Looking for advice on a new computer

[Fignut]

First I want to thank all of the people that have already contributed to this forum. It has given me hours of helpful reading. Also, the other thing I have noted in my hours of reading is that Bamboo is a freakin’ tech rockstar. This is a rig that I hope to be able to upgrade so that I can keep it up and running for a few years (thanks for all the great forum info on this). Nonetheless, I am looking for a new build and any advice from the TG gaming community.

Possible setup so far:
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz quad-core
RAM Crucial Ballistix DDR2 800 PC2-6400
OP: 2 Samsung SH-S203N/BEBN SATA LightScribe Black DVD-Writer
HDD: Western Digital 500GB SATA
VC: Galaxy NVIDIA GeForce 8800GT 512MB DDR3
MB: probably a P5K?
Case: either Antec P182 Advanced Super Mid Tower Case- Gun Metal Black or NZXT LEXA Classic Series Ultra light Aluminum Midtower

A couple of things are still up in the air and I was wondering for some expert advice...hell I will take any advice
• The PSU
• The Motherboard
• Case
• And of course any of the other crap I am forgetting

[MagnaCentipede]

I use Antec for my power supply; it claims to be especially efficient. I don't know if that's true but I often run my system full-time, so it can't hurt.

I'm not a slave to fashion; case-wise, I look for 120mm fan mounts. A side and/or top fan slot is nice. I'm running 120mm front and back, and two 80mm in the side panel.

Don't forget to count your expansion slots. You don't want to run out of traditional PCI slots while you have a card in one hand and a screwdriver in the other. Asus is releasing a not-too-shabby soundcard on PCI-E, so things aren't too bad, but I know I'm packed to the gills on PCI and have a couple worth-nothing PCI-Es slowly filling with dust balls.

[Long Bow]

Be carefull with the mother board selection. Some of the current ones claim to run the new 45mm processors. However some can only handle the new dual cores and not the 9xxx quad core 45mm cpu's. The Q6600 is great chip but you may find in a year or two you want to upgrade to a q9450 or something and then your sunk. However with the new Nehalm cpus on the horizon they will require a whole new mobo and ddr3 ram anyway so perhaps don't worry to much about the q9xxx cpus. Confused yet?

Magna makes a good point about the case. Make sure it has lots of room for multiple 120mm fans. 80mm fans are fine but they are typically noiser for the same level of cfm.

There is a long list of PSU's that are solid. The one thing to keep in mind is that you don't want to cheap out here. Now that doesn't mean you need a 1000w PSU, a good quality one with lots of amps on the 12+ rails is important. Be sure it has the newest pci 8 pin power connectors. If you go with the P182 it requires some long cables, check to see if what psu people are having success with in that case.

I would also look at getting a mobo and ram that can overclock. You may not need to or want to OC currently but in a year you may need to OC that Q6600 when you drop a new video card it. Buying parts that can handle it now will save you headaches and money later.

[Fignut]

Thanks guys for your advice. And your right Longbow, the more I read the harder the choices get. I just want to get my monies worth and be happy with the product...which is pretty on screen killin'. The only If i waited this long to pull the trigger in BFx or in CoD4 I would definitely SUCK more than I already do :P
Nonetheless, Information is Ammunition, more is better.

[kin3]

Here is mine and I'm happy.

Motherboard: EVGA 780i
Graphic Card: EVGA NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS 512
Monitor: Dell 2407WFP-HC
DVD: Philips SPD6104P SCSI DVD
Sound: Creative X-FI Audio
Power Supply: Corsair TX750W
CPU: E8400
Memory: Patriot 4G 2Gx2
Hard Drive: 500G
Case: Antec P182
OS: Windows Vista Home Preium 64

[marstein]

I have been very happy with my Gigabyte P35-DSR mobo. The ASUS A8N-SLI Delux with nvidia nforce 4 chipset was a lot less stable.

[Long Bow]

Kins rig is really nice and apparently the 780i chips are a better choice then the 680. Though I have heard that the enw 750 boards are solid at a more moderate price.

Second the e8400 is really solid for gaming. It will loose out in some areas to a quad for other apps but currently the fastest dual cores are putting up the best numbers for gameing (that could change though). If your trying to keep prices down an e8400 would be a solid choice.

[Bamboo]

Actually, your setup so far looks good man.
I will say if it was me I would not build right now, rather wait till June (maybe even 1st week of July). I know when you have an old slow computer, it is hard to wait even a week, but with the new gen gfx cards being released around then, even if you don't get one it should push down the prices on the current crop. And ATI may really surprise us. Also by that time Intel will have caught up with demand and you will be able to decide if you want to go with the new 45nm CPUs (they really are good).

Lots of good PSUs to choose from, and as I mentioned lots in this forum, I went with the Corsair 620 because it got some really glowing reviews, and it has long enough cables to work in the Antec p182 case (which again I talk about my love for in this forum ) It also has modular plugs, so means a cleaner case. But there are a lot of other options.

It is true above what they say about the new Nvidia 780 boards being much better than the older ones, but I'm still happy with the p35 boards (like the p5k you mention). Just make sure you look on the makers site to make sure it works with the 45nm CPUs if you go that route.

Personally, I think it is worth it for the new CPUs, considering they are coming in at the same price as the old, and they are faster and cooler and less power hungry, and have some other tech built in that the chips like the q6600 doesn't have. The e8400 mintioned above is a VERY good chip and would be good for gaming, and is available now, though prices should come down even more by June.

