Gongumenn

Buying new PC - Looking for help

Regular

Group: Klikan

Location: Faroe Islands

Joined: 08.06.06

Posted on 26-11-2006 03:39

I plan on ordering a computer from some danish online shop (perhaps shg.dk).
I am no hardware expert, so building my own computer has it's difficulties and any help would be appreciated.

I would like a mid priced (10.000 - 15.000 DKR) silent computer, that will be able to play most current games with ease. I would also like two raided hard drives for increased hard drive speed.

Here is where I am at sofar: (Links are to shg.dk's homepage and will open the appropriate index page. Then a pop-up with the item details will appear)

Case: ThermalTake - Armor LCS VE2000BWS
(Water cooling, jummy

)

Motherboard: MSI - P965-Platinum
(Got editors choice at some hardware review site.)

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6400

Hard Drives: 2 x WD - 250.0 GB - SATAII-300 (Fluid)
Will I be able to RAID these two, with the MSI board. Or do I need another board or some extra equipment?

Graphics Card: OMG, I have no clue. How will it work with water cooling? Do I need to buy a passively cooled one? Do I need to buy one made by MSI to match my motherboard?

Ram: Kingston - 2 x 1024 MB DDR2-800, PC6400

Pluss some random good DVD burner and some random version of Windows.

Lazarus

RE: Buying new PC - Looking for help

Initiate

Group: Klikan

Joined: 08.06.06

Posted on 26-11-2006 06:05

Hi Johan

Well I would say that if this falls within the price range you like, take it, it looks good,

about the graphics card, I would take the second best from either NVIDIA or Ati Radion, because they perform about the same as each other and cost half of what the best do, the best of each brand only have some extra BS you'll never need, and they don't perform for the extra prize, brand vice it's only a matter of what you like best.

Now with that said, I'll have to say I know little to nothing about cooling and raiding

but you should talk to Bjarni about the cooling he knows a shit load

Here is a forum about water cooling

http://www.water-cooling.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=3&sid=8a80a50de69259feb87652a90c5226c0

and some for raid

http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=830

http://www.pcmech.com/show/harddrive/296/

Hope you get something you like

Life ain't always what it seems
So grab it by the balls, and do your best before it leaves

Volbeat: Find that soul

Edited by Lazarus on 26-11-2006 06:09

RE: Buying new PC - Looking for help

General

Group: Klikan

Location: Hoyvík

Joined: 08.06.06

Posted on 26-11-2006 10:36

Don't know much about MSI and Intel compatability.
Am a AMD and ASUS pilot myself.
I have ample possibilities for raiding drives, and silent fans (not much for water in my cabinet).
Only suggestion I'm gonna make is, have back-up of your most important files, on a ATA drive (possibly an exterior one), cause if the raided drives fail, you loose everything.

WD drives are amongst the most durable drives on the market, and should be good. Have a couple myself.

Have a Nvidia GeForce 7900 Gt graphics card, It's super. Could survive with a smaller one, but it's both fast and quiet, so why downgrade.

RE: Buying new PC - Looking for help

General

Group: Administrator, Klikan, Regulars, Outsiders

Location: Denmark

Joined: 08.06.06

Posted on 26-11-2006 12:06

I've suggested two items for you from the same site (ordering everything from the same place usually makes a lot of sense):

psu NQ4775-500S ca. 700 kr. (supersilent 12-17 decebel)
raid controller FastTrak TX2300 ca. 700 kr. (2 SATA slots, you dont need more right?)

EDIT: seems yoru mb already has an onboard SATA raid controller with 7(!) ports. So no need for a stand-alone controller. -700 kr. to final budget

with that the shopping list looks as follows:

kabinet 2000
mb 1200
cpu 1600
psu NQ4775-500S 700
controller FastTrak TX2300 700
2 hd 1200
ram 2800

giving ca. 10200

That leaves about 5k for a gfx card if we aim for the high range. I haven't got a clue about gfx either, but I'll do some looking around. Right off the top of my head I can think of two things that this card would need. Since you have dual displays, the card shoul have two digital(your monitors DO have DVI connectors dont they?) outlets and it should be integratable to your watercooling thingie.

