Ok, I am having some hardware issues with my current PC so its time to build a new one. Of course I want to save as much as possible, but I want high quality components that are stable and reliable

-Stability is very important
-Quite PC
-Will not be overclocking


Motherboard
-leaning towards Core2Duo CPU
-need very good quality MB
-do not need crossfire/sli support
-STABLE
-ddr2
-ideally <$100

CPU
-Can I use a Txxxx core2duo (laptop chip) on a desktop MB?
-Tempted to get a quad core, but really don't need it
-probably would get the best bang for the buck in <$100 range

RAM
-DDR2
-STABLE
-want 4gb
-ideally in 2 dims so if I change to a 64 bit OS later I can up to 8GB ram

Video Card
-looking at the 8600GT and 9600GT cards
-QUITE
-STABLE
-dual DVI
-~ or < $100

HD
-reliable
-quite
-fast
-low power usage
-SATA

HDTV Tuner / DVR
-good software support for easy DVR
-good encoding quality
-nice remote
-will be using the system as primary PC as well as entertainment center next year

Case
-would like a Lian-Li but $$$
-nice case
-screwless would be nice
-aluminum would be nice

Power Supply
-quite
-efficient
-reliable
-how much do I need 500, 750,...?

Motherboard, Intel is usually considered the most stable. Followed by Gigabyte and Asus.

Core 2 Duo is the way to go. Quad core draws more power and thus need a better quieter heatsink.

You CANNOT use a Txxx series proc in that motherboard so don't even try.

RAM, get whatever. Higher end stuff gives you better benchmark numbers, but if you don't benchmark your system, you probably won't notice.

Video card: I can't help you here. Get something with a passive heatsink. Probably a Gigabyte card, but there are others as well.

HD: Western Digital or Samsung. They're the most notably quiet. If you want REALLY quiet go with either a notebook drive or an SSD from DVNation.

Video Tuner: You've got me. This will depend largely on what country you live in.

Case: Lian Li's though pretty are generally made aluminum which tend to rattle more and amplify noise better. Get an Antec P180 if you can afford it.

PSU: You'll need a PSU. 300-400W at most. Anyone telling you that you need more is lying to you. Seasonic tends to make very good power supplies. Corsair's another good brand too (they're made by Seasonic)

Agree with all of the above 100%, especially the reference to the PSU rating. My current home-brewed rig runs an E4300 C2D CPU overclocked from 1.8GHz to 2.83GHz and a heavily overclocked ATI X1950Pro graphics card and only consumes 180Watts with the CPU and GPU being spanked mercilessly!

Don't be afraid to overclock if it's being afraid that's stopping you. All C2D CPUs are perfectly happy to run at up to 3GHz regardless of what's stamped on the lid, although some may need a slight rise in Vcore to get you there. My rig gets used as an all-singing-all-dancing media centre and games machine. With Intel SpeedStep enabled, it runs at 2.83GHz when needed but cruises along silently at 1.9GHz when carrying out mundane media centre tasks. Believe me, even 1.9GHz from a C2D is still plenty of horsepower compared to previous generations of CPUs.

Cheers, Slipstreem.

Agree with sthayashi on all but the motherboard.

Gigabyte is not very good nowadays.

ASUS is.

I disagree and claim the opposite, to a degree.

Currently running a Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS4.

I am also very happy with my Gigabye P35-DS3.

About stability on your pc is more a software problem (O.S. and programs you have installed) than a hardware problem.
If you have very important data i reccomend you to buy a motherboard with RAID 1 support, and buy 2 hard disk for that purpouse. As they said you can choose between asus or gigabayte both are good in my opinion.
Buying a 64bits hardware and the run a 32bits OS and software is not the best, think if u can jump to the 64 bits OS or not (if u will do a lot cpu computing you will notice the diference).
Good hard drives, Seagate & Samsung, if u will edit video could be usefull configure raid v instead of raid 1 (but you wont have every data mirrored, so you have to choose between spped or mirror).
About the ram Kingston!!
About the power supply one good is levicom, 400w or 500w should be enough and have very low noise models -20db.
About the case I don't spend too much money on it, same on the video card, i cant help here
About the TV turner i have no idea :S

Hope it can be usefull

Well... i had bad Kingston HyperX DDR-Ram before (ValueRAM was fine though).

About Levicom, they make some pretty bad PSUs. Just an example (translated from french). Other reviews say the same. The voltages really go down under load.

I've yet to see a quality TV tuner. They're much worse than integrated sound. An article at Digit-Life/IXBT (can't find it) claimed that there are only a few differences between currently available consumer video capture devices (one of two processors and one of a couple RF stage models), not counting the bundled software - it must be replaced anyway. So it might not make a difference whether Avermedia or Prolink logo is on the box.

Personally, I'd wait until early next year for Nehalem, but...

Intel e8400 $190:
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetai...ctCode=10007603

Gigabyte ep45-ds3l $109:
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetai...ctCode=10008669

eVGA 9600GT $150 (-$30 M.i.R.):
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetai...ctCode=10008655

Corsair 2x2 gig 800mhz $87.00 (-$20M.i.R.)
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetai...ctCode=10006082

Corsair 620w PSU $150 (-$25M.i.R.):
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetai...ductCode=373110

Seagate 500gb $115:
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetai...ctCode=10005937

Pioneer Sata DVD-RW $30:
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetai...ctCode=10008446

CoolerMaster Cosmos S $240:
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetai...ctCode=10008005

Asus Zonar DX $75:
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetai...ctCode=10008407

Optional Noctua Fans $20 each:
http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/ind...oducts_id=23306


Zipzoomfly.com is a great site, better price than Newegg, no sales tax and free shipping, never had a prob with them. I know the case is expensive, but it is an uber-nice case, only comes with one or two fans though, I'm not sure which. So, I included a link to some very nice Noctua fans. They have great airflow and are completely silent, I have six of them in my case, and my PSU is still louder than all of them combined. I'd recommend you get at least 2 of them.

