Building a PC with limited knowledge.

[dunc]

Having moved house, I now need a PC. I was going to build one but I don't know much about them. I've got an old (5+ years) PC but have been advised to get a new box with power supply (300W) so as to be compatable with new processors etc.

I was planning on getting:

40GB HDD (around £50?)
A processor 2000hz? AMD or Pentium? (~£70?)
512Kb RAM (£50?)
Box with Power supply (£20?)
Modem (£10?)
Mother board (~£50?)

I've got a keyboard, monitor, floppy drive, CD drive.

What do you think?

Thanks in advance for advice :)

Dunc.

[realityx]

the parts and price sound about right,

just make sure if your getting the amd chip,
to get a motherboard with a kt400 chipset,
and to future proof yaslef futher,
get pc3200 ddr ram (400fsb)
might cost a little more....but worth it
in the long run.
http://www.komplett.co.uk/k/ki.asp?action=info&p=25748&t=1014&l=2&AvdID=1&CatID=17&GrpID=9&s=pl
actually thats cheap at komplett £58inc for 512meg pc3200
ddr ram....also get a 350 watt psu.

komplett has some of the cheapest prices around,
so take a ganders at the site:)

and heres a site which will take you
through building the pc.
http://www.buildeasypc.com/

[Simon]

Whenever ive built a PC i got everything from Ebuyer.com (http://www.ebuyer.com) Really cheap and they are offereing free delivery at the moment

[dunc]

The info from you folks is exactly what my mate from work said, we were looking at ebuyer too! Sounds like I'm on the right tracks, is there any difference between the performance of AMD and pentium? I want the AMD to save ££'s

Thanks,

Dunc.

[Mark]

Get the AMD, much better value. I just got a 2200XP, think they are about £60 at the mo from ebuyer

[realityx]

if you get an amd 2000xp,
thats quick enough for pretty much everything,

diff between p4 and xp
the xp can do more calculations
per clock cycle then the p4,

the xp 2000 is in actual fact
1.67 ghz. but clock for clock the xp
is faster then the p4...people
didnt understand this...thats why
amd changed the cpu rating system,
hence xp2000....or in other words
an xp 1.67gig cpu is the same as an 200fsb
athlon rated at 2.0gig.

ebuyer some peeps are very happy with,
but these been alot of peeps who arent..http://bbs.adslguide.org.uk/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=hwsuppliers&Number=493130&page=1&view=expanded&sb=5&o=0&vc=1

[realityx]

http://ebuyerdotcon.funurl.com/

i couldnt resist:D

[Nicely]

I'd get a 400W+ power supply. 300W is getting a bit small these days.

[Codemonkey]

If you go for the AMD chip, I'd recommend getting a larger heatsink than the piddly little one that comes with it - I've seen a few overheat on the standard sink - not fatally, just a lot of crashing.

You get more oomph for your money with the AMD, but the P4 has better thermal protection. If you install the heatsink badly on the AMD, it will go bang. The P4 will just throttle back, rather than disappearing in a puff of smoke.

Personally, I'd recommend the AMD.

Dave

[Nicely]

Yep, me too.

[Vipers]

wouldnt bother with kt400 if its soley intended just for the fastest DDR RAM, since they only support the following

1 X 512mb pc3200
OR
2 x 512 mb PC 2700
OR
3 x 512mb PC2100

however they are the only boards that support 333 FSB for CPU

i could sort you out with a Motherboard with a KT 400 chipset (also has onboard 5.1 sound!)supports ata 133
Case with 300watt supply ( this is ample people were only running out of power when they had VOODOO 4 graphics cards and the old style geforce ones that took lots of power directly form PSU)
XP 2200 cpu
quiet Heat sink fan cooler which cools upto xp3000
512mb PC 2700 DDR 333 ( gives you the option to sling a second one in there)
56k modem
40gb ATA 133 7200 rpm

for £280 and i'll have put everything in the case for you. not sure about delivery yet where u you live? if its east anglia or midlands then i could delivery myself otherwise i'd city link it or somehting.
price i have given you is pretty damn good i believe, i won't say its the cheapest price u'll get cuz knowing my luck cuz of war the prices might drop or increase.

[Codemonkey]

oooh... you work in the industry or something Vipers? Or did it all fall off the back of a lorry?

:)

Dave

[Vipers]

bit of both ;)
nah im an IT manager and also in spare time build and sell pcs so i can grab components cheaper than most

plan is to start up a full business trouble is just finding the cutsomers in first place, saying that tho, business has picked up quite a bit recently

[crackdownuk]

how much approx would you save building your own???

