My new build - help please!!

[mattchapman]

OK guys I finally put together my new spec. I'm somewhat of a noob so need your help.
Main use of computer is for high-end gaming, MS office, watching 1080p movie rips (h264) and some h264 encoding - all on a 24" LCD.

I have about $2,500 to spend and am not too comfortable building myself so will be going to AVADirect most likely. Note I am no good at overclocking so I'd prefer not to have to mess with this - although AVA can do it for me (20%) for about $90. THANKS!!!!

CASE: ANTEC P180 Black

POWER: CORSAIR, HX Series 620W
alternative = SEASONIC, M12-600

CPU: INTEL, Quad Core Q6600 - overclocked to 3.0Ghz
alternative = E6850

CPU COOLER: THERMALRIGHT, Ultra-120 eXtreme
alternative = SCYTHE, INFINITY (SCINF-1000)

MOBO: ABIT, IP35 Pro, LGA775, Intel P35,
alternatives = ASUS P5K, / GIGABYTE, GA-P35-DS3R

VIDEO: eVGA, e-GeForce™ 8800 GT KO 675MHz
alternative = 8800GTX

RAM: G.SKILL, 4GB (2 x 2GB) PC2-6400 DDR2 800MHz CL5 (5-5-5-15)
alternative = not sure - know little about RAM

HDD: WESTERN DIGITAL, 400GB WD Caviar® SE16 (WD4000AAKS), SATA 300MB/s, 7200 RPM, 16MB Cache
alternative = not fussy, just need fast and quiet

OS: MICROSOFT, Windows Vista Ultimate Edition 64-bit
alternative = I guess I need Vista but not sure what the 32/64 difference is.

TOTAL = $2,100

 

[engiNURD]

Go with the Q6600 instead. Everything else looks fine.

Though, I'd change the WD SATA150 drive to a Barracuda 7200.10 SATA300 drive (or any brand, as long as its SATA300), if its available. Despite drives' transfer rates being much slower than the potential of the bus, I still find SATA300 drives to be faster than SATA150 drives (aside from my raptor).

You want 64-bit vista to take advantage of all 4GB of RAM. 32-bit windows addresses 4GB total, but reserves some of this address space for other things, so you end up being able to use around 3.2-3.5GB only, instead of the full 4GB. If you have any old peripherals (printers scanners), you might not find drivers for them with 64-bit, so double check that.

Building computers is easy, and I highly recommend you build it yourself if you're at all intersted in the hardware aspects. There are plenty of guides for first timers, and you could always ask questions here.

 

[mattchapman]

ok thanks. I changed the HDD to SATA300.

I'd assumed that the Q6600 would be a better choice than the E6850 only if it is overclocked to 3.0Ghz. I heard this is pretty easy and I could ask the builder to do it.

 

[engiNURD]

ok thanks. I changed the HDD to SATA300.

I'd assumed that the Q6600 would be a better choice than the E6850 only if it is overclocked to 3.0Ghz. I heard this is pretty easy and I could ask the builder to do it.

Its a better choice regardless if its OC'd or not, IMO. With more and more software making use of multi-core systems, its just makes more sense to get the quadcore for that amount of money. You can always OC the CPU, but you can't add two more cores to it. Its also easy to OC yourself, if you'd rather not pay the $100.

 

[infin@]

Building computers is easy, and I highly recommend you build it yourself if you're at all intersted in the hardware aspects. There are plenty of guides for first timers, and you could always ask questions here.

QFT
Agreed, the q6600 is the right move. I had ordered an e6850 and a q6600 at the same time and ended up sending the dual core back. Real world performance increased with the extra 2 cores and video encoding times dropped dramatically. Just make sure you use multi-threaded apps, which are becoming more common nowadays.
Build looks good on problem I can see is issues with the OS recognizing all the ram, which has already been mentioned.
If you order the quad try to secure a GO chip, its a later revision that runs cooler then first gen q6600. Check the back of the cpu box and look for SLACR, which designates a "GO" chip. Good luck.

 

[mattchapman]

OK I changed to the Antec P180 as the TJ-09 is far too long for me!

I'm thinking of building myself but I just know I'll screw something up somewhere along the way. How easy is it???

 

[engiNURD]

I'm thinking of building myself but I just know I'll screw something up somewhere along the way. How easy is it???

its so easy, a caveman can do it!

[General Build]
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/pc_building_guide_faq_part_1
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/pc_building_guide_faq_part_2
http://www.tigerdirect.com/static/html/pcbuildingtips.html <== Kind of old, but still good
http://www.mechbgon.com/build/index.html
http://corsair.com/systembuild/report.aspx?report_id=12472

I usually recommend the mechbgon guide.