Here are the components I am planning to buy for my PC. Maybe you guys can give me some feedback:

Antec Sonata Plus 550 case with PSU and controllable 120 mm rear fan for 150 € (already ordered)

Gigabyte P35-DS3 Mainboard for 89 €
Intel Core 2 Duo 6550 CPU (boxed) for 154 €
2 GB A-DATA DDR2-667 RAM (2x1 GB kit) for 36 €
Asus Silent Knight 2 CPU cooler for 43,90 € (according to a CdrInfo test, up to 20 °C difference under load over the Intel cooler while still pretty silent with 56 dB over Intel's 50 dB)
MSI NX8600GTS-T2D256EZ nVidia 8600GTS based video card with 256 MB for 159 €
Seagate ST3250410AS 250 GB HDD for 61 € (hopefully my drive will be in order - read some stories about Seagate drives making a scratching noise and klicking after only a few weeks of operation)
Samsung SH-S203D/RSMN DVD writer for 35,90 €

Anything better I could get for the same money (the "still to order" components shouldn't be over 600 € and I would prefer ordering from Alternate - Germans might know that site).

The DVD writer is SATA because my two IDE ports are already occupied by a Plextor CD-RW drive and my "old" (and according to Roberto maybe defective due to vibration) 500 GB Seagate HDD.

You can get a better CPU cooler than that. I don't know how much the Scythe Ninja costs over there, but they're still among the best in conjunction with a Nexus fan.

56 dB is not even close to silent.

Samsung hard drives are generally a little cheaper than the rest if you're worried, but it's not a big savings to switch if you have your heart set on the Seagate.

Anandtech praises the 8800GT 512MB in its review. Maybe you can compare it against 8600?

Newer Seagate HDDs are very reliable to say the least, based on my personal and working experience. (a company with nearly 3000 users, and nearly 0 defective Seagate in the last 2-3 years is not bad imo). However Anandtech (again!) article showed that Western Digital SE16 and Samsung SpinPoint T166 may be a better performer (though it actually compared a larger model). My old Seagate 80GB worked for nearly 5 years until I decommission it, and the newer ST3320620AS in my new PC is working well too.

Surely I recommend SATA for all new purchases. Cabling reasons.

Edit: Here are the review links:

Seagate and Western Digital 1TB Drives: Improved and Green

Western Digital SE16 750GB: "Quiet" a Performer

Samsung SpinPoint T166 500GB: Cool, Quiet, and Quick

NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT: The Only Card That Matters

NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS 512 & GeForce 8800 GT 256MB: Playing with Memory and G92

IIRC anything under a 8800 (in the 8 generation) would be worthless in terms of performance because the performance gap is so big between a 8800 and a 8600. IMO better to get a 7950 or if you can a GX2 if you can't afford an 8800.
AFAIK, the 8600 and the 8500 have pureview HD support, where as the 8800 does not.

Heres a link to a review http://www.guru3d.com/article/Videocards/442/9
and remember thats an overclocked card.

Or wait for a Geforce 9800 which will cause your wallet to scream and die.

What do you plan to do with the pc anyway?

Are SpinPoint drives reliable? I MAY have heard some bad news about them (unless i'm getting confused with IBM Deskstars)

This is old news already, and applies only to the old 8800GTS 320/640MB and GTX. The new 8800GT and GTS512 are G92 parts, and include the new video processor.

8800 is too expensive for me (starting at 200 €). 8600 GTS starts at 130 €. The "best" 7xxx card I found was the 7300 GT followed by an 8400 GS for around 40 €.

The Ninja Cu cooler is 54 €, the Ninja Mini is 34 € and Ninja PLUS is 37 €. CdrInfo tested the Ninja Mini and I was not very impressed. Under load, it is only 8 °C better than the Intel cooler and with 58 dB even louder than the Asus. Best cooler seems to be Titan Amanda Tech, but with over 100 €, it's over my budget.

Edit: The PC I am planning to build should be a good and cheap machine for everything. Most of the time I am going to use it for office work, but I might watch a movie or play a game once in a while. Most important thing for me is that it should be somewhat energy efficient (my Pentium 4 deffinitely isn't), quiet while at the same time performant.

Second edit: I need to get the parts from Alternate because of a coupon that would otherwise remain unused.

