Hi peeps.

Its time to retire my current computer,which is now over 6 years old. I've stayed with the same motherboard,but gone through Windows 98-XP, 3 CPUs and 4 Graphics cards. It even plays oblivion (just!)

For the last 3 years Ive been saying to myself I'll buy a new PC soon...but I never did, as there is always something better coming soon.

So I`m bored of waiting, I'm going to build myself a PC NOW

I'll use my PC for mostly gaming, but also I do dabble with other things such as music, encoding and general surfing. I would like it to be fairly quiet and I do not plan on overclocking, although I might do a little bit later.

I also would like the mobo to be upgradeable, so it should at least take the 1333Mhz Intel CPUs coming out later this year (and hopefully later revisions, but I guess this is unlikely). Maybe in a year or 2 I will upgrade the memory to 4GB,add/upgrade the graphics card, and go quad core.

I`ll go with XP first but maybe in 6 months I`ll add vista(dual boot)

So here are the bits I have decided on so far, although I am open to suggestions/comments:
______
intel E6600 CPU:
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Pro [...] tID=430633

Asus P5N-E mobo:
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Pro [...] tID=529752

G.Skill 2GB DDR2
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/show [...] =MY-018-GS

Western Digital 400GB HDD:
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Pro [...] tID=455420

leadtek 8800GTS 640MB:
http://www.lowestonweb.com/product [...] 35DCD5BA0D

Akasa Zen:
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Pro [...] tID=446040

Creative Xi-Fi Music Soundcard:
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Pro [...] tID=421270

Lite-On DVD/CD Writer:
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Pro [...] tID=551735

Belinea 2225S1W 22" Widescreen LCD Monitor:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/show [...] =MO-006-BE
OR
Daewoo 22" widescreen
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Pro [...] tID=534301

Corsair HX 620W PSU:
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Pro [...] tID=446787

+floppy and basic keyboard/mouse(not into fancy stuff..)

I`ll be getting most of my stuff from scan as they give me free delivery, but they dont always have the best prices for graphics cards/memory.
____________

Any help/comments appreciated.

note - Ive not built a PC in 4 years so I`m kinda a noob to this

Thanks

I recommend this over the other you chose. 3 x 120mm fan mounts. 2 fans included. Side-mounting harddisk cage. Tool-less design. Not terribly expensive.

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Pro [...] tID=402904

http://www.coolermaster.com/index. [...] rion%20534

Add a 120mm case fan to the front:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Pro [...] tID=147111
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Pro [...] tID=326073

You're not overclocking, but you're interested in quiet computing. Use an aftermarket fan instead. The quietest? Noctua NH-U12F.

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Pro [...] tID=505974

No idea which of the lcd's is better. All other parts are good.

Keep this handy for DIY PC:

http://www.pcmech.com/byopc/

Ya, ditch that case. You're spending all this money on a great system and you put it in a garbage case? Ouch. Spend an extra 30 quid and get something respectable and more functional.

Do you really need the soundcard? That'll save you some money there.

Aftermarket heatsink is a good idea for your setup. Noctua fans are the BEST and QUIETEST on the market...I only use them

here is a different case to consider: Asus full tower
Hopefully you have a local shop to look at cases. I always try to look and size them up and then find the best prices online.

Thanks for the input all. I knew people would cuss the Akasa Zen case ; but from what I`ve heard its not bad - its fairly quiet and decent design considering its dirt cheap. I have a feeling the other cases would be about the same standard. Might go for the Coolermaster Centurion though.

Spending £40ish on a cooler might be too much for my needs - how is the stock cooler for sound? If it is awful I`ll get a cheapish aftermarket HSF

Yeah the sound card is quite pricy, but I plan on making music and I know the onboard sound will be pretty poor.

Is the PN5-E motherboard for me? - I guess I dont need an expensive board as I'm not gonna overclock much or need that many "features".

The Asus TA-861 looks VERY nice, but it has only 1 120mm & some 80mm fans. Small fans = noise. The last Asus case I used was OVERLY tight.

Not 40 quid. Just 36 quid. Well, you get what you pay for. The stock hsf is quite loud, especially on load.

This Scythe Ninja is quiet, not as much as the other I mentioned:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Pro [...] tID=296802

Thanks for the tip.

Yes, from my experience 80mm case fans are to be avoided, they are a little noisy (I have about 5 in my curretn case!)

What I might do is go with the stock HSF, I can always add a better cooler later If I dont like it

Anyone have any experience with the P5N-E motherboard? Should I spend a bit more on probably the most important part of my system?

I just built a new box with a P5N-E. One odd thing is to reset the bios if post fails you have to unplug the powersupply from the wall.

After I 1st completed connecting everything I got no post. I tried swapping out parts but every time all i was doing was turning off the switch on the power supply. The light on the motherboard would go out so I figured it had no power going to it.

When I finally gave up for the time being and went to bed. I unplugged the box and set it aside. The next morning when I plugged it in it posted with out a problem.

I then started overclocking and when I finally pushed it too far it failed to post. I reset the cmos and still no post. Read the manual "shocking as that might be" and it said to reset cmos after bad overclocking attempt simply power the system off and turn off the powersupply OR unplug the powersupply from the power source.

I couldnt get the dang thing to post again so I walked away. ( I find this best. I tend to get mad and break things) while I was away a light bulb went off. The only time I got it to post after a failure was when I had removed the power cord. I went home unplugged the powercord counted to 10 plugged it in and the dang thing booted right up.

So what im trying to say with all my blabbering is, if you get no post unplug the power from the power supply.

Other then that one issue I have had zero problems. It overclocks nicely to 300mhz fsb with stock cooling and no voltage changes at all. I am even using some really cheap pqi ddr2 800 running at 1200mhz.
btw thats with a e6700.

Seems all motherboards have odd quirks

Yes, best to build when in the right frame of mind. PCs can be more than frustrating sometimes!

Thanks for the tip.