Computer envy. one of the eight deadly sins!

Okay

so crack i envy you now big time.

After talking about this for months i am going to upgrade. I didnt have the money yesterday and to be honest I still dont but what I do have is a lovely shiny credit card which isnt full and the ability to sell my body on the cheap at weekends and spare evenings. So with that in mind I have decided to follow your recomendations Relic and am currently looking at getting the following (As long as you agree!).

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/148685

Intel Core i7 2.8 GHz Processor see this for £211 but the link doesnt seem to work

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/161061

http://rebelgadgets.com/product/126/corsair-tr3x6g1600c9-xms3-6-gb-3-x-2-gb-pc3-12800-1600mhz-240-pin-ddr3-memory-kit.html

I wont get the graphics card just yet as I think mine will probably do an adequate job for a while.

On previous posts Relic you said that making a computer is failry straight forward as long as you remember to plug everything in? Is this true. Cause i will be asking you lots of inane questions as they occur to me whilst I am doing this. I hope you dont mind ( I always thought you were the good looking one out of you and your brother !! ).

Cheers man.

putting a comp together is straight forward enough. even i can do it lol. just make sure if your hdd is sata II to put it in the sata II sockets and not the sataI sockets like i did at first . apart from that it is quite easy to do

That will be a powerful rig Core i7 with 6GB triple channel Also good choice with a case, it really will make a difference. The case also comes with quite a few fans which is good as it means you won't have to buy any.

I have a feeling the new intel processors come with thermal paste already applied to them so you shouldn't have to get that either.

I think I remember you saying you like to have lots of USD ports so it would be a good idea to get one of these so you have an extra 4 ports

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Controller+Cards/USB+/+Firewire/USB2.0+4+Port+PCI+Controller+Card+?productId=7879

You might want to spend the extra £10 to get the i7 930 from aria, it is meant to be slightly better in all respects and I would say worth the extra £10

http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials/Other+products/Intel+Core+i7+930+2.80Ghz+(Bloomfield)+(Socket+LGA1366)+Processor+-+Retail+?productId=39630

Unfortunately the RAM you have chosen is out of stock however Aria have the OCZ gold kit for £6 more. The latency timings are slightly lower (better) so again probably a good choice

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Memory/DDR3/DDR3+1600+(PC3-12800)/OCZ+Gold+6GB+(3x2GB)+DDR3+PC3-12800C8+1600MHz+Triple+Channel+Kit+?productId=34299

The motherboard looks good, ASUS have always been very reliable for me. Aria are again offering it slightly cheaper at £140

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Motherboards/Intel+Socket+1366/Asus+P6T+SE+Intel+X58+(Socket+1366)+DDR3+PCI-Express+Motherboard+?productId=36987

Finally, to make things easier for you here is a link to the case on Aria, it is £2 more but it might make it easier buying everything from the same site

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Cases/Cooler+Master/CoolerMaster+HAF+RC-932+Gaming+Full+Tower+Case+-+Black+?productId=33726

Building a PC is fairly simple, if you like I can give you a step by step instruction list before you start, or if you have MSN I can make sure I am online to talk you through it. The motherboard will come with an instruction manual which should aid you in the order you have to plug things in.

Some of the links don't work because of the brackets so just copy the whole URL into your browser instead of clicking on it

Why don't you buy a present to your girl friend : it's not a deadly sin ?

Cheers Relic. All those selections look fine. One thing, the different case, Will i need to add fans to the purchase as well? If so whats best and how many?

Also I am going to get a new Hard drive as well probably a 1 terabyte one. Is there anything I should consider speed wise when buying one of these?

And Captain. My wife doesnt want a new computer so I will have to buy this for me........ah well if thats what needs to be done then I am prepared to do it

The case I linked is identical, it just isn't powered on so you cannot see the red lights In the product spec it says that it has 4 fans supplied so you won't need to buy any more

As for the new hard drive, how are you going to use it? Are you going to run 2 hard drives, one for storage and one for installing or are you planning on having the new 1TB hard drive for everything? The reason I ask is that currently all 1TB+ HDDs use a power saving system where the drives spin slowly until they are needed, where they will speed up to full speed. The reason for this is that the high capacity drives are built using a dual platter system; having 2 smaller disks inside one drive rather than 1 in order to get the capacity. The downside of having the 2 disks is a lot more noise, vibrations and power consumption, hence the power saving method.

