First time build (in a while) refinement/suggestions

D

dhmacdonell

n00b
Joined
May 17, 2008
Messages
39
What OS should i get? I was thinking VISTA 64bit... (definitely if i go 8GB RAM?) or XP?(only recognizes 2.8GB)...

Sorry to bring this back guys lol... thanks for the help though



Hey guys I know ya'll see a lot of these and I'm still reading and reading... which is what I've been doing with almost all my spare time in between missions and stuff (currently deployed to IRAQ).

Just wanted to throw the idea your way and let guys who are a lot closer to "expert status" than I am dissect it and read any suggestions you may have. This is my first desktop build since 2001 :eek: thanks for any help.



The PC is shaping up to this build after taking all suggestions into consideration:

$192 - Cooler Master Stacker RC-832-KKN1-GP Full Tower ATX Case
$230 - Thermaltake ATX12V / EPS12V 850W Power Supply
$190 - EVGA 750i SLI FTW
$214 - Q6600
$50 - ZEROtherm Nirvana NV120 120mm CPU Cooler ($10 MIR)
$220 - OCZ Reaper 8GB DDR2 800
or
$160 - G.SKILL F2-6400C L5D-4GBPQ 8GB DDR2
$240 - Samsung Spinpoint F1 750GB X2 in RAID 0

$550 - MSI 512MB OC GeForce 8800GTS (G92) PCI E 2.0 x2 SLI
$1200 - Dell High Color 30 inch UltraSharp
$50 - SAMSUNG 20X DVD±R x2

$80 - G15 Keyboard
$40 - Mouse ; Razer

$3206 or $3146 - Total w/o Shipping.

Recommend any extras?


INITIAL BUILD
$210 - Antec Twelve Hundred Black ATX Full Tower Case
$230 - Thermaltake ATX12V / EPS12V 850W Power Supply
$330 - XFX nForce 790i Ultra SLI
or
$190 - EVGA 750i SLI FTW
$350 - Q9450 cpu
$130 - Ultra Chill-TEC CPU Cooler
$80 - Seagate Barracuda 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive x 4 in RAID 0
$275 - OCZ Reaper HPC 8GB (4 x 2GB) DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500)
or
$$960 - OCZ Reaper DDR3 (kind of pricey)
$550 - MSI 512MB OC GeForce 8800GTS (G92) PCI E 2.0 x2 SLI
Haven't really found exactly what I want in the Blueray/HD ROM DVDRW arena... open to any suggestions but i'm guessing about $200~
$80 - G15 Keyboard
$80 - Mouse ; Razer Banshee
$1200 - Dell High Color 30 inch UltraSharp
Click to expand...
 
Good luck out there.

If its anything like the 900, that case isn't worth its price, IMO; but cases are personal preference, mostly, and if you like it, go for it.

The RAM you chose is DDR2, but your board only takes DDR3. DDR3 isn't worth it right now, so drop the 790i nForce board. If you want SLI and quadcore overclocking, go with the XFX 750i SLI FTW board instead. If you don't need SLI, don't bother with an nForce chipset. SLI is only beneficial if you have a 24" or larger monitor, and want to game at native resolution. So, what size monitor do you have?

The newer HDDs that utilize higher density platters are much faster than their older counterparts. Check out the Samsung F1 series or the WD3200AAKS and WD6400AAKS instead.

Don't forget to pickup a nice cooler for that CPU:

$35 - Scythe SCNJ-1100P Ninja Plus Rev.B CPU HSF (optional $5 Thermalright LGA775 Bolt-Thru-Kit)
$37 - XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler
$46 - Thermalright Ultima 90 CPU HS + FBA09A12M - Z ($3)
$50 - ZEROtherm Nirvana NV120 120mm CPU Cooler ($10 MIR)
$59 - Noctua NH-U12P Universal heatsink
$57 - Thermalright Ultra 120 eXtreme CPU HS + Scythe S-Flex Fan SFF21E ($15)
 
Planning to edit/add more. I got pulled away from the PC abruptly for work... Thanks for the post so far.
 
dhmacdonell said:
Thanks :)

Any suggestions? What made the 900 not worth its price?
Click to expand...

Main problem was that it was a pain in the ass for cable management. Second, from playing around with both the Antec 900 and the Coolermaster RC-690 case, I can honestly say that the RC-690 and the Antec 900 are about the same construction and airflow wise. Yet the RC-690 is around $60 to $80 whereas the Antec 900 is around $100 to $120. Basically it's not as well constructed as you would expect a $100+ case to be.

