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First time PC build, suggestions please!

D

dysaio

n00b
Joined
May 4, 2005
Messages
26
For the past month or so I've been browsing forums & reading (at the exclusion of a rather large amount of studying...) a lot about parts for a new gaming-enthusiast computer which I hope to put together as soon as I get back home from school (studying abroad in the UK from the US, they get out rather late over here) in June. Up until now, I've been leaning really heavily towards just ordering a computer from Monarch, as they have a pretty good parts selection and a good reseller rating. I've always wanted to build my own computer, though, and while Monarch's selection is great, after doing as much research as I've done, I'd like to keep the versatility avaliable only to those who are building their own. Anyway, enough rambling. Before I list the parts I'm considering, here are my goals, in order of importance:

1) Upgradability. I want to be able to upgrade this computer to stay near the high end (although not at the 'cutting edge' - I *am* a college student, can't afford that kind of money) for at least a couple of years. I use my computers for two things: gaming and anything school related (nothing graphics-design related, though).

2) Silence. I live with a roommate in a dorm room for the majority of the year, and I want to keep the computer on 24/7. Enough said there.

3) Style - this is just a personal choice, reflected in the ridiculous amount of money that I'm spending on the case.

Onto the parts I'm considering (all prices are either newegg or monarch):

Lian-Li pc-v1200b plus - $199.00

DFI Lanparty UT NF4 Ultra-D S939 $132.00 - I chose this board because I want to be able to overclock, plus the dfi-street forums appear to be a completely awesome place for support, if needed. Much like [H] :)

Sapphire Radeon X800XL Ultimate 256gddr3 $329.00 - This is still an up-in-the-air choice for me... I'm not concerned with the whole x800xl vs 6800gt debate, they're close enough for me, and I know either card will be perfectly fine for what I want it to do for the next year or two, which is all I'm asking out of it. The reason why I'm leaning towards this is because it has a really nice Zalman HSF on it that, according to reviews, keeps it cooler than the stock HSF and close to silent. I believe the actual HSF is the VF400 or something like that? I could, I guess, buy this and a card separately, but as this is my first build, I don't want to make it too difficult (don't laugh! I've never installed a HSF! No doubt the CPU one will give me trouble enough... on to that)

A64 3700+ 1mb lev2 cache San Diego core $335.00 - Up in the air on this versus the 3500 venice which is a tad cheaper, but I read somewhere [maybe in the cpu sub-forum] that the cache does help with gaming, and since I eventually want to OC, this seems to be an okay choice.

Zalman CNPS7000b-cu HSF for CPU $48.99. Debating on a thermalright XP-90 HSF with a quiet fan... dunno, seems that it'd just be easier for me to buy the combo Zalman, unless there's a really big performance boost otherwise - I'll be using Artic Silver Ceramique thermal paste - $5.99

Seasonic S12-500 PSU $129.00 - I know it's overkill, especially since I'm not going SLi, but it's quiet, has the pcie plug which the next lower down model (430) doesn't, and conforms to ATX 2.0 standards... seems like a good PSU, shrug.

Corsair XMS DDR400 PC3200-2048c2 dual channel kit $259.00 - 2gb for upgradability reasons - can't have four 512 sticks and still have dual channel, thus the two 1gb sticks now. XMS for overclocking reasons, and the DFI board apparently really doesn't like value ram.

The same DVD/CD/CDRW/DVDRW drive that *everyone* seems to have! $49.99 - If only all decisions were this simple...

2x Hitachi 7k80 SATA II w/NCQ drives - 160gb total, no raid array $126.00 - assuming newegg ever gets them back in stock. If they don't, I'll probably just go SATA I. Apparently there isn't that big of a difference.

Total w/o shipping and OS: 1613.97

My budget is 2k. And I do need an OS (which has to be windows), so that + shipping should get me pretty close to that mark. Already have a Samsung 19" LCD, so no worries there. Am I missing anything, part wise? Will all of the stuff I just listed come with all of the cables, fans, attacher-thingies, and any other little piece of appratus that I'll need while setting it all up? Anything you would do differently, in a similar situation? Anything I should keep in the back of my mind while setting it all up (static... not getting the Artic Silver all over the MB, stupid stuff like that)? Is there anything tricky about installing a BIOS, or will the accompanying disk with the software (I forgot a disk drive! woah, right, add $20 to my total and assume I get one) handle it mostly automatically?

