What do I need (again, but I know a little more now!)
Discussion
Following my post a few weeks ago, I've got a little further into working out what I want/need, but I'm still a little confused about a few things and would appreciate people helping me avoid messing things up!
I've decided to go for the d805 chip thing (as suggested by a couple of people), and after some research it seems that the asus P5WD2-e motherboard would be good for that (please feel free to jump in and correct me if anything's silly, rubbish, or overkill). As for RAM, I'm a little confused. I'm fairly sure I want DDR2 stuff, but beyond that there appears to be a number of options, of which I have no idea which I want?
With the PSU, apparently 500W would be good. I presume some PSUs are better than others? Are there any that are particularly good value?
With the hard drive, there seem to be a number of different types of connection things (SATA/IDE). Which one would be right?
As for graphics card, I don't really have any idea. I don't play a lot of games, but want it to be able to cope with the occassional driving game here and there. More importantly, I want it to be able to connect up to both the normal monitor, and my fancy new lcd tv (which I think has a computer input on it?). There seems to be graphics card with seemingly similar specs, but ranging in price from £50 to over £300, so I presume there must be some difference! Any suggestions?
Other than that, have I forgotten anything in terms of hardware to get from this list: cpu, motherboard, ram, case, psu, hard drive, cd drive, fan (do i need just the arctic cooling thingamyjig?), graphics card?
I think that's about it. I'd really appreciate any help. Been doing my best to trawl through computery forums, but despite my best efforts its all still quite confusing.
You're all wonderful! (just thought I'd add that it in in case it encourages you to reply!)
Sam
I've decided to go for the d805 chip thing (as suggested by a couple of people), and after some research it seems that the asus P5WD2-e motherboard would be good for that (please feel free to jump in and correct me if anything's silly, rubbish, or overkill). As for RAM, I'm a little confused. I'm fairly sure I want DDR2 stuff, but beyond that there appears to be a number of options, of which I have no idea which I want?
With the PSU, apparently 500W would be good. I presume some PSUs are better than others? Are there any that are particularly good value?
With the hard drive, there seem to be a number of different types of connection things (SATA/IDE). Which one would be right?
As for graphics card, I don't really have any idea. I don't play a lot of games, but want it to be able to cope with the occassional driving game here and there. More importantly, I want it to be able to connect up to both the normal monitor, and my fancy new lcd tv (which I think has a computer input on it?). There seems to be graphics card with seemingly similar specs, but ranging in price from £50 to over £300, so I presume there must be some difference! Any suggestions?
Other than that, have I forgotten anything in terms of hardware to get from this list: cpu, motherboard, ram, case, psu, hard drive, cd drive, fan (do i need just the arctic cooling thingamyjig?), graphics card?
I think that's about it. I'd really appreciate any help. Been doing my best to trawl through computery forums, but despite my best efforts its all still quite confusing.
You're all wonderful! (just thought I'd add that it in in case it encourages you to reply!)
Sam
samwilliams said:
Following my post a few weeks ago, I've got a little further into working out what I want/need, but I'm still a little confused about a few things and would appreciate people helping me avoid messing things up!
I've decided to go for the d805 chip thing (as suggested by a couple of people), and after some research it seems that the asus P5WD2-e motherboard would be good for that (please feel free to jump in and correct me if anything's silly, rubbish, or overkill). As for RAM, I'm a little confused. I'm fairly sure I want DDR2 stuff, but beyond that there appears to be a number of options, of which I have no idea which I want?
With the PSU, apparently 500W would be good. I presume some PSUs are better than others? Are there any that are particularly good value?
With the hard drive, there seem to be a number of different types of connection things (SATA/IDE). Which one would be right?
As for graphics card, I don't really have any idea. I don't play a lot of games, but want it to be able to cope with the occassional driving game here and there. More importantly, I want it to be able to connect up to both the normal monitor, and my fancy new lcd tv (which I think has a computer input on it?). There seems to be graphics card with seemingly similar specs, but ranging in price from £50 to over £300, so I presume there must be some difference! Any suggestions?
Other than that, have I forgotten anything in terms of hardware to get from this list: cpu, motherboard, ram, case, psu, hard drive, cd drive, fan (do i need just the arctic cooling thingamyjig?), graphics card?
I think that's about it. I'd really appreciate any help. Been doing my best to trawl through computery forums, but despite my best efforts its all still quite confusing.
You're all wonderful! (just thought I'd add that it in in case it encourages you to reply!)
Sam
I've decided to go for the d805 chip thing (as suggested by a couple of people), and after some research it seems that the asus P5WD2-e motherboard would be good for that (please feel free to jump in and correct me if anything's silly, rubbish, or overkill). As for RAM, I'm a little confused. I'm fairly sure I want DDR2 stuff, but beyond that there appears to be a number of options, of which I have no idea which I want?
With the PSU, apparently 500W would be good. I presume some PSUs are better than others? Are there any that are particularly good value?
With the hard drive, there seem to be a number of different types of connection things (SATA/IDE). Which one would be right?
As for graphics card, I don't really have any idea. I don't play a lot of games, but want it to be able to cope with the occassional driving game here and there. More importantly, I want it to be able to connect up to both the normal monitor, and my fancy new lcd tv (which I think has a computer input on it?). There seems to be graphics card with seemingly similar specs, but ranging in price from £50 to over £300, so I presume there must be some difference! Any suggestions?
Other than that, have I forgotten anything in terms of hardware to get from this list: cpu, motherboard, ram, case, psu, hard drive, cd drive, fan (do i need just the arctic cooling thingamyjig?), graphics card?
I think that's about it. I'd really appreciate any help. Been doing my best to trawl through computery forums, but despite my best efforts its all still quite confusing.
You're all wonderful! (just thought I'd add that it in in case it encourages you to reply!)
Sam
Tbh you seem like a nice guy/girl who knows a bit about computers but get the strong impression that it is going to be well worth the money to get someone to make it for you, with you giving them an idea of parts and them putting it together
Eg
My psu is about 500w, but might be more, uses a 120 mm fan to make it very quiet
hdd, default is ide, eg my board has master ide for the boot drive, slave ide for the dvd's (which aloso play cd) and 2 sata ports for the data drives...
graphics cards - £50 to over £300 agp to pci express and if you get the wrong motherboard it wont fit
£50 cheap 128 AGP no name card
£300 - top end AGP or PCI Express in the 256-512mb region for on board ram
By all means goto a online shop and get a box full of bits that might not work or get someone to do it
You forgot to mention the thermal paste needed to bond the CPU fan to the CPU
Local shop gave me a quote for doing some work, I could do it, but sooner get someone to do it who does it all day and knows how to tweak systems, pc world is not that shop
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