Building new PC - Will these parts all work together?

[Alishe]

Hey guys just looking for a little help first time putting a PC together from scratch in 7 years so just wanted a little reassurance that the parts I have picked out will all work together seamlessly. Also want to make sure there is adequate power supply and room inside the case + on the mother board for stuff to not complicate things anymore than necessary.

Going to be running Windows XP home, and maybe dual boot windows 7 eventually.

CPU: Intel Pentium E5300 2.6GHz LGA 775 65W Dual=Core Processor Model BX80571E5300

Mother Board: GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3L LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard

Ram: 1x Kingston HyperX 2GB 240pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Desktop Memort Model KHX6400D2LL/2G

and 1x Kingston HyperX 1GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PD2 6400) Desktop Memory Model KHX6400D2LL/1G

HDD: HITACHI 0A38016 1TB 7200RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

Video Card: GIGABYTE GV-R485MC-1GI Radeon HD 4850 1GB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Reay CrossFire Supported Video Card

And finally the Case + Power Supply: RAIDMAX SMILODON ATX-612WBP Black 1.0mm SECC Steel ATX Mid Tower Foldout MB Computer Case With 530W Power Supply

My main purpose is gaming, FFXI, EQ2, WoW ect and since this PC should run FPS and offline RPGs better than my consoles I'll probably be playing those too. My monitor is a 25" 1080P LCD with 2x HDMI inputs resolution of 1900x1080 with 15,000:1 contrast ratio (dynamic).

So if all of this is compatable and going to work for me I am super excited to order it because it'll be my first gaming PC that can actually run new games, old desktop has a PCI Slot nVidia GeForce FX5200 + AMD Athlon XP+1800 with 512MB ram, my laptop is decent but just not enough great for everything but gaming really. Thanks a bunch

[Snowknight26]

Why 3GB of ram?

[Rajwa]

Why 3GB of ram?

I was wondering that to. Generally you buy RAM in pairs of the same stick, I was told it works best that way (never researched too much into it though). I'm also not 100% sure if that RAM will work but I could be wrong.

[Snowknight26]

It will, but its just an odd combination.

[Araelus]

He's probably avoiding getting more RAM than the 32-bit OS can load, given the space the 1GB video card will take up?

cf. http://www.bluegartr.com/forum/tech/...hics-card.html

OP: I don't see anything that would flag the components to not work fine. That is one huge video card, though. 530W PS seems low to me just because I run a similar system using an 800W PS. ...then again, I have a lot more HDDs running. Consider a second one at least, just for backup? Disc space is cheap, lost files are not.

Did you run the specs through a power supply calculator? Also: optical drives, where?

I've been running one of GIGABYTE's mobos for two years at factory settings and it has been rock solid. Grab a 3.5" drive from somewhere so you can flash the BIOS.

And I assume you are comfortable using the normal Intel CPU fan, that should be fine. Make sure it seats properly (you probably know all this already) because sometimes they are a little funny.

Newegg is a great source, yadda yadda, you know what you're doing - grats on the build. :D

[Rajwa]

That's what I figured, considered it when I built my last PC as well, but decided to just go with 4GB with XP in case I ever need to upgrade to Vista or whatever the next windows will be.

[Alishe]

Yeah I was told 4gigs of ram with XP would cause Blue screen errors and wanted to avoid that. I would rather get 4gigs of the same type because I like things to match if it isn't a problem. I'll never upgrade to Vista though but definitely looking forward to Windows 7.

[Rajwa]

Yeah I was told 4gigs of ram with XP would cause Blue screen errors and wanted to avoid that.

Hasn't happened to me in the 6 months I've used this PC. Windows only recognizes 3.25GB (500MB VGA) is the only "downside" in my build. Just my experience though, maybe it can cause BSOD in another combination and I just got lucky.

[Alishe]

Alright so then I'll just get a 4gig set of ram, will probably be the same price anyways. Does the rest of the stuff look right though, like the Power supply has all the right plugs and the motherboard has all the right slots? I did my best trying to build a machine for under 600$ that would run very well (in theory I suppose) but since I am kind of lacking in the PC Knowledge department after not really keeping up to date in half a decade I can't be positive enough to actually order hah..

[Araelus]

Alright so then I'll just get a 4gig set of ram, will probably be the same price anyways. Does the rest of the stuff look right though, like the Power supply has all the right plugs and the motherboard has all the right slots? I did my best trying to build a machine for under 600$ that would run very well (in theory I suppose) but since I am kind of lacking in the PC Knowledge department after not really keeping up to date in half a decade I can't be positive enough to actually order hah..

Having more RAM than can be used should not cause problems unless the RAM itself is faulty (in which case there's errors all over the place anyway). As others have said, 4 paired DIMMs is better than three.

My only concerns are that the computer as you listed it has no floppy/CD/DVD drives, the video card size is an unknown factor with that case, and the power supply could be right or it could be not enough.

[Rajwa]

I'd look into cooling more. I'm not sure if the CPU comes with a heat-sink and fan, if doesn't then make sure you buy one, if it does, id still consider buying a better one. I usually put 4 case fans in for cooling also, not sure how many that case comes with.

[Alishe]

Whoops guess I forgot to add the DVD drive - Should I get a SATA or IDE drive? and I don't think I'll get a floppy drive as I haven't used one in years and if I really need it I have a couple spare ones in old desktops.

[Araelus]

Unless GIGABYTE changed their motherboard considerably, you'll need to have a floppy drive to flash the BIOS or it gets very ... odd ... during the install process. Old ones work fine, the case or mobo should have the huge-like-xbox connecting wires.

Newegg - Power Supply Calculator can tell you if everything is OK with the PSU. Or the eXtreme Power Supply Calculator Lite v2.5 is a bit more complex.

