Help with PC components needed

[japan1]

Hi, i'm not sure where this should be posted so move it if its in the wrong place. I am thinking of buying PC components from novatech to build my own PC but i don't know whether they are compatible, here are the parts i'm looking at:

Asus M2N4-SLI AM2 DDR2 PCI-E DDR2 SATA II Raid GB LAN
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/.%5C ... ASU-M2N4S+ (http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/.%5Cspecpage.html?ASU-M2N4S+)

Retail Boxed AMD X2 Dual Core AM2 Athlon 64 4200 2.2GHz 2x512 Socket AM2
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/.%5C ... AMD-X2M242 (http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/.%5Cspecpage.html?AMD-X2M242)

Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro, AM2, All Sempron, Athlon 64 to 5000+, to FX -59, Opteron
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/.%5C ... AC-FREEZ64 (http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/.%5Cspecpage.html?AC-FREEZ64)

Jeantech Titan Midi ATX case, Front USB/Audio/Mic, **NO PSU**
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/.%5C ... JEA-TITAN+ (http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/.%5Cspecpage.html?JEA-TITAN+)

550W ATX Power Supply for AMD, P3 and P4 mainboards 24Pin
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/.%5C ... NOV-PSU550 (http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/.%5Cspecpage.html?NOV-PSU550)

Samsung Lightscribe SATA 18xDVD+/-R/RW/RAM Black OEM With Nero
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/.%5C ... SAM-S183LB (http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/.%5Cspecpage.html?SAM-S183LB)

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 500GB SATA II 7200rpm 16Mb Cache 11ms 300Mb/s
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/.%5C ... SG-79S506+ (http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/.%5Cspecpage.html?SG-79S506+)

800MHz 240Pin 1024MB PC6400 DDR2 RAM DIMM 1.8V (2 of those!!)
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/.%5C ... M-80%2F1GB (http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/.%5Cspecpage.html?RAM-80%2F1GB)

I'm not sure about graphics, maybe 2x 8400gs in sli?

Can someone please respond as it would be a great help and i would like to order as soon as possible, thanks.

[Taxation]

Smaller hard drive, better power supply and a single 8600gt will do the buisness

[djgandy]

A more powerful single graphics card is better than 2 weaker power ones.

Power supplys

My system runs on a 350 hiper. I'd put my money on it being a lot more powerful than the 550W generic.

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/spec ... ?HYP-4S350 (http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?HYP-4S350)

If you want that little extra room though.
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/spec ... ?HYP-4S435 (http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?HYP-4S435)

A good power supply is well worth the extra money. Cheap ones blow up and will probably take your mobo with it.


DVD Writer

IIRC I bought 2 samsung lightscribe writers. One was intermittent and didnt work properly. Then it suddenly decided to work and the other one broke! (this is on day of installation) It wouldn't even install the software that came bundled with it.
I think they both ended up going back. (runs upstairs to check)

Yeah they did. Swapped them for pioneers. Just checked my novatech reciepts too.

The one that worked would write disks then not be able to read them. Really fussy on media. Really intermittent too.

The pioneers are here. Pioneer doesn't do SATA though.
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/prod ... p1s0n0m224 (http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/products/a946x1y0z1p1s0n0m224)


I'd go for the Corsair memory kit too.
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/spec ... CSR-X642G5 (http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?CSR-X642G5)
£10 more is well worth it.


8600 GT sounds good to me too. Depends how much of a hardcore gamer you are.

[japan1]

So a better PSU is definately recommended, for graphics cards i'm thinking which would be better:

2x 8500GT 256mb
or
1x 8600gt 512mb
or
2x256mb 8600gt

[Taxation]

depends on what resolution you game on also

2*256mb 8600gts, £40 more and you can get a 8800gts
i would go with a single 8600gt 256mb and then you can get better stuff for the rest of your comp, eg.that power supply

[djgandy]

So a better PSU is definately recommended, for graphics cards i'm thinking which would be better:

2x 8500GT 256mb
or
1x 8600gt 512mb
or
2x256mb 8600gt

Don't SLI. Why would nvidia release a card which when doubled up beats its more expensive model?

SLI is rubbish anyway, it doesn't scale well. It is only worth it on the high end when you are playing on super hi resolutions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeForce_8# ... al_summary (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeForce_8#Technical_summary)


The best buy of the low end for gaming is the 8600GT. Novatech do a relatively cheap 8600 GTS @ 105inc vat.
Personally though if I'm going to go that far I'd stick the other 70 with it and get the 8800 GTS 320.

The processing power jump from the 8600 to 8800 is very large.

[japan1]

well i really need the PC to play some new-ish games, call of duty 2, counter strike etc, but i also need it for video-editing. So all the parts i need will be compatible? i think im going to order those but with a 435W Hiper PSU, corsair ram and and 8600gt 256mb and windows vista home premium. Just wondering will that motherboard be ok with vista, better check.

[djgandy]

No idea about Vista. You might be able to find out on asus website.

[wuyanxu]

i don't think Vista is too picky about motherboards. even my 2 year old Novatech's barebone can run Vista, it's got some strange motherboard by Foxconn. (i'd never buy foxconn mobo again. crappy overclock board. but i wasn't expecting much with a 140 bundle)

if you are video editing, it's worth considering the new core 2 quad, especially the q6600. it will be double the speed from dual core processes.

