running 1Gb RAM and 40+80GB HDD.
Processor it has a P4 1.6Ghz runnig at normal speed.
Grafix it is running NVIDIA Geforce2 MX/MX400 card
So you can see when it was built 7yrs ago it was a pretty decent spec for the time.
I think it is now time to finally replace it as it seems to not only be runnig out of HDD, but also tends to run a bit slow.
So my intention is to build something again that is goin to last me for a good few yrs still to come.
Budget wise I don't wanna go crazy, but maybe in the region of £500 if thats feasible? Obviosuly anything less will be better.
I am not a big PC gaming fan. Have a PS3 and Wii for that side of things, so I won't be doing any gaming, however I will be doing lots of photo and video editing. I would also like to have the option of watching TV on it, whether online or digital tuner I am not too sure.
I am based in the UK and don't mind ordering things over the internet. It certainly in most of my past experience is much cheaper than going to the shops like Maplin or PCWorld and ...
I would like to build a full ATX size desktop pc rather than a mini. But again it is not a necesity as I am here for advice.
Now here is the list of items I have got together that obviously I am gonna need:
1) CPU: AMD Athlon 64 6000+ 3.2Ghz £60 ( AMD2 socket), is this a good enough processor?
2) Motherboard : Asus SOcket AM2 + M3N WS motherboard £85: I have searched lots and I think this might be a good enough mobo for my needs? Again any other suggestions will be much appreciated.
3) RAM: 2GB DDR-2 PC6400 800MHz £45 the above mother board is capable of handling up to 8Gb, however I don't think I need anything more than 4Gb to begin with?!
4) Graphics Card: ATI HD 4850 £80 I have heard a lot of good things about this card and how it compares against Nvidia 9800Gt. So it this good enough? or am I better off going for the HD 4870 instead?
5) PSU: Now this I don't know much about. I think my current one is a 40W PSU and I have never had any problems with it. But if I start to use the above grafix card, then I guess I will deffo need to go for something better? Any suggestions?
6) O/S: Windows XP I am gonna keep my O/S as it is. It has been out for along time and it is stable. I am not sure if Windows7 is as stable as it is relatively new and ought to have lots of bugs. What ya reckon?
7) Case: I don't know much about case, but I guess that would depend on the mobo that I go for. I like to have a case which is quite cool looking and I can show it with pride instead of hiding it under the desk. So any cool suggestions?
8) Drives: I have looked aorund for blueray drives to be able to write bluerays and read them. But they seem to be a bit over priced at the moment, About £150. Am I better off getting a good DVD RW for now and wait a few more months, prices might come down a bit? ANy suggestions for good DVD RW drives and also blueray ones?
9) HDD I take it as most of the new mobos have SATA drives now instead of the good old IDE ones. And they seem to be quite cheap compared to the old IDE ones. What I have thought about is to have 2 Sata Drives: a 300Gb one and a 1T byte one. I will then partition the 300Gb to 100 and 200 Gb and use the first one for the O/S only and use the 200Gb one for the programme files. The 1T byte one will be used for general files and application stuff like videos and .... Is this the right way to go about it?
10) Monitor and speakers I guess these are pretty standard whatever I do. I could even get a 20" HD ready TV and use that instead maybe for the monitor? What I like to do is though, have 2 monitors if I can. I have seen lots of people using them and it seems to be an ideal choice if I have to do lots of diff things at once. instead of keep minimizing and maximising. So how does that work? Is it a feature of video card or do I need to have a separate controller?
11) Any thing else I have forgotten? Anything else that you think I might need?
one thing I have noticed with the new mobos nowadays is that you don't get that many PCI slots. Is this normal? Has the standards changed for adding diff hardware? If they are not internal PCIs anymore, what is the alternative?
Also as regards to grafix card, is it better to go for a twin 4850 instead of a single 4870?
anyhelp and pointers is much appreciated.