I recommend a SATA optical drive (DVD+R combo etc.) but depending on your price point IDE is fine.

I'd look into cooling more. I'm not sure if the CPU comes with a heat-sink and fan, if doesn't then make sure you buy one, if it does, id still consider buying a better one. I usually put 4 case fans in for cooling also, not sure how many that case comes with.

All Intel CPUs come with their standard heatsink/fan combination attached for warranty purposes. 3rd party are better, yes, but not always needed. The Intel stock fans from even a year ago had considerably closed the gap next to other options.

As for case fans, I am using an Antec Nine Hundred Two Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case right now which sounds like an aircraft carrier but it is very, very, cold. It is also, compared to what Alishe has picked out, much less modular and lacks an integral power supply. I think the Smilodon case already has four fans? Front/ Back/ Sidex2

[The_OG_Nelta]

With a comp like this, you could just run vista fine.

Why does everyone still hate vista X_X

EDIT: And yes you still need a floppy disk drive to flash to bios

[Alishe]

I just prefer XP to Vista really and I already have copies of it but no copies of vista. IDE and SATA seem to be the same price, I just wasn't sure how many SATA drives I could have so I wanted to make sure I had one for the future when I purchase a blu-ray drive.

[Araelus]

If you plan on Blu-Ray in the future, double check everything is digital rights management compatible (video card, monitor, cables, optical drive).

And speaking of blue things, find a way to block out all the blue LEDs, they mess with your eyes something horrible based on how the photoreceptors reset. Argh.

[Alishe]

I have my PS3 hooked up to my Monitor it's 1080P and works fantastic for The Dark Knight, the video card is suppose to work for HDDVD(lol)/Blu Ray drives, I don't know about cables I figure I'll probably have to actually go purchase some from the store because all the parts won't come with all needed cables.

[mootsfox]

Don't waste your money on a 1GB card, you won't use it. I game at 1920x1200 with my HD4850 (512MB) and it's wonderful.

Newegg.com - POWERCOLOR AX4850 512MD3-DH Radeon HD 4850 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards

DO get 4GB of RAM, this stuff is great:
Newegg.com - G.SKILL HK 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Desktop Memory
This stuff is good too, you might want to look into your own heatspreaders though.
Newegg.com - GeIL Black Dragon 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Desktop Memory

As for the optical drive...

I would highly recommend AGAINST SATA if you are using XP. XP by default will not recognize SATA optical drives. You'll have to F6 in SATA drivers at boot with a floppy drive and that's not fun if you don't know what you are doing.

Vista is nice in that it comes with both RAID and SATA drivers built in.

As for the case, get whatever you want, but please don't use that PSU. Something like this would be loads better:
Newegg.com - CORSAIR CMPSU-450VX 450W ATX12V V2.2 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply - Power Supplies


And for HD movies, I can confirm that the HD4850 is great for HD-DVD and Blu-ray movies. I just got an internal blu-ray drive, as I was using the PS3 before for blu-ray and an external Xbox HDDVD drive for them. It's very nice :D

[geno]

With a comp like this, you could just run vista fine.

Why does everyone still hate vista X_X

EDIT: And yes you still need a floppy disk drive to flash to bios

I'm pretty sure you don't, I flashed mine recently using a USB drive (and I'm actually using an older model Gigabyte, the P35-DS3L). The only disc drive I have installed is a DVD burner, and its been that way since I built it last year.

Like others have said, I would go with 4GB instead of 3GB (there are some great deals on 2x 2GB PC800 and PC1066 on Newegg all the time, rebates or discount codes almost weekly if you look around). RAM seems to be getting so cheap these days. For example, this and this.

I think your cooling will be fine with that set up, providing you don't plan on overclocking. That said, I'd much prefer a case like the CM690 (link) or Centurion 590 (link). Or maybe even this Lian-Li PC-7B since it seems to have a pretty good discount right now and free shipping (which is really good for cases).They will have a better build quality and probably run colder and quieter (I have really grown to hate 80mm fans). Additionally, I'd been hesitant to buy cases that include a PSU, as it is often a means of peddling their lower tier PSUs that just don't have the best longevity. I know I feel safer with a more reputable brand PSU (Corsair and Antec make some pretty good contenders in the 500 Watt range). Buying these parts separately can probably add $50 or more to your total, which is of course a trade-off that may not be worth it (after all, I know plenty of people who've run systems for years with a cheap PSU with no complaints).

For example, you could get one of the cases I linked above, and go for this combo deal to get a PSU that should work for your needs nicely: Combo deal!
It includes the motherboard you are currently looking at (which is the same one my brother uses and is certainly pretty good) and will save you $10 on an already discounted Antec Earthwatts. This would end up probably costing you somewhere from $30 to $50 more depending on the case you choose, but I think its worth it. I should note that I didn't really run a calculator or look at the specifics of your parts too much to be 100%, but it should be enough (afterall, its technically good enough for a crossfire build lol).

Outside of that, the rest of the build looks good. That's a pretty good price for a 4850 1GB, which by the way is a great card. Good luck with the build!

edit: Moots posted while I was typing ! Beat me to it on the PSU and Ram. I guess I can agree with him on the graphics card too. For the games you listed, the extra $30-40 bucks will just not net you enough of an improvement to be worth it. Some games do make some use of it (Crysis comes to mind), but the 512MB version is already a really sick card and you may not notice the different in most games.

[Alishe]

Thanks a lot for the input I am going to check into switching around some stuff now. I know I don't really need the 1gig card right now for the games I play but I think I am going to keep it because this way when newer games come out I want to play, or even ones that are already out that I don't play just because my laptop isn't good enough, I'll be able to still. Won't be ordering until tomorrow most likely so any further input is greatly appreciated