New Desktop Build: Critiques please!

[Kooldac]

I've been saving up for awhile to build my first desktop. Obviously, since its my first, I have a lot of worries and questions. Spent the last two months doing a ton of research but I still feel like I will miss something and could use some hardware knowing ppl like yourselves for some intuitive questioning. So here is what I am getting so far. I'm actually under budget by 200-300 bucks so I feel I might still upgrade the CPU a bit or just go for a kick ass monitor. Anyways, here it is:

Mobo: EVGA LGA nForce 680i SLI ATX
CPU: Core 2 Duo E6550 2.33GHz 4MB L2
GPU: BFG GeForce 8800GTS 320MB SLI
RAM: Corsair ZMS2 2GB (2 x1MB) DDR2 Duel Channel
HD: Seagate Barracuda 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache
Optical Drive: Lite-On Combo Drive
Wireless Card: EDIMAX 802.11b/g PCI 54MBps
Case: Antex 900 ATX Mid-Tower case
Power Supply: Antec True Power Trio ATX12V 650W with 12V tri-rails

I'll be using this PC for a long time and dont want another for at least 3 years. So I had a configuration in mind of easy upgrade and didn't want to skimp on the important, not-so-easily upgradeable stuff like mobo, case, CPU.

My only question so far is the power supply. Do I really need that much? I really wasn't sure so I just got one of the biggest. I was thinking I may add a 2nd 8800GTS later for SLI configuration and would need this power supply.

Thanks for any suggestions.

[sekaran]

I'd rather have a Corsair PSU.

[Shuemue]

Have heard a few complaints about Antec PSU's, and good things about Corsairs like ^ said.

[Keno]

How much is that rig costing you?

[Kooldac]

just about 1k on the dot with mail-in-rebates

[Alleya]

I would go with a different brand of motherboard...ASUS, MSI, Intel. I find it difficult to trust offbrands.

I'd also bump up the CPU since you're putting such a massive video card in it. I don't have any particular suggestions, just spend more money. ;D Maybe quad core?

Some more memory wouldn't hurt, either, if you can afford it. Never hurts to put in as much as you can, just remember to keep them paired so you don't lose the dual channel benefits.

Also ask yourself if you really need a new hard drive. You can probably save some money by getting a low capacity, fast hard drive for the OS/programs/page file and buy a slow high capacity harddrive for storage or keep whatever you have now.

Also do you really need wireless? If you can run a wire, it's always very very very much preferable to do that over wireless. You can just use whatever nic is on your motherboard and save money. Not dealing with the hassle of wireless is a bonus.

[Mala]

I recently got an EVGA board (i think it is one model up on yours, 680i chipset also), and it runs like a charm. They make video cards too, including the 8800 series (i have the 8800gtx by them). From experience they are a good brand, although ive heard of some people having problems with them.

[Osede]

which OS do you plan to use? xp or vista?

microsoft just announced that dx10.1 will come with vista sp1, but it won't support all of the current graphic cards. so....


the conference:
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/...129TX1K0000532

[Amastacia]

I've been saving up for awhile to build my first desktop. Obviously, since its my first, I have a lot of worries and questions. Spent the last two months doing a ton of research but I still feel like I will miss something and could use some hardware knowing ppl like yourselves for some intuitive questioning. So here is what I am getting so far. I'm actually under budget by 200-300 bucks so I feel I might still upgrade the CPU a bit or just go for a kick ass monitor. Anyways, here it is:

I'm also in the middle of a build with extremely similar specs overall, so I'm gonna divide it up bit by bit with my thoughts. Most of my parts are currently in the mail so I don't have any commentary on the build itself yet.

Mobo: EVGA LGA nForce 680i SLI ATX

Abit, ASUS, or possibly a high-end Gigabyte onry, please.

I'd definitely recommend a board using the P35 chipset over any other alternative, it has significantly better memory management and generally provides the best performance.

P5K-Deluxe by ASUS is expensive, but kick-ass awesome (and has integrated wireless). I ended up going with the non-Deluxe version of the P5K, but if you do decide to do that, expect to go through and remove, clean, and then reseat all the onboard cooling (heatsinks and heatpipe contact points) since it isn't set quite right and there have been reports of thermal problems.

CPU: Core 2 Duo E6550 2.33GHz 4MB L2

Eh, I'd go a little bigger here, like the 6750. It has the latest G0 stepping for the Conroe core, significantly cheaper than an E6850 (which is what I got, and am already regretting a smidge), overclocks like a fiend. Another alternative would be the Q6600 quad core. If you're mostly a gamer, you'll see less improvement from going Quad than if you do a lot of content generation, though.

