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Building my First Machine

E

Erdrick

n00b
Joined
Feb 21, 2008
Messages
12
Seven years ago, a friend of mine built me a computer, and I've finally run it into the ground. I'm ready for a new computer. My friend, however, now lives far away, and after staring down the barrel of Dell for a while I decided to build one myself. My friend consulted this site extensively while deliberating about parts, so here I am.

I want a powerful gaming machine that will last another seven years. I don't play FPSs, just MMORPGs. I'm currently playing WoW and City of Heroes and would like to smoke those games and be in good standing for future releases. I'm willing to spend upwards of $1500 all told.

It will be a ground-up build. I do still have the case and keyboard and such but they're old and dirty and if I'm building a new computer why not have everything new and shiny? I will still be using my monitor, though (you can have my CTR when you pry it from my cold, dead, hands).

Here's what I'm thinking, looking at what's up today on NewEgg:

Hard Drive
Western Digital Raptor WD1500ADFD 150GB 10,000 RPM SATA 1.5Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
$169.99

Processor
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz LGA 775 Quad-Core Processor Model BX80562Q6600 - Retail
$254.99

Video Card
XFX PVT88PYDE4 GeForce 8800GT Extreme 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail
$239.99

Those parts I'm pretty sure about. I'm less confident about these choices:

Motherboard
GIGABYTE GA-EP35-DS3P LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Dynamic Energy Saver Ultra Durable II Intel Motherboard - Retail
$154.99

Memory
CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TWIN2X2048-6400C4 - Retail
$74.00

Power Supply
CORSAIR CMPSU-550VX ATX12V V2.2 550W Power Supply - Retail
$99.99

Fan
ZEROtherm Nirvana NV120 120mm 2-ball UFO Bearing / Transparent CPU Cooler - Retail
$49.99

Case
Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail
$99.99

OS (lost my Windows disk years ago)
Microsoft Windows XP Home Upgrade with SP2 - Retail
$98.99

CD/etc. Drives
LITE-ON 20X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe Black SATA Model LH-20A1L-06 - Retail
$32.99
SONY Black 1.44MB 3.5" Internal Floppy Drive Windows 98SE/ ME/ 2000/ XP - OEM
$7.99

Keyboard (my mouse is tolerably new)
Logitech G11 Silver & Black USB Standard Gaming Keyboard - Retail
$58.99

Printer
HP LaserJet P1006 CB411A Up to 17 ppm Laser Personal Monochrome Printer - Retail
$99.99

Total: $1,442.88

So, what obvious mistakes have I made? What compatibility problems am I facing? Where am I wasting money? What efficient upgrades am I overlooking?

Any advice would be appreciated.
 
Here's where you're wasting money:

HDD - Forget those Raptors. Although 10K sounds good and access times are quick, A 500 gig WD Sata 300 7200drive for $100 would be cheaper and just as good with more disk space. Before those Raptors were the sh*t but, now, not recommended. My brother has the 74gig 10K and its filling up already. Plus, those Raptors are only 1.5gb/s transfer rate as opposed to the Sata 3.0gb/s transfer rate on the 7200RPM line.

CPU - Quad is good and is more future proof. A Dual Core will do nicely for a while and they have the E8400 Dual 3.0ghz on Microcenter.com for $199. You can save more if you go this route. However, The Quad is probably more recommended as games will eventually make use of multi core cpus down the road.

Video - The XFX 8800T for $199 after rebate that you mentioned is a good deal. Other cards for $199 also are the EVGA8800GT and MSI NX8800GT on NewEgg. But, since I see your budget, you can go with the 512MB 8800GTS card also. Either the EVGA 8800GTS 512 for $260 after rebate or the MSI NX8800GTS for $250.00 after rebate. This will be faster than the 8800GT for $50-$60 more. The MMORPG games you mentioned, the 8800GT is suffient. But, who knows how advanced these RPG games will become in 7years down the road.

Mobo - Unless you need more USB port a firewire port and need a RAID setup, the Gigabyte GAP35 DS3L for $90 is good already

Memory - The 2 x 1gig DDR2 800 G. Skills for $45 is more a bargain and many on here recommned it. Or...2 x 2gig G. Skill DDR2 800 for $90. You might as well if you plan on sticking with this PC for the next couple of years. By then, 4 gig RAM will be more benefit.

PS - Can't complain about the VX550. But, if you don't plan on overclocking etc. then, a cheaper VX450 or Antc Earthwatts 500 will do also. But, $80 or less after rebate on the VX550 is a good price for that quality PS.

Heatsink - If you are going to overclock, the Tuniq Tower - 120 for $43. The ZEROtherm Nirvana NV120 heatsink you mentioned will do and is $3 cheaper after rebate. But, this Tuniq Tower with the Blue LED fan will look nice in that Antec 900 case if you decide to get that case. That Antec case also has Blue lighted LED fans. But, if you're not going to overclock, then no need to get these 2 coolers. The Antec 900 case has good ventilation.
 
Running your system off one 150GB Raptor isn't going to give you very much disk space. If all you intend to do with the system is running a couple of MMORPGs then that might be okay.. personally I'd be more inclined to buy a Samsung SpinPoint F1 or something. The current Raptors are beginning to look dated against drives with high areal density.

