Greetings & Salutations

[diaboluz666]

Hello all..

8) im a noob here. cutting to the chase, i just would like to ask a learned opinion from the good ppl of TechARP about the pc specs that i've compiled.

i'm planning to build (or rather ask sumone to help build) a pc with these parts. i'm not too familiar with hardware compatibility issues, hardware rating etc, etc. i'm currently working on a budget (which is already maxed out) of MYR3000.00 (around USD921.00)

any comments/input would be most helpful

humbly,
me

CPU
Intel Core 2 Duo Processor E6750
(2.66 GHz, 4MB/1333 FSB)

RAM
Corsair 2GB SATA DDR II - 667 RAM

HARD DISK
250 GB Seagate Barracuda SATA 3 HDD (16 MB)

DVD/RW
Asus 20x (SATA) LightScribe

GFX CARD
Gigabyte GF8800 GT (512 MB) DD3

MOTHERBOARD
Gigabyte GA-P35C-DS3R (Socket 775)/
intel P35/PCI-E/Dual DDR2&3/S+

SOUNDCARD
Creative SB 5.1

MONITOR
17” DIGITAL ViewSonic E70FSB Black (CRT)

POWER SUPPLY
-
(*I have no idea how 2 go about dis wattage/brand). suggestions, pls)

[Chai]

Skip the Creative sound card, unless you are getting something high end, just stick to the onboard.

HDD are really cheap now, the excellent WD 500GB costs below RM400.

[Max_87]

Get a 400-450W PSU. Anything from Antec, Corsair, Silverstone, Enermax, PCP&C, Mushkin, etc. would do the job just fine, just don't get those very cheap 400W PSU.

If you need reviews, check here: JonnyGURU.com - Power Supply Reviews and more! - News

[diaboluz666]

Originally Posted by Chai

Skip the Creative sound card, unless you are getting something high end, just stick to the onboard.

HDD are really cheap now, the excellent WD 500GB costs below RM400.

To Chai,

Pardon me if how im replying is wrong. i'm new in forums as well. but, refering to your suggestion on the sound card bit, would onboard be able to churn out good sound as opposed to the (less than entry level) SB 5.1? my friend suggested the same thing as you did, but, someone did tell me that as a rule of thumb, anything onboard wouldnt be as good as add-ons (e.g. mid-range graphics card vs. high-to-mid range integrated graphics accellerator). i'm a music fan who is quite particular about sound, but with a budget. Thank you for your 2 cents. 8)

To Max_87,

Thank you for your input as well, just a question to add, though. would a 400-450W (good brand) PSU be able tp support my specs. Thank you.

[The_YongGrand]

Originally Posted by diaboluz666

To Chai,

Pardon me if how im replying is wrong. i'm new in forums as well. but, refering to your suggestion on the sound card bit, would onboard be able to churn out good sound as opposed to the (less than entry level) SB 5.1? my friend suggested the same thing as you did, but, someone did tell me that as a rule of thumb, anything onboard wouldnt be as good as add-ons (e.g. mid-range graphics card vs. high-to-mid range integrated graphics accellerator). i'm a music fan who is quite particular about sound, but with a budget. Thank you for your 2 cents. 8)

To Max_87,

Thank you for your input as well, just a question to add, though. would a 400-450W (good brand) PSU be able tp support my specs. Thank you.

Well, I'm not pretty sure about it, but if you have good speakers, and always listen to music, it's optional to have a soundcard. Nowadays, the sound systems in the computer is pretty comparable, adequate and enough for daily usage.

And the rest of the PC is fine too.

[peaz]

Yup. On board sound cards are pretty good these days and even supports 5.1 output etc.

As chai mentioned as well, go 500GB for the hard disk, it's cheap enough today to do so.

As for the monitor, why not LCD? it's dirt cheap too these days! if you don't need high resolution, a nice 19" LCD should be just around RM700? or maybe less?!

[Max_87]

Originally Posted by diaboluz666

To Chai,

Pardon me if how im replying is wrong. i'm new in forums as well. but, refering to your suggestion on the sound card bit, would onboard be able to churn out good sound as opposed to the (less than entry level) SB 5.1? my friend suggested the same thing as you did, but, someone did tell me that as a rule of thumb, anything onboard wouldnt be as good as add-ons (e.g. mid-range graphics card vs. high-to-mid range integrated graphics accellerator). i'm a music fan who is quite particular about sound, but with a budget. Thank you for your 2 cents. 8)

To Max_87,

Thank you for your input as well, just a question to add, though. would a 400-450W (good brand) PSU be able tp support my specs. Thank you.

Yes. Your system will at most (worst case scenario) consumes somewhere around 200-250W when both your CPU & GPU are fully loaded, so 400W is plenty.

As for the sound card, I doubt you can notice anything different between SB 5.1 and onboard sound. Onboard sound these days are totally unlike the old ones which was really crappy (back in PII/PIII/Celeron era). I had a SB 7.1 24-bit, no difference at all compared to my mainboard's built-in sound. You will have to spend more if you really want anything better than onboard sound

[fiddler]

You came to the right place diaboluz666. These forums are the best. Have alook at this PSU Corsair modular 520W
dabs.com - Corsair Memory 520 Watt, ATX, EPS12V, PS/2, Modular Power Supply (CMPSU-520HXUK)
maybe modular is standard these days, but you just plug in the cables you need, and it's much tidier than in the old days. I just upgraded an old system and used one of these.
fiddler

[fiddler]

..another thing, why not try Chai's suggestion about using onboard sound? I kept the SB Audigy card that I inherited (must be about 5 yrs old) and it causes the odd fatal error and reboot, and I can't update drivers that don't create more problems. You're probably getting the latest SB so the drivers should be OK, but try the onboard sound, and if it's not adequate for your ears you can always add a card. Then you have cash to spare for the 500GB HD
That's a good mobo - same as what I used.
And try building it yourself - it's easy. I'm an old git and managed to build two and fix up this recent one - with help from the ARP team I hasten to say

fiddler

[Adrian Wong]

Unless you talking about audiophile-grade cards like the Auzen Prelude 7.1, onboard audio works just as well as any consumer-grade sound card.

The only advantage of buying add-on sounds cards is to offload audio processing to the sound card. Onboard audio uses your CPU to process, so it sucks up a little of your CPU resources.

Max_87 is correct. 400-450W should be more than enough for your CPU. However, do note that he's recommending QUALITY power supplies. When it comes to PSUs, quality determines how accurate the wattage rating is. So, a quality 400-450W PSU will actually give you more "useful" power than a cheap 600W PSU.