I don't know if people have resolved it yet, because I don't want to read through the whole thread, but concerning the OP here is what I would suggest:
Case:
RAIDMAX SMILODON ATX-612WBP Black SECC STEEL ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 500W Power Supply
Aesthetics aside, the thing's got a window, and windows don't dampen noise as effectively as steel and aluminum. If you're serious about noise reduction, and case with a window is out.
Again, look at Antec, Cooler Master, Silverstone, and Arctic Cooling if you want quality case design. The Antec Sonata and P180 are both exceptionally quiet. You want 120mm fans, too.
...I'm just speechless. It's $260, ridiculously overpowered, has an efficiency rating of "up to 87%," and no noise rating. Nevermind what the draw a 850 watt PSU will do to your power bill. Thermaltake isn't exactly known for making the highest quality PSUs, either.
If you want silent, high-output, and clean power, it's a no-brainer: Seasonic.
Hard Drive:
Western Digital Raptor WD740ADFD 74GB 10,000 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive - OEM
Again, noise. 10k RPM drives sound like chainsaws, and the performance isn't significant. I mean, yeah, in terms of hard drive performance, they're top of the heap, but even 10k RPM drives are abysmally slow. Might as well save some money and a lot of noise and get some 7200 RPM drives.
Can I just put some Kingston 2gb or (2X1gb) ram in it and have the system boot right from the start or do I need another type of ram to boot the system and then reconfigure the bios.
Depends on the type of RAM. If it's compatible with the motherboard, yes.
Wow. A lot of misinformation here. Some of it is just flat out wrong.
Number one, a window doesn't hardly affect acoustic performance at all. If anything, it reduces vibrations because the window is made of a dissimilar material and will reduce resonances at certain frequencies. This is why the Antec P180 case sides are lined with plastic rather than being manufactured solely out of aluminum or steel.
Second, while $260 is an exorbitant amount of money to pay for a power supply, not to mention that 850W is far more than would ever be used (even the most power hungry systems, ie overclocked SLI rigs, only draw around 400W), the maximum capacity of the PSU does not in anyway affect the amount of power actually used by a PC. You can buy a 2000W power supply and it's only going to use the power drawn by the components it's supplying power to. You only use 150W? That's all it's going to supply, inefficiencies such as thermal dissipation aside. An 850W power supply is wholly unnecessary, but it won't affect his electricity bill one bit more than a 500W PSU. Also, 87% efficiency is quite high, albiet unlikely to to ever be reached in real world use. Two years ago you wouldn't have been able to find a PSU that had a peak efficiency that high.
Third, your comments about Raptors being noisy and "abysmally slow" are so fucking inaccurate and completely fucking WRONG you should just stop posting anything related to PCs because if you were to take a shit on your keyboard, it would less fucking retarded than anything you've posted thusfar. The only drives that are faster than a Raptor are 15k SCSI drives (by about 6%), whereas 7200RPM drives are nearly 50% slower in all single user benchmarks, except bootup, where they're 65% slower than a Raptor. And in terms of acoustics take a look at Silent PC Review's articles on the Raptor. They're among the quietest drives manufactured.
If you can't be bothered to know at all what you're writing about, I suggest you stop posting.
I suppose that is true, but my last pc built was about 4-5 years ago and before now I never put much thought into PSUs (usually bought cases with PSU's bundled). So I rarely encounter a bottom fan setup :P
Have they released the size info of nvidia 8600/8300 cards? Like many of you, I plan on getting this, but will it be nearly as huge as the 8800GTX? I don't want to buy a midsized tower only to find out that it barely fits.
I can buy a full tower, but I'd like to avoid that if I know that the 8600 will fit fine with smaller towers.
I've been looking to get a new computer and after absorbing all the info and suggestions I am going to build it myself.
This will be my 1st time building a comp from the ground up. So I don't know all the fine details. Try to make a pretty top of the line system. I was originally planning on buying a prebuilt system for $3000 something from say vicious pc or vigor. But seeing as I can save myself about 500 bucks it doing it myself why not right.
Case:
RAIDMAX SMILODON ATX-612WBP Black SECC STEEL ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 500W Power Supply
This is the case I plan on getting so far. Seems like it will make thing easier on installing everything and upgrading for later. Although if anyone knows a good Case with better airflow or Has some Sugguestion I'm all Ears.
Hard Drive:
Western Digital Raptor WD740ADFD 74GB 10,000 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive - OEM
Won't be buying it for another month or so, still got some bills to pay off. This gives me so time to figure out what else I need and read up more on the subject.
