Hello nice computer people! I think I am going to take the plunge pretty soon after exams, give me something to do in the holidays! >.<

Anyway attached is an image of my basket, but I've never done anything by components before so I'm just checking I don't need to get anything else.

I'm going to rip the sound card out of this one (it does me fine and is 5.1), and maybe one of the CD drives, I've got this monitor, and have yet to add the graphics card as that's the hard one to decide - just depends what money I want to spend overall. But do I need to add shit like IDE cables and whatnots? Also have I picked any hooters that you can spot? :D

Any help much appreciated :)

IDE or SATA cables will come with the mobo usually. Only slight criticism is that it's a fairly cheap mobo. Personal experience suggests that it's always better to spend £70 or so (more the better) in order to get a decent board. Rest looks fine though!

Oh, and also worth noting is that standard AMD coolers tend to be less-than-quiet. I'd reccomend replacing the cooler at some point. Again from personal experience, the Zalman CNPS9500 absolutely rocks bollocks! But you can of course easily do this after you've bought the thing.

As Dave!! said, I'd recommend getting a better motherboard (Asus, Abit, maybe DFI if you can afford it). Other than that, my advice would be to get a Crucial Ballistix memory kit - they work at tighter timings and I don't think the price difference is that big at all.

The PSU should be fine, I currently luuurve Seagete, make sure you have enough fans for cooling (1 front and 1 rear should be more than enough), again get a silent(er :& ) CPU fan, and you could even get an ATi/NV Silencer for your graphics card of choice, which will be considerably quieter and will expel the hot air outside the case straight away. Also try to have the front intake fan blowing on the hard drive(s), it will only do them good. Or ask Trig tbh.

I mean its upto you really......... I mean come one......

Technlogy that isnt fully used yet............

I mean........... its up to you ........... but...........

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http://www.techneek.co.uk/reviews/Zalman-CNPS95/19.html

Heavy heavy heavy and large.. I would not choose Dave!!'s recommendations.

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That's the plan!

Also thanks to other peeps, I will look at other motherboards.

If I'm buying a fan/cooler do I need anything specific or will they all fit to whatever case/mobo?

Cool beanses. Think I've got it sorted now - whole system for about £750.

About graphics cards - there's no reason to go for a particular make, is there? And I take it 7800GTs are the cream of the crop at the moment?

Hello Nice People I have another question.

What is the best way to get Windows?

The computer I have at the moment was bought built from Evesham, so the License is on the computer. Can I use this key and just download Windoze (seeing as I don't have an XP CD, just two 'recovery' CDs.

But if this is not possiblé, I don't want to Jimlad XP properly, so I'd want to buy it. But the only student License I can seem to find is the Student Pro Upgrade one! So I take it I already need a windoze for that to work? It's all very confusing.

Also might it be better to wait for Vista so I don't have to pay mondo upgrade costs or is that too far in the future/ not really that much anyway.

Thanks for your help!