The same question as regards to whether you intend to use it for only MMORPGs comes up with the CPU choice - the Q6600 is a good processor (I have one), but at the current time very few games make good use of multiple cores. It's quite possible that future games will use a quad-core processor fully, but at the current time a dual-core processor clocked higher is better for today's games.

I'd also suggest 4GB of slightly cheaper RAM, but you'd have to go to a 64-bit OS to use that - and that brings up the fact that you might want to consider Vista (x64?), too. While I wouldn't recommend that people upgrade from XP to Vista, I don't think that it's worth buying a new copy of XP over a copy of Vista. But I know a lot of people have the Vista-hate going on.
 
I agree with hardwareguru. Go with the evga 8800gt or the xfx800gt the one for 200 at newegg. Memory go with at least 4gb thats future proof. Q6600s are great and at the price microcenter is selling them damn. Are you going to be overclocking if not you dont need the tuniq tower. the gigabyte p35-ds3l is good or the blood iron.
 
Thank you for the replies.

For the hard drive, storage space is not a priority. I'm used to 32GB so going to even 150 will be dizzying. That's why I found the Raptor tempting; it seems well spec.ed to my intended use: small but fast. I would like to hear more about the relevance of transfer rates and "areal density" to gaming, though.

For the PCU, I think I will go with a dual core instead of a quad. The types of games I like don't seem to be moving to multiple-core utilization very quickly, so while they may start benefiting more from a dual core it will probably be a long time before the quad does me any good.

The motherboard I'm unsure about. The ones that are less than $100 are brands I haven't really heard of. It seems logical to get an Intel 'board because the PCU is Intel but then I'm spending $200+. I don't want to skimp on this piece but don't know what I need.

I like the memory suggestions. I'm glad to see so many 8800GT options. I don't plan to overclock, so I think I'll skip the heatsink, given the quality of the case and its fans.


So my questions are:

Besides stoarge space, what are the advantages of a slower, bigger hard drive over a Raptor? What does the transfer rate effect?

What should I be looking for in a motherboard? The stats in the descriptions of other parts more or less make sense to me, but I find motherbaords bewieldering.
 
Don't buy PSUs at Newegg unless they're on sale, that 550VX is 88.90 with free shipping over at ZZF, and that's without the $15 MIR.
 
The big advantage of a slower bigger harddrive over the Raptor is primarily the price per gb of storage space you pay. But, If HD space does not bother you as much in the long term than the Raptor is good for you. It does show a difference in access time and programs loading due to its 10K rpm spindle speed over 7200rpm. My brother has the 74gb on his PC and I can tell the difference in speed just clicking around windows. The big drawback though, is for certain type of games it does takeup space and will fill up quickly. However, the games you play may not takeup as much space since you were only on a 32gb drive. As far as Mobo, the P35 chipsets are the latest chipsets from Intel that support both the new 45nm Dual Core Wolfdales or 45nm Quad Core Yorkfield cpus. The Gigabyte Mobo you mentioned is a good board. It has 8 SATA ports, RAID feature and 2 x PCI-E slots for Crossfire. If you will be utilizing these features then it would be good to get this board. The board I specified which is the Gigabyte GA-P35DS3l is more basic. It has only 1 x PCI-E slot, 4 x SATA ports, no RAID feature and no firewire. This board is for people who do not care for the added extra features and just want a good solid board that can overclock well.
 
I have a raptor, and even though I've used it every day for a long time, I'm really not impressed by it... It's loud, makes a lot of noise, costs a lot, etc., and game load times, I assume, are quicker - but I never noticed the difference. I'd just go for like a 500gb drive personally.
 
Dood, the antec 900 is a beast. I love it. Otehrwise, I would also suggest teh 4GB and vista 64.
 
Avg Transfer Rate, Access Time: HDD info, Price I paid (except for raptor - twas a gift)
**note, these figures come from HDTune, a synthetic benchmark for HDDs.

112MB/s, 13.2ms: RAID0 'cuda's, 600GB total, $120 (ICH9R on P35-DS3R)
90MB/s, 16.5ms: WD Caviar SE16 WD3200AAKS-00B3A0, $95 (NEW single 320GB/platter)
78MB/s, 08.2ms: WD Raptor WD1500ADFD 150GB, $160
76MB/s, 13.7ms: WD Caviar SE16 WD7500AAKS 750GB, $150
72MB/s, 15.4ms: Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3250410AS 250GB, $65
62MB/s, 15.3ms: Samsung HD501LJ 500GB, $105
52MB/s, 14.0ms: WD Caviar SE16 WD2500KS 250GB, $70

While the old raptors were great drives of their time, they're no longer the best drive around. While they're still the fastest seeking non-scsi drives, newer gen SATA drives have faster transfer rates. Basically, seek time is how long it takes to find the data you're looking for, and transfer rate is how fast the drive can get all of that data to you. The new 320GB per platter drives will be the fastest drives out. A new raptor will also be released, using that same density platter -- should be here by summer.
 
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