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[Martin_1962]

OK had a look at Dell as an example - soon got the price well over £1200.

So I thought time to build.

I will reuse the sound card and the monitor, and the newish IDE DVD burner.

I don't like the thought of giving up on my graphics card, a mid range AGP card

Bit naughty but I am reusing my XP Pro licence.

So I will reuse a Pioneer 111 burner, and a SOundblaster Audigy 2 platinum.

So what are quad core chips like?
Who makes good MBs?
Couple of 500GB SATA drives which are quietish?
Is my case reusable, but with say a new PSU?

Just getting a bit irked that 300 supermarket specials are nearly as powerfull as my P4 2.4.

And also getting worried about reliability

[CaptainZok]

Have a mooch round scan or novatech, I find their prices to be quite competitive.
Your vid card will need to be replaced new mobos are running pci express graphics.
Never tried quad core, I tend to go the AMD route. Latest build was an athlon 64 X2 4600+ dual core media centre which works fine using the lcd tv as a monitor.
I tend to buy abit mobos for no other reason than I have done for years and the old ones are still in service so they seem reliable.
I've always bought IBM now Hitachi drives and I've never had a problem, think I can only remember one failing and that was on a mate's PC.
I don't see why you can't reuse your case provided it will take your motherboard and has enough expansion slots etc for your needs.

[bertiecbx550]

is it difficult to build your own pc? could a complete numpty like me do it or would you guys advise against it?

[CaptainZok]

is it difficult to build your own pc? could a complete numpty like me do it or would you guys advise against it?

It's not really difficult but unless you want a bespoke system you may well find that you can get what you want cheaper from one of the pc builders and they come with a warranty.
I tend to build my own systems because I always have and I like to choose the components that go in them. In saying that if I do get a faulty component I'm only about 10 minutes drive from scan so can easily nip back to get it tested and replaced if necessary.
Decide what sort of spec you want then see how much you can get the bits to do it yourself, don't forget to add in the cost of windows then see if its worth doing it yourself or buying a ready built box.

[TheBoy]

our new oof server, sat on my dinning room table, is full of quad core goodness.

for general purpose, any Core chip will burn the nuts of your current system, though p4 was very good at video editing.

Intel make excellent, stable boards.

Bin the agp card.

DVD writers, £12 upwards...

Get my drift


Dell recently had an offer, 2.4ghz quad core, 2g ram, 2 x 320G hdd, ati 1300, 18x dvd (optiarc (new sony/nec venture)), vista bus or xp pro, no moitor, £481 inc vat and delivery....

[Martin_1962]

our new oof server, sat on my dinning room table, is full of quad core goodness.

for general purpose, any Core chip will burn the nuts of your current system, though p4 was very good at video editing.

Intel make excellent, stable boards.

Bin the agp card.

DVD writers, £12 upwards...

Get my drift


Dell recently had an offer, 2.4ghz quad core, 2g ram, 2 x 320G hdd, ati 1300, 18x dvd (optiarc (new sony/nec venture)), vista bus or xp pro, no moitor, £481 inc vat and delivery....

That was the ***** at £1000 - nearer 1200 with bigger drives

As to my DVD burner - it is not very old at all.

I'll sell teh AGP card or see if it fits my work PC

[cem_devecioglu]

OK had a look at Dell as an example - soon got the price well over £1200.

So I thought time to build.

I will reuse the sound card and the monitor, and the newish IDE DVD burner.

I don't like the thought of giving up on my graphics card, a mid range AGP card

Bit naughty but I am reusing my XP Pro licence.

So I will reuse a Pioneer 111 burner, and a SOundblaster Audigy 2 platinum.

So what are quad core chips like?
Who makes good MBs?
Couple of 500GB SATA drives which are quietish?
Is my case reusable, but with say a new PSU?

Just getting a bit irked that 300 supermarket specials are nearly as powerfull as my P4 2.4.

And also getting worried about reliability

Hi,
as an experience all midrange price Asus, Gigabyte, Intel and Abit boards are adequate and enough reliable for home purposes unless  overclocked...(around 120 to 170 US $ price range is enough).Above 200 $ price range generally give better performance and reliability  but price quote is extremely high..

