New PC - Not building it?

[Amele]

Re: the Antec 900...

Looks like a newb in front of who? It's an awesome case. =P

other builders. it's like the Honda Civic of the PC case world.

[Epical]

From someone who started a topic expressing interest in going to Best Buy to buy his next computer, I don't think that's going to be an issue.

[Shuemue]

that arctic cooler has decent paste on already

[Tymon]

I agree about 64bit Vista. 32bit is shit, but 64bit is actually a very decent OS and I recommend it.

[Ishido]

Yeah, I picked the 900 because I saw a lot of people using it and figured it would be good to use based on that. I'm not really worried about standing out, more worried about making a computer that actually works at this point.

Again thank you all for the input and help.

[Shuemue]

Antec 900 has great reviews, unless you intend to try and show off on overclockers.com, don't worry about it being popular.

[Amele]

yeah, it's popular for good reasons.^^

[mootsfox]

It's really not that great of a case. The 300 or 1200 look and feel better to me. I believe all of them have horrible cable management though.

Get the P180b, that's a good case.

[jurjur]

I believe all of them have horrible cable management though.

This.



Also, if you pick the xigmatek cooler...

check this out:
http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.ph...1&limitstart=5


I recommend Arctic Cooling MX-2 for thermal paste because well it's good and non-conductive so you don't blow shit up when you make a mistake...

The arctic freezer 7 comes with MX-2 (or MX-1... i forgot) pre-applied but you'd probably want to try to apply it yourself! there are many guides for proper application of thermal paste

[Shuemue]

The pre-applied on the arctic is fine, I used it last week.

[jurjur]

woops wtf

[Clipse]

Didn't wanna start a whole new thread, but I'm also looking to build a PC for the first time, but I'm completely clueless on what to buy or know what kind of parts are compatible with each other. My budget is around $1500, but I'm willing to spend a little more if will make a nice increase in performance.

I picked out this processor because I heard it "good", but feel free to swap it out with something better.
- Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 Wolfdale 3.16GHz 6MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115036

- Antec P182 Gun Metal Black 0.8mm cold rolled steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811129025

[mootsfox]

HD4870X2
2x2GB G.Skill DDR2-800
P45 motherboard
750w Corsair or OCZ/PCP&C
640GB drives

Sounds good to me.

[Clipse]

- DFI LANPARTY DK P45-T2RS LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813136050

- G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231122

- CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139006

- Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3500320AS 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148288

- ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro 92mm CPU Cooler
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835186134

- SAMSUNG Black 22X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 16X DVD+R DL 22X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA 22X DVD Burner
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827151171

- Microsoft Windows XP Professional SP3 English for System Builders 1 Pack CD
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16832116515

- SAPPHIRE 100251SR Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB 512-bit (256-bit x 2) GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102768

- Antec P182 Gun Metal Black 0.8mm cold rolled steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811129025

- Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 Wolfdale 3.16GHz 6MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115036

Am I doing it right?

[Epical]

Did you need a video card that beefy? You can shave off $360 and get a 4850 for more than a "nice increase in performance".

[mootsfox]

- DFI LANPARTY DK P45-T2RS LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813136050

- G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231122

- CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139006

- Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3500320AS 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148288

- ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro 92mm CPU Cooler
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835186134

- SAMSUNG Black 22X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 16X DVD+R DL 22X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA 22X DVD Burner
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827151171

- Microsoft Windows XP Professional SP3 English for System Builders 1 Pack CD
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16832116515

- SAPPHIRE 100251SR Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB 512-bit (256-bit x 2) GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102768

- Antec P182 Gun Metal Black 0.8mm cold rolled steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811129025

- Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 Wolfdale 3.16GHz 6MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115036

Am I doing it right?

No.

32bit OS can handle just under 4GB of total system memory. With a 2GB GPU, you'll have around 1.8GB usable of system RAM.

[Clipse]

No.

32bit OS can handle just under 4GB of total system memory. With a 2GB GPU, you'll have around 1.8GB usable of system RAM.

So what should I change? 64bit Vista?

[Shuemue]

What exactly do you want to do with it? If it's just FFXI, you're spending far too much.

[Clipse]

What exactly do you want to do with it? If it's just FFXI, you're spending far too much.

Honestly, just want a PC that can easily play WoW, TF2 and WAR at max settings.

[Epical]

If that's the case, scale back on the video card to a 4850, the CPU to a E8400 ($20, but its something), and even the RAM back to 2GB if you want... you should be fine with that in XP.