I *really* appreciate any and all comments and suggestions. Mostly I'm just paranoid about juggling $2,000 worth of computer parts while somehow arranging them in a way so that they all like each other. Just writing this out helped with the whole thought organization thing. Anyhow, here's to hoping I haven't made any atrocious spelling and grammar errors.
 
That's actually an excellent build, a few things I noticed though.

The Zalman CPU cooler - I would suggest the alum + copper variant. It's lighter, cheaper, and thermal resistance lost to the alum. parts is completely neglible.

The RAM - Where did you hear that 4x512Mb will not get you dual channel? I'm not sure that this is true. I believe it will get you dual channel, but the setback would be that with previous CPU cores such as the Newcastles and Winchesters, the memory controllers could not handle 4x512Mb very well and would set your memory speeds to DDR333 2T. This however is supposedly fixed in the Venice and San Diego core which you are ordering. Also, Corsair XMS is not really a good overclocker, especially the 1Gb DIMMs. Generally speaking, 1Gb DIMMs already have relaxed latencies at their factory-rated speeds and that cuts down on the overclocking headroom from the start. What you want is some good TCCD-based RAM from OCZ, Crucial, Patriot, or G. Skill. Seeing is you happen to be using the DFI motherboard that allows you to run your RAM voltage up to 3.5v, there is no excuse NOT to buy OCZ VX RAM that you can run all that voltage through to reach better overclocks.

The two Hitachi 80Gb drives, I don't understand why you would pay $126 + shipping for two older 80Gb drives when you can get the newer T7k250 160Gb version for $94 shipped, especially if you're going to forego a RAID array -
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=100592-2
 
Thanks a ton for the response - I'll definitely go for the HSF and other HD you rec'd. Regarding the memory, quoting from the DFI user manual for the lanparty ut nf4 ultra-d mb:

"The integrated memory control in AMD's 64-bit Socket 939 series CPU will directly catch data transmission from DDR RAM without passing through the Northbridge. Therefore, when using 4 identical double side DIMMs or using 2 DIMMs in non-dual channels, the memory speed will reduce to DDR333."

That's what was confusing me, apparently the manual is a little bit out of date, thanks for clearing that up :) One question - most all ram is double-sided these days, right? The OCZ VX stuff that you recommended is, I assume?
 
Nice looking rig, but I'd go with a Venice core if I were you. It's less expensive, and most importantly, uses less power at idle and under load. As a result it'll probably run cooler and overclock better than a Newscastle core.
 
FireGryphon said:
Nice looking rig, but I'd go with a Venice core if I were you. It's less expensive, and most importantly, uses less power at idle and under load. As a result it'll probably run cooler and overclock better than a Newscastle core.
Click to expand...


umm he has a san diego core, venice is identical to san diego sans the extra 512mb l2 cache.
 
yeah you might wanna look into getting some parts at zipzoomfly.com. newegg is good but i alternate my purchases between the two. I don't have any experience with customer service with zipzoomfly cause i've never needed it. But they have free 2nd day shipping on everything (or everything i've ever ordered...maybe not monitors or somethin). anyway just an alternative.
 
windoze9x said:
yeah you might wanna look into getting some parts at zipzoomfly.com. newegg is good but i alternate my purchases between the two. I don't have any experience with customer service with zipzoomfly cause i've never needed it. But they have free 2nd day shipping on everything (or everything i've ever ordered...maybe not monitors or somethin). anyway just an alternative.
Click to expand...

I second that, and I have dealth with ZZF for two RMAs, they were very good. First guy even waived my restocking fee for me.
 
Thanks for all of the comments - one quick question: If I went with the OCZ VX gold edition ram and kicked the voltage up to 3.2-3.5 for OCing reasons, the ram would probably need some extra cooling, right? If so, is there any way to accomplish this without having to make modifications to my case? I'm *not* confident with dremmeling or anything, especially since this will be my first build. As mentioned, it'd be in a lian li pc-v 1000 or 1200 (no significant difference between the two except an extra 4 inches in depth on the 1200).
 
I think you could find better RAM...

and Seasonic has an excellent reputation too, btw. I'd take them over Fortron.
 
dandragonrage said:
I think you could find better RAM...

and Seasonic has an excellent reputation too, btw. I'd take them over Fortron.
Click to expand...

something wrong with fortron that would make you pay 30$ more for seasonic. if they are same level of quality then the fortron is a much better value. and it has nice sleeved cables, not that that's really important.
 
Seasonic is quiet. It's why I ordered the 600.

You know, those specs look pretty similar to mine. I need to get new RAM though.
 
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