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Author Topic: First Build!  (Read 1163 times)

Offline Baggy

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First Build!
« on: May 04, 2007, 09:04:30 AM »
Hi all,

This will be my first build - Gulp! Any thoughts on the components before I order em? The case comes with that PSU, will it cope? I hope to try my hand at overclocking. Will be running XP Pro SP2


CPU: Intel Conroe E6320 2x1.86GHz 1066FSB LGA775 4MB cache
MB: Gigabyte  GA965PDS3
RAM: 2GB GeIL PC2-6400C4 Dual Channel Kit
HDs: 2 x Samsung Spinpoint HD080HJ 80GB - RAID 0
Graphics: Sapphire Radeon X1950 Pro 256MB
DVD/RW: LITE-ON DH-18A1P-18C
Case: Antec Sonata II with Antec 450W PSU

Thanks for any input.
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Offline humble

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« Reply #1 on: May 04, 2007, 09:33:32 AM »
I just bought a case yesterday and was "browsing"...the sonata II PS should be fine. either the 2 or 3 has the 430W high efficiency with the 3 x 12V (18v?)...

Anyway you'll be fine with a single VC system. Seemed like a pretty nice case. I have a 550W PS so I got an Ultra (actually turned out to be best case I've ever bought)....both of my GB boards were easy overclockers. To be honest you wont really need to OC that system for AH....
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Offline Baggy

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« Reply #2 on: May 04, 2007, 11:05:44 AM »
Hi Humble!

I was pretty sure the PSU would be ok, but wanted to check. As for overclocking, I'm interested in giving it a go just to see if I can actually figure it all out! :)

Thanks for the input mate!
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Offline Sting138

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« Reply #3 on: May 04, 2007, 11:19:02 AM »
Larger Hdd's will be a factor in my next build. I currently have 2 seagate barracuda sata 150 drives in a raid 0 and I also have a WD 200gb for storing files etc. I am limited on what programs I can run on the 2 drives due to ammount of storage available. I would highly recommend getting at least 200gb hdd's as they wont be that much more and then having another drive or two just for storage.

For overclocking you may want to check out http://www.overclockers.com There is some great reading and info at this site!
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Offline Baggy

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« Reply #4 on: May 04, 2007, 12:32:25 PM »
Thanks for the advice Sting, I'll up the HD sizes and will have a good browse through the OC website.
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Offline Bruv119

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First Build!
« Reply #5 on: May 04, 2007, 01:22:27 PM »
I've built 2 systems from scratch.  The second i did in Feb.

Those specs look easily enough capable of running AH and shouldnt cost you a packet.  I went overkill on my new machine just so that it lasts that little bit longer and upgradibility wise.


Just be very careful with that processor chip (always the best bit of building a machine).  My E6600 was easy as pie.  Make sure you line it up the right way if you havent done this before the chip has an arrow in one corner and your board should also indicate which way it goes in.

Power wise i had an antec in my 1st system and was more than happy with it.  Went with an enermax 620W for my new machine.

See your from Kent baggy you should look my squad up in game (Brits)

Bruv
~S~
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Offline Baggy

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« Reply #6 on: May 04, 2007, 01:43:35 PM »
Hi Bruv,

Yeah, as its my first build I want to be ultra careful not to knacker anything.

I'm on a fairly limited budget but shopping around I can get the components for around £530, not too shabby! OcUK are doing the RAM for £67 on a special at the moment.

I'll look you blokes up when I'm on.

Play up Pompey!


Laters mate
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Offline Bruv119

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« Reply #7 on: May 04, 2007, 02:29:52 PM »
Quote
Originally posted by Baggy


Play up Pompey!

 


If your looking for an invite that  ^^^^ would pretty much guarantee one!

:lol

Blue army!

Bruv
~S~
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Offline humble

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« Reply #8 on: May 04, 2007, 08:55:43 PM »
most gaming rigs have smaller Hd's with high RPM's and a large cache

Dont worry about buying "bigger"...look for a 10,000rpm drive with an 8mg cache. You can always add a bigger drive for other stuff. I have a 300G drive for "normal" stuff (Vista) an 80 gig drive for gaming(XP pro) and an older 40G baracuda for linux (Ubantu)...

Whats important is take your time, watch for static, dont force anything. I recommend installing highjack this as soon as you have your "default" configuration. Save that config and you'll never have a problem figuring out what went south if/when you run into a problem...
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Offline Roscoroo

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« Reply #9 on: May 04, 2007, 09:04:58 PM »
Humble's sort of hit the nail on the head for hard drives .

its better to use a smaller 7500- 10k rpm  8mb +  cache drive for primary (40- 80 gb partition ) drive with your OS and installed programs  . use a second HD for storage .

this is a huge advantage when having to reformat and help keeps your primary drive/partition running at its best for a long time . along with being cheaper on the wallet in the long run .
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Offline Baggy

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« Reply #10 on: May 05, 2007, 03:06:10 PM »
Thanks again for the advice Humble/Roscoroo
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Offline Fulmar

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« Reply #11 on: May 05, 2007, 04:40:42 PM »
As for cache sizes on Hard drives, you'll see no difference between 8mb and 16mb.

Here's a good HD performance comparison.

http://www23.tomshardware.com/storage.html
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Offline Fulmar

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« Reply #12 on: May 05, 2007, 05:08:22 PM »
Also be aware that running RAID 0 will double your risk of hard drive failure.  Not because its more taxing on the drive, but you'll have two hard drives 'acting' as one and if one crashes, you'll lose the data on the 'combined' drive.

However, you'll get a good performance increase, not FPS wise in games, but boot time and load times and large file transfers etc.  One drive in non-raid you'll get about an average of 60mb/sec transfer rates, and in raid 0 you'll see around 100-105.
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Offline eagl

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« Reply #13 on: May 05, 2007, 11:10:30 PM »
I would definately skip the raid 0.  The newer/larger drives are in some cases even faster than using 2 smaller (older) drives in raid0 because the new drives are simply better and faster all by themselves.  I have a 2 year old 7200 rpm laptop hard drive and recently bought a larger but "slower" 5400 rpm laptop drive as a secondary drive, and to my suprise the newer, larger, but "slower" 5400 rpm drive actually performs about 20% faster than the older 7200 rpm drive.

I'd say get a nice 500 gig drive since they seem to have the best bang/buck right now.  Newegg has the samsung spinpoint t 500 gig drive for $119 right now...  That's what I'd get.

I had a RAID 0 setup a long time ago and yea it was really fast, but after a scare when one of the two drives started to fail, I went back to single larger drives.  The new drives are fast enough that you probably won't notice the speed difference very often unless you're a benchmark addict.
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Offline Sundowner

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« Reply #14 on: May 06, 2007, 01:06:37 AM »
Great thread, guys!

Informative!

Regards,
Sun
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