First Build. Hows it look?

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prollyneedhelp

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Jul 21, 2008
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Im close to purchasing this, but i want some approval from more experienced people..
i plan on this being my main rig; gaming, web, music, media, etc. everything you use a computer for.

Case: Antec P182 Gun Metal Black ATX Mid Tower
CPU: Intel Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz Quad-Core Processor Model HH80562PH0568M G0 Stepping
CPU Cooler: XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler
Motherboard: EVGA 123-YW-E175-A1 LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 750i FTW SLI
RAM: OCZ Reaper HPC Edition 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) OCZ2RPR800C44GK
Hard Drive: Western Digital VelociRaptor WD3000GLFS 300GB 10000 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s
Power Supply: Corsair CMPSU-750TX 750Watt TX750W
Sound Card: Sound Blaster x-Fi PCIe Express Titanium Fatal1ty Professional
DVD Drive: Pioneer Internal DVD/CD Writer Black DVR-115DBK IDE
Video Card XFX GX260NADDU GeForce GTX 260 896MB 448-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0
Thermal Compound: ARCTIC COOLING MX-2
Fans: Scythe S-FLEX SFF21E 120mm 1200 RPM Case Fan
Fan Controller: ZALMAN MFC1 Plus-B Black 6 Channel Multi Fan Controller

thoughts? comments?
any changes i should make before i order?

and as a first time builder, are there any other things that i will need to complete the build?

thanks for the help :)
 
Unless you are going to get 2x GTX 260 and run them in SLI. There is no need to get the 750i motherboard. Look for a cheaper P35 or P45 board instead.

You might want to consider a WD 640 AAKS hdd instead of the raptor..it performs really well and is twice the space. Oh and its not $1 per gig ;)
 
thanks for the replies
the reason for the SLI board is so i have the expandability to go SLI in the future if i need to. when/if sli becomes more efficient and a second gpu will give me +100% i would like to be able to take advantage of it.

and about the hdd, i can get it for half price ($150) through a friend. should i scratch that off even with that discount in mind?

thanks for the feedback :D
 
Toaster Oven said:
IDE? Change that to a SATA drive. Everything else looks solid.
Click to expand...

Actually, given the 750i's distribution of SATA vs PATA ports (4/2, rather than the 6/2 or even 8/2 of Intel-chipset boards), the fact that the 750i's PATA ports are native to the NVIDIA chipset and not the crappy JMicron often found on Intel-chipset boards, and the fact that no DVD drive in existence needs more than 90's-era ATA/33 bandwidth (Blu-ray is another matter), I would say that the choice of a PATA optical drive is solid. And the Pioneer he chose is one of the best. I'd leave that as-is.

If this were a motherboard with an Intel chipset, I'd agree with you though.
 
dhc014 said:
Are you sure that you want to spend $140 on a sound card?
Click to expand...

How much of an audiophile are you? (If you had to look up the definition, chances are that you aren't.)

Onboard sound has progressed to the point that it's acceptable for most users. Try it out first, and then consider a sound card if you're otherwise not satisfied with the results.

If you want 4GB of DDR2 800 memory, pick up the G.Skill kit instead. It will perform just as well as the OCZ Reapers (since you don't really need to overclock the RAM along with the processor nowadays) and you save some money up front (as compared to having to wait weeks for a rebate check).
 
DOnt forget the retention bracket for your HSF. I'm sure triades or danny or eng has the link, it saved my life
 
prollyneedhelp said:
thanks for the replies
the reason for the SLI board is so i have the expandability to go SLI in the future if i need to. when/if sli becomes more efficient and a second gpu will give me +100% i would like to be able to take advantage of it.
Click to expand...

That won't happen. In fact, going SLI as an upgrade route is usually a bad idea and a waste of money. Remember that you can only pair cards of the same type. If you buy a card now, by the time you are ready to get a second card (looking for that big performance gain,) you'll be better off just replacing your first card with a newer card. It'll be a faster option, a simpler option, a more efficient option, and if you sell the original card, an often times cheaper option. SLI is only of benefit if you plan to get two cards now and when you plan to drive a monitor large enough to fully utilize the power gained from having two cards. When going with a single card, you can avoid nVidia boards all together, which is a plus. Intel based boards are easier to work with, more reliable, and are usually better OCers.
 
So true. With the performance levels of video cards these days like the ATI HD 4870, HD 4870X2 and Nvidias GTX260/GTX280 cards, there's no need to bother with SLI setups. I'd be happy with just 1 x HD4870 video card. This is already a big boost from my 8800GT card.

