Help With Building New Pc

[Sabum]

Hey, finally going to upgrade. I have hard disks and monitors etc. What I need is:

-Motherboard (supporting ddr2 or even ddr3 ram if I should be going that with that?)

-CPU for that mobo (dual... whats the status of quad?)

-Video card that supports heavy gaming

-RAM

-Maybe a case and power supply upgrade if anybody swears by a certain brand

I dont need top of the line but dont want to skimp and be obsolete in 4 months either. Let me know what you guys suggest and the estimated price. Thanks so much in advance.

[benjamat]

Hi Sabum, does not make much sense anymore to spend premium money on latest technology as it is already way ahead of the software. What I would get is.

Processor - core 2 duo (this is not the same as pentium dual core) Pentium E8200 is good value

memory - 2gb ddr3

Motherboard - P35 intel chipset. Gigabyte EP35-DS3L is excellent value.

Video card - Nvidia 9600 gt series seems to be good value now and will run all new games for some time to comecan be anything you want to pay.

When you upgrade you often leave behind other parts of your system, for example -

You say you have hard disk and monitor but with the items I have listed above you can run very fast sata3 hard disks, your system will frustrate you if you have slow old disks which will hold everything back.

Same with monitor, no point in buying a graphics card that will run games at high resolution sat 1280 x 1024 at least) if your monitor wont support this.

Finally we get to the power supply which is so often overlooked in upgrading computers.

Modern components especially powerfull graphics cards eat more power, in addition we tend to have more peripherals hanging off out pc's, cameras, printers, scanners, modems, network adapters and so on.

If you have an old or underpowered power supply it will either fail on you or waste many hours of your time wondering why your nice new system is crashing.

Good Luck.

[Sabum]

Thankyou very much, I have very good monitors but your right about hard disks, I should get good hard disks.

Any idea on the price of some of those items? Should I go to Pantip or Fortune?

Sorry and to be clear, Im not some old dude with a computer from 86 whos clueless haha, I upgrade every 1 to 2 years and my current pc is ... ok but I want faster now, Im still using a pc with DDR 1. Only saying this as it might help with the suggestions.

Edited September 28, 2008 by Sabum

[jeffer]

memory - 2gb ddr3

Motherboard - P35 intel chipset. Gigabyte EP35-DS3L is excellent value.

GA-965G-DS3 uses DDR2, not so future proof but PC6400 is excellent value at the moment. Agree that P35 motherboards are also excellent value even if they are already a little dated. If you weren't gaming then for sure they would be fine but just in case do some research on the more recent P43 and P45 chipsets to see if they may be relevent for you. E8400 is the sweet spot still for dual core cpu's if you intend to do any overclocking. Dual core for gamers, quad core for video editing type tasks is the current rule of thumb.

The new ATI cards are good. For value the 4670 but for heavy gaming look at the 4870.

Cases, Lian-li for conservative styling but well built, Thermaltake or Cooler Master for more bling.

I like Enermax for the power supply, Corsair is also a good brand, 2000 baht is the minimum for something of decent quality whatever brand you decide on. 500W is plenty for most setups.

You can get an idea of prices at http://www.thanni.com/ Either Pantip or Fortune are fine, stick to the well known shops like Hardware House or JIB for most of your components. It's all obsolete by the time you get home from the shop anyway no matter what you get

[Sabum]

Thanks, things are looking good, I really appreciate this guys.

[dave_boo]

I agree with benjamat with the exception of the quantity of RAM and the video card. DDR2 is dirt cheap right now, and I'd definitely recommend going with a minimum of 3 GB. If you're up for running a 64-bit OS, stuff as much in as possible. ATI has the best performance/THB right now; however overall they use a bit more energy.

I disagree with the future upgrade possiblity requiring you to purchase a ddr3 motherboard today. Reason being that Nehalem, Intel's next chip, is going to have the memory controller on die and a different socket. So assuming that in a year or two you'll be able to upgrade to it and use ddr3 on a current board is wrong. Intel had Socket 775 going 'forever' and had a good run out of it, but for the fancy new processors you'll need the new boards anyways. Granted you could get a faster S-775 chip, but if you upgrade more than 2 years from now, it's going to be expensive.

[sniffdog]

If you're serious ..... http://www.busitek.com ..... get their prices as reference and get a few hundred baht of at Jedi Cool.

