Ichigo-san

I currently have around a £1000/$2000 Budget, a little more can be aquired easily. The Spec I have Came Up with is:

• Windows Xp Professional
• Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 S 775 2.66 GHz 1333MHz FSB 12MB Cache Retail
• OCZ 4GB DDR2 RAM (2 x 2GB)
• Western digital Caviar SE16 640GB
• XFX 512MB 9800GTX Black Edition
• LG GGW-H20L Blu ray Writer + HD DVD Read

With that and Removable hard drives, Keyboard and Mouse that comes to about £925 or $1848.
At the moment all I am looking for is information about Cases and Motherboards however Advice and critisism about the spec would be Greatly Appreciated.
Thank you for your Time

manic

As far as cases go, get a full tower with plenty of room. Do not get
a case with the psu mounted to the bottom of the case. Antec has
one, and it looks real cool. But in actuality, it sucks, the heat from
the psu goes straight up to the bottom of the video card, not good.
I just assembled one with that same cpu, and video card. The board
was a p5e64 ws evolution, expensive but nice, went off without a hitch
as far as installation.
You will need a very good psu. We used a rosewell 950watt. But you
must make sure that the psu you get has at least one pci-e 8pin
connector, and at least one 6pin pci-e connector. The vid card will not
work with a adaptor, it just wont. Needs all of the juice it can get from
the pci-e line. Might be that the xfx is overclocked out of the box,
I dont know. Something to remember and consider.
As far as boards go, I would be looking at a asus or gigabyte, with
a x38chipset or 48 intel..

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dai

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Ichigo-san

cool, so that PSU suggested would work? Still not sure about which specific motherboard, gonna have to have a look around. Case-wise I was thinking something like this
http://www.amazon.co.uk/NZXT-Lexa-Bl...ef=pd_sbs_ce_3

Thanks for all your help so far

Houndog777

Hi, you not better choosing a motherboard first?
One that has good reviews and has all the sockets you need and are going to need in the future?

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Ichigo-san

Problem is I'm not too knowledgeable about Motherboards which is mainly why i've delayed picking one.

manic

Your gonna need a motherboard that supports the 775 cpu #1, that
is the type of cpu you have picked out. I'll tell some brands not to get.
Foxconn, Ecs, Pcchips,Soyo, Im sure there others.,those are the ones
that come to mind.
Brands I recommend, Asus, Gigabyte,Abit,Msi,Asrock, Biostar,Tyan. I
would want either a Intel chipset on the board, or a Via, preferrably
a Intel chipset. Look around, find something you think is ok and post
back with details, we will let you know yea, or nay...

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Ichigo-san

I've looked around at motherboards and found a few. For Intel Chipsets I've found This and This, both which I would be quite happy with. I checked some Nvidia ones just in case and have found This and This. As I've said I dunno about Motherboards so I dont have a preference to either of them.

Okay, atm I'm quite happy with the rest of the spec.
Case wise I'm happy with the NZXT LEXA Blackline. The PSU Suggested I'm happy with aslong as it works with everything else, which im not quite sure about (dunno anything about PSU's).
I was thinking of Getting This Soundcard, although I'm not positive if it would make to big a differnce.

Is that fine?


For the record:

1. Budget:£1000/$2000

2. Brands: Don't Mind, as long as they're good.

3. Multitasking: I will be heavily Mutiltasking; Photoshop, iTunes, Firefox, MSN, Maybe another processor heavy program or a game.

4. Gaming: Not much but I would like to play some current games at a good quailty with amazing Frame Rates. Most intensive current game I have is elders scroll Oblivion.

5. Calculations: On and Off yes, alot when doing so i'd imagine.

6. Overclocking: Not straight away, in a year or two when parts are slightly out-of-date possibly.

7. Storage: I have a tendancy to delete nothing, I will get a 1TB external hard drive and plan on 640gb for the comp itself.

8. Legacy Support: Not Sure on that one...

9. Operating System: Windows XP

10. Case: As long as it looks good and it can hold everything, if it can cool stuff down aswell, that would be a good bonus.

11. Accessories: Already chosen a Keyboard and Mouse, going to use current monitor.

12. Recycled Components: No

13. Monitor: Nope

14. Stores: No

15. Location: England

Cheers

manic

Either of those boards will be fine, let your wallet be your guide.
You really dont need a soundcard. The onboard sound with these
motherboards is really pretty good. Unless you plan on using sli,dual
video cards I would steer away from the boards with nvidia chipsets.
But if you do plan on the sli configuration you will have to go nvidia.

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Ichigo-san

Okay I've decided on the Maximus. Leaving My spec as:

• Windows Xp Professional
• ASUS Maximus II Formula LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard
• Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 S 775 2.66 GHz 1333MHz FSB 12MB Cache Retail
• OCZ 4GB DDR2 RAM (2 x 2GB)
• Western digital Caviar SE16 640GB
• XFX 512MB 9800GTX Black Edition
• LG GGW-H20L Blu ray Writer + HD DVD Read
• NZXT LEXA Blackline Series CS-NT-LEXA-BLB
• CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V
• Creative Soundblaster X-Fi Series Xtreme Music

Being a Newbie to this I'm not sure if its all Compatible, if so then thats My new Computer

Thanks again for all Help

manic

So I guess your heart is set on the soundblaster huh? May sound
better than onboard, but for me the onboard 7.1 surround is good
enough..
You know you cant utilize all of that ram. Xp 32 bit will only see
a hair over 3 gigs of ram. You need a 64bit Os to run more than 3gigs
of memory..

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Ichigo-san

Realised the price might be abit too much for me, so the Soundcard is gone. I did not realise that, do you mean it isnt noticable or it literally can't use all 4 gb, just 3?

manic

It cannot use more than a little over 3 gigs, limitation with a 32
bit operating system. If it was me I would get 2 sticks of 1gig of ram,
and run in dual mode. In a perfect world you would want 2 sticks of
1.5gigs, but they dont come in that size. Dual mode is much faster
than single mode.
Xp will run fine on 1gig of ram, but 2 is better, a little more overhead.

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Houndog777

Hi, for XP to use more than 2GB you have to edit some System Files, and even then it will only use 3GB.
2GB is enough memory for most users, even gamers.

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system...AE/PAEmem.mspx

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Ichigo-san

So Vista or 64-bit XP is the only alternative to use that RAM? Not very Keen on either

Houndog777

Yes, 4GB is wasted on a 32-bit OS.
Go for 2 x 1GB, just like Manic has advised. Will also save you money.

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manic

Imho vista64 bit sucks, to put it mildly. Xp64bit you wont even
notice a difference between the 32bit and 64bit. I really hated xp in
the beginning, and I still have some issues with it. But in the last
three machines Ive put together, one with vista home, the others with
vista ultimate64 I cant stand the os. Way to much fluff, power hog.
To much junk running all the time. Annoying popups anytime and
everytime you try to do something/anything. Im sure there are ways
to trim the fat, and adjust things, but its real overwhelming, and over
kill. It looks like that is the way of the future, and in time I will have to
switch, but until I absolutely have to Im sticking with xp. I said the same
about xp, and stuck with win98, then eventually switched. But vista,
is alot worse than xp was in the beginning...enough of my rant,,,,,

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Ichigo-san

I'd like My computer to last for a real long time, and with the amount of Gaming, multi-tasking and memory intensive stuff I'm doing, I'd prefer 4GB. Meaning I'd have to pick Vista... Is it all compatable though?