Here are some other case suggestions:
Cooler Master RC-590-KKN1-GP ATX Case - $60
Cooler Master RC-690-KKN1-GP ATX Case - $70
Cooler Master Mystique RC-632S-KKN1-GP ATX Case - $75
Antec Solo - $78
Lian Li Lancool PC-K7B ATX Case - $80
Lian Li PC-7B Plus II Silver ATX Case - $90
AeroCool Masstige ATX Case - $100
Gigabyte Aurora GZ-FSCA1-ATB ATX Case - $115
Rocketfish Aluminum Full-Tower Case - $120
Antec P182 ATX Case - $130
Thermaltake Armor VA8000BWS Full Tower ATX Case - $140
Thermaltake Armor VA8003BWS Full Tower ATX Case - $150
Lian Li PC-A16A ATX Case - $150
Coolermaster Cosmos 1000 RC-1000-KSN1-GP Full Tower ATX Case - $155
Lian-Li V1000A Plus II ATX Case - $180
Cooler Master Stacker RC-832-KKN1-GP Full Tower ATX Case - $192
Cooler Master Cosmos S 1000 RC-1100-KSN1-GP Full Tower ATX Case - $198
Lian Li PC-V1200 ATX Case (Silver) - 180
Lian Li PC-V1200 ATX Case (Black) - $214
Lian Li PC-V1200B Plus II ATX Case - $215
Lian-Li PC-V1100A PLUS II ATX Case - $220
Lian Li PC-A71B ATX Case - $240
 
enginurd said:
Good luck out there.
The RAM you chose is DDR2, but your board only takes DDR3. DDR3 isn't worth it right now, so drop the 790i nForce board.
Click to expand...

What about longevity of the motherboard? Upgrades later on...
I mean I dont want to buy a board now if in a year when the DDR3 prices drop I'll have to buy a whole new board. Any ideas?
 
Man you guys are really bad ass when it comes to finding products... 10 minutes you've got a complete list in pretty much all ranges of budget. lol
 
dhmacdonell said:
Any suggestions? What made the 900 not worth its price?
Click to expand...

It was built like trash, had horrible cable management, and was/is the computer case equivalent of a riced out Honda? For $200 you can get an amazing case (Lian-Li, Silverstone) and for $100 you can do quite well. $200+ for an Antec of any sort is... kinda crazy. This is coming from someone who loved their P180B until the machine inside outgrew it.

I second enginurd's motion to forget the 790i and DDR3. The eVGA 750i FTW and DDR2-800 with a Q6600 are the way to go right now. The extra cost for the Q9450 isn't even close to worthwhile unless you have something that'll actually make use of SSE4. $200 for a quad that'll hit ~3.6Ghz? Please. $350 for a quad that'll hit ~3.8Ghz? No thanks.

Also, with a Q6600 DDR2-800 is all you need for 3.6Ghz at the ideal 1:1 ratio (400Mhz real FSB x 9 = 3600, 2 x 400 = 800). $80 for RAM is nice.

The Ultra is big and loud, and it draws a lot of power. If you want it just for the flash, that's fine... but I'd personally recommend a quality standard air cooler like the Xigmatech Rifle 120mm instead. It'll do very well.

A pair of Samsung 750GB F1s would be just as fast (quite possibly faster) than 4 7200.10s, give you almost as much space, and most importantly, halve the points of failure possible there. I'd /never/ run a 4 drive RAID0 array.

Nehalem is here in a year, which means a new socket, so you /will/ have to buy a new board if you upgrade. There's no way around that. $80 on DDR2 now and $200 on better quality DDR3 then than you can get for $500 now makes a lot more sense to me than $900+ for DDR3 now that'll be mid range in a year or two and worth $100 or less.
 
As much as I like being called a bad-ass, I must admit that I keep an online list of recommended parts so that I don't have to do any searching. Just copy and paste.:)

Anyway, all C2D CPUs do not benefit that much from DDR3 RAM, no matter how fast it is. So no point whatsoever in getting DDR3 RAM for your C2D CPU when it doesn't provide an iota of real-world performance.

Also, ANY Intel motherboard built today is gonna be obsolete in less than 9 months from now. In Q1 2009, Intel will be releasing their mainstream Nehalem CPUs and motherboards which use a completely different socket from the current Intel LGA 775 socket. The new Nehalem CPUs also come with an onboard memory controller like AMD CPUs have. In addition, we don't know what's the minimum RAM speed required for the Nehalem CPUs or supported by the new Nehalem based motherboards.

So in short, don't bother with DDR3 RAM. It's gonna get cheaper and faster in the future. You'll end up upgrading your CPU and mobo anyway if you want to keep at the edge of performance.
 
The PC-V1200 and PC-A71B have my vote of that lot.

I really did like my P180... I just don't recommend it if you go SLI, as the secondary card ends up /very/ close to the dividing compartment baffle thing at the bottom and runs hotter as a result.

If you're near a Fry's you may want to see if they're still running the $99 in store Stacker 830 deal there. (and if they have any left in stock)
 
Reconsidering HD's I've found these selections:

$115 - WD6400AAKS 640GB
$120 - Samsung Spinpoint F1 750GB

At first glance the Samsung seems like the no-brainer pick...110GB and Twice as much cache.
 
The WD is a tiny, tiny bit faster. I'd go with the Samsung, though, cause I have way too many dead WD drives for my personal comfort.
 
