My First Build - £1000 Core2 System

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sitalchauhan

Limp Gawd
Joined
May 30, 2006
Messages
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I am planning to order all of the following components, which all total to just under £1000 as I can get a discount. I have already got a monitor, mouse, keyboard, etc, so it is basically just the base unit.
I am planning to build a system that is virtually silent, stunning to look at, while yet very powerful.
As my budget is £1000, if you have any recommendations, please consider that to upgrade any component to a more expensive, I must downgrade/remove another.

Many thanks for any opinions and recommendations :D


Thermaltake Tsunami Dream Black
Asus P5W DH Deluxe WiFi
Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 Retail
Zalman CNPS9500-LED
OCZ GameXStream 700w
Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2-6400C5 TwinX (2x1GB)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB SATA-II
HIS ATI Radeon X1900 XT ICEQ3 512MB
NEC ND4571 DVD±RW LabelFlash (Black)
Pioneer DVR-111BK DVD±RW (Black)
3.5" Floppy Drive Black
Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound
ArctiClean 60ml Kit
2x Scythe S-FLEX 1200RPM Ultra Quiet 120mm Fan
AcoustiFan C-Series Ultra Quiet 92mm Fan
Akasa Rounded Floppy UV DAY-GLO Cable (0.45m) Blue
Akasa Serial ATA 45cm DAYGLO Blue Data Cable
Akasa Rounded Ultra ATA133/100/66 IDE UV DAY-GLO Cable (0.45m) - Blue
Akasa Dual Blue Cold Cathodes
Akasa Dual UV Cold Cathodes
 
9500 -> Scythe Ninja Plus
GameXStream -> Seasonic S12-500 or Corsair CMPSU-520HX (AKA HX-520W)
7200.10 -> WD 3200KS or Samsung HD300LD/HD400LJ

You also don't need DDR2-800 memory unless you plan to OC the E6300 past 2.8GHz.

Is there something about the P5W DH Deluxe that you just have to have?
 
Thanks for the prompt response.

I have done quite a bit of research into both the 9500 and ninja, and although the ninja does perform marginally better than the zalman, I prefer the looks of the 9500 and would rather have that than the slight better cooling...

Unfortunately, as I am in the UK, I have limited PSU choice. The Corsair PSU is currently not available in the retailer I am purchasing from. I have been in much confusion between the GameXStream or the S12. I will be contacting the retailer just before my purchase to see if they have got any of the newer revision S12's that are now sleeved and have more connections. However, if they have not got the new revisions yet, I would prefer the sleeved cables of the GameXStream.

I opted for the Seagate over the WD and samsung purely because of personal experience and they have a good reputation of reliability and quietness and have a 5year warranty, as opposed to the 3 year warranty of the other 2 hard drives. Is there actually any performance differences between these hard drives?

I have chosen DDR-800 memory because I will certaintly upgrade the pocessor again in the near future once the prices of C2D processors have dropped slightly, so I think it would be easier for me to get good ram now so I dont have to replace it again.

I know that the P5W is overpriced, but I believe that I would actually find almost all of the extra features useful (wifi, remote, etc). Also, I would like a crossfire board so that I have to option in the future should I ever decide to get another gfx card. There is not much choice at the moment, and I might even end up replacing it with another in the future, but for the moment I think it is the best available for me.

Many thanks again,
Sital
 
<<Is there actually any performance differences between these hard drives?>>

As a desktop user, I doubt you would notice any difference in speed. However, the 7200.10 drives are louder than the competition (or at the very least, vary wildly in noise output). The WD KS series and most (all?) of Samsung's drives are pretty quiet. If you use a hard drive enclosure like the Scythe Quiet Drive, the noise produced by those should all but disappear, depending on ambient noise.

Ah, looks like I found something useful:

http://forums.storagereview.net/index.php?showtopic=22660&pid=231763&st=125&#

If you can inspect the drives before you purchase, pick one up that looks like the first pic ("Silent motor"). If not, I suggest going with a KS or Samsung.
 
Thanks for that, very useful information!
Unfortunately, I cannot inspect the drive before purchase, so I will not know which motor I will get until it arrives.
The samsung drive is more expensive and only has a 8mb cache as opposed to the 16mb cache of the WD and seagate, so I dont think I will get that.

However, the WD is only £1 more than the seagate and after some research and benchamrks, it is quieter than the seagate and apparently has excellent customer services.

I have decided to get the "WD Caviar SE16 320GB 3200KS" now instead :D

Any other suggestions?
 
I hate when people use cache as a deciding factor... It's entirely possible that a drive with 8MB of cache could destroy a 16MB drive speed-wise.
 
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