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Build your own PC: a buyer’s guide

Manek Dubash ZDNet.co.uk

Published: 23 Jan 2004

Internal peripherals

Next up for consideration was storage. We opted for a two-disk RAID0 subsystem that offers a good compromise between speed, noise and cost, and selected a pair of 120GB Seagate 7,200rpm Barracuda SATA drives (£65.11 ex. VAT each), which operate very quietly.

Hard disks: a pair of Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 SATA drives configured as RAID0.

For removable storage, Plextor's £135.32 (ex. VAT) PX-708A is an excellent device, can handle DVD+R/RW and –R/RW media, and writes to CD-RWs at 24-speed (24X) and CD-Rs at 40X. As well as delivering a range of cutting-edge features, the PX-708A is also quieter than most DVD burners.

Removable storage: Plextor PX-708A multi-format DVD burner.

Graphics next, and the GPU of choice here is ATI’s Radeon 9800 in the shape of a Hercules 3D Prophet All-in-Wonder 9800 SE with AGP 8X and 128MB of DDR memory. Although this is a top-end product costing £165.85 (ex. VAT), it allows the latest games to be played. And just as importantly for our purposes, the All-in-Wonder 9800 SE also includes a TV tuner, allowing our system to be used as a digital video recorder.