These are the two heatsinks i'm leaning towards, great price btw. Think there will be any fitting issues with the cases i've selected or is there plenty of room?

$50 - ZEROtherm Nirvana NV120 120mm CPU Cooler ($10 MIR)

$57 - Thermalright Ultra 120 eXtreme CPU HS + Scythe S-Flex Fan SFF21E ($15)
How does this fan mount to the heatsink?



These more along the lines of what you guys recommend?

$214 - Q6600
$220 - OCZ Reaper 8GB DDR2 800
 
The TRUE comes with a bracket that allows you to mount whatever fan you want. Either of those would be good choices. Though I'd get the Nirvana since there is a less of a chance of it being too big for the case. Also drop the OCZ Reaper RAM. You won't notice the lower latency outside of synthetic benchmarks. Even with overclocking in mind, all you need is this set:
G.SKILL F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ 2 x 2GB DDR2 800 RAM - $80
 
Unless you do lots of disc-to-disc copying, you don't really need two DVD burners.

You don't need any "special" or "high-performance" RAM -- not even for overclocking -- so stick with the G.Skill kit. But may I ask why you need 8GB?
 
Performance... vista 64bit supports it, probably only going to put 6GB in the system and give 2GB to my brother...
 
While we've been recommending 4GB a lot due to the current prices of DDR2 RAM, 2GB is still the sweet spot for many users.

8GB is really beneficial for heavy Photoshop/Maya use, 3D graphics/video editing, and for multiple virtual machines. For anything else, the additional memory would go unused (properly).

Additionally, RAM performs best in dual channel mode using matched pairs (two or four sticks) of memory. Having three out of the four RAM slots filled would actually produce a negative effect on your system's performance (though I can't tell you how much it would be affected).

You would be better off sticking with one 2x2GB kit.
 
Danny, Silent and tiraides have you covered. I used to keep lists like Danny, too, but I got tired of updating prices, lol. Whatever happened to that guy who was makin a website of recommended parts using RSS feeds for pricing? :p

dhmacdonell said:
Performance... vista 64bit supports it, probably only going to put 6GB in the system and give 2GB to my brother...
Click to expand...

If you're buying 8GB of RAM, that means 4x 2GB-sticks, which would make 3 for you, one for your bro. 3 sticks won't run in dual channel, so you'll lose around 10% performance, IIRC. So, I agree with tiraides.
 
Alright... well i'm gonna buy 8gig, do some testing, do some fiddling around. Maybe play around with 4GB for a week and then 8GB... if i dont notice a difference or can live w/o the difference I'll just give my brother 4GB... he'll love me for it i'm sure. lol

Anywho... you guys have been great, my time on the internet is limited here, and you sure made it a hell of a lot easier on a soldier! Thanks for helping me finalize guys... time to order :p

I'll be sure to stick around here... this community is great. Thanks for not being typical "regs" lol and giving me the typical answer "do some research and form your own fucking opinion." ACK!

later guys... gotta get ready for the next mission... bleh lol
 
good luck on the build, let us know how it turns out- and keep up the good work over there too dh!!

PS- i built my last pc in 02' or so, and just put together a new beast about 2 weeks ago, you'll love how far technology has come!!
 
What OS should i run? I was getting VISTA 64bit for the 8GB ram deal but... would XP run better? even though ti only recognizes 2.8gb?
 
dhmacdonell said:
What OS should i run? I was getting VISTA 64bit for the 8GB ram deal but... would XP run better? even though ti only recognizes 2.8gb?
Click to expand...

Run better in what? Gaming? They'll be about equal depending on the game. In fact, with all else equal (amount of RAM and 'bit versions) there is very very little difference between Vista and XP in game performance.

Also, XP 32bit can recognize between 3.0 to 3.5GB of RAM depending on what video cards you choose.

So since 64bit OS computing is the future and if you want to use 4 to 8GB of RAM, I recommend using Vista 64bit. Do note however thta 8GB of RAM will provide little, if any, performance increase in games. As tiraides has pointed out earlier:

8GB is really beneficial for heavy Photoshop/Maya use, 3D graphics/video editing, and for multiple virtual machines. For anything else, the additional memory would go unused (properly).
Click to expand...
 
dhmacdonell said:
Ultimate edition?
Click to expand...

Depends. Do you really need all the backup and security features of Ultimate? And are you willing to shell out another $60 for it? If not, Vista Home Premium is all that you need.
 
Just make sure any of your old peripherals (printer/scanner/etc) have drivers for Vista 64-bit, or be prepared to buy replacements. ;)
 
enginurd said:
Just make sure any of your old peripherals (printer/scanner/etc) have drivers for Vista 64-bit, or be prepared to buy replacements. ;)
Click to expand...

For scanners there is VueScan ($40 - http://www.hamrick.com/vsm.html) which has a universal driver that'll support most scanners -- check the list and download the trial before giving them money of course. This is what I had to use on my parents' system for their older HP scanner. HP is absolutely horrible about Vista drivers, particularly 64bit.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top