final hours ... looking to order parts tonight

[VINKRILLZZ]

thanks to the help of the people in this forum i am cutting cost and bringing my machine together......this is what i have put together so far....please give me input.... also is the 7.1 sound card neccesary if most speakers are 5.1.....please give advice on sound card and also hdd help ... am i goin with right choice.....thank you any info is appreciated



LITE-ON 20X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe Black SATA Model LH-20A1L-06

COOLER MASTER Stacker 830 Evolution RC-830-KKR3-GP Black Aluminum ATX Full Tower Computer Case Real Power Pro 1000W Power Supply

2 Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD7500AAKS 750GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

SAMSUNG 245BW Black high glossy 24" 5ms DVI Widescreen LCD Monitor with Height Adjustment

EVGA 768-P2-N885-AR GeForce 8800Ultra 768MB 384-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card

Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Elite 7.1 Channels PCI Interface Sound Card

Microsoft 69Z-00001 Silver USB Bluetooth Wireless Ergonomics Entertainment Desktop 7000 Mouse Included

SIIG JU-91RW12-S4 9-in-1 USB 2.0 Card Reader/Write + Floppy

CORSAIR XMS2 4GB(4 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Quad Kit Desktop Memory

ASUS P5K PREMIUM/WIFI-AP LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6700 Kentsfield 2.66GHz LGA 775 Processor Model BX80562Q6700



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esquared
Anandtech Senior Moderator

 

[VINKRILLZZ]

also fans ??....how many and what size ??....or should i got liquid.... ??

 

[VINKRILLZZ]

update......changed 1 of the wd750gb.....with a raptor 150gb as my primary os drive

 

[VINKRILLZZ]

anyone ... please.....think about the first system you built and how you want it to be perfect....knowing ur probbly gonna atleast screw up one peice ....and you dont even care.....some one help me atleast order the proper parts to build the best and fastest sytem possible for 3500

 

[merk]

unless you are installing a 64bit operating system, 4gb of ram is kind of pointless. If you are going with a 64bit OS (some version of windows I assume) then try to check and see if there are drivers available for all your hardware that will work in a 64bit os.

oh and as for water cooling - i wouldnt bother with that unless either:

a. you plan on overclocking it significantly
b. you dont want to hear the sound of any fans running
c. it gets really hot in whatever room you plan on having the pc.

otherwise you'll just be spending an extra few hundred bucks and not gain anything from it.

 

[VINKRILLZZ]

i dont know if i am going 64 off the bat but at some point when it becomes more prasctical i will be and id rather have the ram ready then have to upgrade in the future... anf it is not pointless because i know that 2 gb is not completley enouigh 3gb is more than enough but for 1 gb i might as well install all 4 off the bat

 

[VINKRILLZZ]

as far as my choice of hardware.......the system is costing me 3500....which i dont mind but is there anything you would change or swap to get better performance....i am not trying to get a cheaper system but a better one for the price i am spending...

 

[merk]

Originally posted by: VINKRILLZZ
i dont know if i am going 64 off the bat but at some point when it becomes more prasctical i will be and id rather have the ram ready then have to upgrade in the future... anf it is not pointless because i know that 2 gb is not completley enouigh 3gb is more than enough but for 1 gb i might as well install all 4 off the bat

true, its more like 2.3gb or so. Just seems a little pointless to me though to spend the extra money on something the system wont be able to use unless you go with a 64bit os. And its not like its a big deal to buy an extra 2gb later on if you upgrade to a 64bit os. But i guess if you are spending $3500, an extra hundred or two on ram doesn't really matter.

 

[VINKRILLZZ]

how do you feel about my choice of parts.....if it was your system besides the ram would you change anything ?

 

[jkresh]

Vista 64 is a solid OS and mostly compatable, unless you have 16bit programs that you use there is little reason not to go to it right now (and it defiintely can use 4gigs of ram).
The sound blaster Elite is a very good (and very expensive card), what speakers are you planning on using with it? Also if you are using a home theater setup make sure your reciever has analog inputs as no X-fi's have dolby dgiital or dts encoding capabilities (ie if something is digiatal (dvd,hd-dvd,blue-ray) they can output it through optical but they cant send game audio through it). Auzentech has a card based on the x-fi coming out soon that can handle dobly digital encding and might be worth waiting for (you can always build now and add the card later).
Since you are spending so much if you are considering going sli/crossfire int he future it might be worth waiting a month or so for x38 boards to be out (they will definitely support crossfire and might support sli).

finally as for cooling, it depends on how much noise you can handle. My panaflow fans are quite loud but I recently picked up some zalman zm-f3's which are very quite for their airflow. If you intend to overclock the quad core then you want the best cooling you can get, either a thermalright ultra 120 extreme with a good fan or water. If you are interested in water then you have a lot to think about. Ultimately water can handle the quads better then air and with less noise but it wont give you significantly higher overclocks (maybe about 10%). Phase will get you the most but a good custom unit will cost $500 + (and take some time to get, while a storebought one wont be as good and will cost $800).

If you want to go water you need to decide how much you want to spend for it and if you feel comfortable building it yourself.

 

[merk]

Originally posted by: VINKRILLZZ
as far as my choice of hardware.......the system is costing me 3500....which i dont mind but is there anything you would change or swap to get better performance....i am not trying to get a cheaper system but a better one for the price i am spending...

well, you might see better performance if instead of a quad core you went with a faster dual core. My understanding is that there arent too many applications yet that can take advantage of quad cores. So you might actually get better performance going with a higher end dual core.

As for the rest, i dont know. I honestly never spend that much on my upgrades. I always buy middle of the road type stuff...nothing too high end but nothing too low end either. So i wouldn't know about specific parts you should get. Just in general stuff, like the quad core vs faster dual core.

I'm pretty sure i saw a comparison on dual vs quad core somewhere. Maybe on anandtech somewhere or tomshardware. If you google it you can probably find it.

 

[VINKRILLZZ]

i dont want to go water because it intimadates me to be honest....i was under the impression that i would need it.....if i can be fine with fans then iwould rather go that route.....as for the fans i dont know to much about which fans to by and if they all fit in the case i am choosing.....i dont see why not...but i dont know

 

[merk]

do a google search on: cpu cooling fans review

You'll be able to get some ideas of whats available, how well it cools and how loud it is. me personally i cant stand a noisy system, and since i dont overclock, i usually look for something that does decent cooling but does it quietly. But it's entirely up to you what you prefer. As far as i know, for non-overclockers, the cpu cooler you get with the cpu when you buy it retail is usually sufficient.