new pc build advice

[Chris]

mrs buying me a new pc for crimbo :D

my m8 will build it for me so no prob there but i want a shopping list for er indoors , i want fast as feck cpu , good sounds and reliable :cool:

i dont play games but i do download lots of music so i need a large memory

suggestions please

[Chris]

23 hours , 12 views , no replies :confused:

[dave mca]

hiya mate
i built my own a few months back.
Went to the local comp shop and ordered

256mb ddr ram
64mb geforce2 mx400 graphics card
duron 1300 cpu (cheap as chips and fast enough)
About £60 on a asus motherboard with all the modern features so you can upgrade for a good while.
30gb HD (plenty for me)
Cdrom 54 speedish wil do me
Cdrw
Some creative speakers (4 tweeters and a subwoofer)
Picked up a 2nd hand Soundblaster soundcard out the paper.
Had a keyboard , monitor and opti mouse and a floppy
Threw windows xp pro on it cos i`ve already got it.

Cost me £200 - £250
Broadband so fast enough for games
Bloody good all around basey sound
ll the graphics i need
Decent motherboard so i can upgrade

Saved a fortune :nod:

Tell her to buy you some mods with the change :thumbs:

[Draven]

well the ones i been building for our school are pretty much as follows

AMD Athlon 2200XP (best value atm, available up to 3200), get the "retail" version cos i have generally found that the heatsink supplied is way better (and quieter) than most you can buy plus you get a 3 year warranty

Abit NF7-M, this is a wicked board, three DDR slots, onboard Geforce 4 MX graphics, onboard Nvidia MCP soundcard - related to the xbox soundcard and is THE only card on the market that is capable of realtime dolby digital encoding, also has an 8x agp slot if you want to up the graphics later 5 or 6 pci slots, tons of expansion possibilities here, onboard 100mb network that is very good from my experience

get your memory from www.crucial.com/uk you may pay a couple of quid more for it but its pretty much the best stuff on the market and theyre good on returns etc

get at least 512mb, get registered if you can, makes a noticable difference in performance

www.scan.co.uk, where i get most of my stuff from, also do some quite sexy cases that are well built (own brand) for about £30 which even have front usb ports and headphone and mic ports, very cool for the money

[Papa Lazarou]

Heres an interesting one, its definately not one for games but looks ideal for a web surfing, music downloading, CD burning type PC. Its definately designed with this in mind (and for playing the media too).

http://www.msi.com.tw/program/products/slim_pc/slm/pro_slm_detail.php?UID=431&MODEL=MEGA651

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/mega.jpg

Its sold as a bare bones system. Just add :

2.4 Ghz Pentium 4 Processor (533 FSB version)
52x CD-RW drive (Asus make a decent one)
512 Mb PC3200 DDR memory (try www.crucial.com/uk )
Maxtor Diamondmax 9 120Gb Drive (7200 rpm, 8mb cache) - or bigger if you think you need it

I've a few reservations so would suggest checking for reviews on the web. I've not had brilliant experiences of MSI's software, so all the remote control stuff might not work as intended. The chipset is made by SIS, Intel chipsets have a reputation for being more stable. The power supply doesn't sound brilliant.

[Chris]

cheers lads

[iKst]

just buy an iMac and spare yourself all the viruses, crashes and other windows stuff.

[MeLLoN Stu]

Originally posted by iKst
just buy an iMac and spare yourself all the viruses, crashes and other windows stuff.

like good software and hetrosexual colours?



i would go for
AMD 2500xp barton core (can be ran at 3000 barton levels relatively easy
Asus A7n8X deluxe board
512 DDR 400 ram (branded)
graphics card is up to you, i run 9800pro but would up the cost a lot. FX 5600 perhaps ?
rest is down to what you wish. if you want any pricing up i can usually get serious mates rates on comp stuff.

[iKst]

I dont want to start a war here. But thats tipical statement from a person who never realy used a mac. Can you tell me one piece of useful software that isnt available on Mac but is on Windows ?

And since when is white gay color ?

[MeLLoN Stu]

Originally posted by iKst
I dont want to start a war here. But thats tipical statement from a person who never realy used a mac. Can you tell me one piece of useful software that isnt available on Mac but is on Windows ?

And since when is white gay color ?

i have a mac. :rolleyes: dont use it all that often, the missus tends to use it more.
i didnt mean it like that sorry, just certain compatability issues been getting right on my t1ts lately with it. plus i cant stand the OS.

[iKst]

well...ok :) Just for info. Do you use OSX ?

[MeLLoN Stu]

unfortunately.

its not a bad OS by any means, just i've bought a cursed one and have had a shed load of troubles. (and before anyone says its cos i dont know what i'm doing i have worked with and on macs for years lol)

the mac is pretty reduntant in my house, got 4 other comps, to tell you the truth i dont know when i last used it. the missus likes it cos its prettier :rolleyes:

[iKst]

well...fair enough. If you can stand windows :)

[Infinity]

Originally posted by iKst
just buy an iMac and spare yourself all the viruses, crashes and other windows stuff.

My G3 MAC at work crashes so much that I have to wear a crash helmet. Even my old PC running Win98 doesn't crash as much.

Jut