Hi, Ive Never Built A PC Before so i was wondering if anyone could just tell me if everything would work and be compatible. Here is what im planning to have... ECS KN1 Lite Socket 939 nForce4 Ultra PCI-E 6channel audio ATX AMD (Venice) Athlon 64Bit 3000+ Socket 939pin 512k L2cache 90nm Retail Hitachi Deskstar 7K80 80GB 7200RPM SATA/150 8MB Cache - OEM Corsair (TWINX1024-3200C2PT) 1024MB (2 x 512MB Matched Pair), DDR400 / PC3200, non-ECC, Unbuffered, CL2, Lifetime Warranty Sansun SN-C003BK Black ATX Mid Tower Case With 3.5" Multi function panel/temp display - No PSU Sansun Black True 500W 20/24pin PSU - 120mm Blue LED Fan Ebuyer MJ7C 17" 400:1 12ms(1280x1024) Black & Silver Multimedia TFT Monitor 3 Years Warranty Belkin Anti-Static Wrist Band Microsoft OEM Windows XP Home SP2B Thanks Very, Very Much!
everything else, i don't see a problem with, but i've never heard of that PSU, check B's PSU sticky if the PSU came with the case, it'll generally be not good, with that spec i'd say you need a good brand of PSU like an Antec TP2 i would thing you probably need a decent 400W PSU or if you plan to use SLI i'd go for a decent 550W, the PSU is NOT the place to save money, get the most powerful and best brand you can afford, just because it says its 500W doesn't mean a thing, talk to Big B, he's da man, with PSU's
I don't know much about Sansun, but the specs on their 500W units are pretty good...at least the modular 500W izzy asked about awhile back. I'm not sure about anything other than the Arctic line, so without seeing the specs on a non-Arctic unit, I'd shy away from it. I'm unable to find out the specs of most Sansun units. Doesn't mean they're bad, but, personally, I really like to know what amperages are on the rails. I just wonder one thing: do you have a video card already? If not, you'll need one, as I don't believe that motherboard has integrated video.
It's a good system and everything will work fine but just be aware that socket 939 is already being phased out by AMD's new socket AM2, which is fortunately not really any more expensive and is easily available. This will allow you to keep you're upgrade path open for future purchases as AM2 is the new thing and all of AMD's processor line will now fall in this category. The bad news is AM2 does require a whole new motherboard, processor, and ram than your picked out but you'll find the price will come out very similar, in my experience you can even save a bit of money in some cases.
I think Ill go for a 'Seasonic S12 Series 430W ATX2.0 PSU' but in the reviews it said that it had no 6 pin PCIE connector what does this mean and do I need one. Thanks for everyones help so far.
The PCIe conntector is for high-end PCIe video cards (Radeon X1800/X1900, GeForce 6800/7800/7900), so if you plan on getting one of those, do know that having that connector is required to properly power the card.
Thanks Everyone, I think ill either get a 'Hiper 530W Black Type-M PSU - ATX v2.2, Silent/Temp Control, Active PFC, SLI Ready(£47.93)' or a 'Seasonic S12 Series 430W ATX2.0 PSU(£49.99)' to go with my 'XFX GeForce 7600GS 256MB PCI-E (£82)'. Which one do you think is best considering that I will have to buy an adaptor for the seasonic. Thank you very much for your help
It's a hard one as the Hiper is a great value for a trusted brand that's known to deliver, probably the safer choice. But the Seasonic is a great unit, also a respected brand. Granted the wattage is fairly low but it's also a very efficient unit and comes with dual 12v rails which is a nice bonus as it helps share the load. I'll leave this up to someone else to decide but you definately can't go wrong with the Hiper at least.
