Building a new PC

[Imran]

Hi Guys,

I used to build PCs eons ago when I was at school, but havent touched a motherboard or cpu in ages. I am looking to kick off a new project with my nephew to build a new PC. Seing as I havent built a PC in ages I was looking for some advice on any good websites for guides, as I am unfamiliar with new CPUs and water cooling etc...

CPU - I have no idea which CPU I should go for? I will almost certainly be buying one or two ATI video cardx, so was wondering if AMD is a better option than Intel. I have traditionally always preferred Intel CPUs but times may have changed???

Motherboard - More than likely driven by the Video Card and CPU but if anyone has any recommendations please let me know.

Case - I love the Alienware cases and am looking for something equally ridiculous, that the wife will hate , the more neons the better! lol

PSU - Any recommendations???

Watercooling - Is watercooling recommended, is so what type/make any guides as to how to pop it together.

RAM - Probably go for Crucial RAM, but dont know which type I should be going for?? DDR what????

HDD - Looking to get a couple of 1TB HDDs in RAID format, was wondering if there are any guides that explain how this would work? Any HDD recommendations?

Graphics Card - A friend recommended ATI graphics cards over nVidia graphics cards, so I was thinking of going for either one or two ATI Radeon HD 5850s?? Does anyone recommend anything else?

Is there anything else I am missing?

Principally I am looking for decent guides, as to how to pop it all together aswell as recommendations for the hardware, and if possible where to buy it from. Hopefully once I get the project running, I will be able to post pics of progress.

Thanks in advance for any help!!

Taa

Imran.

[Greyfox]

Whats your budget mate?

[Imran]

Dont really have a budget in mind, am looking for good value, so dont care about the very very latest tech, just good value. I am open to all suggestions to be honest. I completely understand a system like this cant come in at less than £1000, but dont really want to spend as much as £2000.

e.g. I dont think I would go fot the i7-965 or i7-975, but the i7-920 seems like reasonable value, i.e. not the ridiculous uplift for the very very latest tech. Unless of course someone can convince me about another CPU.

I want this machine to give me gaming capabilities for the next 3 years hopefully.

[evilsatan]

Do you intend to play the latest PC games in full res? Or just a PC that can do the everyday stuff with performance to spare to play some games? Watercooling should only be necessary if you intend to overclock the system but unless you plan on it doing something extra special then there is no need for any of this, just good fans, thermal paste etc.

To make things easy for you use this builder:
http://www.lambda-tek.com/computing/index.htm

That will ensure all the components you choose are compatible with one another. Then it is up to you to shop around the net for each component at the best price.

I have heard great things about the intel i series CPUs so I would look into them if I were you, I have read AMD lost their lead over intel CPUs after intel launched Core2Duo years ago. Quad core CPU's are a must for gaming, or so I have read.

I don't know that much about desktops, I know nothing about PC gaming and overclocking but building a PC is easy as long as the components are compatible.

[Imran]

Definitely wont be overclocking it, unless its very easy e.g. via bios settings etc, therefore you may be right the watercooling may not be required.

Any good guides on how to pop one together? Havent touched one in years, also any recommendations on hardware components???

[evilsatan]

All depends on what you want it to do mate, follow the link I sent you to build the PC, it will give you a massive list of compatible components.

You want 4GB RAM minimum to keep it futureproof, 64bit OS although you could get away without paying for that . I would recommend a intel i series quad core processor, up to you which one you want to go for as prices do vary greatly, don't get the best one though as you pay through the nose for very little additional performance. Make sure you get Artic silver thermal 5 heatsink paste and a good heatsink/fan combo as this will keep your system running cool. If you want a fast boot get a SSD to run your OS, say 64GB, and a decent SATA HDD to store data. If you get a mobo and case that has multiple HDD bays you can add more HDDs as and when very quickly. I recommend Samsung Spinpoint drives as they are very fast, but there may be better out there now.

As for GPU it depends what level of performance you need, if you do not want to play the GPU intensive games at full res then go for a decent Nvidia 1GB dedicated GPU with HDMI outputs for media, DVI etc. as that should see you good for years to come.

Buy one or two of the latest Pioneer DVD writers for your ODDs, a memory card reader is very handy too. As for the PSU it is up to you how much you spend, the more expensive ones generally have a better/quieter fan although I wouldn't bother blowing a chunk of your budget on a PSU.

Get a mobo with expandable memory up to 16GB or more, just for the future. Make sure it has all the internal/external ports you would like it to have. Not got a clue which mobos are best atm so wait for another user to chip in.

I'm sure someone will post a guide as to putting it together but this is very straightforward.

[Greyfox]

This is the best thing to look at http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/buy...ebruary-2010/1

Gaming workhorse, premium player, affordable all rounder and overclocker. They take the latest tech each month and do a buyers guide for all 4 categories. Also dont have to worry about anythign not being compatible

[Imran]

Thanks guys,

I spoke to a mate of mine who bought his from Wired2fire, and am probably going to go for a very similar system:

Antec 902 case (probably)
Intel i7-920 d0
Asus Motherboard with USB3 [not sure which one yet?? - any recommendations]
6GB RAM DDR PC1600
Seasonic 850KM PSU probably as I have heard good things, but am open to suggestions
XFX ATI Radeon HD 5850 XXX
2 x 1 Tb Samsung Spinpoints in RAID.
Asus Xonar D2 Sound Card
Coolit Domino Liquid CPU Cooler
Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit.

The main tricky bit I think will be installing the motherboard and CPU and CPU cooler, the rest of it should be fine.

Again any links to any guides would be greatly appreciated.

[sanj]

Hiya mate,do yourself a favour and stay away from the coolit domino liquid cooler,they are noisey and not that good at cooling either,go for one of the new i7 thermalright cooler's instead,the rest of your intended setup is fine,I work as the main system builder at a major specialist pc building company and I myself built over 2000 pc's last year and most of them were gaming rig's(built one that cost £3500!) and 95% of them were Asus motherboard's,as far as I know we have'nt had any usb3 enabled Asus board's in yet.

[mrbongo]

the ones on this link look real nice maybe get one myself when get the rent up for it :
http://www.digital-forums.com/showthread.php?t=772016

[Greyfox]

The best cooler out atm is the titan fenrir or titan fenrir xmas edition. 10/10 for performance

[Imran]

Thanks guys,

I read the reviews for the Titan on the bit tech website which were excellent. The reason I wanted the Domino ALC was for the funky LCD. So the more flashy neons etc the better!

Quick question Sanj, which company do you work for? Should I just buy a pre-built one, which also has the warranty?

Taa

Imran.

[sanj]

Hello again Imran,I work for pcspecialist mate,but I would advise you to build one yourself as why pay someone around £100 to build a pc for you,just buy the bit's from somewhere like ccl/aria(Bradford and Manchester seeing that you are in leed's you could easy pickup/return in case of a problem) as all part's will have a 12 month warranty,also the psu is an essential part of your system and if you underpower your system a blown psu could take out the rest of your component's too.