Building a new PC, any advice?

[KagePrototype]

I'm currently looking at this setup:

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400

Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L Intel P35

GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 800MHz

EVGA GeForce 8800 GT 512MB

Antec Sonata III Piano Black Quiet Case - EarthWatts 500W PSU

Samsung SpinPoint F1 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache

Samsung SH-S203PRSMN 20x DVD?RW SATA Dual Layer

Creative Sound Blaster Audigy SE 7.1 Sound Card

Belkin 54Mbps Wireless Desktop PCI Network Adapter

That comes to ?574.41 (I don't want to spend anymore than ?600, and of course the cheaper the better). The most taxing thing I'll be doing with it is gaming and modding. I don't need a new monitor, keyboard, mouse or speakers.

Is there anything I'm missing? Any other parts you'd recommend over what I've chosen?

 

[Kadayi]

Don't buy from overclockers I've been told the guy running it is a complete racist.

 

[Eejit]

Well if you buy from a better priced site then you could upgrade to 3 or 4gb of RAM (depending on your os).

e.g. E8400 30quid cheaper, there's the RAM upgrade right there.

 

[Dynasty]

Overclockers are the worst company to buy from, period. If you get a faulty item or just dont want it and want an exchange, you have NO chance of getting hold of them let alone making a successful trade.

Try http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/. Youll struggle to find better prices. Novatech are hands down the best company ive ever dealt with for any product, ive never waited in a queue to get hold of them, and they just bend over backward for you if stuff is out of stock or you need advice etc. I once got PSU advice when I was buying my new PC components, as I was reading off the list the woman said that the PSU wouldnt cope, and that shed recommend X one. Theyve also always called me, CALLED ME, the day before the delivery date to remind me of the delivery the next day so that I was in when it came, simple things like that just keep me coming back.

And youll need a bigger PSU, id say a decent 750W, make sure your Rail is to spec as well, else youll get random lockups etc.

Also, dish out an extra 30 or so on a decent mobo, preferably from ASUS, you cant go wrong. Thats some heavy duty gear youre throwing into it, so a decent motherboard is quite essential.

 

[Eejit]

I disagree about 750W for that system. 500 is more than enough unless you plan to SLi at some stage.

 

[Gray Fox]

Would it not be better to wait a little and buy the new ATI cards?

 

[Eejit]

There's always something better coming out "in a little while" with computers. :/

 

[KagePrototype]

Overclockers are the worst company to buy from, period. If you get a faulty item or just dont want it and want an exchange, you have NO chance of getting hold of them let alone making a successful trade.

Try http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/. Youll struggle to find better prices. Novatech are hands down the best company ive ever dealt with for any product, ive never waited in a queue to get hold of them, and they just bend over backward for you if stuff is out of stock or you need advice etc. I once got PSU advice when I was buying my new PC components, as I was reading off the list the woman said that the PSU wouldnt cope, and that shed recommend X one. Theyve also always called me, CALLED ME, the day before the delivery date to remind me of the delivery the next day so that I was in when it came, simple things like that just keep me coming back.

That's a great find, I should have some extra breathing room now.

Well if you buy from a better priced site then you could upgrade to 3 or 4gb of RAM (depending on your os).

I'll be using XP since Vista doesn't really seem to be worth it. I was led to believe that more than 2GB when using XP is pretty much overkill anyway.

I disagree about 750W for that system. 500 is more than enough unless you plan to SLi at some stage.

Are there any particular power supplies you'd recommend? My eyes glaze over whenever someone talks about power supplies in any sort of detail, and I always used to just go off wattage. That's bad apparently. :x

 

[Eejit]

That's a great find, I should have some extra breathing room now.

Lambda-tek, the site I linked the E8400 for also has really good prices, usually around Novatech leve. I think their RAM is a bit pricier, but CPUs cheaper.

I'll be using XP since Vista doesn't really seem to be worth it. I was led to believe that more than 2GB when using XP is pretty much overkill anyway.

Well you mentioned modding, so I thought more RAM the better. XP-64 would server you well if you can find a copy I imagine.

Are there any particular power supplies you'd recommend? My eyes glaze over whenever someone talks about power supplies in any sort of detail, and I always used to just go off wattage. That's bad apparently. :x

Some brands like OCZ, Seagate and PC Power & Cooling are generally considered very reliable I believe. For that setup 500W should be very sufficient, with leeway to upgrade for a good while - as long as you don't plan on sli or a lot of HDDs at once.

 

[Dynasty]

Id stick with Seagate or Coolermaster myself, depends how much youre willing to spend really. Theres only a ?20 or so difference between 750 and 500W. 500 will do, of course, but 750 will help you sleep at night if you know what I mean. Its too much yeah, but rest assured itll hardly be the cause of any problems.

 

[Saturos]

Well you mentioned modding, so I thought more RAM the better. XP-64 would server you well if you can find a copy I imagine.

Microsoft has dropped support for security updates for the 64-bit version of XP long ago. Besides, there aren't enough programs yet that utilize a 64-bit OS to warrant a purchase anyways.

I'd go with the 32-bit version tbh.

 

[Eejit]

Microsoft has dropped support for security updates for the 64-bit version of XP long ago. Besides, there aren't enough programs yet that utilize a 64-bit OS to warrant a purchase anyways.

I'd go with the 32-bit version tbh.

It still allows more ram to be used than 32-bit even when you're not using 64-bit programs iirc.
I was under the impression that various modding tools were among the programs which WILL take advantage of extra RAM.

 

[StardogChampion]

I wouldn't buy everything from one site. There's always places with the same thing for cheaper.

Try IT247 and Microdirect too. Also try some price comparison websites.

 

[Eejit]

True Stardog, as long as you remember to keep shipping costs in mind.

 

[Asus]

I disagree about 750W for that system.500 is more than enough unless you plan to SLi at some stage.

I agree
That PSU is even crossfire/SLI certified (but wouldn't power with 2 current high end cards).

 

[Gray Fox]

There's always something better coming out "in a little while" with computers. :/

The new ATI cards are set to launch this month.
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/ati-radeon-4800,5223.html

 

[Saturos]

It still allows more ram to be used than 32-bit even when you're not using 64-bit programs iirc.
I was under the impression that various modding tools were among the programs which WILL take advantage of extra RAM.

True, I too have heard there are developer kits to modify 32-bit programs on a 64-bit OS, but to be honest, why bother? :|

There's not enough of a perfomance gain to warrant getting XP-64 over the 32-bit XP and risk exposing Kage's PC to the internet(s) malware hazards with an OS with no support. Even third-party anti-malware companies like AVG has dropped support for XP-64. It just ain't worth it. Futhermore, you would still need 64-bit hardware. Having a 64-bit OS alone isn't enough to take advantage of 64-bit capabilities.

If Kage really wanted a 64-bit OS, he should really look into *cough* Vista instead.
Just don't expect to get good perfomance with gaming on Vista unless you have like a 12GHz quantam-dual-quad-core processor and like 32 gigs of RAM.
That would defeat the purpose anyways right?