If you look, all 1TB+ HDDs are all called eco or green or something similar and generally are advised for storage only rather than running your computer. It is possible to run the whole computer off the one drive however memory recall (load times, opening files etc) will be slower.

In my opinion you have 2 options; either keep your current drive to run the PC and buy the 1TB drive for storage, or, buy 2 500GB drives and run them in RAID 0 - this makes the drives act as one drive, giving you 1TB of storage and 150% read/write speeds of a standard 500GB drive. The downside of RAID 0 is that if one of your drives fails then you lose all of your data as half of the data is stored on each drive.

1TB HDD
http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Hard+Drives/Serial+ATA/Western+Digital+Caviar+Green+1TB+SATA-II+64MB+Cache+(WD10EARS)+?productId=40315

500GB HDD
http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Hard+Drives/Serial+ATA/Western+Digital+500GB+3.5%22+SATA+II+Hard+Drive+?productId=27026

Hope this helps

"The case I linked is identical"

Oh right sorry didnt realise.

Well I was planning to partition the hard drive and have the data on one side and the running stuff on the other side. But I can use the 1 terrabyte HD for Data and my current 150gb HD for the running files. But this HD is over 4 years old. I know reformatting it will improve it but is there better stuff out there.

As to the raid system. I dont like the idea of losing all the data. this had happened to many times in the past when I have had to reformat to improve the performance. Would l like to try and avoid this in the future and keep the running files seperate.

To be honest, hard drives haven't improved a great deal over the past few years, the only real difference is a slightly larger cache but you won't notice a huge difference. I would suggest using your 150GB for installs and 1TB for data just so you have the extra speed.

The way I see RAID 0 is that if you have all your data on one hard drive, you lose all your data so really it makes no difference. I suppose people will argue that having 2 drives will double the possibility of failure but being a power freak I loves my speed I am not suggesting you go for RAID, plenty of people dislike it and using a standard setup is fine.

It is entirely up to you whether you stick it all onto one hard drive or use both of them, one thing you might want to check first is that your PSU has 2 SATA power cables, a lot of the older ones only had 1 when SATA was only just being introduced so that could in fact make up your mind for you

Well. It's done. All ordered going to be delivered at the end of this week. Exciting! Want it now

Yay! sounds awesome. Let me know if you need any help building it

Aw, after reading all this, even I feel excited!! I am left in the dark ages of the PC world...but my trusty diesel generator never lets me down!

man this is going to be one sweet rig kev.

Quote :

man this is going to be one sweet rig kev.

Yeah it is! It's more powerful than mine other than the graphics card so it should blitz most things Then when you get bored of the older GFX card you can buy that too

Hey Kev, just something to check before you put your PC together; check that the heatsink (the big metal block with fan on it) that comes with the processor has some thermal paste on it - it will look like a silvery paste applied to the square contact on the bottom of the PSU. If there isn't any thermal paste DO NOT PUT THE HEATSINK ON THE PROCESSOR.

Basically thermal paste is a heat conductor that ensures a complete seal between the heatsink and the processor in order to maximise heat loss. If there is no thermal paste your processor will overheat due to inefficient heat loss and could be damaged.

As I said before, I think the new processors have thermal paste already applied but it is something you must check.

Also, when plugging your RAM in use alternate positioning ie there are 6 RAM slots, your configuration should be

x- x- x-

where x is a RAM module and - is empty

Let me know when the things arrive and ask me any questions then

Thermal Paste and Ram. Understood. thanks.

"Let me know when the things arrive and ask me any questions then"

Cool. Will do.


"man this is going to be one sweet rig"

I hope so. My computer has been out of breath trying to keep up for over a year and a half. Will be refreshing to use a machine which can blitz most current games. Cant wait.

"older GFX card you can buy that too "
I tell you what. If this rig turns out to be as fantastic as you predict I will probably upgrade the graphics card in the autumn and really blow my eyes out. You lot may even find I become a little bit more dangerous on the battlefield.........my god it will certainly be very embarassing if there is no improvement in my performance.....gutted!

Quote :

Will be refreshing to use a machine which can blitz most current games.