GPU: BFG GeForce 8800GTS 320MB SLI

SLI is the biggest crock in the history of marketing, very nearly. You pay a huge premium for a small material gain. You'd see similar results from a single 8800GTS 640 MB card. SLI would give you another 5-10% improvement for nearly double the cost.

p.s. Intel P35 chipset is not SLI-ready, it's Crossfire compatible, but lolATI right now.

RAM: Corsair ZMS2 2GB (2 x1MB) DDR2 Duel Channel

Good stuff, but slow. If you're not planning on overclocking at all, or don't need top performance, it's a great buy for the money. If you're a serious gamer, I'd recommend dropping the extra cash on Corsair Dominator PC2-8500 (DDR2-1066).

HD: Seagate Barracuda 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache

The most cost-efficient Barracuda is the 500 GB 7200.10 right now. It's cheaper per gig than either the 320 or 750.

Optical Drive: Lite-On Combo Drive

I'm a big Lite-On fan, and I have virtually the same drive. It works great, but it gets LOUD when it's spinning at high RPM. Just as a warning, don't expect that bad boy to be quiet.

Case: Antex 900 ATX Mid-Tower case

The 900 is a pretty good gamer case, I personally think it's a bit too flashy, but it's an effective cooler and spacious. I went with the P-182 (I managed to nab one for a very good price on ZipZoomFly, but in the week since I pulled the trigger on it, it went up like $15) because it fits my needs better, but if you move your PC around a lot, the 900 is a better choice.

Power Supply: Antec True Power Trio ATX12V 650W with 12V tri-rails

I got one of these and regret it already. There have been a number of complaints on DOA PSUs with this model, and it's basically a Sea Sonic unit built with lower-grade parts. If I have to RMA mine, I'm just returning it and getting a Corsair 620W unit.

I'll be using this PC for a long time and dont want another for at least 3 years. So I had a configuration in mind of easy upgrade and didn't want to skimp on the important, not-so-easily upgradeable stuff like mobo, case, CPU.

My only question so far is the power supply. Do I really need that much? I really wasn't sure so I just got one of the biggest. I was thinking I may add a 2nd 8800GTS later for SLI configuration and would need this power supply.

Thanks for any suggestions.

You don't really need a 650W for your system, but if you do go insane and waste money on SLI later, it might not be a bad idea to have the power available.

To be honest, with your build you would be able to run it (barely) on a 300W supply, and would still be in the high-efficiency zone with a 400-500W supply.

Touching on the first bit, easy upgrade for 3 years won't be feasible. Intel's on a 2-year development cycle right now (new architecture every 2 years, die shrink in the intervening year), so a year and change from now they're going to move from the Core 2 architecture to something new, and forward-compatibility of current parts with future-generation parts will be questionable at best. The PC you're building will be more than enough for the forseeable future, but don't expect guaranteed compatibility beyond the beginning of 2009.

[Kooldac]

Also do you really need wireless? If you can run a wire, it's always very very very much preferable to do that over wireless. You can just use whatever nic is on your motherboard and save money. Not dealing with the hassle of wireless is a bonus.

Yes I need wireless.

which OS do you plan to use? xp or vista?

XP Pro. My roommate uses Vista and I watch and ask a ton about it. I felt the need to opt and not get Vista for now and wait. I can always duel boot in the future. Plus I can get XP Pro free :D

Great stuff. I'll re-read everything you said and do more research on your points since a lot sound unfamiliar. Thanks

[viperlasson]

I would pass on the SLI with the two 8800 GTS 320MB's. I would just buy one 8800 GTS 640 MB or a GTX if you can afford. If you plan to buy a big screen, like a 21 inch widescreen, you'll want to game at full resolution, get the GTS 640 MB or GTX. Also Intel just did a huge price drop on their quad core Q6600, its ~$300 now.

[Alexel]

I recommend the P35 as well provided you're not gonna SLI. If you're going to SLI, you're forced to go with the 680i chipsets. As far as P35 motherboards go I'd recommend these:

MSI P35 Platinum - top tier performance, cheapest price (can be found for around $150-$160)
Gigabyte-P35-DQ6 - top tier performance, quality components, pricey ~$230
Abit IP35 Pro - My personal mobo, very good performance, reasonable coast ~$180, the best board layout, great overclocking, great support and utilities

Any of those boards should work great for you, I personally chose the Abit since it has the best board layout and it has an optical input that no other boards have (I can use it to connect the sound from a PS3 or 360 to play over my computer speakers)

I'd also upgrade your CPU to at least a E6750, I believe that's the most effective one concerning price/performance ratio. I personally have a E6850, but I don't want to overclock it just yet so I went for the higher model.