One more thing, the 56 dB of the Asus is something relative. According to what Alternate writes, it has 16-28 dB(A). I guess it depends on the testing method. Sone values might've better(?).

As it's been said, Scythe Ninja (Plus) is one of the top choices for coolers. The Ninja Mini isn't comparable, and the Ninja Cu is just a special anniversary edition that's far too heavy.

Going through the list...

- Gigabyte P35-DS3 Mainboard for 89 € - OK

- Intel Core 2 Duo 6550 CPU (boxed) for 154 €
Intel just released the E8000 series, which will be accompanied by a pricecut. Read more in german here. I would definitely get an E8x00.

- 2 GB A-DATA DDR2-667 RAM (2x1 GB kit) for 36 €
I would consider the DDR2-800 for 39 €, or better yet, these.

- Asus Silent Knight 2 - get the Scythe Ninja

- MSI NX8600GTS-T2D256EZ nVidia 8600GTS based video card with 256 MB for 159 €
8600GTS is relatively too expensive if you consider the 8800 GT/GS and the Radeon HD3870/50. I would recommend a Radeon HD 3850 in your case.

- Seagate ST3250410AS 250 GB HDD for 61 € (hopefully my drive will be in order - read some stories about Seagate drives making a scratching noise and klicking after only a few weeks of operation)
You can have 500 GB for an additional ~30 €. It's a bargain. Seagate is good.

- Samsung SH-S203D/RSMN DVD writer for 35,90 €
Next c't is gonna have a DVD writer roundup, i think. I'd wait for that.

Here's another review

Anyways, the Ninja plus looks a lot better both in terms of noise and cost, which appears to be a regular Ninja but with a low-noise fan.

dB(A) is more useful in my opinion, but only when distance to noise source (and base line noise) is given. In this regard, cdrinfo's noise reviews are shoddy at best, and worthless at worst. Their test case (which they claim to measure, but then fail to disclose the measurement values) as already pretty bad when their case fans at full speed make more noise than some of the heatsink fans they're trying to measure.

Actually, given your intended use, you may just want to try the stock Intel heatsink, which isn't exactly horrible in terms of cooling or noise. Cooling performance is generally overrated for non-overclockers (i.e. you get absolutely no performance benefit at 30C than you do at 55C).

CiTay, the caveat there is that the 8600GTS draws a little less power than the HD38xx series. Also, because it's a newer card, it may be more difficult to find a passive HD3850 solution, which appears to be somewhat to Sebastian as he's willing to pay a slight premium for it.

As far as benchmark results show, the difference is really minimal and I have no idea if the motherboard can handle the CPU flawlessly (it should, but all tests were performed with 65 nm processors). Also, no idea when Alternate is going to introduce the 8x00 processors.



Funny thing I just noticed is that the A-DATA DDR2-800 2 GB kit is 35 € making it 1 € cheaper than the DDR2-667.



Plus? There are only those 3 I listed (Cu, PLUS and Mini). Maybe I should really wait and see how the boxed cooler performs?



Well, Club 3D CGAX-3856DD is around 150 but I am not sure how stable the drivers are. I hear a lot of people complaining about the drivers. Also, I have no idea how loud the cooler is. That nVidia card I had on my list was passively cooled (which on the other hand is not really great since the whole heat will remain in the case).



I only need the HDD for the OS and the programs, so 250 GB is enough. On Alternate, the 500 GB disk is almost 50 € more expensive. As I said, with a total of 750 GB (250 GB SATA + 500 GB IDE), I think I have enough space.



Yeah, read that, but on the other hand, I owned several of the "very bad" DVD writers and didn't have much problems with them to be honest. I can buy the unit in a few months, so I can wait.



Yeah, maybe you're right. The thing is that according to that more or less flawed CdrInfo test, the CPU can reach 90 °C under load with the stock cooler, while other coolers manage to keep it at around 70 °C. I imagine that being important for the CPU's life(?).

The difference is far from minimal. 15-20W less power draw on full load, ~7% better performance per clock, effective price reduction (example: E6850, 3 GHz - 211 €, E8400, 3 GHz - 171 €). They should be in stock soon, maybe in a week or two. The Gigabyte mobo can handle them fine.




Yes.




