My PC blew up. I need new PC! Recomendations

Now as youve seen Im flogging off some bike bits -

Its pretty much because my ol workhorse PC packed up last Friday so I kinda need to throw some money at a new box.

Im use dual widescreen large monitors so wont need to replace them so its really the box and contents.

Any recomendations on parts? I avoid buying whole boxes from Dell and tend to build custom.


Id like a Shuttle but heard they overheat

For parts... No 1, don't skimp on the PSU. No 2, don't believe the numbers on the PSU. No 3, don't buy a PSU that doesn't have a decent length of parts and labour warranty.

OK, the general drift is that PSUs are awful things, in case I wasn't clear I wish I had something to recommend, but I've seen quite a few expensive ones blow up as well as lots of the cheap and horrible ones.

Other than that... some hints as to what your main usage is would be good.

Whatever, buy a decent amount of RAM (>2Gb, if you're going to use the machine lots) because it's very cheap.

Graphics cards - by the sound of it you do something graphics related and so my recommendation is something Nvidia; avoid the cheaper GS models that use system RAM to top up their own (whether you like it or not).

Disks... buy two, they're horrible unreliable things too - a RAID 1 array (mirrored) is not a replacement for backups but can save you a lot of hassle if a disk dies on you at a bad moment (which they always do.)

These days, the CPU isn't such an important consideration as it once was. Any of the dual-core AMD or Intel processors will give you very good performance.

Can't really say more without having a good idea of the intended usage, though you're probably fed up of the sound of my voice by now anyway

Great advice -thank you.

Ive had PSUs go on me before so your right there. A decent one is a a decent buy.

Im probbaly going for this:

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/spec ... l?MBB-2482

At least I can replace that bits that are blown and remain a little future proof. Need to get some SATA drives and as you say a new g card.

Reckon an existing 350 watt P supply will work?

That looks quite decent to me... for ordinary home use I have a (fairly irrational) tendency to ASUS boards.

As for the PSU - wouldn't like to say for sure whether it would be up to the task. It depends on the graphics card you buy and the quality of the supply...

personally i'd look at the Intel offerings, they seem to be the top of the tree performance/price wise at the moment.

Just before christmas i built my self a Q6600 (quad core) with 2gb ram 2Xsata 250 drives and a shiney Nvidia 8800GT, total cost (exc keyboard monitor and mouse) was just a nudge over £500, not skimping on the brands either.

As tech prices drop quickly i'd suspect you could do similar for less now.

Where from Jerky mate? Pretty good set up there and I wouldnt need the 2 drives or G card for now...

i to would go for an itel setup also but would go for the ASROCK 4CORE1600P35-WIFI+ Intel P35/ ICH9R (775) Motherboard the reason behind it is that it supports ddr2 and ddr3 so enables you a future proof setup the board will take upto 8gig ddr2 and 4gig ddr3 see for more

http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?M ... 35-WiFi%2b

aria computers have it online but not in stock at the mo

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Componen ... 775+(Intel)/ASROCK+4CORE1600P35-WIFI++Intel+P35%2F+ICH9R+(775)+Motherboard+?productId=30166

yes asrock are classed as budget boards, but make good stepover boards allowing you to update gradually. I used a similar asrock board to make the step from agp to pci-e when that hit the shops a few years back, and it was great actually i still have the board in my kids machine and am looking at getting this one so can make the move to ddr3 when they drop in price a bit.

add to that a core 2 for example the Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 LGA775 'Wolfdale' 3.00GHz (1333FSB) from overclockers for £146

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showprodu ... subcat=793

and Corsair 4GB DDR2 XMS2 PC2-6400C5 TwinX (2x2GB) for just under £70

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showprodu ... subcat=813

and you got the makings of a reasonbly capable system or if the budget will allow it go right for the ddr3 but if not the board will run ddr 2 from the 667,800 and 1066 range so as i said earlier a good allround stepup board for future proofing your computer needs.

I purchased all the bits from www.overclockers.co.uk carefully selecting from there offers.

All except the case and PSU which i acquired from friends. (using an antec p120 case and a tagan 480Watt PSU) Thinking about it the Processor came from a friend NIB (ordered 2 by mistake) and saved me £30 on the current price at the time.

Worth noting if your planning on going 4gb, you will need a 64bit OS in order to see it all.

Other places ive used before and been happy with are:
www.microdirect.com
www.ccl-computers.co.uk
www.ebuyer.com
www.scan.co.uk (but only because i have a life time free delivery deal with them)

On the shuttle note, ive owned 3 in a row and never had a problem with heat. But have seen a friends old one suffer whilst under load. The only reason i didnt go shuttle again this time was because they seemed to be so out of tune price wise compared to a traditional box. They always used to cost more...but i didnt mind paying a little more. It now seems that a shuttle equivalent will instantly add £150-200 to the price of a traditional tower case build.

I can sell you a top quality PSU and some top quality case fans

Oh, and Shuttle's are fine mate

Great stuff fellas!

Im happy to buy from any of you IT equip guys if you can do me a deal.

Shuttle or not..