Building new PC

[dandart]

I have around £200-£250 and would like to build a powerful new PC.
I have a basic idea that it should be 64-bit, have 2.5GHz+ processor (overclockable) , and the following non-essentials:
4GB+ of RAM (to poke fun at those people who can't... *cough* Redmond *cough*), possibly 8GB support on-motherboard
Intel VT/AMD equivalent (Xen and KVM galore!)
Decent today's graphics card (7600+)
160GB+ disk

Will I be able to afford it (I hear that's quite possible these days) and can anyone recommend any components to me?

Cheers
Dan

[bigtomrodney]

You could certainly do it!

You could even go with a Quad core like the Q6600 for that price. If you have a case, fans etc. this will be a lot easier. I think Intel VT is available on everything these days (and the AMD equivalent too). I wouldn't focus too much on having 4GB of RAM yet. I'd be more concerned with getting a multicore processor on the smallest manufacturing scale possible. That is buy 65nm at least and go for 45nm if you can.

What you'll save in heat and wattage later will be worth it. Remember cool processors run faster. I know you can pick up low end 8xxx nVidias for about £30.

If there's only one thing to keep in mind here it's balance. I wouldn't go overboard on any one thing. It would be a waste to get a monster of a CPU and leave yourself short for RAM and equally so if you were to really build up on the RAM and then leave yourself short on the CPU and HDDs.

Komplett.co.uk just shut down last week but these links might give you an idea of what's going there.

Komplett.ie
Komplett.ie

Personally this year my choice is Intel if you can budget that

[dandart]

Thanks, that's very encouraging. I fear that if I get a quad core, my money will run out so I wouldn't be able to get enough disk, good mobo or RAM. I won't get 4GB of RAM, maybe 1 or 2.

[gruven]

I have a Q6600 with 8GB Ram, Nvidia GeForce 8800GT, Seagate 500GB SATA II HDD, and Vista 64 ran great until I deleted the partition. Windows can support more than 4 GB of ram rather easily, you just have to run a 64 bit Windows OS. From what I understand you can use the "highmem" option in the linux kernel to get a 32bit linux to see more than 4GB of ram, but no single process will use more than 2GB, and there are quite a few memory heavy applications out there that I use (vmware, virtualbox, etc...). I like to give my virtual machines 1 - 2 GB of ram each. IMO it would be better to just run a 64bit OS no matter which one you choose if you use 4GB+ of ram.

I run Gentoo 64bit and I built this monster to run virtual machines and to play games on. It does both very well.

[MetalheadGautham]

Thanks, that's very encouraging. I fear that if I get a quad core, my money will run out so I wouldn't be able to get enough disk, good mobo or RAM. I won't get 4GB of RAM, maybe 1 or 2.

Ever thought about the newer AMD Phenom X3 triple cores ? I guess along with a 780G based motherboard, they would make a rather good combo for your PC. Did you know some people (*cough* redmond *cough*) have issues in their latest new flashy OS to deal with 3 cores properly ? But did you know that Linux has no such problem ?

[dandart]

Yes, but aren't X3's just X4's with a failed core? haha. I's rather like the Intel side though, because I hear they're better for low power consumption. Just see the Helmer project! Building home linux render cluster
24 core 2 quad's. the whole thing uses < 400W!

[bigtomrodney]

I prefer AMD generally but as I've posted a lot this past year, AMD are pretty much behind at the moment. Which is a shame, I always preferred them. Generally the power consumption, operating temperatures and processing benchmarks have been better on the Intels.

I usually read Phoronix for reviews and comparisons. It's Linux/Solaris focussed so worth checking out.

[dandart]

Of course Xen isn't absolutely necessary, I'll probably stick with one distro. It still helps to have VT/SVM because it gives it the impression that it's new.

Know any good, cheap motherboards, anyone? Ethernet, at least 2 SATA, overclock options, 8GB Ram support, quad core support (when I need to upgrade I'd keep the mobo)