[realityx]

the kt333 chipset supports a 333 bus for both cpu and mem,
I,m using a msi kt3 ultra m/b...its supports the latest 333fsb
xp,s.

the kt400 should (with bios flash) support the new
soon to be rel 400fsb xp,s as well as 400mhz mem.
(the kt400a chipset is out soon too)

not to forget the current top dog nforce
chipsets...a bit expensive compared to
standard boards but highy future proof.

vipers I gave up building a few yrs ago,
it became ridiculas when ya making aver £50-£80
per system build(and dealing with countless calls for help from newbs)....and relying on mem
prices not to go throu the roof..as sdram
did a few yrs back...in the end i made
more from upgrading pc,s then building..hehe

[realityx]

Originally posted by crackdownuk
how much approx would you save building your own???

anything between £50-£100

depends...if u get sum parts second
hand..then even cheaper.

[dunc]

Originally posted by Vipers
wouldnt bother with kt400 if its soley intended just for the fastest DDR RAM, since they only support the following

1 X 512mb pc3200
OR
2 x 512 mb PC 2700
OR
3 x 512mb PC2100

however they are the only boards that support 333 FSB for CPU

i could sort you out with a Motherboard with a KT 400 chipset (also has onboard 5.1 sound!)supports ata 133
Case with 300watt supply ( this is ample people were only running out of power when they had VOODOO 4 graphics cards and the old style geforce ones that took lots of power directly form PSU)
XP 2200 cpu
quiet Heat sink fan cooler which cools upto xp3000
512mb PC 2700 DDR 333 ( gives you the option to sling a second one in there)
56k modem
40gb ATA 133 7200 rpm

for £280 and i'll have put everything in the case for you. not sure about delivery yet where u you live? if its east anglia or midlands then i could delivery myself otherwise i'd city link it or somehting.
price i have given you is pretty damn good i believe, i won't say its the cheapest price u'll get cuz knowing my luck cuz of war the prices might drop or increase.

Firstly, thanks for all the good reply's. Although admittedly alot of it has gone over my head :rolleyes:

This sounds reasonable, I forgot to mention a graphics card though. Any recommendations or prices? Is this the final thing you'd have to add to this package before floppy/cd drives complete the set-up? Would I need a sound card?

I'd be using this PC for general home use including internet, games, and office programs. Maybe a bit of 3D CAD work as well.

Thanks,

Dunc.

BTW I'm in Scotland.

[voodoo_melon]

You might need a soundcard, however a lot of motherboards now come with sound built in which is fine unless you want top notch quality, dts etc.

Video card wise I'd go for an ATI radeon, depending on budget a 9100 (~£75), 9500 (£120-£150) or 9700 (£190-£350 :eek: with TV tuner onboard). There are new cards coming out soon though 96 and 9800 so the 95 and 9700 will probably be cheaper. Top spec card is prolly uneccassary though unless you play lots of new, gfx intesive games. Tekheads (www.tekheads.co.uk) and The Overclocking Store (www.theoverclockingstore.co.uk) can be cheap, OCS offers free delivery on everything too. I recently got a Liteon 52x cdr from Tekheads for £45 inc VAT. If you've got the money go for a nice big monitor too :)

[dunc]

A fairly basic soundcard would be acceptable, and also an average video card would be OK I think?

Dunc.

[Mark]

I got a 64Mb ATi 9000 with TV out for £55 from ebuyer and the Liteon 52x CDRW is £41.

[Vipers]

i've just recently built a pc for a mate who is at uni doing design and wanted to use it to do cad on it i speced it out and built it for him and he seems very happy. his mum wants me to builder her 2 computers when she gets her business started (holiday agents or something).

for doing cad you need quite a beefy graphics card i put in a radeon in that and looks good. he told me that it renders pretty damn quik he had a similar setup to above but had xp 2000 not 2200
my dads has a 2200 and in conjunction with 512mb pc 2700 and XP pro its damn quik.

"--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Originally posted by crackdownuk
how much approx would you save building your own???
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



anything between £50-£100

depends...if u get sum parts second
hand..then even cheaper."

depends on who you buy your parts from and if they shove it together for u or not. buying from me i won't charge extra for puting it together or not doesn't bother me, only that i have peice of mind that its not broke when you recieve it. if a newb recieves it and think they know whats doing and then consiquently blows up CPU they'll get off pissed off with me so i'd do it my self to not get the grief.

theres not much to save in buying second hand, prices on new these days are so cheap any way you might as well do it so you get a years warantee.

price from me for a 64mb radeon 7500 is something like ~£43 off top my head. i'll let you know about others when i get the latest price list

19" crt is something like £140
17" flat screen is damn nice (what im using at the mo on dads comp.) however don't know what it would be like with doing cad as have lower refresh rates etc. i *think* is around ~£330 m ight be less can't remeber it off top my head

[dave_s13]

I'm also a part time PC builder, my only advice is don't buy the cheapo unbranded RAM from Ebuyer, the last 2 lots I've had were duff.

I only buy RAM from www.crucial.com now, it always works and gets delivered next day.

