Hi boys and girls,

I'm building my PC - finally - after 6 years with a Nforce2/XP2500+/Radeon 9800 combo which is starting to creak a bit to be honest.

I'm self-building and have already bought the mobo which is an Asrock P43Twins1600

These are the other bits I'm considering, I guess this machine will be a 'best bang for buck' system.

Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600
Sapphire ATi Radeon HD 4850512MB GDDR3
Geil Black Dragon DDR2 4.0GB P ... x 1GB) 800MHz (4-4-4-12)
Maxtor 500GB Diamondmax2 SATA2Hard Disk Drive 7200rpm 32MB
NEC Optiarc AD-7200S-0B SATABl ... Multiwriter DVD RW RAM DL
Creative Soundblaster X-Fi Series Xtreme Audio OEM


That's about it really - I have a case and power supply - but I'll eventually get this

What I'm asking is - are there any glaring errors there? Should I consider other parts of a comparable price?

Thanks in advance for any helpful comments made!

Joe

I'm not sure about the Asrock. Also, the Xtreme Audio is basically a rebadged Audigy.

http://jimmyauw.com/2007/01/16/x-fi-extreme-audio-audigy-se/

Quote from hrtburnout :

I'm not sure about the Asrock. Also, the Xtreme Audio is basically a rebadged Audigy.

http://jimmyauw.com/2007/01/16/x-fi-extreme-audio-audigy-se/

Thanks for the link hrtburnout, that's very crafty of Creative. I'm still minded to buy either this card or the Audigy SE though as I'd rather use something other than the onboard sound because of the (albeit small) CPU overhead.

Would you recommend another card other than the two I've mentioned?

What PSU do you have atm? it probably wont be able to run that build.

Mobo sucks.

CPU / GPU is ok, Maxtor=Ewww. Get a Seagate, or look for a Samsung F1 1TB drive - AMAZINGLY fast, and can be had for £85 from Scan.

Sound card = Either get an XtremeMusic (or the "XtremeGamer") or get a cheap-o Audigy - the audio is a bit naff.

Quote from Jakg :

What PSU do you have atm? it probably wont be able to run that build.

Mobo sucks.

CPU / GPU is ok, Maxtor=Ewww. Get a Seagate, or look for a Samsung F1 1TB drive - AMAZINGLY fast, and can be had for £85 from Scan.

Sound card = Either get an XtremeMusic (or the "XtremeGamer") or get a cheap-o Audigy - the audio is a bit naff.

Antec TrueBlue? Hope it can. It's not that bad is it? Got good reviews when I bought it.

I bought the Asrock from the strength of reviews in MicroMart.

Will have a look at the Seagate thanks! Are Maxtors unreliable or something? Re: the Samsung not bothered about massive space as I only play driving games Everything else I need to store on it is very small anyway.

Would appreciate your input on the motherboard as I can always send it back, obviously need a specific thing about it rather than to say it sucks as Micromart have said it rocks and why it rocks and I'd like to get both sides of the story if you know why it doesn't?

How many watts is the PSU?

What will you be doing on your PC? Overclocking? RAID?

Maxtor are notoriously unreliable, and while they should now be made to Seagate standard for a few extra £ I really wouldn't trust it. I meantioned the Samsung because 500GB for £50 would get you either a 7200.11 drive, or for an extra £35 you could get double the space and a lot more speed.

Mobo - i'd get a Gigabyte P31-DS3L, or look on the Scan "Today Only" page - atm theres nothing for around £50 thats good, but they have a DFi P35-T2RS for £70 and a P5Q Pro for £82 which is just omgwtfbbq cheap.

Quote from Jakg :

How many watts is the PSU?

What will you be doing on your PC? Overclocking? RAID?

Maxtor are notoriously unreliable, and while they should now be made to Seagate standard for a few extra £ I really wouldn't trust it. I meantioned the Samsung because 500GB for £50 would get you either a 7200.11 drive, or for an extra £35 you could get double the space and a lot more speed.

Mobo - i'd get a Gigabyte P31-DS3L, or look on the Scan "Today Only" page - atm theres nothing for around £50 thats good, but they have a DFi P35-T2RS for £70 and a P5Q Pro for £82 which is just omgwtfbbq cheap.

480W.

Overclocking? Yes, probably at some point, although not to start off with.

This is just a gaming PC that will run the usual gamut of PC racing games.

RAID definitely not.

I'll check out the Samsung and Seagate drives, thanks.

That mobo will suck for OC'ing. I'd look for a Gigabyte P31-DS3L or if you have more cash the P35-DS3 (/R if you can find one cheap).

If you want more hard-core the DFi will be good but very very hard to OC as a newbie.

Quote from Joe_Keaveney :

480W.

Overclocking? Yes, probably at some point, although not to start off with.

This is just a gaming PC that will run the usual gamut of PC racing games.

RAID definitely not.

I'll check out the Samsung and Seagate drives, thanks.

The PSU is gonna be ok, Im running a similar system (C2D@3,5ghz, HD4850, 7 hdds) with a 4-5 years old 460W Enermax without any problem..