[Sabum]

If you're serious ..... http://www.busitek.com ..... get their prices as reference and get a few hundred baht of at Jedi Cool.

Thanks for the link it's great. Still need some more advice on actual names of parts I should get, cmon guys!

[benjamat]

If you want to compare costs to uk costs this site is always good value and had latedt technology.

www.dabs.com

There are thousands of potential component combinations.

I have always found gigabyte good for value and quality mobos but I am sure someone else will say the same about Asus or Msi.

Just look at the websites but I would say again, there is really no need to go for the latest products anymore, the last line of products will certainly do all you want for several years but if you are the sort who wants the latest technology and are prepared to pay for it then take that route.

[benjamat]

On a slightly different note.

The E8200 processor that I suggested was chosen because it was the cheapest of the true core 2 duo processors.

It is widely known that the dies for all the "8" range are the same and the 8200 has been clocked as high as 4000.

It is easy to overclock and I run mine at 3200 mhz which gives a 400 bus speed (x4) - (standard for 8200 is 2666

No problems of any kind and cool running. No extra cooling, standard fan.

Edited October 1, 2008 by benjamat

[JSixpack]

Go for the expert advice: study over the buyer's guides at

http://arstechnica.com/guides/buyer/guide-200809.ars

and try to match their suggestions w/ what you can find here in Thailand.

[ballbreaker]

If you're serious ..... http://www.busitek.com ..... get their prices as reference and get a few hundred baht of at Jedi Cool.

Thanks for the link it's great. Still need some more advice on actual names of parts I should get, cmon guys!

If you want more detailed suggestions then you need to state how much money you have to spend for new PC build.

[dave_boo]

If you're serious ..... http://www.busitek.com ..... get their prices as reference and get a few hundred baht of at Jedi Cool.

Thanks for the link it's great. Still need some more advice on actual names of parts I should get, cmon guys!

Skulltrail

Intel Core2 QX9775 (two)

16 GB FB-DIMM

ATI 4870 X2 in Crossfire

Blu-Ray Drive

SAS Controller

SSD Boot Drive

7.2 TB worth of SAS drives

Hot swap enclosure

Sound card

Case

Mouse

Keyboard

2x Monitor

Since you don't want to give us a price, I just went ahead and spec'd out my dream computer. If you're down for buying two, I'll take the second off your hands, a computer worth a total of 37 000 USD (1,3 M THB) would last me quite a while.

[Gary A]

I'm glad I'm not a gamer. I have a new power supply, main board, duo core cpu and 2 gig of 667 ddr2 ram. Total cost 8,600 baht including labor. I didn't bother with a video card because the machine plays DVD movies very well as is.

[dave_boo]

I'm glad I'm not a gamer. I have a new power supply, main board, duo core cpu and 2 gig of 667 ddr2 ram. Total cost 8,600 baht including labor. I didn't bother with a video card because the machine plays DVD movies very well as is.

Ahh, forgot to list a PSU. PC Power & Cooling 1200 Watts....another 500 USD+......Ka-Ching!

[Considered Opinion]

I agree with benjamat with the exception of the quantity of RAM and the video card. DDR2 is dirt cheap right now, and I'd definitely recommend going with a minimum of 3 GB. If you're up for running a 64-bit OS, stuff as much in as possible. ATI has the best performance/THB right now; however overall they use a bit more energy.

I disagree with the future upgrade possiblity requiring you to purchase a ddr3 motherboard today. Reason being that Nehalem, Intel's next chip, is going to have the memory controller on die and a different socket. So assuming that in a year or two you'll be able to upgrade to it and use ddr3 on a current board is wrong. Intel had Socket 775 going 'forever' and had a good run out of it, but for the fancy new processors you'll need the new boards anyways. Granted you could get a faster S-775 chip, but if you upgrade more than 2 years from now, it's going to be expensive.

Problematically, the 64 BIt leaves out a lot of programs and drivers can be a curse.

Use Matrox Drives only SATA II or III. Depends on the board you get.

Gigabyte Mobos are all good value.

3Gb of RAM in Kingston will have you whooping along.

ASUS DVD Burner if you can find one.

