Critique my Build

T

tickle_me_emo

[H]ard|Gawd
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Nov 30, 2006
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My Father has an aging Dell (7 years old) that he wants to replace. He liked the idea of me building him one with rather than buying from Dell again (though we've had no major problems with our Dell machines). This would be my first build too, so i need a little bit of help and encouragement. Money isn't really an object, though i'm trying to build him a machine with good value that will hopefully last 5 years or so. He mostly uses it for MS Office apps, web surfing and finance, but he does game once in a while, and i'm sure i'll install some games on it as well. I also liked the idea of making the computer somewhat silent so some parts are thought of with silence in mind. This is going to a whole build from scratch so i'll need a monitor and all the accessories (except a mouse).

I will buy almost every thing from newegg (for convenience), though there are some parts I want that they do not sell.

Is there anything I overlooked? Any cables I should buy? Any parts you wouldn't buy? I'm mostly worried about the monitor choice since I spent the least time researching it. There's not many direct comparisons between monitors, and the display forum here is quit a mess. Is there any way I could get newegg to drop the shipping charge since i'm spending so much money there?

Monitor
LG - 24" Widescreen Flat-Panel LCD Monitor
I read some reviews on this forum and seems like a decent choice. I can also buy it at a brick and mortar store so I can return it without a restocking fee if there are dead/stuck pixels.

Case
Antec P182
It's a good case for silent computing

CPU
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
Good value, should last 5 years, don't really care about the stepping I'll probably o/c it to 3.0ghz.

Mobo
ABIT IP35 Pro
I think this is one of the best p35 mobos, it has all the bells and whistles i need.

GPU
XFX GeForce 8800GT
It's a really good value and should be okay for gaming at 1920x1200. Hopefully it's in stock when I need to buy it. If newegg is OOS when I plan to make my purchase I'll try to find the cheapest card with the lifetime warranty. I'll probably mod this with an aftermarket heatsink if they come out with a suitable one.

Ram
Patriot 2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR2 800
I'm just looking for cheap name brand ram that'll o/c the quad to 3.6ghz if I choose to push it that far. I am getting 4 gigs so this computer can last 5+ years.

PSU
CORSAIR CMPSU-550VX
Efficient and quiet PSU. 550w should be enough for the parts I have chosen.

HDD
Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD5000AAKS
This is one of the quiter big harddrives. I'll probably 2 of these, one for backup.

DVD Drive
Pioneer Black 18X DVD
I heard these were quiet sata drives. I'll probably get 2.

Sound Card
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer
This is the cheapest card that will help in games and take some of the load off the CPU.

Heatsink
Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme
This is the best air cooling heatsink.

Card Reader
Rosewill RCR-FD200 All-in-one USB 2.0 Black 3.5" Card Reader with 1.44MB Floppy Drive
I don't really know if this is a decent card reader, I just choose it incase I ever needed to do something with a floppy disk.

OS
Vista 64 bit oem. Hopefully i'll run into few driver issues.

Keyboard
Saitek PK02 2-Tone 104
Cheap and backlit.

Speakers
Logitech X-530 70 watts
Don't need anything too fancy anything is better than the speaker dell has. I don't think there's enough room for a 7.1 system.

Fans
YATE LOON 120mm Case Fan - D12SL-12
Quiet and a great value.

Misc
AS5
???
 
I think this system is a bit overkill. Especially for just word docs and web surfing. Are you and your father both going to be using this system? Meaning you don't have your own?

But while I'm here, a few parts critique:

Ditch the sound card. Onboard sound has gotten pretty good these days and unlike several years ago, it does not take large amount of resources any more. In fact, the resources onboard sound uses is very very very minuscule.

What is it about the IP35 Pro that you like? Like which features, exactly?

