Gordo

Anyone know a good site that can help a relative novice (me) put one together? I'm happy with all the main bits and used to taking them apart etc - get a bit flummoxed when it comes to choosing mother board, cooling required etc

cheers
Gordo

super_si

IF your after a pentium 4 board im selling mine!

Abit TH7 II Raid! Supports the newest type ram at the moment and is damm quick! Selling hard drive and a PSU so could bundle them together

New my motherboards still holding at £150 i saw today!

Cooling! I choose the Zalman i was disappointed at 1st and replaced it with the Intel one but i soon noticed the difference! £30 well spent!

Si

DominicA

try www.tomshardware.com they should have what you're after... it'll be easier/safer to build a P4 (due to heat), but it also opens up more choices with regard to memory/FSB speed/motherboard/cpu size etc...

ptholt

I second dom's advice.

I'd always built pentuims till they released the p3 and never had any problems. when p3 came out at some silly price i decided to try athlons.

As a first time athlon builder i found them fiddly, VERY temperature dependant and a complete pain, constantly checking for patches to get all the kit working together (some boards had issues with certain sound + video cards etc).

My next machine will definately be returning the pentium fold, it aint cheap but at least i won't be spending days with different patches etc trying to get it all working and keeping the temps down.

GCollier

I've built several athlon based machines, and would agree with the points above on heat issues and need for patches etc. All my machines have decent cooling (good heat sinks, multiple fans) and PSUs (400w+), yet still run them with the sides off the case to keep them stable for intensive gaming.

I nearly ended up torching the first machine I built as it kept locking up (turned out to be an ABit KT7 MB and SB Live incompatibity). I would strongly recommend having a separate PC on the internet to hand when you do the build, as it will be invaluable for accessing FAQs to diagnose problems if it doesn't work first time, and for downloading latest drivers.

www.kustompcs.co.uk has a good selection of cooling kit, cases etc, and although I've only ordered stuff from them once for a high end PC I was building, their staff were very helpful.

Gary.

AndiThompson

Gary, generally, you can get better airflow through your case with the sides on, meaning that often the case will be cooler, so I'd have a play with your fans and stuff with the sides on.