Thermaltake case only.. they run cooler - have a look at the Sword

VGA off board, stick with Gigabyte. There are a bunch of 512 MB that would work well. 9800GT Maybe

CPU why not go the whole hog and get an Intel Q9000. MMMMMMMMMM

Pop some liquid cooling in it, say the Big Water 780 or 780e

All round, a good basic unit.

[Considered Opinion]

Also, for the Thomases, how about a dual, quad core machine that needs ethylene glycol to stop it catching fire...

[jeffer]

All round, a good basic unit.

Good suggestion, probably pick one up at Tesco for 15,000 I imagine...

[Considered Opinion]

All round, a good basic unit.

Good suggestion, probably pick one up at Tesco for 15,000 I imagine...

Thanks Jeffers.. And you get a 5 year machine for your money..

[spacemunk]

I agree with benjamat with the exception of the quantity of RAM and the video card. DDR2 is dirt cheap right now, and I'd definitely recommend going with a minimum of 3 GB. If you're up for running a 64-bit OS, stuff as much in as possible. ATI has the best performance/THB right now; however overall they use a bit more energy.

I disagree with the future upgrade possiblity requiring you to purchase a ddr3 motherboard today. Reason being that Nehalem, Intel's next chip, is going to have the memory controller on die and a different socket. So assuming that in a year or two you'll be able to upgrade to it and use ddr3 on a current board is wrong. Intel had Socket 775 going 'forever' and had a good run out of it, but for the fancy new processors you'll need the new boards anyways. Granted you could get a faster S-775 chip, but if you upgrade more than 2 years from now, it's going to be expensive.

Problematically, the 64 BIt leaves out a lot of programs and drivers can be a curse.

Use Matrox Drives only SATA II or III. Depends on the board you get.

Gigabyte Mobos are all good value.

3Gb of RAM in Kingston will have you whooping along.

ASUS DVD Burner if you can find one.

Thermaltake case only.. they run cooler - have a look at the Sword

VGA off board, stick with Gigabyte. There are a bunch of 512 MB that would work well. 9800GT Maybe

CPU why not go the whole hog and get an Intel Q9000. MMMMMMMMMM

Pop some liquid cooling in it, say the Big Water 780 or 780e

All round, a good basic unit.

Can u explain why ONLY Maxtor drives?

Since u suggested him getting a WC set , why is it he still needs a TT casing? TT Casings run cooler provided ur on AIR not WC.

[spacemunk]

Motherboard - DFI LP DK P35-T2RS Raid

CPU Chip - C2D 8400

Rams - Normal DDR2 Value Rams since u dont OverClock. 2 x 2gig Sticks.

Graphics - Gigabyte HD4870 512MB DDR3 or DDR5

Power Supply - PCPower & Cooling Silent 750W

Casing - Simple and Nice will do.

DVDROM - LG GH22 22X DvD+-Writer

HDD - WD Caviar SE 320gig x 2 Drives.

Cheap & Nice gaming PC.

[dave_boo]

I agree with benjamat with the exception of the quantity of RAM and the video card. DDR2 is dirt cheap right now, and I'd definitely recommend going with a minimum of 3 GB. If you're up for running a 64-bit OS, stuff as much in as possible. ATI has the best performance/THB right now; however overall they use a bit more energy.

I disagree with the future upgrade possiblity requiring you to purchase a ddr3 motherboard today. Reason being that Nehalem, Intel's next chip, is going to have the memory controller on die and a different socket. So assuming that in a year or two you'll be able to upgrade to it and use ddr3 on a current board is wrong. Intel had Socket 775 going 'forever' and had a good run out of it, but for the fancy new processors you'll need the new boards anyways. Granted you could get a faster S-775 chip, but if you upgrade more than 2 years from now, it's going to be expensive.

Problematically, the 64 BIt leaves out a lot of programs and drivers can be a curse.

Use Matrox Drives only SATA II or III. Depends on the board you get.

Gigabyte Mobos are all good value.

3Gb of RAM in Kingston will have you whooping along.

ASUS DVD Burner if you can find one.

Thermaltake case only.. they run cooler - have a look at the Sword

VGA off board, stick with Gigabyte. There are a bunch of 512 MB that would work well. 9800GT Maybe

CPU why not go the whole hog and get an Intel Q9000. MMMMMMMMMM

Pop some liquid cooling in it, say the Big Water 780 or 780e

All round, a good basic unit.