If you're intent on sticking with the 320MB 8800GTS, I'd recommend getting a overclocked/superclocked one. They're only about $20 more expensive and according to http://www.hardocp.com gives the card a significant performance boost.

One final note, people will try to convince you regarding getting a quad core vs dual core. Here's the basic info you need to know, for a purely gaming rig right now and the foreseeable future, a E6750 or E6850 will give you a 10-20% performance boost in gaming (depending on which game). Quad core is the better choice for long term investment, but keep in mind the quad cores out know aren't built with true quad core architecture, they're just two dual cores stuck together. If you plan to do any video/audio encoding or 3d modeling, then definitely get a quad core as you'll see significant performance boosts with it. But for purely gaming, dual cores should be enough for a good while seeing how games are struggling to even utilize the second core at the moment much less maxing out both of them. If you plan on upgrading to a new CPU in a year or two, stick with a E6750 or E6850 as they produce much less heat than a Q6600 and will give you better performance outside of encoding heavy tasks. If you dont' want to touch your CPU for 3-4 years, you should probably future proof a bit and get a Q6600. Once Penryns come out I believe then we'll see true native quad core chips come out.

[Zigma]

drop the sli setup and just get 1 nice fast video card, it doesn't really help much and add the extra money from that on this


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6819115017


The core2duo's are still very very very good but for a few dollars more you can get a quad core cpu.

[Kooldac]

Pretty much researching all day I decided to go with

uped CPU: the E6750
uped GPU: 8800GTS
new mobo: ASUS P5K Deluxe
same RAM
same HD
same case
no more wireless card as new mobo has it built in
same power supply

am very glad those of you who brought up SLI as I am coming to realize its "meh"

[Jotaru]

Slap a Honda Power sticker on the outside of the case, it boosted my car 10 HP, I'm sure it'll do something for your specs too!

I get sadpanda every time I see a new computer thread, I'm stuck updating my Triassic-era machine bit by bit very slowly atm

[Skyylya]

Get the corsair hx620w modular PSU if you haven't ordered stuff already. And if you're knowledgeable about PC's at all downgrade on the PSU to the e6600 and get the conroe ship as you can easily OC it to beyond the e6750.

you said you fell about 200-300 bucks under budget? Upgrade your GPU to the evga 8800 gtx 768mb video card, it runs better than any 2 sli's would have that you'd get for the same price and it'll keep you going for another 3 years + since that's what you said you wanted.

I know you said you already decided on what you want, but if you haven't ordered it yet I would go with these as the PSU is probably one of the best on the market and that GPU is the best on the market with the exception of the 1500 dollar ATI card with 1gb memory.

[Vertabreaker]

I skimmed through everyone's suggestions and I didn't see this mentioned about the HD. I'm a fan of having two HDs instead of one. On smaller for the OS and the second for what I'm saving, downloading, working on, etc. Right now I have a 80GB Hard drive for my OS, and a 500GB for everything else. Just a suggestion though. Good luck with the new rig.

[Skyylya]

Having two HDD's is fine but it's not needed for a gamer, you won't get marked performance gains by having 2 vs. 1 HDD for most utilities. Unless you're doing a lot of work that requires reading/writing mutiple applications at once you'll get just as much out of one HDD with a smaller partition for the OS and a bigger one for everything else. Also no need to set up a raid unless you know it's something you're going to need as not everything does utilize the speed gains for reading info.

Edit: I also didn't see you mention a 3rd party cooler. It's not absolutely necessary but it is highly recommended to get a 3rd party CPU cooler like arctic freezer 7 pro or zalman makes pretty good ones from what i've read. I got a ZEROtherm / CF800 http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...?Sku=M333-3004 and that works pretty well and was cheap and easy to install. That and some arctic silver 5 thermal grease which is something you'll need regardless of what heatsink/fan you put on your cpu.

[Vertabreaker]

Having two HDD's is fine but it's not needed for a gamer, you won't get marked performance gains by having 2 vs. 1 HDD for most utilities. Unless you're doing a lot of work that requires reading/writing mutiple applications at once you'll get just as much out of one HDD with a smaller partition for the OS and a bigger one for everything else. Also no need to set up a raid unless you know it's something you're going to need as not everything does utilize the speed gains for reading info.

I mentioned it just in general for any rig really. I know everyone on these boards basically builds a new rig for gaming but I've personally always built a rig with 2 hard drives. I guess it's an OCD thing of mine. Not needed, all personal preference.

[Vinen]

Thumbs down to EVGA motherboards unless you plan on serious overclocking or SLI (I see you want SLI!). They have tons of issues.