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Building Gaming Rig, want advice.

desk003

Member
I've come up with this, was wondering what everyone thought.
BF2, Americas Army, COD, COD2, HL2, FEAR, etc. Pretty high performance gaming.
Cap is about $1600.

Case: Antec Performance I P-160W ATX Mid Tower ($94)
PSU: ENTERMAX Liberty 500w ($105)
Motherboard: Asus P5W-DH Deluxe ($269)
Intel Core 2 Duo (Conroe) e6600@2.4ghz ($369)
RAM: Corsair XMS2 1GB (2x512MB) DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) ($154)
Optical: (x2) NEC 16x DVD ± DVD Burner ($58)
HD: Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 250GB 7200RPM SATA 30.Gb/s ($80)
GFX: ATI Radeon X1900XT 512MB GDDR3 PCI Express X16 ($329)
OS: Microsoft Windows XP MCE 2005 OEM ($109)
----
Fan: Silverstone 120mm Case Fan ($7.50)
Heatsink/Fan: Zalman 9500 ($63)

Total: $1640~.

Thoughts? I've compliled this based on mainly reviews here at Anandtech.
I'll link these items up if you want. All are probably gonna be via Newegg, if they get the mobo and proc in stock. Probably order date of early-mid september, but would like to finalize the list asap.

[EDIT: Here's the wishlist URL, minus the mobo and proc, as they aren't in stock. Newegg Wishlist]
 
great case

the part number is for 520watt and not 620watt as you specified. i never liked those particular wires, hard for cable management and sticking them away.

why the need for 2 optical drives for a gaming box?

which cooler master cpu fan? hyper-6?
 
See the newegg wishlist which I just linked to for info about the fan and PSU.

Only reason I picked that PSU is it was (I believe) the cheapest <600w one. Plus I figured modular would make it a hell of a lot better for airflow.

Copying CDs, etc. They're hella cheap now, so I figured I'd go ahead and spring the extra $30 for a second.
 
If you want modular at $100 mark, I'd take a look into XClio or Enermax Liberty 500-550watt. They have better efficiency and in my opinion more flexible, sheathed cables.

I'm not familiar with that cooler master hsf but for $40 I'd definitely look into better performing AND quieter hsf with 120mm fans instead of the 92mm fan.
 
I don't know dipshit about CPU fans. Never built a rig like this with the intention of overclocking it. I'll look around at those that you mentioned. Thanks. Any other suggestions?
 
Silverstone Element 500W or Masscool 460W. Ultra X-Finity 500W if you want modular for $10 after MIR. Or Enermax Liberty 500W if you want something with a little more quality.
 
Originally posted by: desk003
I don't know dipshit about CPU fans. Never built a rig like this with the intention of overclocking it. I'll look around at those that you mentioned. Thanks. Any other suggestions?

thermalright 120 (ultra and xp models), scythe ninja, zalman 9500....
 
I've swapped out the OCZ PSU for a Entermax Liberty 500W, and the CoolerMaster heatsink/fan for a Zalmzn 9500. Kinda went over budget, ($140), but not too bad. Any other suggestions?
 
Looks great, but I would change a few things.

Case: Lian Li > Antec. For under $100 you can get yourself a Lian Li PC-7B, more will move you up the latter.

Case fans: 120mm 2x Yate Loon from Jab-Tech.

GPU fan: If noise is at all an issue I would consider swapping the stock cooler on the 1900XT for a Zalman VF-900.

Everything else I would leave as you have it.
 
Noise isn't really an issue, and the case includes one fan already, so I'm just gonna get one. Looked at Lian Li, but personally like the case I found a bit better. Great reviews on it too.

@Howard: Huh?
 
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