New Computer

rickyp

rickyp

International Coach
Joined
Mar 15, 2005
Location
Melbourne, Australia
Online Cricket Games Owned
Hey guys,

Feel free to add any hardware advice/tips, I am a complete newbie when it comes to this, but am currently designing a high end computer designed for all round usage (TV recording to gaming).

Anyway, this is what I am currently looking at getting. All prices are in AU$, and I am looking to get this either late 07 or early 08, so hopefully prices will have dropped appropriately by then.

CPU: Intel CORE 2 DUO E6550/ 2.33GHz/ 4MB CACHE/ 1333FSB/ LGA775 ($210)
Motherboard: Asus P5K-VM motherboard ($180)
Desktop Drive: Seagate Barracuda 500Gb 7200RPM 16Mb SATA 2 ($180)
Optical Drive: Lite-On SUPER ALLWRITE, DVD+-20X8X8/ 8X4, DVDRAM12X, CD48X32X48 ($50)
Memory: 2X Kingston DDR2 2GB (2x1GB) 667Mhz Non-ECC CL5 DIMM Value Ram (2X $120)
Graphics Card: ASUS EN8800GTS-HTDP-320 GF8800GTS, 320MB, DDR3, PCIEx16, HDTV, 2xDVI-I, HDCP ($410)
TV Tuner: DNTV Live! Hybrid LP S2 ($110)
Case: ATX Midi Case HR908 (500W) ($70)
Keyboard + mouse: Standard Microsoft USB Set ($20)
Operating System: XP SP2 or Vista Home Premium/Ultimate

Current Total Price: 1470 (excluding a screen)


Once again, the idea of this thread is so I can refine this, so give all advice possible please.

Thanks in advance
rickyp
 
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rickyp said:
TV Tuner: Leadtek WinFast DTV2000H PCI - Hybrid, HDTV, FM ($100)
Click to expand...
I'm a very happy customer of DigitalNow's products, the card I have is now discontinued but the equivalent one is the 'DNTV Live! Hybrid LP S2', which is $110 (the software you get with it is some of best stuff I have worked with, well worth the extra price). Take a look at http://digitalnow.com.au/dvbtcards.html for some more details.


CPU: Intel CORE 2 DUO E6550/ 2.33GHz/ 4MB CACHE/ 1333FSB/ LGA775 ($250)
Motherboard: Asus P5K motherboard ($180)
Desktop Drive: Seagate Barracuda 500Gb 7200RPM 16Mb SATA 2 ($180)
Optical Drive: Lite-On SUPER ALLWRITE, DVD+-20X8X8/ 8X4, DVDRAM12X, CD48X32X48 ($50)
Memory: 2X Corsair DDR2 2GB PC-5300 Value Select Ram (VS2GB667D2) (2X $150)
Graphics Card: ASUS EN8800GTS-HTDP-320 GF8800GTS, 320MB, DDR3, PCIEx16, HDTV, 2xDVI-I, HDCP ($430)
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As for the rest of it, I can't speak from personal experience but I have heard bad things about Corsair RAM, but Seagate is a great HD brand (I have one Segate and it is much quieter than my Western Digital one, but both work great). Remember to spend a bit of money on cooling and a good power supply (a good case is good too).

Are you building it yourself? What OS are you thinking of getting?
 
I will either stick with my current XP Pro, or move to vista home premium or ultimate, not sure.

I will probably end up building it myself, to be honest there isn't that much too it by the looks of things, and I have taken apart and put back together our current home computer so many times I can't see it being a huge problem.

Which RAM do you recommend? this just seemed to be the most available so figured it should perform decently.

With the cooling/power/case, if you buy a good case, does the power come inclusive? what about the fan? is that more in the case as a package?
 
rickyp said:
Which RAM do you recommend? this just seemed to be the most available so figured it should perform decently.

With the cooling/power/case, if you buy a good case, does the power come inclusive? what about the fan? is that more in the case as a package?
Click to expand...
I don't even know what brand mine is, so I can't help you there.

My computer came with the power supply in the case, but others might not. My fan came with the processor, but my machine is pretty pathetic so it is fine with just that fan, better machines might need more than that.
 
well im fairly sure both my cpu and graphics card come with an inbuilt fan, so that probably wont be an issue, either way fans can come very cheap so shouldn't be an issue regardless
 
Your CPU will come with a Heatsink Fan, it wont last too long without one. The question is whether you want to replace the stock HSF and opt for a better cooling solution. Same is the case with the graphics card.
 
would a larger fan working as well as those two do the trick? I think once I am replacing fans that exceeds my hardware fixing skills. The noise of a larger fan isn't an issue, I couldn't care less.
 
Yeah it'll do the job. Generally people opt for 3rd party cooling when they are looking to overclock their hardware.
 
I can't see myself over clocking the cpu, doesn't seem like I will need it either way, not to mention the risks involved when I am not a strong user of computers
 
ok matt, a few questions for you RE: TV cards.

With your DigitalNow card, do you use the software included? or do you use program such as windows media centre, or the open source media portal?

With EPG, do you get the guides? I have no idea how it all works, but I was under the impression that you had to pay a fair bit of money to have the tv guides, however the DigitalNow site seems to suggest that you can get them for free.
 
rickyp said:
ok matt, a few questions for you RE: TV cards.

With your DigitalNow card, do you use the software included? or do you use program such as windows media centre, or the open source media portal?

With EPG, do you get the guides? I have no idea how it all works, but I was under the impression that you had to pay a fair bit of money to have the tv guides, however the DigitalNow site seems to suggest that you can get them for free.
Click to expand...
I use the included software, it is very good in my opinion. I have tried Media Centre and a few other programs but they just tried to do too much.

As for EPGs, the various TV stations broadcast an EPG over the air that everyone gets, it only shows 2 programs at a time (known as Now & Next) on Seven, Nine, Ten and SBS, but ABC gives a few days of EPG information (which is probably what the site is talking about). However there is the option to download an EPG off the Internet that has the full week of programs and you can browse through it and select things you want to to record. Where paying comes in is that there are companies that sell this information (Nine sued one of them, IceTV), but I found a site that offers a free one and it works well (I can send you a link that you can just put in to the program).

Should you choose a card from another company you should still be able to use this sort of data.

(Just a quick note for others: the over the air guide lengths are different for other cities and regional areas)
 
I can tell you a bit more later on Marko when I will also be building up a new one around Dec-Jan. Also around the same time, the new breed of Nvidia cards (9000 series) will be hitting the market so hold on to your pocket-money.
 
I'm trying not to upgrade what I am getting atm, as the more that comes out, the cheaper what I am going with now will become. Mainly with the 8800gts, I can't see it being obsolete for what I will be doing for a fairly long time, so if it comes down 100 or so that would be great.

I thought I should also add, I'm in a great mood because Intel slashed $50 off the price of the CPU i was looking at, the P5K-VM motherboard also came down $20, the 8800gts came down $30 and the new Kingston RAM I am looking at is down $50 aswell. Total saving of $150 is happiness all round
 
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ok well i've updated the first post with the new hardware. Let me know if you have any suggestions for RAM, I'm a little puzzled with it atm
 
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