Remember that all of the P182's features are now part of the general population of P180s and P180Bs. So the only big difference now are color options:
Antec P180 ATX Case - $120
Antec P180B ATX Case - $125
Antec P182 ATX Case - $129

As for the HSF, get this combo instead:
Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme HSF - $57 & Scythe S-Flex SFF21E 120MM Case Fan - $14

As for RAM, OCing with 4 sticks of RAM has proven problematic for many. Some people get higher OCs with just two sticks. So you may want to think about getting 2 x 2GB sticks of RAM.
 
Yeah it's a bit overkill, but I can't pass up cheap quads and ram. I have my own computer, a 17inch gaming laptop (but no dx10). I'm still in college and I visit my parents a lot, so i'd ocasionally be using the newly built computer.

You're right I should probably ditch the sound card. And if I do that I won't have to deal with creative drivers in Vista. I also might not need to spend $160 on the mobo. But the abit doesn't seem to have as many problems as other motherboard makers. Asus, uses 20 more watts than other p35 mobo (more heat means more cooling means louder PC), Foxconn and MSI seem to have more complaints about them. Gigabyte has some good models, but the dq6 is expensive (and i think discontinued) and their lower end models don't have firewire or e-sata.

I know antec is switching their P180 old models with the newer ones, but i'd like to make sure I get one with the better mobo tray.

I know scythes are good, but they're expensive, I plan to use 4 case fans. But I might as well buy the heatsink from jabtech since it's cheaper there.

Are you sure it's possible that i might have a hard time o/cing this thing to 3ghz? I thought the issue with 4 dimms was at higher rated speeds? Surely 4 800mhz dimms can stay at 667mhz? I don't really want to go 2x2 gigs of ram since they cost 50% more than 4x1 gigs of ram.
 
The GA-P35-DS3R comes with an add-on to turn two onboard SATA ports in two eSATA ports. Does your father need firewire? If he needs eSATA and firewire, then the IP35 Pro is a good choice then.

Well actually I was recommending that you use the Scythe Fan with the Ultra 120 Extreme, not as actual case fans. The Yate Loons are a good choice for case fans but for a HSF, I recommend getting the Scythe Fan.

Another good alternative to the Ultra 120 Extreme is the Ultima 90:
Thermalright Ultima-90 HSF - $46 & Panaflo FBA09A12M 92mm Fan - $3

Not really sure actually if there's any problem with 4x1GB overclocking if its below its rated speed.

Oh and you can get the PSU for cheaper and with free shipping:
Corsair VX550 550W PSU - $91
 
The Gigabyte DS3R and higher come with a PCI bracket to convert 2 of the 8 internal SATA ports into eSATA ports. The DS3P and DS4 both have Firewire; both of which are excelllent alternatives to the IP35 Pro, imo. The IP35 Vanilla is also a good choice.

You should be fine with 4x1GB, but if you want to lessen your chances of problems, 2x2GB is better.

EDIT: Danny beat me to it... I didn't bother to check before I replied, lol. I strongly agree with the Ultima90 + Panaflo fan.
 
Great build - very similar to my wishlist for my new gaming rig.

Except I'm opting for:
Silverstone TJ-09 case - I hate a door on a case which I have to open/close when I want to turn on so this is the next best thing.

Corsair 620-HX - seems to have gotten great reviews.
 
I agree with Danny Bui that's it a good bit of an overkill system for web surfing and office. If it's truly intended to be a gaming machine, on the other hand, my one concern would be paring a single 8800 GT with a 1920x1200 resolution. At this resolution, GTX and Ultra SLI become viable if you want to run games at native res with high settings. If that matters to you, at least consider two GTs in SLI, or a single Ultra card if you're set on a P35 board.

Mark.
 
I agree with Mark/Danny and mat.

If you want to use 4x1GB ram config, consider some lower voltage sticks instead, like the G.Skill NQ kit, or the A-Data kit. One of the problems seen with 4 sticks of RAM is power... there isn't enough voltage being delivered to the 4th stick, especially if they all have high voltage ratings (above 1.9v).
 
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