Bedroom PC in planning
Posted: Wed Oct 14, 2009 3:32 am
I am in the process of planning a new PC for my bedroom. Currently I own a Core Duo laptop, which is perfectly enough for me in terms of performance, but it's very noisy and doesn't play nice with my HD monitor.
Researching my options I found a review about the new Celeron processors and their low power usage and decided that the E3200 is probably just perfect for my purposes.
I am now looking for a cheapish but reliable motherboard to go with it. I want to have DVI output on it as I trust that more than a D-Sub. I am now looking at the Gigabyte GA-EG41MF-US2H and the MSI G41M-FIDP as candidates, or maybe something from Intel. I couldn't find much information about either, especially about undervolting possibilities (in case the Celeron needs a little help with running passively).
For the rest of the parts, I'm considering some Geil Green RAMs, a quiet HDD (haven't decided yet between a 2.5" notebook drive or a Spinpoint EcoGreen F2), and a mATX case on the smaller side - current find is the Sharkoon Rush case, but it needs more research before I decide. I haven't researched PSU's yet (maybe a picoPSU? depends on the case), and no ODD is needed as I prefer it external.
Do you have any advice regarding this setup? No parts are 100% decided yet so any input would be helpful.
(PS. I did look into the AMD option, thought it was fantastic value, but I don't think I need the extra performance. I also looked at the Atoms, but they are a hair below what I need - I love Flash games.)
Researching my options I found a review about the new Celeron processors and their low power usage and decided that the E3200 is probably just perfect for my purposes.
I am now looking for a cheapish but reliable motherboard to go with it. I want to have DVI output on it as I trust that more than a D-Sub. I am now looking at the Gigabyte GA-EG41MF-US2H and the MSI G41M-FIDP as candidates, or maybe something from Intel. I couldn't find much information about either, especially about undervolting possibilities (in case the Celeron needs a little help with running passively).
For the rest of the parts, I'm considering some Geil Green RAMs, a quiet HDD (haven't decided yet between a 2.5" notebook drive or a Spinpoint EcoGreen F2), and a mATX case on the smaller side - current find is the Sharkoon Rush case, but it needs more research before I decide. I haven't researched PSU's yet (maybe a picoPSU? depends on the case), and no ODD is needed as I prefer it external.
Do you have any advice regarding this setup? No parts are 100% decided yet so any input would be helpful.
(PS. I did look into the AMD option, thought it was fantastic value, but I don't think I need the extra performance. I also looked at the Atoms, but they are a hair below what I need - I love Flash games.)