The 64 bit issue was only with WinXP64. Can you come up with a comprehensive list of programs and drivers that the majority of persons will miss?

I'm sorry, but to recommend Matrox drives is wrong in my opinion. I've had 1 out of the 8 or so that I've bout not fail. And I believe the only reason it didn't fail is because it was a rebadged Quantum (10k SCSI).

I'd also stay away from Gigabyte, do a search and read about their piss-poor onboard audio. Of course I could be biased because the first dual-940 board I bought from them promised SO much and yet was let down by poor bios support.

I realise that the selection of computer components is limited in Thailand, but some of the components you have listed has me scratching my head.

Motherboard - DFI LP DK P35-T2RS Raid

CPU Chip - C2D 8400

Rams - Normal DDR2 Value Rams since u dont OverClock. 2 x 2gig Sticks.

Graphics - Gigabyte HD4870 512MB DDR3 or DDR5

Power Supply - PCPower & Cooling Silent 750W

Casing - Simple and Nice will do.

DVDROM - LG GH22 22X DvD+-Writer

HDD - WD Caviar SE 320gig x 2 Drives.

Cheap & Nice gaming PC.

With that load, I'd recommend going with the PC P&C 500w PSU. You'll be much closer to the PSU's load area where efficiency is the greatest and you'll save a fair bit. You are correct about the Silent line though; my original 1kW sounded like a Chinook until I replaced the internal fan.

[spacemunk]

I agree with benjamat with the exception of the quantity of RAM and the video card. DDR2 is dirt cheap right now, and I'd definitely recommend going with a minimum of 3 GB. If you're up for running a 64-bit OS, stuff as much in as possible. ATI has the best performance/THB right now; however overall they use a bit more energy.

I disagree with the future upgrade possiblity requiring you to purchase a ddr3 motherboard today. Reason being that Nehalem, Intel's next chip, is going to have the memory controller on die and a different socket. So assuming that in a year or two you'll be able to upgrade to it and use ddr3 on a current board is wrong. Intel had Socket 775 going 'forever' and had a good run out of it, but for the fancy new processors you'll need the new boards anyways. Granted you could get a faster S-775 chip, but if you upgrade more than 2 years from now, it's going to be expensive.

Problematically, the 64 BIt leaves out a lot of programs and drivers can be a curse.

Use Matrox Drives only SATA II or III. Depends on the board you get.

Gigabyte Mobos are all good value.

3Gb of RAM in Kingston will have you whooping along.

ASUS DVD Burner if you can find one.

Thermaltake case only.. they run cooler - have a look at the Sword

VGA off board, stick with Gigabyte. There are a bunch of 512 MB that would work well. 9800GT Maybe

CPU why not go the whole hog and get an Intel Q9000. MMMMMMMMMM

Pop some liquid cooling in it, say the Big Water 780 or 780e

All round, a good basic unit.

The 64 bit issue was only with WinXP64. Can you come up with a comprehensive list of programs and drivers that the majority of persons will miss?

I'm sorry, but to recommend Matrox drives is wrong in my opinion. I've had 1 out of the 8 or so that I've bout not fail. And I believe the only reason it didn't fail is because it was a rebadged Quantum (10k SCSI).

I'd also stay away from Gigabyte, do a search and read about their piss-poor onboard audio. Of course I could be biased because the first dual-940 board I bought from them promised SO much and yet was let down by poor bios support.

I realise that the selection of computer components is limited in Thailand, but some of the components you have listed has me scratching my head.

Motherboard - DFI LP DK P35-T2RS Raid

CPU Chip - C2D 8400

Rams - Normal DDR2 Value Rams since u dont OverClock. 2 x 2gig Sticks.

Graphics - Gigabyte HD4870 512MB DDR3 or DDR5

Power Supply - PCPower & Cooling Silent 750W

Casing - Simple and Nice will do.

DVDROM - LG GH22 22X DvD+-Writer

HDD - WD Caviar SE 320gig x 2 Drives.

Cheap & Nice gaming PC.

With that load, I'd recommend going with the PC P&C 500w PSU. You'll be much closer to the PSU's load area where efficiency is the greatest and you'll save a fair bit. You are correct about the Silent line though; my original 1kW sounded like a Chinook until I replaced the internal fan.

