My Plans For My Custom Gaming PC

[Ally Graham]

I plan to build my own PC in the near future, and have reserched and have decided on the following components.

Case
Antec P180
http://www.antec.com/us/productDetails.php?ProdID=81800
http://www.gladiatorcomputers.com/ProductDetail.aspx?StockCode=CASANTP180

Power Supply
Tagan TG480-U01
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=82572

Mother Board
Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe
http://uk.asus.com/products4.aspx?l1=3&l2=15&l3=0&model=375&modelmenu=1
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=158259

CPU
AMD Athlon 64 3700 32/64Bit CPU S939 "San Diego"
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=211678

DDR Memory
Scan OEM Elixir
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=97647

Hard Disk
Samsung SpinPoint P120S
http://www.samsung.com/Products/HardDiskDrive/SpinPointPSeries/HardDiskDrive_SpinPointPSeries_SP2504C.htm
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=247245

Graphics Card
MSI NX6800GT-T2D256E
http://www.savastore.com/productinfo/product.aspx?catalog_name=Savastore&product_id=10281020&pid=44

CPU Heatsink
Gigabyte G-Power Cooler Pro
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=212686

DVD Burner
Asus DRW-1608P
http://uk.asus.com/products4.aspx?l1=6&l2=35&l3=0&model=415&modelmenu=1
http://www.overclock.co.uk/customer/product.php?productid=18463

TFT Monitor
ViewSonic VX724
http://www.viewsoniceurope.com/UK/Products/LCDX/VX724.htm
http://www.savastore.com/productinfo/product.aspx?catalog_name=Savastore&product_id=10282166&pid=206

OS
Win XP Pro?


Total:
Around £1200


My plan is then once I have built the bare system, add another graphics card (exactly the same) in SLi formation, and add another HD, possibly the same size.


Any advice or comments welcome.

[Rouni Kenshin#1]

Nice :pc but if your going to get 2 graphics cards you might just splurge and buy a better brand like ATI or Nvida.



i if i had that kind of cash.............da dee da dee dum(daydreaming)

[Ally Graham]

It is a Nvidia graphics processor, Nvidia GeForce 6800 GT to be exact.

[infoxicated]

I'd go for a SATA drive rather than an IDE - they're much faster.

I bought a 250Gb Maxtor Sabre with a 16Mb cache recently and it was a great decision. Boots fast and the file transfer speed is pretty darn quick too.

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/labs/70455/maxtor-diamondmax-10.html

[Hellfire_WZ]

SATA cables are much narrower and easier to manage than IDE ribbons, so the interior woud be tidier. Good choice with an Antec case as well, their reputation is well deserved. I'm looking at a Thermaltake Tsunami Dream to replace my knackered old case. I'd love Antec or Lian-Li but I really don't have the money to spend.

[Ally Graham]

I'd go for a SATA drive rather than an IDE - they're much faster.

I bought a 250Gb Maxtor Sabre with a 16Mb cache recently and it was a great decision. Boots fast and the file transfer speed is pretty darn quick too.

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/labs/70455/maxtor-diamondmax-10.html
It is an S-ATA II drive, says on both webpages I have linked to.

[Lance]

.
good choice on the Spinpoint, whether you go for ATA or SATA; they have a reputation for never breaking
.

[zed omega]

my new buy'd tagan 420 breaks down 1 week after purchase-date ..

with my warranty I get a new chieftec power supply and since that time it work without probs :)

so better don't buy a tagan ps :)

[infoxicated]

It is an S-ATA II drive, says on both webpages I have linked to.
Duh... I just skimmed the text and read "Parallel ATA". Sorry about that. :oops:

[Spaceboy Gajo]

Great case Ally. Love the look of it. I'm looking to do the same and ordered a great Lian-Li case in a smiliar style.

I'm new in buliding PCs, but looking forward to it. Buying my dream machine piece by piece.

I do have a couple of questions.

(1) I am also interested in running two video cards in SLi formation. Is it still possible to run two monitors in this type of configuration?

(2) I've loved my Western Digital hard drives ever since I became a PC user. Any one know how their S-ATA drives compare?

Many thanks,

Spaceboy Gajo

[Ally Graham]

With 2 of my graphics cards, you can run 4 monitors, so I have been told.

I have a question:
In relation to OS, what does OEM mean, and how comes it is so much cheaper than retail?
Can I buy Win XP Pro OEM and run it with no problems?

[Drakkenmensch]

OEM refers to an out-of-box piece of hardware that you buy from the counter with nothing more than a static protection bag, with no manuals, at most you'll get driver disks and barebone cables to connect it. This is cheaper because the company that produced it did not have to print the flashy cardboard box, instruction manual and various extras such as demo disks and so on, and so forth, (Ahnold voice) and things of that nature.(/Ahnold voice)

OEMs are a pretty good bargain if you already know how to use the hardware in your system.

[Ally Graham]

I understand,
But how can they sell Windows XP for over £100 cheaper in this way?