[dunc]

I wouldn't be doing anything too processor intensive as the PC at my work has a good set-up, a £1500 graphics card specially for 3D CAD :eek:

We use big monitors as well, 21" , some have 20" dell flat screens which I'm told cost a few quid.

I'll get back to you later on this week about whether I'm wanting to buy that setup off of you because it sounds pretty interesting. I agree that built up would be best.

Dunc.

[Vipers]

update if wanted

300 watt 4 bay case
MOtherboard
xp2200
Quiet Qtec 3ghz cooler
40gb ata 133 7200 rpm
Radeon 64mb 7500
56k modem
512mb ddr 333 pc 2700

that lot for £320

(Radeon was cheaper than i expected so thats £40, £280 without)

i can do a 19" crt for £140
15" tft for £210
17" tft for £310
DVD 16x with power DVD for £35
artec 52x24x52 cdrw with nero @ £43

[dunc]

Sounds good mate,

A couple of more q's and we'll seal the deal:

Do you use the unbranded ram as mentioned by Dave_s13?
Anymore details on the motherboard?
Is that a hardware modem? Internal or External?
What sort of warranty is on the bits?

I'll take it without the graphics card btw as I'm not sure how much I'll use it for games, I'll decide later how much to spend on a graphics card.

Cheers,

Dunc.

[Vipers]

It is branded RAM

motherboard is an Asrock K7S8X supporting ddr 333/400 has on board ac97 5.1 sound, 4 usb 2.0 ports 6 including the ones on the case. supports ata 133 and agp 4x/8x.

modems an internal asrock 56k amr v.90

1 years warrantee on all of it

1 year standard on monitors 3 if you fill in and send of the card included.

what do you want to do about delivery, seeing as it wud be hard for me to deliver myself from cambridge to scotland!
;) would you want to arrange citylink or soemone else or shall i do it?

[voodoo_melon]

If it were mine I'd go for an Epox board (on my second now and i like them) with nforce 2 rather than kt333/kt400. My current one is a kt333 and compared to my friends nforce2 with 200mhz (xp2600+ compared to ~xp3000+(2700+ overclocked)) slower cpu there's not much in it performance wise.

[Vipers]

i can get an epox 8RDA+ DDR 400 8x agp 1394 but its about £45 on top of the asrocks price

[voodoo_melon]

Yeah, if it's a budget pc it doesn't really matter, but if its for performance I'd go for the epox. The Asrock's prolly a better choice here though....

[Vipers]

just checked out the specs of the epox board, its v. impressive.

i used to use elite boards in my computers they were good. tried one of these asrock boards and this would be the 5th or 6th i'd have used and am even more impressed with these than i am the elite.

but as performance goes the asrock board is pretty quik, i wouldn't use it to OC tho, plus OCing voids warrantee so its not advised. altho i used to do it on mine a year or so ago, but i see no need to know because these things are gettign so fast you won't really eb able to tell the difference.

my personal choice for a performance board would prolly bethe MSI K7N2-GLISR
but if i was ona budget then i'd deffo go for the K7S8X

[Vipers]

if n e 1 is interested i can get hold of the 128MB DDR ATI Radeon 9700 Pro TV OUT for £265
£3 cheaper if i can get 5 people to buy or £8 cheaper if i can get 20 people to buy

[voodoo_melon]

Aria do 9700 pro's for £262. 3rd from bottom of the ATI cards on this (http://www.aria.co.uk/ProductsList.asp?Submit=Search&Category=15) page. Dunno about delivery as I haven't (I think) used them before.

[Vipers]

damn thats cheap i can just match that ona 1 off price but as i said wud be cheaper with more interested

[voodoo_melon]

I usually get prices from PC Index (www.pcindex.co.uk) and Computer prices (www.computerprices.co.uk). Compare loads of places to each other, although not all of them.

[Martin T]

Dunc - if you're building your first PC, then have someone run through the process for you first. There are a few mistakes to be made, and you'll need someone there avoid you making them.

Allways install the processor and memory when the motherboard is out of the case. will save you a long time.
The Socket A heatsinks for AMD processors are really easy to put on if you know how, but an arse if you dont.
Each EIDE channel either has a single, or one master and one slave device. Usually the master is in the middle of the cable, and the slave at the end - this is just the done thing, but it'll probably work if they aren't in that order.

When you've done one - its like lego.

[realityx]

you can pick up a new rad9700pro for £235inc
from http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/partspecs.asp?imodule=CTV9700P128A28 thats the cheapest price
in uk i think, but they,ll be discontinued soon
in favour of the rad9800, so if u hold on u might pick
a 9700 even cheaper coz they,ll be sure to lower the price
just to clear the stock.

Dunc it,s not
hard at all building pc,s
nowadays....and once you,ve built one,
you,ll always build your own:)