Markyip1 said:
That won't happen. In fact, going SLI as an upgrade route is usually a bad idea and a waste of money. Remember that you can only pair cards of the same type. If you buy a card now, by the time you are ready to get a second card (looking for that big performance gain,) you'll be better off just replacing your first card with a newer card. It'll be a faster option, a simpler option, a more efficient option, and if you sell the original card, an often times cheaper option. SLI is only of benefit if you plan to get two cards now and when you plan to drive a monitor large enough to fully utilize the power gained from having two cards. When going with a single card, you can avoid nVidia boards all together, which is a plus. Intel based boards are easier to work with, more reliable, and are usually better OCers.
Click to expand...
 
Another vote to listen to Markyip1, from another guy running SLI 8800 GTXs. The upgrade route is never a good idea, and you will /never/ see a 100% return.
 
farfromhome said:
Actually, given the 750i's distribution of SATA vs PATA ports (4/2, rather than the 6/2 or even 8/2 of Intel-chipset boards), the fact that the 750i's PATA ports are native to the NVIDIA chipset and not the crappy JMicron often found on Intel-chipset boards, and the fact that no DVD drive in existence needs more than 90's-era ATA/33 bandwidth (Blu-ray is another matter), I would say that the choice of a PATA optical drive is solid. And the Pioneer he chose is one of the best. I'd leave that as-is.
Click to expand...

I would definately get a SATA DVD Drive. There is no reason to buy a new system with PATA drives. The cables alone should be reason enough already.
 
timme said:
I would definately get a SATA DVD Drive. There is no reason to buy a new system with PATA drives. The cables alone should be reason enough already.
Click to expand...

That, and it doesn't cost that much more to get a SATA DVD drive. You could find many SATA DVD burners for around $25-$40 before shipping.
 
I agree with most comments here.

If you're putting together a Vista build which definately makes sense since x64 is really a must have now a days, then I'd swap out that IDE optical for an SATA one, I can't tell you the number of problems I've had with IDE opticals (even brand new ones) and Vista, if you've not got enough SATA ports then that's a problem with the motherboard and you need a different (better) one.

Stick with the Velociraptor, this thing can outrun good server grade SCSI drives :D

I'd personally weighed up a similar system recently, if you can stretch to it you could go for the Q9450 (about 2x the price of the Q6600) this is their newer Quad range with 12mb L2 cache, this thing overclocks like crazy, get a decent 1600Mhz FSB intel chipset mobo with some PC2-8500 RAM and you can overclock this to the fastest available CPU speed (Q9775) which is like $2000 worth of CPU (and actually it overclocks further, mines at 3.6Ghz on air cooling and the Q9775 is 3.2ghz)

I also personally went with the 4870 because I couldn't use SLI (due to intel chipset) and grabbed 2, crossfire tends to scale a fair bit better than SLi from the benchmarks I've seen and these cards are nice and cheap, and not that power hungry.

Put together a price list for a rig similar to mine, and just see if its affordable, I believe for the little extra cash it's a good deal.
Intel Q9450
x38 or x48 chipset mobo with 1600mhz FSB (I can recommend Asus P5E)
PC2-8500 RAM
HD 4870 (can add another one later, or add a 4870x2 later)
Stick with your Velociraptor
SATA DVD drive
 
First off, which monitor/resolution are you using?

Unless you have a monitor larger than 24 inches (and/or you're using a resolution greater than 1920x1200), you don't need CrossFire or SLI. (Even though CrossFire/SLI would be beneficial for that monitor size and resolution, most high-end graphics cards work fine on their own.)

Consequentially (assuming that you have a 24" or smaller monitor), you won't need the 750i FTW. Settle for a P45 motherboard, like the Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3R. You'll benefit from the more stable Intel chipset, and you still have the option of dual x8 CrossFire, should you ever get a larger monitor later on.

If you are considering one of the Yorkfield (Q9-series) quad core processors, wait until the end of the month. That's when the Q9550 is supposed to lower in price to around $326 (the current price point of the Q9450). I can't say whether any additional price cuts will occur at that time -- or which products, if any, would receive them -- but chances are that you would get better deals if you wait just a bit longer.

Speaking of deals, I find the VelociRaptor to be a bad one. While it is the fastest non-SCSI drive in the market today, the WD6400AAKS is quieter, runs cooler, has over double the storage capacity, and is a third of the VelociRaptor's cost. In fact, the WD6400AAKS, the single-platter WD3200AAKS, and the Samsung F1 750GB and 1TB hard drives all run at near-RaptorX speeds due to the 320+GB drive platter they use. Those drives are much faster than anything produced in the past year -- including Seagate's 7200.11 line.

If you are planning on overclocking one of the Yorkfield quad cores, use DDR2 1000 RAM instead. You'll reach the same OC thresholds as the DDR2 1066 kit for a bit less. If you're sticking with the Q6600, stick with the DDR2 800 kit that I recommended earlier.
 
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