Build Tips

[RoyalBishop]

I need some opinions from what my build looks like, It will be for gaming and alot of research , mostly gaming tho.

Intel E6600
Evga 680i
Corsair XMS DDR2 2x1gb
Evga 7950gt
Zalman ZM600 HP
Western Digital 74gb Raptor

I have been using the E6300 for a while when I am at work and its alot faster than my FX-53, I have not seen the E6600 yet in person so im not familiar with the increase of performance between the two.

Theres acouple of mobos that I have chosen from but the Evga seems to be catching my for some reason. I dont plan to overclock unless I have to down the line to run something I need but I just want something that is killer and reliable.

Corsair seems to be a good brand and I havn't had anything go wrong with mine.

I was torn between the 8800gts 320mb and the 7950gt, I dunno if the 8800gts is worth the little more cash, I thought I would wait till they drop in price but if its worth it I would do it.

I keep on hearing good things about this psu and I personally dont need something really quiet but it would be nice. I was planing on sticking with the 620hx Corsair for my first choice but I really liked the quality of the Zalman, still I have no personal hands on with either of these guys.

I have one in my current system and I will be putting it into Raid 0 till they come out with a 100,000,000rpm hard drive just for me.

I was hoping on only spending around twelve hundred total with cooling and cables, I have XP Pro 32 and I want to try out the Pro 64 once I build it.

I appreciate any opinions or suggestions, thanks guys and gals.

 

[xitshsif]

Stay away from XP 64-bit

 

[crydee]

I ordered the superclocked 8800gts from zipzoomfly for 275 with a 15$ mail in rebate bringing me to 260 (free shipping) the other day

 

[Noema]

Originally posted by: xitshsif
Stay away from XP 64-bit

I'd say stay away from 64-bit OSes for the time being unless you absolutely must have >4GB of RAM.

I'm sure that by this time next year Vista 64 will be quite mature driver-wise, but for now it's better to stick with 32-bit OSes to avoid headaches.

 

[BOLt]

I would go with the 6300 and overclock it, but that's just me. I think at the speeds of even a 6300, the small increase in clock speed and perhaps cache size of a 6600 is not noticable enough to warrant the extra money... but whatever makes you happy.

The Gigabyte DS3 seems to be king for C2D, but I haven't really looked into alternatives...

I like Corsair too! Try and get Micron D chips for your RAM if you can in order to achieve the highest OC headroom. Again, I am speaking from an overclocker's point of view.

Zalman is sweet. Check out Antec for some solid, affordable, quiet PSU alternatives.

Raptors are overrated, IMO. Seagate or Western Digital have good high-capacity alternatives to the Raptors that offer quieter, higher capacity, more affordable alternatives.

Just my two cents. Do with it what you will.

 

[Zardnok]

I also recommend spending the extra cash to get the 8800gts video card. If you will be gaming, it will give you the best performance increase for the money. You can even drop from a 6600 down to a 6420 to make up the difference. Just OC it to 3.2 and be happy.