First build. Ready to order?

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samullin

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Aug 9, 2006
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I am building a desktop for the first time, though I’ve wanted to do it for about 10 years now. Recently my 6-year-old laptop died, I just passed my PhD qualifying exam, so this is my gift to myself! I want something that is fast and capitalizes off of the new but well-established hardware of the last generation. To that end I have opted for the 8400, which I will overclock eventually. I want to be able to play current games at decent resolutions, and I would like to play future games at minimum settings for at least several years. I haven’t played any games in years because my computer was such a piece of crap, but I want to play any of the newer/good ones (and you all know there are plenty in the last 2 years). I plan to eventually add a second graphics card in Crossfire, and upgrade to a quad-core processor – this will happen at least a year from now when prices are much lower on each. The total budget I am targeting is in the neighborhood of $1000. I am ordering everything from Newegg for the sake of simplicity. In particular I want to make sure all of the parts are compatible.

With that context in mind, I would appreciate any advice – general, technical, or otherwise. I have picked the following parts:


Power supply: (for the huge rebates and good rating):
BFG Tech ES SERIES ES-800 800W
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817702007

~$100 after rebates


CPU: (for the cost/performance ratio. more interested in speed than cores at the moment)
E8400 Wolfdale

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115037
~$165 after rebates


Motherboard: (good cost/options) I would like a board that supports full 16x Crossfire, and I am also interested in on-board WiFi, though that is just a side-thought.
ASUS P5Q-E LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131296
~$160


RAM: I went solely off of price for this one... Worried a little.
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1000 (PC2 8000)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231145
~$70

Video card: went for both the price/performance ratio and the absolute power
ASUS EAH4850/HTDI/512M Radeon HD 4850 512MB 256-bit GDDR3
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121253
~$153 after rebates

Case: went for price and simplicity. wondering about the bottom-mounted power supply though...
COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 CAC-T05-UW Black Aluminum Bezel

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119068
~$70 including shipping


Hard drive: went for the rating and price. not a huge storage-monger, and more interested in speed. will put the two in striping RAID for games/OS/programs and considering a 3rd one dedicated for data storage.
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3250410AS 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148262
~$60 each


Also picking up a cheap optical drive, cheap speakers and a cheap wireless card. Mostly concerned with quality of the wireless card. Might be better off to get the speakers from Best Buy to avoid shipping fees ~$140 total

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106263
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16836121126
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16839121008


I have everything else I need including input devices and a monitor, though the monitor will get upgraded eventually because of my dual-screen addiction. Am I missing brackets, thermal paste, or anything else crucial that won't ship with the components?

That puts my total right around $1000 depending on how many HDDs I get. I am flexible and will go up to $1500 if there is a compelling reason to do so. Mostly concerned about the RAM and motherboard. I want to be sure and get something that will last and is amenable to upgrading. Again, any input would be greatly appreciated!
 
I would buy a Corsair 750Watt Psu instead of the BFG. They see to be the most reliable. I would also spend the exta $100 if possible and go for a 4870.
 
Is there that significant of a gain for the 4870? I plan to go Crossfire in the future when prices drop, so I'm wondering if in a year or two when I can pick up another 4850, how will the dual-GPU compare to the 4870 on a price/performance scale? Along the same lines, it might be better to get a 4870, then get a second one in the future for the same purpose.

Of course the above motherboard only supports crossfire with 8x PCI Express...
 
First and foremost what size monitor do you have?

If you're willing to deal with a ton of rebates, then yeah, go for the ES-800. If not, get the 750TX mentioned earlier from provantage.com for $100 before rebates.

There are no rebates on the CPU or RAM that you chose. Also, the Centurion 5 doesn't have a bottom mounted PSU. It's top mounted. In any case, ditch the Centurion 5 and go with this better cooling case for $60 shipped:
Antec 300 ATX Case - $60

I'm going to recommend against RAID and getting this single drive instead:
Western Digital WD6400AAKS 640GB 7200RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - $85

The 6400AAKS will perform on par with the 7200.10 250GB RAID0.

x8/x8 Crossfire isn't that much of a handicap actually:
http://www.legionhardware.com/document.php?id=761

And to see how HD4850 CF stack up, check out this review:
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/sapphire-radeon-hd4850-cf.html

However if you game on anything less than a 1920x1200 resolution, then don't bother Crossfire of any sorts at all.
 
@xdivenx, Danny Bui

Good advice on the HDD and the case. As for the CPU and the power supply I was going to use the promo codes at http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1339446

I don't mind dealing with the rebates - I'm mostly concerned about getting a PSU that won't blow up and is otherwise stable. In regards to the graphics card links, they were helpful. I'm leaning on just getting a 4850, as that should last for 2-3 years by my estimate. At that point it's not clear whether a second card in crossfire will be advantageous at all, and I could then get a new card or consider replacing the whole thing altogether. That brings my mind to a new point:

Should I get a different mobo? My only metric is to get one where I can drop in a good quad-core in the future and possibly more RAM.

Thanks for the advice!
 
samullin said:
Should I get a different mobo? My only metric is to get one where I can drop in a good quad-core in the future and possibly more RAM.
Click to expand...

No. The P5Q-E is a good motherboard and it will allow you to add a quad-core and more RAM in the future.
 
From experience, you're better off selling your old card and buying a newer gen card than putting two last gen cards in sli/crossfire.

$130 before a 40MIR for an 800W BFG? not bad. Too bad its not modular.
 
Unless you currently have a 24" lcd right now, just get a single HD4850 card. As far as performance gain from an H4850 to an HD4870, it' generally 15-20% faster.
 
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