Call of Duty 2 and Counter Strike Source will run no problem in max settings at 1280x1024 on the 8600GTS (they ran very well on my x1650pro, lol), but for games that are comming out soon (eg, Bioshock, Crysis) it's worth considering the 8800GTS 320mb.

[JDowdall]

wat r u on about! that graphics card @ £105 is a **** deal! you can get a ati x1950xt for that money or a x1950 pro for £70

[Taxation]

a 7900gs performs better than a 8600gt, well...........according to legion hardware

[djgandy]

wat r u on about! that graphics card @ £105 is a [CENSORED] deal! you can get a ati x1950xt for that money or a x1950 pro for £70

Which is why i'd buy a £70 GT or nothing. X1950 Pro is £90 at novatech though and it's not that great anymore.

Reason I was recommending 86xx series is because they have that x264 decoding extensions which take a lot of strain off the cpu. I'm not sure if the card can help with encoding too, maybe someone else can read up on that.

The 86xx series arent as bad as many sites make out. Well aslong as you buy the cheap models. The GTS pretty much only offers a price tag increase.

[japan1]

Which would be better out of these graphics cards:

2x7600gt SLi
or
1x8600gt 512mb

[wuyanxu]

may be a 8600GTS is better

[Taxation]

2*7600gt's would perform better, but i would go for a single 8600gt for now

[djgandy]

You'd be better off with crossfire than SLI. Crossfire showed decent performance scaling. SLi doesn't show performance scaling till you hit the higher resolutions. Plus what's the point of having 2 cards sucking power when you can just have one.
Here are your options if you ask me.

8600 GT
1950 Pro
8800 GTS 320mb

[JDowdall]

you could go crossfire x1950xt as well as these are about £100 now

[djgandy]

That illustrates the point i've been trying to get across well.

£200 on 2 cards + bit extra for expensive mobo.

Or you could have just bought a 640MB GTS :)

[japan1]

crossfire isn't really an option because i have a relativly low budget, Which would perform better, a pc with 4Gb ram and a 256mb 8600gts or a pc with 2gb ram and a 320mb 8600gts?

also with 8600gts's do you need an extra power cable? would that cable come with the card?

[JDowdall]

4gb and a 320mb but thats overkill with that graphics card and you will need a 64bit OS

[Taxation]

how about a computer with 2 GB ram and a 320mb 8800gts :wink:

[JDowdall]

yarp or failing that a 2gb ram and a x1950xt

[Jonny2Bad]

Jeez starting to feel like i should get commission from nvidia but the 8800 gts has got to be the card to go for if you can afford it, the benchmarks show that at normal res 2 320mb 8800gts out perform 2 gtx's on some games so really my advice is too save till you can get an 8800

[JDowdall]

wtf? how dus that work! lol nd i shud get a commission frm ati reccomendin the x1650's and x1950's oh and from hiper reccomendin ther psus

[Jonny2Bad]

Well nvidia actually specify dont benchmark 2 gtx's in sli on res under a 24" monitor1900* whatever it is as the extra mb only really account for something on higher end resolutions

[japan1]

Well i think i'm going to get a novatech 8600gts 512mb, mainly because of the cost. But theres something in the description thats bugging me, it says i need a 6-pin PCI Express supplementary power connector. Which isn't included in the accessories and i can't find one anywhere else on the website.

[djgandy]

Well i think i'm going to get a novatech 8600gts 512mb, mainly because of the cost. But theres something in the description thats bugging me, it says i need a 6-pin PCI Express supplementary power connector. Which isn't included in the accessories and i can't find one anywhere else on the website.

Umm you'll have a power connector somewhere i assume. It'll come with it or the power supply with have one.

Don't buy a GTS. There is no point. They won't play new games well, and they'll barely play old games any better than a GT.
You'll pay 80% more for 10% more performance.

by new i mean crysis and such. Call of duty 2, hl2 would fall into the old category.

[JDowdall]

djgandy is right to play any modern games the least u need is a x1950 pro i would try and stretch to a 8800 gts 320mb as that is well futureproofed and has good performance and will last you a while wheras the x1950 pro will probably only last a year failing that i would go with a x1950 xt as that will last a bit longer

[japan1]

The 8800gts 320mb is a bit out of my price range :cry: I kinda have a low budget (£560 at the most) .

[Taxation]

£560 for the whole shibang??
That can be done, quite easily i think
Does that incl monitor, speakers, mouse,keyboard etc??

[japan1]

I don't need a monitor or speakers or keyboard n' mouse. Just want something that could play new-ish games :D £560 is like the most i would spend but i'd rather spend around £500.

[Taxation]

Case
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/spec ... a-aqua&P=0 (http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?jea-aqua&P=0)
motherboard
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/spec ... MSI-K9NS2F (http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?MSI-K9NS2F)
cpu
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/spec ... AMD-X2M260 (http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?AMD-X2M260)
hard drive
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/spec ... MAX-DM250S (http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?MAX-DM250S)
gfx
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/spec ... NOV-88GTS3 (http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?NOV-88GTS3)
psu
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/spec ... ?HYP-4M580 (http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?HYP-4M580)
ram
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/spec ... CSR-X642G5 (http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?CSR-X642G5)
dvd burner
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/spec ... ?SAM-S182D (http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?SAM-S182D)

Thats about £500, i think
Thats what i would get if i were buying a new machine now

[JDowdall]

tax is right on the money there that looks lyk a brilliant system no one watches amd anymore because c2d is much better oc/er but if your not oc ing amd is a decent alternative