[Lance]

.
i think that OEM stands for Original Equipment Manufacturer; it means that the devices or software are what were installed on a machine as it came from its maker. sort of the 'default' equipment. as Drakkenmensch points out, no separate manuals and packaging would be supplied for the individual components.

in the case of an operating system, the computer manufacturers get a huge price 'discount' by buying in massive quantities. [and they usually put their own branding on the restore disk, and usually a software code that makes it more difficult to use that disk to install the OS on some other proprietary manufacturer's machine. like trying to use a Hewlett-Packard XP CD to install the OS on a Dell.]
.

[Ally Graham]

Nearly all the online sellers that I have used above supply OS as OEM.
Sounds like if there is nothing much in it, is is worth getting the OEM version as it is cheaper.

[Drakkenmensch]

An operating system would only come as OEM on a brand name machine, like Compaq or Dell and would come with a restore disk rather than a full install as Lance mentionned. To buy an OS disk in a store, your only option would be the full package box.

[Lance]

.
my Hewlett-Packard 'restore' disk actually contains everything for full install, including the extra bundled software beyond the OS. using the restore command puts the entire contents of the disk on your computer by overwriting the OS and the bundled stuff, but leaves your other programs and data alone. there is also a format option that formats the disk, wiping all your files, then reinstalling the OS and extras. the damn thing won't let me leave off the extras in either mode. other manufacturers may do it differently.

the system does allow me to use a non-proprietary upgrade disk to install a later OS with the same file structure. [FAT32 in this case]
.

[Rouni Kenshin#1]

This is a gaming pc so i was wondering, what games do you plan to buy?


My recent to buy list includes.

Black and White 2
Lego Star Wars
Call of Duty 2

[Ally Graham]

Well, currently, all I play is The Sims 2, SimCity 4, and RollerCoaster Tycoon 3.
All only just play on my computer, apart from RCT3 which you can lower really low, but you loose alot of detail.
I want to play these at high quality.

However, once I have the PC, I want to find games that I wouldn't have brought before, or even looked at before, because I couldn't run them on my laptop.

[Mobius]

Unreal Tournament 2004 perhaps?

[Hellfire_WZ]

You'll want Half-Life 2 definitely, great game and incredible graphics. You might want to keep an eye out for F.E.A.R when it's released as well. Then of course there's Quake Wars due out near the end of the year which looks absolutely stunning.

[Ally Graham]

Black and White 2 is looking good to me.
The computer could take over 6 months to build, as I don't want to spend all the money I earn building it.

[Zero [RG] [HG]]

StarCraft Brood War.


WARNING
WARNING

DO NOT BUY WARCRAFT


Eh... nevermind...?

[Ally Graham]

I have money!

About to order the PC case and DVD drive listed above.
And the motherboard from a different online shop.


Some of my plans have changed, will hopefully be able to give you an update sometime soon.

[infoxicated]

I just took delivery of 2Gigs of Corsair TwinX matched memory... should get it installed tonight. If it performs as much as it cost I should be very happy... otherwise I'm just going to be out of pocket and wondering whether this hardware upgrading game is for me! :pc

I'll let you know how it goes, but all going well I'll have 512Meg of Corsair TwinX memory on the cheap for anyone who's interested. ;)

[Ally Graham]

Is it 2 rows, or 2Gigs on 1 row?

[killerfrog]

[HG]]StarCraft Brood War.


WARNING
WARNING

DO NOT BUY WARCRAFT


Eh... nevermind...?


Ehm 8O
What ?!?!

Why....SC-BW ruleZ! It's outdated but rulez! :p

p.s. how can't u love those small zerglings :D?

[infoxicated]

Is it 2 rows, or 2Gigs on 1 row?
Well, what I did was parked my saphire encrusted Saleen outside PC world and just nipped in there with a suitcase of cash...

... of course it's two 1gig sticks - I'm not made of money! :lol:

[Lance]

.
[seems to have temporarily misplaced his Ferrari Daytona Coupe and his Weymann-bodied Duesenberg SJ short-chassis Speedster.] dammit
.

[Drakkenmensch]

how can't u love those small zerglings :D?

They're like fresh oven-baked cookies - crunchy on the outside and gooey on the inside! :D

[Ally Graham]

Also got my 500w PSU, a Seasonic S12-500, not the one listed at the start of the topic.
Not long brought my two 250GB SATA II hard drives also.

Next up soon will be 2GB of DDR RAM.

And then after that, I plan to get a NVIDIA Geforce 7800GTX 256MB graphics card, as powerfull as 2 6800GT in SLi config. as I originally planned to buy.

I now have decided that a dual core Athlon is not worth it for my PC, so I will get a Athlon 4000+, the fastest single core Athlon you can buy, saving my £100, which goes towards the new graphics card.

[jospicy]

i'm back off the back of a cheap upgrade i went from and AMD 1200 + Matrox G200 to AMD Clawhammer 3400 + 9800 Pro for around £450 with an aluminium case and 1GB DDR 400 thrown in as well it works quite nicely for now but i think it'll need more mem and poss another HDD after Christmas (uni network shares + 500GB HDD = no space left :p ) all i can say is make sure you find all the small progs your using before you start building as it has taken me around 2 weeks to find some of the progs i had before (hence why i havn't been around) anyway off to "study" for my exams
jo