Building new PC for the first time

[Subterfuge]

1. What YOUR PC will be used for. That means what types of tasks you'll be performing.
Mainly gaming.

2. What YOUR budget is. A price range is acceptable as long as it's not more than a 20% spread
Well, if exchanged to American currency, it's around $2500... thanks to the weak dollar.

3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from.
Sweden.

4. IF YOU have a brand preference. That means, are you an Intel-Fanboy, AMD-Fanboy, ATI-Fanboy, nVidia-Fanboy, Seagate-Fanboy, WD-Fanboy, etc, etc, etc, you get the picture.
Not really, I've always been using Intel though.

5. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are.
Only external things like monitor, mouse, etc.

6. IF YOU have searched and/or read similar threads.
Yes, I have.

7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.
I will not overclock it.

Here's the build:
Antec Case Performance One P182 Gun Metal Black
Corsair HX Series 620W 120mm Fan ATX2.2 20/24-pin 4/8-pins 12V Modular
Asus P5E iX38 4DDR2-DIMM 2PCI 5PCIe SATA Raid Audio GB-LAN Firewire Socket775 ATX
Intel Core 2 QUAD Q9450 2.66GHz 12MB FSB1333 Boxed (with cpu-cooler!) Socket 775
Scythe Ninja PLUS Rev B Heatpipe CPU Cooler socket 478 / 775 / AMD-socket
OCZ Platinum XTC 4x2048MB (tot. 8GB) DDR2 PC2-6400 800MHz
2x Seagate Barracuda ST3500320AS 7200.11 500GB 7200rpm 32MB cache SATA2
Samsung SH-S203D/BEBN DVD±RW Dual-Layer 20X BLACK Bulk SATA
MSI GeForce 8800GTS OC 512MB DDR3 TV-out HDTV DUAL DVI SLI-ready RETAIL PCI Express
Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit

I'm trying to build a silent gaming PC to last me a long while (and will eventually upgrade to a R700/GT200) but I'm not sure if everything is compatible. Any comments or suggestions?

I'm a little unsure about the CPU fan since I don't know too much about those... is that a good one? I'm looking for a really silent one.

Also, I've noticed that RAM has numbers like, for example, the RAM in my build has "4-5-4-15". What does this mean? Should I worry about it?

I'm also wondering about the TriCool fans that come with the case, I've read that they can get pretty loud. This might be a noob question, but... since you can change them to low speed, is it ok to leave them there, even for gaming? Or will they automatically go up for that?

 

[DSF]

1. You're not overclocking and you aren't using Crossfire, so don't waste the money on an X38 board. Get a solid P35 board instead. You won't notice any difference in performance.

2. The Scythe Ninja is a good heatsink.

3. If your main usage is gaming that Q9450 is probably going to end up with two cores (and sometimes even three) doing nothing most of the time.

4. Those numbers on the RAM refer to how many clock cycles it takes to perform certain operations. They make very little real world difference and you can basically ignore them, especially since you're not overclocking.

5. The TriCool fans don't automatically adjust themselves. They have a mechanical switch that you use to choose the fan speed. If you really want the computer to be as quiet as possible I'd recommend replacing them with some quieter fans like Scythe Slipstreams. (The 800RPM version is extremely quiet and pushes about 40CFM of air.)

6. 8GB isn't going to be particularly helpful in gaming, but it won't hurt anything. By the way, just be aware that OCZ RAM is designed to be fed a little extra voltage. When you install the RAM you're most likely going to have to go into the BIOS and adjust the voltage for it to run properly.

Other than that, looks good. The PSU is probably a little oversized, but that's not the end of the world.

 

[Subterfuge]

Thanks a lot for the reply, that was very helpful. 🙂 I'll look into a P35 board and the Scythe Slipstreams. Is there any difficulty in exchanging the case fans or should I have no problems?

 

[MarcVenice]

I wouldn't replace the fans, just stick with the tricools. I've got them on low, and I'm pretty sure my rig produces more heat then yours will. On low they are almost inaudible anyways, accoustic wise they aren't much louder then any other fan, like the slipstreams. If you don't like them for some reason, you can always replace them, and no, it's easy, just have to unscrew some screws and screw in the new fan, easy as baking a pie.

 

[Derraj]

only thing I should really recommends with my limited knowledge is get a smaller HHD for main programs/games, and if you need the room a bigger secondary. other then that it looks pretty good. alittle too expensive for my tastes, though.

 

[DSF]

Originally posted by: Derraj
only thing I should really recommends with my limited knowledge is get a smaller HHD for main programs/games, and if you need the room a bigger secondary. other then that it looks pretty good. alittle too expensive for my tastes, though.

Actually, I would disagree with this. As a general rule, larger drives are going to be faster than smaller drives at the same RPM. If you need 1TB of storage space, I would consider stepping up to a single 1TB drive.

 

[jkresh]

DSF, you are correct about larger drives generally being faster (though wd's 640 seems to be faster then a lot of others 750's (and even there own 1tb)) the problem with 1 drive is backup, if you need 1tb I would go with 2 640's and make sure to have whatever your most important things are (documents, photo's, home video) on both drives so if one fails you aren't screwed.