When your name is computhomas you have to get a new computer once in a while. My current workhorse was bought in march 2004 and although it was a solid pal most of the last years it didn’t make much fun to work with it for the last half year. A rising noice level, more and more bluescreens and slowness - maybe a cleaning of the hardware and a fresh install could help to push the next purchase a bit further, but no, it is time for a new one

The current pc was purchased at a discount supermarket, cause at that time I couldn’t find anything better for the same money. It was the first pc that i did not build personally and i didn’t regret it. I also said to myself, that I won’t build one myself ever again. But here I am, three years later, with a rising desire for putting the parts together - bringing a new monster to life …

Jeff Atwood made the desire even stronger by documenting his build for Scott Hanselman. The last few month I spend investigating for the best hardware i could get while keeping the total price reasonable.

That is the final list i came up with:

• Case

ENERMAX Uber Chakra ECA5001B Black Aluminum / Steel ATX Full Tower


+ Scythe S-Flex 800 120×25 8.7dBA
The case is mostly a matter of taste. I want something not to boring, still it should be quiet and cool. In the past I would have decided on the inside components first and then bought a cheap case and PSU - now I know how important these things are.

• PSU

CORSAIR CMPSU-520HX 520 Watt Power Supply


Corsair get their PSU from Seasonic, which is known for good and silent units. I wanted something with cable management and trust the Corsair brand, so I decided fast on this.

• Mainboard

Asus P5K


The only question here was: Asus or Gigabyte. I decided for Asus, because of good experience with their boards. I don’t need WLAN, VGA on board or any other specials, so i decided for the basic board, which is amazing cheap.

• CPU

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz LGA 775 Processor - G0 Stepping (SLACR)


I decided on this one already in June, knowing that the price will drop immense. When they started to bring out a second revision, with lower power consumption, i decided to wait for it.

• CPU-Cooling

Zalman CNPS9700LED

This was a difficult decision. A lot of people prefer Scythe or Thermalright coolers but they won’t fit into the big chakra case, cause of the side fan. Some say that the Zalman is to loud but reviews show that it ist quiet at slowly rotation and still has good temperatures.

• RAM

2048MB(2×1024MB) DDR2 FSB800 Corsair XMS2 Xtreme Performance TwinX Matched | PC2-6400 | CL5 | 1.9 V


Wow, RAM is cheap.

• Graphics

Gainward BLISS 8800GTS PCX TV Dual DVI | Grafikadapter | GF 8800 GTS | PCI Express x16 | 640 MB GDDR3
The most expensive part of the new build. Gainward is normally silent, else there is almost no difference between the cards of the manufacturers.

• HDD

SAMSUNG SpinPoint T Series HD501LJ 500GB 7200 RPM SATA


Storage is cheap also. I didn’t want to pay the premium for a faster spinning disk, so it had to be 7200 for now.

• Burner

Pioneer (Bulk) DVR-212 SATA black
I don’t want IDE cables in my case.

• Sound

Creative SB X-Fi Xtreme Music Bulk
Since my birthday I have a Teufel 5.1 system under my desk, which is insulted by stereo sound at the moment.

• Mouse

Microsoft USB Wired Laser Habu Gaming Mouse


I need a new mouse also. I have a loyal friendship with my IntelliMouse for years, so I decided to go with Microsoft again. The razer precision isn’t bad as well - and it glows blue - like my case

• Keyboard

Microsoft USB Wired Ergonomics Reclusa Gaming Keyboard


Blue also.

This will sum up to around 1300 Euro. I will write again when the hardware arrives - I can’t wait much longer!

Read part 2 of the building a new computer series.

Read part 3 of the building a new computer series here.

Read part 4 of the building a new computer series here.