Building My 1st PC for Gaming

[stevez0r]

First off I would like to thank stonyc for introducing me to this forum.

I want to build a PC for Gaming (Mostly for WoW and some of the new war games) and for doing school work, which means I'll be adding MS Office 2004. Also it will be used for Internet, Music and Pictures. I'm looking for help, recommendations and instructions on building the PC.

This is what I'm thinking of getting:

Antec Performance One P180B Black Computer Case - Retail $129.99

Intel BLKD975XBX2KR LGA 775 Intel 975X ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail $219.99

Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe 2.4GHz LGA 775 Processor Model BX80557E6600 - Retail $316.00

ATI 100-437807 Radeon X1950PRO 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Video Card - Retail $214.99

CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TWIN2X2048-6400 - Retail $209.99

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3320620AS (Perpendicular Recording Technology) 320GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - Retail $94.99

Total of $1186.94

Is there a better company for the RAM?

Is there anything else I would need?

 

[Roguestar]

If you're not overclocking it and just want it to work, that's a pretty good lineup. PSU?

 

[AVP]

Yeah if you aren't overclocking you can get a cheaper motherboard and ram. Otherwise thumbs up. Though I think you can get the p180 cheaper elsewhere. Check hot deals i could have swore I saw it mentioned in there

 

[stogez]

P180 is $80AR at outpost and in BB stores I believe
If you're not overclocking, that board and RAM is over the top. Probably save some money there.

 

[stevez0r]

I'm looking for a PSU now.

I'm not going to overclock, so what MoBo and RAM do you guys suggest?

 

[Boyo]

I would change the mobo to either an Asus or Gigabyte and try a Seasonic or Corsair PSU. Probably about 500W should do you.

 

[engiNURD]

If you want crossfire capability, stick with the P5W DH. If you don't need crossfire capability, go with a P965 Express chipset. The P5B-E is nice, and so is the GA-965P-DS3. If you'd really like to save more money on the mobo, go with the GA-965P-S3 or TForce965P. While you don't plan on overclocking, you should keep it as an option; simply because these core2duos have so much headroom. I understand you don't want to OC because it seems like this is your first build. However, just know that OC'ing with these core2 cpus doesnt sacrifice any stability/longevity.

The Corsair PSUs are really nice, and I'd recommend the 520W for your setup. If thats too pricey for you, theres an Enhance 500W at eWiz for $65, I believe.

Here's a guide to help assemble it: http://www.mechbgon.com/build/index.html

 

[Operandi]

Intel and Corsair are some of the best in their respective categories so you've made good choices there in my opinion.

For the PSU look at Seasonic, and Enhance (only available at e.wiz), 350-400 watts is plenty. Seasonic make some of the best units around with very high efficiency, very high build quality, APFC, and low noise. Enhance units have similar characteristics but fall just a bit short of Seasonic all around.

For the graphics card I take a look at Gigabytes offerings; they cover both ATi and nVidia but tend to feature very nice passive heatsinks or Zalman VF-700's stock, a big improvement over reference designs.

This is more of a personal preference but I would take a look at a few Lian Li cases (PC-7B, PC-101, ect) as I'm not much of a fan of Antec.

 

[AVP]

Also what OS are you going to buy? If you are going to buy vista look into getting a directx10 card. Only the 8800 series is available now but in a few weeks there will be a 8800gts 320mb which will be cheaper than the offerings out now. Getting an evga and using the 90day step-up program might a good bridge to getting a 8600ultra or 8800gts 320 in the future. Check it out at evga's website.

 

[jpeyton]

You're overpaying for nearly everything if you buy everything you listed.

P180B is $79.99 after rebate at Frys.com

Intel BadAxe2 is $175 at Microcenter.com

Newegg has the HIS Radeon X1950 Pro for $155. ZipZoomFly has the comparable X1900 GT for $125.

The sweet spot for Conroes are the E6400s for $220. They overclock just as well.

Great find on the Corsair 2GB; the rebate makes it a good deal.

 

[stevez0r]

I'm going with XP Pro, I'm not sold yet on Vista.

I forget which company makes a good DVD-RW drive?

Also I forget a sound card.

 

[engiNURD]

Vista is useless right now, imo.

Lite-On, Samsung, NEC, Plextor, Pioneer... they all make good drives. Check out reviews at cdrinfo.com and cdfreaks.com.

OnBoard HD Audio should be fine. If not, grab a soundcard later.

 

[stevez0r]

Is there anyway I can use a HP Slimline PC case for my build?

 

[dreddfunk]

stevez0r - first of all, good luck with the build.

While I'm not all that knowledgeable about the subject, I doubt that you will be able to use a major manufacturer's case. They don't necessarily conform to the ATX (or mATX, flexATX, etc.) standard. I'd search newegg.com for mATX cases to see if you can find something that would match if you're really interested in a smaller form factor.