yet another build post

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PixyStix

n00b
Joined
Sep 5, 2002
Messages
6
Hello everyone,

After 6 years, I decided my old college rig (athlon xp200, geforce ti4400 -_-) needs to retire. So, naturally I've been lurking around forums and what not to re-educate myself on what's out there.

I do a little bit of everything (gaming, graphics & video editing, music etc.) and I came up with this build (budget -+1000):

Case and PSU: Antec Sonata III 500/500W Power Supply
CPU: Q6600
MOBO: GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L LGA 775
RAM: G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1000 (PC2 8000)
GPU: XFX PVT88GYDF4 GeForce 8800GTS (G92) 512MB
HD: Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD6400AAKS 640GB 7200 RPM SATA
OS: Vista Home Premium 64bit OEM
DVDrw: My old liteon ide dvd burner

I was a bit torn on the MOBO and Video card choice. Are there any real differences between other brands with similar specs? I don't plan to overclock the cpu from the start, so I'm going to stick with the stock cooler for now. What about the case? Am I missing something that I should clearly get over another?
 
Solid man solid, buy it before someone on here makes a comment on your build. Heh, jus kiddin.
 
Don't need DDR2-1000 with a Q6600. DDR2-800 is good to 3.6Ghz (400x9). Save yourself some cash there, buy the Xigmatech Rifle 120mm HSF instead. Even if you run stock for a while, it will be far quieter and much more effective than the stock HSF.

I'd also recommend a couple 120mm Yate Loon low speed fans. The Antec Tri-Cools that come with that case are utter trash. Yates shouldn't run more than $5-6 each.
 
Thanks for the input. I'll change out the memory and save $10 :). I'll also buy the heatsink, since I'll probably overclock it in the future anyways.

In regards to the video card, is there any real difference between the EVGA, MSI, and XFX versions of the 8800GTS?
 
PixyStix said:
In regards to the video card, is there any real difference between the EVGA, MSI, and XFX versions of the 8800GTS?
Click to expand...

Their warranties (and possible step-up programs) are really the only difference, I think. All have good cards.
 
The build looks fine.

EVGA, BFG, and XFX offers limited lifetime warranties, and XFX has a "double lifetime" warranty that transfers over the next person you sell the card to. EVGA and BFG also have a step-up policy where you could trade in your card for a newer/better model and only have to pay the difference (in MSRP) between the two cards.

I forgot the details of the MSI warranty, but it's not a bad selection (should you go that route instead).

As for the motherboard, choose one with the features you want on it (like extra SATA ports, RAID, advanced overclocking tools/settings -- though all of the boards that we normally recommend are good overclockers -- external SATA or eSATA, etc.).
 
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