Apparently, you need one of those copper blocks to mount on a gfx card. You just remove the fan/heatsink on the card and screw on the water block - end of story. It seems though, that shg.dk doesn't offer the extra addon from thermaltake, so you'll have to order it from somewhere else. Or you could just go with fan/heatsink but I think that would ruin some of the whole watercooling idea. The block will set you back another say 300 kr. that that leaves about 4500 for a gfx. I dont know much about gfx cards and I really dont care that much anymore. While you keep that in mind I've taken the liberty to arbitrarily select one of shg.dk's cards that I think will be just fine.

PCI-Express - nVidia GeForce 8800GTS

NX8800GTS-T2D640E, 640MB GDDR3, Dual DVI, TV-Out, HDTV, HDCP Ready, PCI-Express, Retail

It seems to have everything you need, but more importantly, it costs a lot of money. incidentally the card also ranks pretty well on <%3Binsert-random-benchmarking-site>%3B The card costs 4000 kr. leaving you with 500 for shipping fees.

Hope this helps.

Edited by Grizlas on 26-11-2006 13:56

RE: Buying new PC - Looking for help

General

Group: Administrator, Klikan, Regulars, Outsiders

Location: Denmark

Joined: 08.06.06

Posted on 26-11-2006 12:38

oh, I missed the random dvd burner and random verison of windows. That will blow the budget i'm afraid.

Seems you can get a cd/dvd RW player from shg.dk for 500 kr. but purchasing windows.....will set you back another 1200 kr. so that's about 1700 kr. over budget. Since you'll be able to buy windows Vista around 1. feb. maybe now would not be an ideal time to PURCHASE.....a OS. Maybe you could just muddle along until 2 feb. then we would still be on budget!

RE: Buying new PC - Looking for help

General

Group: Klikan

Location: Hoyvík

Joined: 08.06.06

Posted on 26-11-2006 14:19

For any questions in this forum, also including water-cooling, I suggest talking to Bjarni. He knows a lot about such things.

RE: Buying new PC - Looking for help

General

Group: Administrator, Klikan, Regulars, Outsiders

Location: Denmark

Joined: 08.06.06

Posted on 26-11-2006 15:17

jogvanth wrote:
For any questions in this forum, also including water-cooling, I suggest talking to Bjarni. He knows a lot about such things.

So this Bjarni, is he some sort of deity? being able to offer expert advice on all matters relating to the General Discussion forum is quite an achievement

anyways, just wanted to say that Lazarus already suggested Bjarni in his post above.

Norlander

RE: Buying new PC - Looking for help

Field Marshal

Group: Administrator, Klikan, Regulars, Outsiders

Location: Copenhagen

Joined: 09.06.06

Posted on 26-11-2006 18:28

LOL@griz

RE: Buying new PC - Looking for help

General

Group: Administrator, Klikan, Regulars, Outsiders

Location: Denmark

Joined: 08.06.06

Posted on 26-11-2006 18:57

Ok I've changed my mind about the gfx card. Seems that the days of screwing off fans on graphic cards are over, since they now use a more elaborate cooling system, often involving two fans. What you need to do is buy a card that that is modified for watercooling from the factory.

Moreover, I've conferred with lazarus and he told me that you might not need a top of the line gfx card to play the montly game. Here are two candidates anyhow, the cheap one and the uber pro one. BFG technologies guarantees that their products are ready to be fitted into any water cooling system:

VGA PCI-E 512 MB GeForce 7950GT BFG DDR3 OC HD TV DUAL DVI for 2,399.00 kr.
or
VGA PCI-E 640 MB GEFORCE 8800GTS BFG GDDR3 2xDVI for 4,599.00 kr.

RE: Buying new PC - Looking for help

General

Group: Klikan

Location: Hoyvík

Joined: 08.06.06

Posted on 26-11-2006 21:50

what is so special about water cooling anyway?

Most have gone away from it, as far as I know.
Too much hassle for too little effect.

RE: Buying new PC - Looking for help

Regular

Group: Klikan

Location: Faroe Islands

Joined: 08.06.06

Posted on 26-11-2006 22:03

Thanks for the help guys!

I just want a silent pc, that is all.
I want to be able to go to sleep while the pc is downloading.

