So I'm thinking of building a new system for Christmas and have started to put together a rough spec of the system, so any opinions about anything are welcome!

I've never build a system from scratch before, most I've done is replace Mobo, CPUs, memory and of course PCi cards. Never done anything with Hard Drives or Power Supplies, and have limited experience with cooling so help here would be greatly appreciated.


I'm looking to build a gaming PC that I can overclock, not to extreme lengths, but just enough without having to have crazy amounts of cooling in there.

Oh and one last request, how do I work out if all the components will fit inside the case I choose? The cpu cooler I've chosen seems quite large and I want to be sure it actually fits in my case!

Anyway onwards with the spec:



Case: Antec Nine Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case
PSU: Corsair HX 620W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU (CMPSU-620HXUK)
Motherboard: MSI P35 Neo2-FR (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient SLACR 95W Edition" 2.40GHz (1066FSB)
CPU Cooler: Zalman CNPS9700-LED CPU Cooler
Memory: 2x GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400UDC) (total of 4GB)
Graphics Card: EVGA GeForce 8800 GT 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (512-P2-E801-AR)
System Drive: Western Digital Caviar Special Edition 80GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (WD800JD)
Storage Drive: Western Digital Caviar Special Edition 80GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (WD800JD)
DVD Drive: NEC AD7170A 18x18 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM



This comes to about £750-£800 if anyone is interested by price.

Anyway thanks for your help!

That should all fit in the case you chose. As for how to check - Compare the height of the Cooler to the Width of the Case (minus 1-2 inches for stand-offs, motherboard, etc.)

Now, onto the hardware:

Case - Good

PSU - The HX Corsair series is rated as a good PSU. (Good choice for not knowing much about them )

Motherboard - I don't here many good things about MSI around here. As an alternative, many will probably suggest the following item: Gigabyte P35-DS3R ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813128050 )

CPU - Good. Side note: Phenoms are coming out soon, supposedly, but I don't know how interested you are in AMD.

CPU Cooler - Good

Memory - I didn't see what OS you were using. If you aren't going for the 64bit OS, you're wasting your money on 4GB of ram since the 32bit OS won't recognize over 3.5GB (2.7 in some cases). Other brands to consider: Crucial Ballistix and OCZ.

Graphics Card - Smart choice. Side note: 8800GTS 512MB and 1GB versions are due sometime in the near future, but they will most likely cost more than the 8800GT.

System Drive - Good, fast drives. Although, some people go w/ one larger, slower drive for misc applications. The other is a fast 10k RMP drive for OS and Games.

DVD Drive - Never heard of NEC. Many people here will suggest a Samsung drive. Personally, I'm pretty satisfied with the ASUS one I own.

Thanks for your response rgeist!

Yeah I did check some PSU reviews refore deciding on that one! for the CPU I wanted to go with the core2 just because it's already proven to be good and stable.

For the memory I had heard the problem of it not recognising all for 4GB. Luckily as a student I can get a copy of Windows Vista 64bit Business for free! So that's the OS I will be using (failing that I will just use XP).

I know the system drives are usually smaller/quicker (I had my eyes on a 36GB WD Raptor actually) but it just seemed a tad expensive. Maybe if I find a tad more money I'll spring for this too.

DVD Drive, I just chose the cheapest one available! Speed isn't a factor for me here as I just want something basic.

Oh and I forgot to mention I don't need a sound card, as I'll just use the card I have in my current PC (which is a SoundBlaster Augidy 2 ZX if I remember right).




Glad to see someone actually thinks my planned specs wern't all half bad! Thanks again!

Agreed with rgeist on all points. Yup, I'd prefer GA-P35-DS3R and Samsung SH-203B to those MSI and NEC products.

Get 2x2GB RAM, not 4x1GB. If some really tempting game in 2009 wants 8 GB you will only have to buy two 2 GB sticks and not four, this way. (The mobo has 4 RAM slots; if you use 1 GB sticks, you have to throw them out to reach 8 GB)

You can save some money with this PSU instead of the 620HX, it's £30 less:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/show [...] =CA-002-PP
The PC Power & Cooling Silencer 610W is a top-quality product, btw.

The two disks you picked cost about £59 together at http://www.overclockers.co.uk. If you can afford
£108 instead get a WD7500AAKS. You will have 750GB instead of 160GB, and it will be much faster. Its' faster than the Raptor 150 in most benchmarks, for example. The WD7500AAKS uses a new technology (PMR) which allows is to be more densely packed - you get more speed, more room, less power consumption, etc. Just make sure you partition it. For example give Windows a 50 GB partition, have another one for programs (200 GB, 300, whatever) and the rest for your own personal files and work.

Thanks for the reply aevm.

I've had a look at the Gigabyte mobo thats been suggested. Nothing but good reviews all over the place for it. One question though, how easy will it be for a novice to overclock with this? I've never overclocked anything before but really want to try with this new setup so obviously ease of use would be considered key!

Can you recommend a pair of 2GB memory sticks for me?

And for the hard drive, it certainly seems like a good piece of kit but 750GB seems a bit overkill. I wouldn't need anymore than 250GB ever I reckon! I would be inclined to invest in the suggested HDD if I knew a) how much the 2x2GB RAM would take up my budget and b) how easy it is to partition. Someone else partitioned my current HDD and I have no idea how I'd go about doing it in XP again, let alone in Vista!

That Gigabyte is friendlier than others, good for novices. With Asus mobos you get more options, more flexibility, but you need to know more about overclocking.

Considering that you're not going for overclocking records and can't spend a fortune on extremely expensive RAM, I'd go for this combination:
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro (quieter, £12 less than the Zalman, still excellent for moderate overclocking)
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/show [...] =HS-017-AR

OCZ 4GB (2 x 2GB) PC2-6400C5 Dual Channel Vista Gold Series DDR2 (OCZ2G8004GK) £129 including VAT
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/show [...] =MY-086-OC
or this one:
OCZ 4GB (2 x 2GB) PC2-6400C4 800MHz Reaper HPC Enhanced Bandwidth Edition
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/show [...] =MY-096-OC £141

If you have high-speed Internet or high-def video you might discover than 750GB is not that much... OK, your decision.

Partitioning is best done before you install the OS, just boot from a floppy disk and run fdisk. It's going to ask a few weird questions, true, but it takes only 5 minutes if you get somebody who has done it before to help.

You can also do it with software like Partition Magic, if the OS has already been installed.

A third solution is to do it from Device Manager after the OS has been installed, but it only works if you have 2 or more disks and the disk you want to partition is empty (i.e. not the one with Windows).

BTW, I'm looking at http://www.overclockers.co.uk because that's the only UK-based site I could remember today. Shop around, maybe there are better prices elsewhere. Post some URLs if there are better sites.