So what else do I need for this system? Can I replace all the fans? Are there better fans out there then stock? Should I just go with a water cooling kit? Key thing I want is Silence and for the system to run cool. If I can do it with fans great. If water cooling is the way to go then ok.
Can I just put some Kingston 2gb or (2X1gb) ram in it and have the system boot right from the start or do I need another type of ram to boot the system and then reconfigure the bios.
Kingston RAM will work fine.
That is a hell of a lot of money on the line for a first build, though. Make sure the store you buy from has a great return policy...
Any folks from the UK here? I'm a bit stuck since Newegg don't ship internationally, so I'm using Ebuyer.com instead (if you guys know any other retailers that do better deals let me know, while Ebuyer is excellent value on the whole, they sometimes have little choice)
HDD: I'm salvaging two 300gb and 60gb hard drives which are ATA interface, I'm assuming it'll work with the mobo.
Excluding the separate PSU (at £92 odd) the total cost is £366.67 inc VAT, which fits well under my £500 budget, which is nice :^: Suggestions for different choices are welcome, regardless of availability from Ebuyer.
Just two things. You might want to check out this video card it will cost a bit more now but you could probably use it for a good long while.
The latest intel motherboards only have one parallel IDE port so using your old hard drives might be problematic unless they are serial.
Thanks, I might consider the card once I put the total to around £500. At the moment I'm keeping the 7300GS in anticipation for DX10 cards, and thankfully I don't play cutting edge games.
I've taken note of the IDE thingy, and thus am stuck for the moment
Maybe something like this would fix you up. Couldn't find one on that ebuyer site and don't really know about UK retailers to look for.
lowlylowlycook on
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
Posts
MOBO:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813188009
PROCESSOR (I Suggest the E6600 because the extra 2mb of l2 cache is nice, and it is an amazing overclocker if you like that) :
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819115003
MEMORY (The new dominator series is quite nice, expensive, but that doesn't seem to be a problem for you) :
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145168
VIDEO (I have this card, and I love it):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130072
PSU (This is an absolutely SUPERB psu):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817139001
Pice before case, drives, and other things: $1,570.97
Obviously everthing else is mostly personal preference, a few things to note though:
FULL ATX TOWER, or else that 8800GTX might not fit. If you go with a mid tower, make sure it fits, do some googling.
You also might as well buy vista from newegg while you're at it. Make sure you buy a nice case, don't skimp on that part. This one is really expensive, but it's my personal favorite http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811163057
yea, just listen to everyone else :P
AC:CF - 1032 4742 8889
PM me if you add any of my codes
Wow. A lot of misinformation here. Some of it is just flat out wrong.
Number one, a window doesn't hardly affect acoustic performance at all. If anything, it reduces vibrations because the window is made of a dissimilar material and will reduce resonances at certain frequencies. This is why the Antec P180 case sides are lined with plastic rather than being manufactured solely out of aluminum or steel.
Second, while $260 is an exorbitant amount of money to pay for a power supply, not to mention that 850W is far more than would ever be used (even the most power hungry systems, ie overclocked SLI rigs, only draw around 400W), the maximum capacity of the PSU does not in anyway affect the amount of power actually used by a PC. You can buy a 2000W power supply and it's only going to use the power drawn by the components it's supplying power to. You only use 150W? That's all it's going to supply, inefficiencies such as thermal dissipation aside. An 850W power supply is wholly unnecessary, but it won't affect his electricity bill one bit more than a 500W PSU. Also, 87% efficiency is quite high, albiet unlikely to to ever be reached in real world use. Two years ago you wouldn't have been able to find a PSU that had a peak efficiency that high.
Third, your comments about Raptors being noisy and "abysmally slow" are so fucking inaccurate and completely fucking WRONG you should just stop posting anything related to PCs because if you were to take a shit on your keyboard, it would less fucking retarded than anything you've posted thusfar. The only drives that are faster than a Raptor are 15k SCSI drives (by about 6%), whereas 7200RPM drives are nearly 50% slower in all single user benchmarks, except bootup, where they're 65% slower than a Raptor. And in terms of acoustics take a look at Silent PC Review's articles on the Raptor. They're among the quietest drives manufactured.
If you can't be bothered to know at all what you're writing about, I suggest you stop posting.
I can buy a full tower, but I'd like to avoid that if I know that the 8600 will fit fine with smaller towers.
That is a hell of a lot of money on the line for a first build, though. Make sure the store you buy from has a great return policy...
Maybe something like this would fix you up. Couldn't find one on that ebuyer site and don't really know about UK retailers to look for.
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)