Yeah but if the OP decides to add more HDD's later on it just better to be safe. Had a Enermax Galaxy 1000w on my 8800 Ultra SLi setup running raptors and 6 drives .

And why on earth would someone recommend matrox drives.

WD Caviar's the way to go

[dave_boo]

Yeah but if the OP decides to add more HDD's later on it just better to be safe. Had a Enermax Galaxy 1000w on my 8800 Ultra SLi setup running raptors and 6 drives .

And why on earth would someone recommend matrox drives.

WD Caviar's the way to go

6 drives ~30 watts upon start up. Much lower during actual running. Plus higher end controllers (I'm talking about 3ware , Aerca, et al.) have staggered spin up, thus lessening the shock on your PSU.

I have 5x Raptors[~25w], 11 SCSI drives[~55w] (7x 15k, 4x 10K), 2x 7900 GT[2x 80w], 2x Opteron 265 [2x 95w], 4x 2GB IBM ECC RAM[8w?], 4x 1GB Corsair ECC RAM[8w?], the motherboard, my two 3ware cards, X-Fi (the last 4 we'll just leave out because I'm not sure about their draw but it's minute.

So total I have approximately a maximum 446 watts being consumed. And yet I have well more than double the capacity with my PSU! Not everyone needs as much, but I still agree that getting a quality unit will be better for your equipment in the long run. PC Power&Cooling is one of the best in the industry because they draw on years of experience producing server PSU that HAVE to continue to run or people lose a lot of money.

[Sabum]

Aw man, didnt check back here in a bit, been too busy playing around with my new rig. I did alot of research on Toms Hardware, great site. This is what I got

Smilodon Case

Gigabyte 550 watt psu

PQ5 Pro Motherboard

Intel 8500 core 2 duo 3.16 ghz cpu

8 gigs gskill DDR2 800 ram

1 X WD Raptor 74 gig hard drive (for windows and big games/programs)

2 X WD Caviar 640 gig hardrives

Power color 4870 1gig video card

Air Max mouse (oh how I love this thing)

Belkin n52te Gamepad

Samsung 22" wide screen (already purchased)

using Vista 64 bit

I'm in geek heaven

Edited October 8, 2008 by Sabum

[dave_boo]

Aw man, didnt check back here in a bit, been too busy playing around with my new rig. I did alot of research on Toms Hardware, great site. This is what I got

Smilodon Case

Gigabyte 550 watt psu

PQ5 Pro Motherboard

Intel 8500 core 2 duo 3.16 ghz cpu

8 gigs gskill DDR2 800 ram

1 X WD Raptor 74 gig hard drive (for windows and big games/programs)

2 X WD Caviar 640 gig hardrives

Power color 4870 1gig video card

Air Max mouse (oh how I love this thing)

Belkin n52te Gamepad

Samsung 22" wide screen (already purchased)

using Vista 64 bit

I'm in geek heaven

Why don't you drop some of that RAM and get the 300 GB Velociraptor? Much more space and 33% faster than the old Raptors. Otherwise can't fault your choices (even though I'm mostly a Seagate fan).

[Sabum]

Well I just wanted a fast hd for windows and a few games, didnt really want to spend the extra 5000 baht on the 300 raptor.... but didnt know they were 33% faster, you sure? I have the newer 74 gig, not the old version. I wanted 8 gigs to get rid of harddrive memory writing completely (heard this limits my overclock potential though), think thats a bad idea?

[spacemunk]

The Veloraptor is def way way way way faster than the Gaming raptor. Costs a shitload too.

[Sabum]

dam_n... if I had known the 300 raptor was that much faster than the 74 I wouldnt have bought the 74. The 74 was 5k, the 300 is 10k, woulda just skipped the whole thing and gotten a caviar black 1 terabyte as my boot drive.

[benjamat]

Whoa boys, this thread seems to have degenerated into mine is bigger than yours.

Just remember that if you want state of the art then be prepered to pay very heavily for it.

If you are building a home system and you are money conscious you certainly wont want to go the way of raptors.

In the normal home environment, internet, home publishing, photo processing etc you will never see the benefit over something similar to what I suggested earlier. Windows caches you data and it really is fast enough. If you are running a web site or such then that is a different thing.

Everybody has different experiences with components so you will get different views but really the reliability of componentry today is very good all round.