Norlander

RE: Buying new PC - Looking for help

Field Marshal

Group: Administrator, Klikan, Regulars, Outsiders

Location: Copenhagen

Joined: 09.06.06

Posted on 27-11-2006 02:25

Personally if I had the money to upgrade I would buy this pc, it's silent but powerful http://www.zitech.dk/product/Details.aspx?ID=162459

If you're more into Intel over AMD you can also look at this one:
http://www.zitech.dk/product/Details.aspx?ID=162457

Boddin

RE: Buying new PC - Looking for help

Regular

Group: Klikan

Location: Copenhagen

Joined: 19.06.06

Posted on 27-11-2006 07:23

Why not buy local insted of ordering. I'm just thinking of all the hassels if something should go down on the pc.

RE: Buying new PC - Looking for help

Regular

Group: Klikan

Location: Faroe Islands

Joined: 08.06.06

Posted on 27-11-2006 08:34

My initial plan was to buy one here in the Faroes.

Farodane City wouldn't let me change anything whatsoever. They have a couple of unchangable offers. You can also order from Dell through them, but I was not impressed with the options on the Dell homepage.

Teldutænastan looked very expensive compared to Farodane City and Vøruhúsi á Hjalla.

So I went to Hjalla and asked for a good, silent and raided computer. He took a 11.000 DKR comp and changed some components to fit my needs and it came to a bit over 15.000 DKR.

When I got there to pick it up it sounded like a Jet engine and he said: "By the way, it isn't raided"

So now I'll try building my own I guess, I talked to Bjarni and he said I'll save alot if I order it from Denmark. If I understood Bjarni correctly he wouldn't even by a mp3 player from the faroese shops.

These new comps, with the Dual Core processors and the new gfx cards make alot of noise. I am a light sleeper and even with my current pc tucked away in another room I still can't sleep because of the noise.
So this new water cooling option looks like something made for me and I am pretty sure I am not going to get much help from any faroese shop on the water cooling front.

Boddin

RE: Buying new PC - Looking for help

Regular

Group: Klikan

Location: Copenhagen

Joined: 19.06.06

Posted on 27-11-2006 08:55

I know there is a big price diff. and you've actually gotta point things out when buying bakc home. And when it comes to pointing out and telling the salesman what pice of crap he's trying to sell you, you're challanged.
I've tried pc's that brokedown and Thomsen had some experience with that aswell. I'm glad at that point i could talk to the salesman face to face.

Water cooling isn't a must. I've tried some no-noise pc's. The best I could find 3 years ago was a high prefrom no-noise pc 20db capable of playing any game back then and then some. Price 18k but this is 3 years ago and most extras back then costed zillions.

http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/xpsnb_m2010?c=dk&l=da&s=dhs&cs=dkdhs1

RE: Buying new PC - Looking for help

General

Group: Klikan

Location: Hoyvík

Joined: 08.06.06

Posted on 27-11-2006 11:07

I had a LOT of trouble with my pc, when I bought it. The SATA drives went all haywire on me, burned out, and lost me all data. My end result was, that I installed my OS on a ATA drive, and all program files on SATA drives. I now have backup on an exterior ATA drive.

Noisewise, I needed an extra fan, cause of my 3 hardrives inside my cabinet, and the serious amount of heat, that they make. This is my primary source of noise from my PC. The dual-core processor also is a bit more noisy than the old single-core, but that is a price I'm willing to pay.

Because of all of the problems, I've had with my PC, it's been upgraded beyond my wildest hopes, as good as, free of charge.

If I had purchased it from overseas, I seriously doubt, I would have gotten squat from the dealership. Basically, I don't trust non-local shops, to honour their guarantee, if I call from the Faroes. In addition, I probably would have had to pay all of the extra freight costs myself.
I want to be able to shove the product back up the salespersons backside, if it fails miserably in promised performance.

Vuzman

RE: Buying new PC - Looking for help

Admiral

Group: Klikan, Outsiders, Administrator, Regulars

Location: Copenhagen, DK

Joined: 10.06.06

Posted on 27-11-2006 12:02

This one is most likely quite silent. It also looks good, and is luggable. I'm sure it can perform quite well, but probably not quite as good as a home-build. And real cheap too...

Edited by Vuzman on 27-11-2006 12:02

OKJones

RE: Buying new PC - Looking for help

Commander

Group: Klikan

Location: Argir

Joined: 12.06.06

Posted on 29-11-2006 16:59

Why don't you just buh a notebook

Why would I want to end every post the same way?

OKJones

RE: Buying new PC - Looking for help

Commander

Group: Klikan

Location: Argir

Joined: 12.06.06

Posted on 29-11-2006 17:00

BUY, OBVIOUSLY

Why would I want to end every post the same way?