What do you think of this computer setup?

[Infinity]

First .. sorry for the slow reaction .. I´ve been busy the past few days ...

I´ve you want to go with the Antec that´s SLI ready than just go with that.. or look on the nvidia website for certified SLI PSU´s.

The Enermax Noisetaker EG 465AX-VE(G)(FMA) is recommended by a reliable source.
Enermax in general is always good...


About the HD´s.. I recommended the T7K250
The 7K250 is a SATA HD.. the T7K250 is a SATAII HD..
The latter one is the better one... (T7K250)

(Another) review about the Hitachi Deskstar T7K250
http://www.tomshardware.com/storage/...skstar-08.html

The link directs you to the conclusion ... (I recommend reading the entire article but that´s entirely up to you)

A review about 22 HD´s (it´s really worth reading this)

http://www.tomshardware.com/storage/20050927/index.html

I see you´re planning to buy the Abit mobo or am I wrong ? (there are way better ones that support SLI, like the Asus A8N-SLI premium or Epox 9NPA+ SLI or the DFI LanParty UT nF4 SLI-D to name a few.)

About the internal memory ..

OCZ Platinum EL Dual Channel Kit 2x512MB PC3200 CL 2-3-2-5 (LIFETIME WARRANTY) (OCZ4001024ELDCPE-K)

^^^^

That one is way way better than what you picked..

http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/produ...duct_uid=61699

Price : £89.96 .. quite expensive ..

Graphic cards...

XFX GeForce 6200 TurboCache 64mb (Supporting 256mb) PCI-E VGA/DVI/TV-out Low Profile - £38.99

Just to make sure you know this, this one is not SLI capable .. only the 6600 and above series ..
It´s cheap though (a real budget solution and it beats the crap out of the ATI equivalent... I have seen benchmarks ... I can prove this if you want )

Cheers .. I won´t be around anymore untill tonight ..

[TomX]

Thanks for reply.

The timings on the OCZ are much better than those on the GEIL (plus the GEILs were out of stock :P) so I decided to get those.

I am planning on buying the MSI in terms of a motherboard.

I'm happy with the cheap graphics card not being SLI since this isn't for gaming. If I ever do want to do some gaming I will upgrade to a better graphics card (though I doubt I'll ever utilize SLI).

My hardest problem is deciding on which HDD to get, the HDD you recommended (T7K250) is only available in IDE, which I don't want.

I'm confused as to what all the types of HDD there are now... IDE... SATA... SATAII... Ultra ATA.

Which is best? :S

Thanks in Advance
TomX

EDIT: In fact, I think I've deduced SATA is better than Ultra ATA since the article you shown me says:
"If you're building a new PC or refurbishing an older one, we recommend choosing some variant of Serial ATA for your hard drive interface. These work a little faster thanks to command queuing, are easier to cable up, and cost only a little more than equivalent UltraATA models (sometimes they cost no more at all.)"

[Infinity]

Sorry I did not post any sooner ... damm I'm busy these days.

About the HD´s.. I recommended the T7K250
The 7K250 is a SATA HD.. the T7K250 is a SATAII HD..
The latter one is the better one... (T7K250)

I'll emphasize this (^^^) again.. (maybe they made a typo, I'm certain that I did not )

This is the SATA version (theoretical 150 Mb/s of datatransfer)

http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/produ...duct_uid=81463

I noticed that they don't sell the T7K250 ... too bad (I know you want to buy everything at ebuyer)

I'm confused as to what all the types of HDD there are now... IDE... SATA... SATAII... Ultra ATA.

I know it's confusing but it's not that hard.

UDMA-33 I think this was one of the very first interfaces.

ATA-66/100/133 These only have differences in speed and most new and old mobo's support these types of HDD's.

IDE = PATA (Parallel ATA)

Ultra ATA has an increased data transferspeed in comparison to the earlier PATA/IDE drives.

SATA = Serial ATA ... theoretical t.s. of 1.5GB/s (you've seen the benchmarks .. not even the Hitachi T7K250, SATAII, HDD is able to achieve this kind of speed)

SATAII = Serial ATA II ... theoretical t.s. of 3.0GB/s...

http://www.hgst.com/portal/site/hgst...7c532aac4f0a0/

edit: I noticed something... I made a few typo's now I'm confused is it 300Mb/s or 3.0 GB/s ... mmm I'll take a look at that later ...


IDE doesn't necessarily mean it's worse than SATA or SATAII (according to tomshardware guide) but in theory it should.