The 3850 cooler is supposedly "noiseless" in 2D and goes to "hardly audible" in 3D.

Yeah right I'll believe that when I hear it or see a passive version. I've seen far too many "noiseless cards" that turn out to be very much audible.

I have one of the G80-based 8800GTSes, and I wouldn't recommend it unless you want to play Crysis or other new, high-spec PC games. They put out a lot of heat and take up lots of power, even when idle.

The new G92 8800s might be better in that regard though (65nm fabrication process vs. 90nm, IIRC).

And it's already been said, but the first thing I noticed was the RAM speed. RAM is so cheap now that there's no reason not to get DDR2-800.

I don't have the time to check all the detailed specs, but make sure of all the little things: the power supply has the correct connector for the motherboard, power supply has 6/8-pin PCI-express power connectors (if your card needs them), etc.

Ah, right. The price difference really is huge. The benchmark results I had in mind were for notebook CPUs anyways.



Given that the stock cooler is used. No idea what coolers companies like Sapphire or Club 3D use. Anyways, my second big concern is the driver.

One more thing: am I supposed to notice a big difference between 5-5-5-18 and 4-4-4-12 RAM? The first one is 35 €, the second 52 €.

IMHO, no. Some people are performance freaks, others like to overclock. Since I don't believe you're either one of those, then I don't believe you will see a difference between the 2. Unless you really love benchmark numbers.

See, that's the thing why i always end up buying at two shops when i want several things. That price difference alone makes up for the extra shipping costs. You shouldn't notice the difference (it's hard to notice differences below 20%), but personally i'd get the CL4 anyway.

One more thing, is it better to get 2 GB in a single module or as kit due to dual channel? Also, is Patriot a good RAM manufacturer? They have a 2 GB kit with 4-4-4-12 timings for 39 €.

I don't think it really matters that much anymore. I want to say dual channel is theoretically better, but I have no real basis for that. Given the subtle performance difference, I say get which ever is cheaper.

Yes, Patriot is a good RAM manufacturer. To me, they're still something of an upstart since I hadn't heard of them a few years ago, but they've impressed a lot of people with their quality.

Definitely dual channel...

Now the big question is if I should get the A-DATA kit for 52 €, Geil for 58 € or 54 € (different models), Patriot for 39 €, takeMS for 39 €, Team Group for 54 € or Transcend for 58 €.

Patriot and takeMS seem to be the cheapest. Patriot has 5 star reviews on Alternate except for a guy who rated them with 1 star due to stability issues and recommends A-DATA. Another guy thinks that the Patriot uses Elpida chips instead of Micron.

A-DATA once used Micron chips as well, that's where they got their good reputation from (A-DATA with Micron chips). Nowadays they use something else, probably ProMOS chips. But that doesn't matter much if you don't plan to overclock. It just has to be stable at spec speed. For that, you can get almost any kit, and if it's not stable, return it. So you can get the cheapest one.

OK, thanks for the very helpful feedback. Now I am waiting for the c't and the new 45 nm CPUs.

BTW, do you get the c't earlier if you're a subscriber? My dad always brings it from work but now since I've moved, I am thinking about subscribing.

Yeah i get it on the Saturday before.

Seems that Alternate and a lot of other shops are going to have the new Intel CPUs in stock by mid February and then they will be most likely sold out within a few hours (called a few shops and there are a lot of people who preordered already). Wondering if I should really wait that long.

I also thought about the CPU cooler and came to the conclusion that I will wait to see how the Intel one performs before I get the Scythe. I had the chance to see it in a local store and boy is that thing huge. Makes you wonder if the mainboard doesn't break when you attach over 700g to it.

In the meanwhile, the damn Patriot RAM is selling for 48 €, so it got 9 € more expensive. I don't know if I should buy a kit or simply get two 1 GB modules that would end up costing less. The only downside is that the used chips might be different. Kits usually have the same chips.

With the saved money from the cooler I will also get the 500 GB Seagate and use the IDE disk for backups or when transporting stuff from one PC to another.

Edit: A guy from my local PC store said that the Scythe is not bad, but the pushpins are a pain to use and that the cooler doesn't sit well. He recommended getting a special Scythe kit for an additional 5 €, but warned that it doesn't work with certain mainboards in case capacitors are too near the CPU socket.