For a home PC  to be fast 7200 RPM Samsung 8 MB cache (quiet) or better 10 K RPM  Western Digitals (really noisy) are best depending on the noise preference...

For high disc capacities (500 GB) its better to build a SATA RAID system with 3 or 4 disks including striping and parity (more expensive) or RAID 1 system (mirroring with 1 extra disk) which will be safer for data loss and much more faster..Even  150 $ cost motherboards SUPPORT RAID 0, RAID 5, RAID 1+0 levels ..
(Dont forget to ask the RAID driver for XP and Vista)

W[ch304]th XP dont expect better performance from quad chips..For them its necessary 64 bit applications and operating systems wich is rare and expensive.(Amd's are better for home purposes anyway)

For memory units: minimum is Kingston life time warranty or better brand with lifetime warranty..

Good idea for PCI express and PCI slots totally be at least 4 or more..

Although depending on the board design a new PSU and Box will be necessary (Some boxes have ventilation on top which is superior for cooling)

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/

PS: Dont buy any motherboard with on board graphics this will slow down the memory units..

[cem_devecioglu]

is it difficult to build your own pc? could a complete numpty like me do it or would you guys advise against it?

if you buy the necessary parts with their explanation booklets and follow the instructions (although sometimes a bit tricky) I think you can do it...Nowadays the booklets mostly have every detail for connections...

PS: But before discharge your static electricity with holding some metal..And dont touch rams or cpus with naked hand directly.

[TheBoy]

is it difficult to build your own pc? could a complete numpty like me do it or would you guys advise against it?

if you buy the necessary parts with their explanation booklets and follow the instructions (although sometimes a bit tricky) I think you can do it...Nowadays the booklets mostly have every detail for connections...

PS: But before discharge your static electricity with holding some metal..And dont touch rams or cpus with naked hand directly.

You actually mean use full antistatic protection at all times...

Touching the case, unless grounded is pointless.... and the seconf you stop touching case, you can be back up to 5kv easily.


Additionally, I no longer recommend AMD chips, and haven't for some time.  Whilst very good at certain benchmarks, esp integer, they seem lacklustre in real use.

[TheBoy]

OK had a look at Dell as an example - soon got the price well over £1200.

So I thought time to build.

I will reuse the sound card and the monitor, and the newish IDE DVD burner.

I don't like the thought of giving up on my graphics card, a mid range AGP card

Bit naughty but I am reusing my XP Pro licence.

So I will reuse a Pioneer 111 burner, and a SOundblaster Audigy 2 platinum.

So what are quad core chips like?
Who makes good MBs?
Couple of 500GB SATA drives which are quietish?
Is my case reusable, but with say a new PSU?

Just getting a bit irked that 300 supermarket specials are nearly as powerfull as my P4 2.4.

And also getting worried about reliability

Hi,
as an experience all midrange price Asus, Gigabyte, Intel and Abit boards are adequate and enough reliable for home purposes unless  overclocked...(around 120 to 170 US $ price range is enough).Above 200 $ price range generally give better performance and reliability  but price quote is extremely high..

For a home PC  to be fast 7200 RPM Samsung 8 MB cache (quiet) or better 10 K RPM  Western Digitals (really noisy) are best depending on the noise preference...

For high disc capacities (500 GB) its better to build a SATA RAID system with 3 or 4 disks including striping and parity (more expensive) or RAID 1 system (mirroring with 1 extra disk) which will be safer for data loss and much more faster..Even  150 $ cost motherboards SUPPORT RAID 0, RAID 5, RAID 1+0 levels ..
(Dont forget to ask the RAID driver for XP and Vista)

W[ch304]th XP dont expect better performance from quad chips..For them its necessary 64 bit applications and operating systems wich is rare and expensive.(Amd's are better for home purposes anyway)

For memory units: minimum is Kingston life time warranty or better brand with lifetime warranty..

Good idea for PCI express and PCI slots totally be at least 4 or more..

Although depending on the board design a new PSU and Box will be necessary (Some boxes have ventilation on top which is superior for cooling)

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/

PS: Dont buy any motherboard with on board graphics this will slow down the memory units..

