PC Building

[chris reilly]

Hello,

Ok, Its simple for you gurus. Below is my spec and what items i have so far, what i need you to do is link me (UK links) to the items i need to complete the build, i am looking for your reccomendations. Thanks

Things that may help you:

Want plenty of storage, i do not play games. I like listening to music and would love watching TV on it.

My Spec so far:

Motherboard (http://www.extremeoverclocking.com/reviews/motherboards/Chaintech_7NJS_Zenith_1.html)

Soundcard (http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews3798.html)

Floppy Drive

CD-Rom Drive

CD-RW

DVD Rom Drive

11 Bay case with power supply and fan (doesn't have those bay bracket things)

[shaunyboy]

Well if you dont use much space a nice 80 gig will be ok. Lets say a 256mb of ram. If you want to burn dvds then purchase a dvdrw. Realy you dont need a floppy drive as there old.

[chris reilly]

Thinking of adding around 160gb to start with and just add another 300gb at a later date, what do you think?

[Forthy]

...and would love watching TV on it.

http://kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/Kustom_PCs_Shop_TV_Cards_58.html

Take your pick! :)

[BUFF]

Well a CPU & HSF would be kind of useful as well as an Operating System :p
If you go with XP I would recommend 512MB plus (it will run with less if you are really skint though)

Do you really need a CD drive & a CDRW & a DVD drive?
DVDR/RW drives are cheap these days & will write/read CD's as well as DVDs so you could actually get away with 1 drive.
http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/Kustom_PCs_Shop_DVD_RW_Drives_85.html

[KyeC]

when building my first PC, i had EVERYTHING worked out, but when it came to windows XP, it made a huge bent in the grand picture.

dont forget the £170 retail for windows XP.

[BUFF]

dont forget the £170 retail for windows XP.
£60 for Home OEM
£80 MCE2005 OEM
£95 XP Pro OEM

approx.

[Fireblade]

Well if you dont use much space a nice 80 gig will be ok.

Erm...



Want plenty of storage...




Lets say a 256mb of ram.

Are you serious :eek: :confused: 256MB graphics cards are standard now :rolleyes:

512MB is the minimum system RAM anyone should buy... although 1GB is much more common/advisable nowdays!





Realy you dont need a floppy drive as there old.

Yet more duff info!!

They're old, yes... but that's neither here nor there. If not initially... it's highly likely that a FDD will be required later on.

For instance... RAID drivers can [still] only be installed from a floppy disk... and many anti-virus and backup programs require booting from floppy disk as well :rolleyes:

An external/USB drive is an option of course... but a standard/internal FDD is the much cheaper option, and it's not as if they're [altogether] unsightly... or that the 3.5" bay it takes up is going to be needed for something else? Most cases have at least two 3.5" bays.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++

@ Chris: As for your request for produxt suggestions and links...

You'll need to tell us your budget. There's no point in us suggesting [e.g.] a £300 graphics card, if £300 is all you can afford t' spend on everything :eek:

And don't expect links to products being sold on other sites, coz this forum is run by none other than Kustom PC's (http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/).

Whilst Kustom readily admit that they don't carry the component/peripheral range of some other stores - that's only coz their priority is still with offering a wider range of modding products than you'll find almost anywhere else. Nonetheless... it ain't the done thing to link to products being offered by their competitors.

Produxt suggestions therefore, will most likely be either by name only, or include a manufacturer link. You'll have to do the "where can I get it?' hunting for yourself... and you now know who to make your first port of call :D

[Locke Fireclaw]

I was going to make the comment about FDD's being old & useless myself. Old definitely, but not useless. As Fireblade has already said, Raid/SATA/whatever can only be installed by FDD, then there's the saving & moving small files between PC's and boot disks. FDD's are still very much in use and pretty much necessary.

Also, if you are on a tight budget you can ditch the separate soundcard, the motherboard you've picked out comes with onboard audio. Most people can't tell the difference between a Audigy 2 ZS Platinum and AC'97 (or whatever) built in audio. If you CAN however, you can always buy a soundcard at a later date.

HDD size I would suggest is 160gb, it's a nice midrange size and it's what I run on my Shuttle (Samsung Spinpoint), and have yet to drop it below the 120gb mark.

If your not going to be doing anything intense (gaming, video editing etc) then you can probably get by on 512mb worth of ram, though as Fireblade has already said 1gb will give you a fair bit of extra oomph.

As a general rule, ditch the stock HSF that comes with whatever (if your buying retail, at least) processor you decide to buy, their usually loud and pretty inefficient. If on a budget I'd suggest something from Arctic Cooling, I've never used anything from them myself but they seem to get very good reviews and their cheap enough not to worry about it if they aren't! :D

One other thing, I notice the motherboard your going for is a Socket A. Well, get it, and the chip quickfast. The Socket A is no longer made.

Locke