Help With First New Rig

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Snowypup

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Nov 21, 2007
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Hey guys! I've been doing tons of research in the last few months and have visited many forums, read many reviews and improved my spec list many times. So I'm stopping by here one last time to see if you dudes can further improve my rig. Suggestions, comments and recommendations are all welcome.

Firstly I started off thinking I want something that isn't too hardcore, since I'm a somewhat of a soft gamer. But now I've come as far as being able to play Crysis. So now I'm more interested in getting some of the greatest parts, as long as they're either not too pricey or are actually worth the cash. Here's what I got so far.

So far the specs I need the most help with are the case, cooling kit and maybe the ram. I'm not too sure if two dual channels will actually work out. Also if you recommend a new part please explain to me why you think it's better.

Corsair XMS2 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 SDRAM 800 Dual Channel (x2)
Intel Core 2 Quad Core Q6600 Kentsfield Processor
Nvidia e-GeoForce EVGA 8800GT (512mb) Video Card
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic 7.1 Sound Card
Corsair HX PSU 520W Power Supply
Gigabyte DS4 Motherboard
Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000 1 Terabyte Hard Drive
Lian Li PC-B20B Case Or Antec P182 Case
Samsung SH-S203B Black
Windows Vista (Hoping to run at 64x smoothly)
Monitor ~ ViewSonic VX2025WM
Speakers ~ Logitech Z-2300

Bonus Question: I'm in a pretty bad snag right now. You see when I get a new PC I want to move all of my old data to the new rig. Simple? I doubt it. The reason being because my op is Windows 98 (Not Windows 98SE). And so far I haven't been able to find an external hard drive, usb flash drive or any other device that supports Win98.

I've gotten a few suggestions to make the old hard drive a "slave drive", which is taking it out and connecting it to the new drive.. somehow. I'll probably get a tech team to do that for me. Others were simply using the USB 1.1 or just search for an old hard drive that includes CD's for driver installation. Currently the amount of data I want to be moved is 13-14 gigs. Any help would be appreicated.
 
Looks pretty good to me.

However I'd get this G.Skill 4GB set instead since it'll allow to you get 8GB of RAM later on and it's a much better price. It'll also help ease overclocking a little bit:
G.SKILL F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ 2 x 2GB DDR2 800 RAM - $120 ($80 AR)

Also, I wouldn't get that 1TB drive. For the price of the one 1TB drive, you can get 3 500GB hard drives and get 1.5TB of space.

You don't need a tech team to do what you're planning to do with your old drive. After you have installed Vista and everything, just hook up your old hard drive to the mobo, make sure that your Vista drive boots first and then move your files over. Simple as that.

Or you can get an External hard drive enclosure, hook up your old hard drive to it and just that old drive as an external hard drive.
 
Thanks for that!

Do you think all these will fit into a Lian Li B20? I like this model because of it's sound dampening and extra cooling fans. Also if you know any nice cooling kits, lemme know. :)
 
Nice! I think I got a few last questions for my final choices.. :D

Will 520W really be enough for all this? If not what do you recommend.

Unless I'm mistaken. The Q6600 runs at 2.4ghz and Crysis needs at least 3.2ghz. I'm assuming the quad-core mechanics come into play since the game uses all three cores?

How long would you say the 8800GT will last. In terms of performance for the future.

Which case do you think is better? The P182 Antec or Lian Li B20.

What do you think of my speakers & monitor?

I am a little confused with the case fans. I'm sure both cases already come with fans and an airflow system. Am I simply adding additional case fans?

Lastly it's about the hard drive. I've had previous suggestions of getting smaller, multiple hard drives but I'm a little hesitant. I don't really understand the in's and out's of having more then one hard drive and how it all works. For example can data be moved from one drive to another? If one crashes do all of them crash? Basic stuff like that. Simply I'd like to know the pros and cons of doing this.
 
The 520W PSU is enough for you. Though if you want a little bit more headroom for future upgrades, then go for the Corsair 620HX 620W PSU.

FYI, Quad means four. The developers themselves have recommended that people go for quad-cores rather than raw clock speed. So the game will take advantage of all four cores.

As for how long the 8800GT will last, that's entirely up to you. If you're unwilling to settle for anything less than high settings, then not very long. Though if you're more willing to play future games at medium settings, then it should last a while. Like I said, it's up to you.

Case wise, I think the P182 is better overall. The PC-B20B has a rear 80mm fan, so I'm betting that fan will be loud. Which defeats the purpose of the sound dampening. It's kind of weird/stupid that a $179 case only comes with an 80mm rear exhaust fan. At least the P182 uses 120mm fans which should be quieter than that 80mm fan.

And this is purely an aesthetic choice that may not apply to you but I like the look and layout of the P182 better than PC-B20B.

Don't know too much about speakers or monitors. Been too lazy to go research them. But from a cursury glance in the Display and Audio subforoums, the speakers and monitor gets recommended a lot.

Yes the cases do come with fans BUT for some people, they're either too loud or don't push enough or both. Hence why I recommended replacements.

Finally the hard drive question. Yes data can be moved from one drive to another. That's always been the case since user-upgradeable PCs were created. If one crashes, the other hard drives will be fine.

Now the reason why I recommended going for multiple smaller drives is based on a bang for the buck mindset. Like I said earlier, for the price of just one of those 1TB drives, you can get 3 x 500GB drives. This gives a total of 1.5GB of storage.

The pro of this is that you get more storage for your money. Also, not all of your data will be lost if the hard dies. If you went with that 1TB drive and it died, then you lose everything where if one of those 500GB drives, the data on the other 500GB drives will be safe.

The con of this is that it can be a bit hard to remember which drive has your stash of porn and which drive has your TV series. Also, there's the issue of expandibility and hard drive slots. Using three 500GB drives means you're using 3 hard drive slots. If you go with the P182, this means that you only have 3 slots left for more hard drives. Whereas with a 1TB drive, you have five slots left open for more hard drives.
 
Looks like Danny's got you covered. Take his advice... I agree with all of it.

I ALWAYS have more than one drive in my system. My storage drive(s) ALWAYS have a backup OS partition as well (small, but good enough).

If you're not an audiophile, use onboard audio. If you end up not liking it, you can add the soundcard in later. If you think its good enough, you just saved some cash. Also, if you're not an audiophile, you can get cheaper speakers.
 
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