I no longer recommend ASUS boards due to woeful reliability.  Gigabyte tend to be OK, few early life failures.  Intel are rock solid, Abit also seem to be trouble free.

XP is OK multicore, as long as your apps are multithreaded... ...its better than w2k was.  Note, your dodgy XP pro licence may only be suitable for 2 cores...  (also note that XP Home can use 1 core).

[Crazydad]

You Computer boffins at it again,  

dont understand what i am reading half the time :-/ :-/ :-/

[cem_devecioglu]

Forgot to add..

If games are the 1 st usage for PC there are 3D cards with built- in overclocking capabilities...

This will be better than overclocking the mobo.

Personally I dont recommend overclocking even the mobo have this property and seems work normal  cause on the long term RAMS and other circuitry become unstable..And they tend to crash at the worst possible moment..

[TheBoy]

I'll sell teh AGP card or see if it fits my work PC

I seem to recall that it is a old low/midrange card, so don't expect much for it....   ....I've been binning ATI 9600s as I can't give them away...

[cem_devecioglu]

OK had a look at Dell as an example - soon got the price well over £1200.

So I thought time to build.

I will reuse the sound card and the monitor, and the newish IDE DVD burner.

I don't like the thought of giving up on my graphics card, a mid range AGP card

Bit naughty but I am reusing my XP Pro licence.

So I will reuse a Pioneer 111 burner, and a SOundblaster Audigy 2 platinum.

So what are quad core chips like?
Who makes good MBs?
Couple of 500GB SATA drives which are quietish?
Is my case reusable, but with say a new PSU?

Just getting a bit irked that 300 supermarket specials are nearly as powerfull as my P4 2.4.

And also getting worried about reliability

Hi,
as an experience all midrange price Asus, Gigabyte, Intel and Abit boards are adequate and enough reliable for home purposes unless  overclocked...(around 120 to 170 US $ price range is enough).Above 200 $ price range generally give better performance and reliability  but price quote is extremely high..

For a home PC  to be fast 7200 RPM Samsung 8 MB cache (quiet) or better 10 K RPM  Western Digitals (really noisy) are best depending on the noise preference...

For high disc capacities (500 GB) its better to build a SATA RAID system with 3 or 4 disks including striping and parity (more expensive) or RAID 1 system (mirroring with 1 extra disk) which will be safer for data loss and much more faster..Even  150 $ cost motherboards SUPPORT RAID 0, RAID 5, RAID 1+0 levels ..
(Dont forget to ask the RAID driver for XP and Vista)

W[ch304]th XP dont expect better performance from quad chips..For them its necessary 64 bit applications and operating systems wich is rare and expensive.(Amd's are better for home purposes anyway)

For memory units: minimum is Kingston life time warranty or better brand with lifetime warranty..

Good idea for PCI express and PCI slots totally be at least 4 or more..

Although depending on the board design a new PSU and Box will be necessary (Some boxes have ventilation on top which is superior for cooling)

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/

PS: Dont buy any motherboard with on board graphics this will slow down the memory units..

I no longer recommend ASUS boards due to woeful reliability.  Gigabyte tend to be OK, few early life failures.  Intel are rock solid, Abit also seem to be trouble free.

XP is OK multicore, as long as your apps are multithreaded... ...its better than w2k was.  Note, your dodgy XP pro licence may only be suitable for 2 cores...  (also note that XP Home can use 1 core).

As a general rule one PC system crashes (hardware) at the very first day or never... (generally speaking) that you can go back and change..

Here most of the time I buy the hardware for friends .The only condition before paying money I want the seller to keep the pc busy for 24 hours (working).Mostly the problems occur in that period.. (OEM)

Other than that standard summer time crashes can be seen when the temp reaches 40 C because of poor cooling..

Here we accept Asus as trustable  even on MSI (cheap branch of Asus)  boards I didnt see important problems..

Another important fact here in my city voltages are realy jumpy  ...200 to 245 volt depending on the RAIN

Disaster..For that is necessary UPS units and I use 2 in home (2 Kv)

[Martin_1962]

I'll check XP cores and also got to see how to install as XP2.

Some of the software I use is multiprocessor aware (some is shareware - virtualdub, some is bought - TMPGENXP).

I think new case is a good idea as I might water cool.