Finalised PC spec - Taking into consideration peoples opinions

[southeastblue]

You're all probably sick of me keep posting about desktops computers, but I think I've finally settled on a spec for my tight budget and I'll probably start buying the parts as of next week after I've sold a some things on ebay.

Anyway gives us your opinions on what I now hope to build after taking in what others have advised.

I know somebody mentioned thermal cooling paste (Arctic Silver) but do I really need it if the retail CPU I'm getting comes with some already?

I've also taken a good look at some building guides of which may be of some use to others should anyone want them?

Think I'm confident enough to at least attempt building now.

[makaio]

If you're not planning on overclocking this box, you really don't need to be getting anything other than the thermal compound which comes on the heatsink.

Good luck with your build! :-)

[AnthonyG]

That spec looks pretty decent to me, seems a bargain TBH that its only £204.

The only slight thing worth mentioning is the DVD drive, are you meaning to go for an IDE?, as SATA truly is the connector for the future and if the Asus board has four SATA ports there would be no hardship going down the all SATA route (plus you wont then need to mess around with IDE drivers, which are often a pain, and also worrying about Jumper configurations).

As a suggestion for an equal priced alternative the Optiarc 7200s is a better performing drive than the LG (according to reviews I have read) and is only 19p more.

Optiarc AD-7200S 20X DVD±RW/DL/RAM Internal SATA Bare Black Drive - OEM

With regards to thermal paste, if the CPU has some inside the box then you do not need to buy separate.

Hope this is some help

[southeastblue]

Yano I clicked that DVD drive because it was the cheapest I wasn't fussed at what make it was, but thanks for pointing out the IDE issue.

I did intend to use Sata for both hard drive and the DVD so I better change that one.

Looks like I've chosen OK then!

PS I'm not too fussed about overclocking, although if I could on this MOBO then I wouldn't mind upping a tiny bit but it's not that important.

[EndlessWaves]

The advantage of going for an IDE DVD drive is that it leaves the SATA ports free for more drives or to be converted to eSATA ports (the motherboard doesn't come with any). Jumpers shouldn't be a deciding factor - even in the worst case they're not going to be any more than a five minute distraction.