As for your OS, I'd recommend skipping the 32-bit OS entirely, since that means you'd basically be paying twice. And 4gigs of memory won't be read right by a 32-bit OS anyway. You'd have to make your system with only 2 gigs installed and them add them later after patching. Take your pick from Xp64 or Vista 64

But, that's my advice. The price of the hardware adds up to $1146, but you'll get $75 back from mail-in rebates, which would pay for the very nice Noctua fans

As for Gigabyte vs Asus. Asus uses copper plated aluminum for their heatsinks, which is pretty shady, since they bill it as "pure copper" The boards themselves are nice, but Gigabyte are nice as well

Why would you need a 620W PSU? Bear in mind that 80+ PSUs have to reach 80% efficiency only at 20% load and higher, so with your PSU, that means starting from 124W. If you use the PC for office tasks, you're not even going to reach 100W.

Suppose he wants to add more hard drives, or swap in a quad core cpu, or a more powerful gpu at some point? All of these things would draw more power. IMO, upgradability is always worth factoring in when it comes to computers. The just released gpu's draw a good amount of wattage, and are also very hot running. Personally, I'd rather have the overhead, and the Corsair hx620 is a solid unit for the price. But, if you want to argue about it, I'll agree that he could get by with the corsair hx520

It depends on what tasks the computer is built for. Two words in the original post – "quite PC" – rule out any high power components. Anything drawing 0.5 kilowatt cannot be silent.

Not so long ago I realized that the most basic computer (Conroe-L, cheapest video, a gig of ram, etc) is completely adequate in so many situations. Few years ago overclockers shelled out big money for much less computational power.

For what it's worth, I agree with Sebastian entirely. If my rig based around a heavily overclocked E4300 C2D and a heavily overclocked ATI X1950Pro graphics card is anything to go by (see my earlier post), then even a 300Watt PSU is likely to be overkill. The only immediate advantage I can see from using, say, a 450Watt PSU instead is that the PSU fan will probably be whisper-quiet under the relatively light load, assuming that it's thermally controlled.

Cheers, Slipstreem.

Since I saw a 4 GB RAM setup mentioned here, I'd like to ask a question regarding an issue I'm facing.

I bought a new PC with an ASUS P5Q Deluxe mobo and 2x2GB Corsair 800 MHz memory.

I'm running Win XP 32 bit so, based on the 32 bit addressing space logic, I'm aware of the fact that I'll never see full 4 GB in System Properties or Task Manager.

I did however expect to see 3.25-3,5 GB of it.

Instead I see only 2 GB which pisses me off immensely!

I read that the "memory remap feature" in BIOS has to be disabled for 32 bit operating systems, which I did, but it did not solve my problem because now even the BIOS sees 2 GB instead of 4 GB.

Overall:

memory remap on -> BIOS sees 4 GB, Win XP sees 2 GB
memory remap off -> BIOS sees 2 GB, Win XP sees 2 GB as well

Putting the /PAE and/or /3GB switches in the boot.ini file also didn't make any difference, neither did flashing the BIOS to the latest update.

Any ideas?

It has at least SP2, right?

You definitely need to enable Memory Remap for an x86 OS. Then XP should at least see 3 GB.

However, ASUS themselves seem to know of problems with this board and 4 GB RAM:

http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?modelmen...l3=709&l4=0




So either install Vista x64 (can't really recommend XP x64), or search Google a bit more, maybe you can find a solution...

Yes, SP3 actually.

There's so much misinformation on the web...
I've read so much contradicting info on whether the remapping should be on or off for a 32 bit OS.

I'm not sure if Asus recognizes any problem in particular, or just the 32 bit addressing limitation in general.
I'll keep looking though.

Ok, i think i got some idea now.



Memory Remapping on your board is good for x64 only, it seems. But your problem is that without Memory Remapping, the BIOS already doesn't show more than 2 GB. If you can't get the BIOS to show at least 3 to 3.5 GB as is often seen with other boards, you can never use more in XP, no matter what you try. They first have to make a BIOS that recognizes that much of the RAM under non-remapping conditions. So in short, leave Memory Remapping on, but install Vista x64, and you have the whole 4 GB. Otherwise you have to live with half of it wasted and no way around it, if some BIOS shouldn't fix it...

Hi!

I'll building a new PC too.
Just I have a question, whether the audio chip ADI AD2000B (found on Asus P5Q-E and P5Q Deluxe motherboards), does this audio chip support the bitperfect playing through SPDIF?
Does it work with for example Asio4All or kernel streaming plugin with foobar?

Thanks!

Edited out.

Hi!

Just for let you now, for those who interested in this board, the Asus P5Q-E motherboard which is having Soundmax AD2000B onboard audio, I now have tested, and with XP 32 bit, it is ONLY supporting SPDIF passthrough and bitperfect at 48 kHz sample rate. So it does NOT support bitperfect playing for 44.1 kHz, and 96kHz and 192 kHz.

I tested this with AC3Filter and with Asio4All 2.9. Both shows this is outputting everything at 48 kHz at the SPDIF output.

But I made this test on Windows XP 32 bit only, with the defult Asus Soundmax drivers (v5.10.1.6480)