[msdz]

I know it may be putting down your choice but it isn't cause I also have the 8800GT that is factory overclocked but for not much more you could get the 9800GTX which is slightly better than an 8800GTX in most reviews I have read.
One other thought I have, not sure how other people see this but instead of one 500Gb hard drive get maybe 2-250Gb hard drives. My opinion only.... I use 2 hard drives, one for games and one for Vista, with the way I have it set up it seems to load games so much faster than just having a single hard drive. the heads or whatever they are called that read the information would only need to search for that information instead of looking for information to run background task or whatever AND the game you are playing. Which should speed up access time to loading games. In my old computer I noticed huge difference by running hard drives such as this but my newer computer I have never tried a single hard drive to find out if there is any difference. It may not be, you have to admit the theory sounds good though, lol.
I also ran a program that let me pick how I wanted files and folders placed on the hard drive but they do not make a Vista x64 compatible version yet. when they do I will be all over it. Disktrix UltimateDefrag was the program.

Oh, I am going to do the step up program through EVGA to get the 9800GTX myself. Probably this Friday get things worked out and send in my 8800GT. for $90 more than what I paid for the 8800GT isn't bad.

[Bamboo]

I am with you msdz on the 2 HD setup, and I am really happy.
But I would suggest you get a smaller HD for your main OS drive, cause 250 is just going to cause you to be lax in keeping it clean.
The smaller the HD and cleaner it is, the faster it will be. I could have gone with the Raptor 150 drive for my main, but I went with the 75gig instead on purpose to do just that.

[Fignut]

I just want to give a big thanks to everyone out there who contribute to these forums. A lot of great info, and bang for the buck. Once upon a time this expertise was available at stores, but I guess that is a post for another topic
Everything on the TG boards has been a help--minus Bamboo's comment to wait to build...that one broke my heat. I only have a small window of opportunity before my wife will spend the money on some crap-tastic item for "our" place.hehe

Before I post my probable build I just have a last minute question about the two hard drives. Does it matter if they are both 16M buffer. or will a hard rive with an 8M buffer be okay? The only good smaller HDs they seem to make are the Raptors and they are a bit rich for my blood.

Other than that:
CPU: Quad Q6600
MoBo: ASUS p5k --just because I am unsure about the Gigabyte boards
Mem:Patriot Viper Series DDR2 800MHz(PC2-6400) 4GB(2 x 2GB) CL 4-4-4-12
Hard Drives: Western Digital Caviar (WD2500AAKS) 250GB SATAII 7200RPM 16MB Buffer
Western Digital Caviar (WD800AAJS) 80GB SATA 7200RPM 8MB Buffer ???????
Vid Card: Galaxy GeForce 8800GT Chipset (600Mhz) 512MB DDR3 (1800Mhz) --now this broke my heart, however i just not sure to dig deeper for the 9800gtx.
Optical Drive: 2x Samsung SH-S203N/BEBN SATA LightScribe Black DVD-Writer 20xDVD+R/-R
PSU: Corsair 620HX
Case: NZXT LEXA Classic Series Ultra light Aluminum Midtower --this was hard as well, I really like the P182, but the midlife crisis in me wants glowies
CPU fan: Scythe Ninja Mini 6 Heat Pipes CPU Cooler

for approx 950.00plus taxes

Thanks again to all the guys who contribute to these forums (especially but exclusively Longbow and Bamboo)

I think it is almost time to put my present day nVidia 6800 to rest and there will be much rejoicing.

[Bamboo]

That rig will be awsome.
As far as the gfx card, what is the 8800GT costing, compared to the 9800?
And which ASUS P5K are you looking at?
And where are you ordering from?

[Fignut]

Ordering from a local company www CanadaComputers-dot-com--cannot post websites yet
They seem to be the cheapest in my area, with great customer service. (keep in mind all prices are CDN dollar and not US)

The Galaxy GeForce 8800GT Chipset (600Mhz) 512MB DDR3 (1800Mhz) Dual Dual-Link Display PCI-Express 2.0 Graphics Card $219.99 (with a $50 mail in 169.99).

The Galaxy GeForce 9800GTX Chipset (675Mhz) 512MB DDR3 (2200Mhz) Dual Dual-Link DVI Display PCI-Express 2.0 Graphics Card $334.99 ($25 mail in 309.99)

and the ASUS P5K is just the basic : Asus P5K Socket 775 Intel P35 ICH9 Chipset Dual-Channel DDR2 1066/800/667Mhz SATA 3.0Gb/s 12x USB 2.0 $129.99. It seems kinda cheap but a lot of the non-TG forums had not so nice things to say about most of the other variations of the P5K's. I don't know if I am foolish sticking with the P35 boards, but they seem to stable and reliable.

[Bamboo]

Did you know that Newegg has a sister site for canada? I can't remember the name right now, but pretty much equal prices.

As far as the PK5, I have the PK5 Delux Wi-Fi model and am very happy with it. Most tech sites said back in Oct. it was the best p35 board, with the plain P5K being a close runner up. I have actually helped people buy the board before, and I can't tell the difference between my board and the next model down. (the next model down just came out when I bought mine, and there weren't any good reviews done on it yet.)

I think your only decision on the MB is do you want to go with the PCI-E 2.0, which is going to be more future proof. And that would also mean you have to wait about a month.
Both of the cards you list above would work in a PCI-E 2.0 slot, but in the future like a year or 3 down the road, once cards are released that will take advatage of the through put and power levels the 2.0 offer, are you going to be able to upgrade to those new graf. cards.

[Sir-Nerd]

Don't forget to get a highspeed DVD reader/writer as well and of course as FLOPPY DRIVE.

I wouldn't get anything in the next format drivers unless you plan on using your computer as a tv.