Correction: all current games. The computer is more powerful than mine except for the GFX card, which is still a pretty powerful card! I doubt you'll be having any issues for a while to come! That is if it is all built correctly

Hey Relic,

So all I am currrently surounded by numerous bits of computer hardware. The tower is twice the size of my current computer- the fans on the tower are massive about the same size as some wind farms i have seen. Tomorrow afternoon I am going to be putting it all together so any points you have about constructing it would be appreciated. My old hard drive (150gb) i will be using is currently drivered up for my old comp. What should I do about that. Should I plug it all in with the windows 7 cd and then allow that to establish everything and then reformat. or should I reformat the harddrive before I remove it from the old computer?

you said about msn. I wont be able to use that until i have the new comp working. Is there any way i can contact you? i have a mobile which can access the net but i cant use msn on it. What do you suggest?

this was the one of the water cooling kits i was talking about

http://specialtech.co.uk/spshop/customer/product.php?productid=7023&cat=1262&page=1

I am at a Microsoft developers conference until 5pm today (ooh get me) but if you like you can phone me after that, my number is 07540 148574.

As for the hard drive, no reformat should be necessary; Windows 7 is brilliant for drivers (they introduced a new system with Vista) so all you will have to do is plug it in and turn it on, Windows will then detect the new hardware and download the required drivers. No work needed on your part

I will check my emails throughout the day so if you get impatient then by all means start having a go at building and post up here if you have a problem, else you can wait for me to get home and call

You can take a look at this guide http://www.buildyourown.org.uk/pc-building/ for some help, I don't know if it is any good, I just googled it When I built my first PC I followed the motherboard manual more than anything, it tells you where you need to plug each piece

Cheers, I have had a look at the manual this morningand it seems quite clear. So when I get back from work this afternoon. I will get started. If I get any issues I will post here. Enjoy your conference

ok kev i thought i would give you the general idea i usually put things in

this is not 100% it does depend on your set up so can change a bit so before you put anything in have a wee look at everything and make a plan saves you heaving to rip stuff out to other things in.

1. the psu.
2. the drives (cd hd etc) don't put cables in
3. mobo.
4. cpu + heat sink.
5. ram
6. grx card any other cards.
7. fans
8. connect all your cables.

now i don't know if you bought any extra fans for your case if you did don't just slap them on plan if you want the pulling air out or blowing air in remember hot air rises and you basically want cool air blowing through the pc and pulled out at the top and back.

also try your best to keep cables tidy you don't want a big bunch stuck in the middle as this will ruin this will trap you air and ruin the air flow. if you have anything like cable ties that will help.

as i said but have a look first and run it through in your head an example that break this rule on my case i have a fan and a couple cables i need to put in before my heatsink or they just wont go in other wise

i would agree generally with cracks suggestions however i personally find it easier to attach the proceesor and heatsink and often ram to the motherboard before putting the motherboard into the case. When you put the motherboard in ensure you put the riser screws in first (the strange broze screws with a hole in the top. If you screw the mobo onto the case you can cause a short circuit however this rises the mobo of the case and i always worry that i'll snap it when attaching the heatsink

the fans should hopefully be attached to the case already with the best setup but if they aren't you want to create as much flow over the ore omponents ie input for the front and side fans, exhaust for the back and top.

also i generally start to atach cables before all the hardware is in because some of the case cables; power, front usb etc are in hard to get to places, the last thing i out in is gfx card because it is big and the cables are easy to put in.

just my method and neither mine nor cracks is better i should be home around 530 so you can call if you need detailed help

I would agree with r3lic on this one too. when i build systems i usually put the cpu, heatskin/fan and memory in before mounting the motherboard into the case. Sometimes it can be a pain in the backside to get a heatsink/fan on when its alreay insitue. Anyway thats some system your building mate. I'm jealous too lol

@r3lic wish i was as qualified as you and got invited to microsoft conferences lol. What's your quali's anyway? i'm mcdst.

The system is built and everything is plugged in. Everything fitted with the greatest of care and delicacy. Upon powering up it goes through a number of power up tests and then stays on. Unfortuneatly the monitor does not come on. I have checked the video card. Checked the monitor conections and can't find a solution. I have a DVD rewriter and DVD player and only one of these has a led which is on. They both won't open.Hdd lead conected fine and power leads all in.
So the question is what do you suggest I do next. Not finding much help on asus's website. At a bit of a loss. Might give up and go to bed. Attack it tommorrow with a clear head.