Take a look at my "Components Compatibility Check" thread. Less the printer and TV tuner dongle it came to under £550 delivered and for the price it is a really nice system. You'd be much better off going for the AM2 X2 system, as it will handle multiple applications much better than the stated chip and in terms of life, the X2 processor should have a lot more time in it with software updates that your stated model. As for the PSU, that one looks quite bad to be honest, any CPU going for that price is not likely to be very good at all. Personally I done a lot of research (googled and read various reviews) for the Sansun Arctic 500W which you can find on ebuyer.co.uk for £35. Once more see my thread and search for them on ebuyer if you want to read user reviews and stuff on the parts. If you need anymore help, just drop me a PM and I'd be happy to help out. What's your budget? You could drop the 19" monitor I have listed for a 17, but the 19 is a real bargain and would give you more viewing space. But of course, as I know too well, budget is the main limitation ^^
Here are the links to my system, just ordered the parts and I'm waiting for them atm: AM2 Dual Core System Components: CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800 Dual Core (£94) Mobo: Gigabyte GA M55Plus-S3G NF430 (£58) RAM: Corsair Value Select 1GB DDR2 PC5300 (£55) HDD: Western Digital Caviar SE 250GB 16MB (£52) Soundcard: TRUST 5.1 SOUND EXPERT OPTICAL (£16) PSU: Sansun Arctic 500w Modular (£35) Case: NZXT Trinity Silver (£39) System Notes: -> The motherboard contatins onboard graphics, so you should be fine for older games and multimedia for the moment. -> As for the case, I read many reviews and they were very good, however your alternative is the Antec Centurion 531 for just a pound extra, which also looks nice and has larger fans (only really relevant for overlockers), however I preferred the looks of the nzxt, especially the added front temperature dial -> You can drop the 19" inch monitor and got a 17" inch screen if size isn't an issue for you, and that would save you some cash. 19 is IMO just right though, but if you need some advice choosing a 17" just let me know and I'll try and help you find the best one in your price range. Upgrade routes: -> If you decide you wish to play more graphic intensive games (those from the last year for example) you will need to move away from onboard graphics and purchase something more recent, at the moment the entry grade would probably be the 7300GT, however in a few months time you'd have to review the situation (or just ask us ). -> Obviously you would be aiming to add an identical stick of 1GB memory to the system if and when needed, it would have to be identical, so that you could run it in dual channel and gain the extra performance you would get from that as oppose to being without it. -> You could later add an additional SATAII (3GB/s) drive and run it in RAID, but that is not going to be anytime soon, as you will have about 237GB (Quoted drive sizes are not the actual PC sizes) to fill on the above system. Hopefully I have been of some help to you. If you could let me know your maximum budget, I could try to amend the above system to give you the best performance possible for what your needs are, within your price range. Kind Regards John
Bah, I see this thread is set as solved, hopefully I'm not too late. But if you are buying online, remember to bear in mind the delivery costs. If you were to buy every single item from a different store you would have to pay A LOT more overall. Try and keep that in mind when weighing up where your cheapest options come from. Over here in the UK, it seems that ebuyer.co.uk, generally has the best prices, when you consider you only pay essentially one lot of delivery (~£5) no matter how many items you order, which is a huge plus when you're buying enough components for a new system. However there are exceptions, when you can get them cheaper elsewhere, including delivery, as you can see from my above mentioned processor for example. Use something like: DealTime.co.uk: Price Comparison, Store & Product Reviews PriceGrabber.com - Comparison Shopping Beyond Compare Or Froogle, which has been very helpful to me during my searching. Checking the prices on 2-3 of these each time, and finding the cheapest one including delivery is a good start. Then before you actually order, see if the cheapest are mostly in one shop, and then see if it would work out cheaper if you ordered all from one, including delivery. However not all shops products are included on these engines, so if you're from the UK I would advise you to use froogle and one other, find the cheapest, and then look on ebuyer.co.uk also. It's a lot of stuff to keep in mind, but well I suppose you want the best you can get for your cash, and it's usually worth it in the end when you build yourself a nice little system! John P.S. I've personally never used the anti-static stuff, besides placing components on the anti-static packaging which they generally come in. That has always worked for me... unless you actually go looking for static, you should be ok IMO... I've never heard of people having any extreme problems with that... but if the items are cheap, at least they cannot do any harm to the success of your build!
