Finally built my quad core pc, special thanks to T4i

Hello everyone,

Just though I'd let everyone know I finally built my PC. After a long time thinking about it, I managed to build it in about an hour at most.

I had a great deal of support and advice from everyone so special thanks especially to T4i who really helped me out. Heres the specification and how it faired against my budget.

Antec 900 case wih additional 120mm side fan (five fans in total)
Asus P5n-e sli motherboard (nvidia 650i chipset)
Intel q6600 2.40ghz quad core processor
Corsair 2 x 1gb DDR2 800mhz ram Twin XMS2
Seagate Barracuda 500gb 16mb cache SATA II drive
Radeon Sapphire 256mb HD Pro (never play games hence budget card)
Arctic Power 700w PSU
LG 18x SATA DVD RW
Mitsumi floppy and all in one card reader

Have partitioned drive, with Windows XP Professional on one and Windows Vista Ultimate 64 bit on the other.

Total build cost was £470 (budget was £500). Havent build a PC for about five years but thought it was time I gave it ago.

Let me know what you guys think.

Imran

P.S. As I dont many games on my PC, my other major use is to download especially games for my 360 please see my post about newsgroup and advise if you can. Thanks

nice build m8,what`s the case like for cable management?

dave24 said:

nice build m8,what`s the case like for cable management?

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Hello Dave24,

wanted to say special thanks to you too but couldnt remember what numbers you had after 24 and the thread had dropped down the pages.

The case is brilliant, but the cable management requires some time and thought. As the psu is at the bottom, the four pin 12v connection has to go from there to the top of the motherboard and doesnt reach around, so has to go straight across it, am looking for an extension at the moment.

It has two adjustable cable management large clips secured around the edge so many of the main cables can be secured safely. It takes time to manage the cabling for the four fans and the fifth fan I added, but a they run straight off the psu and not the fan slots on the board, it is quite flexible.

I've ordered some akasa cable ties to deal with the problem now, so will try and get you a pic of it when its properly finished, which after all the software installation and messing about may take me a while, as i'm still playing with my new toy.

Regards

Imran

post up a few pics m8 and where did you buy the parts ?

allroad said:

post up a few pics m8 and where did you buy the parts ?

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Hiya mate,

have never posted pics on here whats the easiest way and i'll take some asap.

I got the bits from all over the place, cclonline.com, novatech.co.uk, found some suppliers via ebay. My only condition in buying was it had to be brand new with warranty and thats it.

cclonline.com have special offers everyday, so was lucky to find couple of bits in there especially the case. Although I am in dispute with them at the moment at one item they are yet to deliver, but havent although they state they did, but thats another story.

Regards

Imran

is this what you`re looking for http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=34109&doy=18m8&criteria=12v extension cable

imranrasool said:

Hello Dave24,

wanted to say special thanks to you too but couldnt remember what numbers you had after 24 and the thread had dropped down the pages.

The case is brilliant, but the cable management requires some time and thought. As the psu is at the bottom, the four pin 12v connection has to go from there to the top of the motherboard and doesnt reach around, so has to go straight across it, am looking for an extension at the moment.

It has two adjustable cable management large clips secured around the edge so many of the main cables can be secured safely. It takes time to manage the cabling for the four fans and the fifth fan I added, but a they run straight off the psu and not the fan slots on the board, it is quite flexible.

I've ordered some akasa cable ties to deal with the problem now, so will try and get you a pic of it when its properly finished, which after all the software installation and messing about may take me a while, as i'm still playing with my new toy.

Regards

Imran

Click to expand...

dave24 said:

is this what you`re looking for http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=34109&doy=18m8&criteria=12v extension cable

Click to expand...

mate you're a complete star, that was the only wire which was across the board and annoying me, i'll def grab that and sort that wire out, thanks a bunch. When I got it all as I want it, will def send you a pic or two and the case mate is a must have, it is freezing inside it.

no probs m8

imranrasool said:

mate you're a complete star, that was the only wire which was across the board and annoying me, i'll def grab that and sort that wire out, thanks a bunch. When I got it all as I want it, will def send you a pic or two and the case mate is a must have, it is freezing inside it.

Click to expand...

If I was you.....with the asus m/b you have.....I would have bought 4 lower capacity HDs instead of one 500gb and configure it in a raid 0 configuration. You'll definitely see the speed when accessing data from the HD or during booting-up.

The speed bottleneck is still in the i/o from the disk to memory. Or maybe later just upgrade by adding another 4 HD in raid 0 configuration which is where you install your os. Then just make your 500GB HD as file and data storage.

I have myself built a dual core AMD and with the 4 disk sata II raid 0 setup, a fresh Windows XP install boots up in less than 10 secs.

hiya kentw,

I dont really mind how quickly windows boots up, as even with the size of the drive, it starts up real quick and is ready to use within seconds.

In terms of data retrieval or access, it is amazingly quick and couldnt even contemplate having it any quicker. I'm sure it would be even quicker if I was to follow your advice, but am more than happy with how it operates at the moment.

I may however, change my mind later and do exactly what you have recommended as everything starts to look slow sooner or later. lol.

i`ve just swapped over from 4 drives in 2x 0raid to 2 single drives a 500gb and a 200gb and the speed difference is non negiotable,but the system is running cooler without the 2 extra hdds in.

Glad to see you like your new toy.

I'm abit pissed off with CCL though as I recommended them and you seem to be having probs with them?

Typical! I dont have one spot of bother from them in the last 7 years but you get a problems after one order......

SHIT!