All in all, the Samsung drive gets our nod if you're only looking for an upgrade to increase your storage space. If the new drive is also intended to house your operating system, we suggest the new Hitachi drive instead.

read the articles I gave you carefully... you should be able to figure out on your own which drive you'd like to put into your new setup.

If you still have trouble figuring out which drive you need than I will help without compromise.

The MSI mobo ... mmm ... are you sure you want that one?

All matters are in subject to change without prior notice ...

Cheers

[Infinity]

I'll have to look into this a little more (I'm talking about the HD's)
I'll have some time left after wednesday so just give a few days and then I'll tell you exactly what's going on in 'HD world' cause I'm confused atm..

Cheers.

[TomX]

Thanks for all the advice. Since the RAM and GFX cards were nearly out of stock (3 left of each, I didn't want to risk losing them) I ordered, but since my EMA hadn't come through (something which means 16-18 year olds get paid for going in education) for this week I wasn't able to order everything.

So, the item I decided on not ordering was the HDD since I can use my 20GB IDE until I get a SATA one. Another reason I chose not to buy the HDD is so I can now find a supplier, in the UK, who supplies the Hitatchi Deskstar T7K250

Here's what I ordered:
- Enermax Noisetaker 600W
- Abit AN8 SLI Retail
- AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Venice Retail
- 1GB OCZ (EL Platinum; 2x512MB)
- XFX GeForce 6200 TurboCache 64mb (PCI-E)
- LG DVD-RW

Total = £480 (~$850 but bare in mind things are generally more expensive over her, ebuyer is hard to beat in terms of price, but let's take the motherboard as an example: Ebuyer = £87.39 = $155.21 yet Newegg = $135 = £76.02, therefore assuming the ratio of how much the motherboard cost in UK with respect to how much it costs in the US, let's assume the PC cost me: $741.73, only an approximation though)

I have found a shop who sells the Hitatchi Deskstar T7K250 so I'll be able to order that in a few weeks

I had a look at the DFI motherboard you recommended but the only Retail DFI motherboard that ebuyer sold was the DFI Lanboy nF4 SLI-DR which cost £140 (~$216.60 having considered the way things are cheaper in USA), which was too much.
I could find the Epox so that was out the question.

It was between the Gigabyte and the Abit, they both cost the same but I liked the look of the Abit more, the reviews seems to confirm it was good (though in fairness so did the Gigabyte ones). I can't' remember why I chose Abit in the end but it's been done now :P

Again, thanks for all the advice.

[Infinity]

lmao ... my favorite motherboard manufacturer is Asus .. I thought I mentioned that before lol

I know about the UK being more expensive than other countries We don't have dollars though we have the euro something the UK stayed away from ... sometimes I wish that we had done the same thing

The built looks good though

The DFI is only for the ones who want to overclock heavily (something I've forgot to mention)

The Epox is hard to find, same here...

I'm glad that I was able to help

Cheers

[jnev]

Of all the computers I've built or bought over the last 2 years, none has had a floppy disk in it. If you're using SATA, then you dont want a floppy disk ribbon cable inside the case disrupting the air flow across your cpu.

Au contraire, I would recommend you *do* have a floppy drive handy if you use SATA, simply because some motherboards still ship with their SATA drivers on floppy, and if you ever need to install MS Windows XP (gasp!) you won't be able to install it on a SATA harddrive unless you have a driver floppy. I think it's a good investment, personally.

i was able to install winxp on my sata drives without the floppy drivers...

also, i recomend getting a 6600gt instead of the 6600. the 6600 is MUCH slower for only a bit less money.

[techieMoe]

i was able to install winxp on my sata drives without the floppy drivers...

What chipset is your controller?

[AlexK]

i was able to install winxp on my sata drives without the floppy drivers...

How did you accomplish this? I have searched high and low on howto install win xp on a sata drive without the use of a floppy drive.

[borromini]

Post the latency of that ram you chose .. (Value doesn´t necessarily mean it´s worse)

With ^^. Don't be tempted by the name 'Geil'. Probably it's CL3. Take Corsair or another good (but not ultra-overclock) brand and try getting CL2.5 (or even CL2 if possible). You should be able to get it at the same price, and its quite a bit faster - and your AMD 64 will appreciate it, believe me .

i was able to install winxp on my sata drives without the floppy drivers...

How did you accomplish this? I have searched high and low on howto install win xp on a sata drive without the use of a floppy drive.

I'm curious about this too... Windows Xp doesn't include a single S-ATA controller driver. Did you use a P-ATA RAID controller?