Finally jumping ship! REVISED

[stickybytes]

REVISED- hours from ordering !

Hi guys,

After years of holding off to build a new comp, I have finally decided to jump ship. The new intel chips are just too good to resist and i also now have some spare cash to spend so i said why not?

My pretty much finalized system is as follows:

Finalized Parts:

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 $259.99

Motherboard: Gigabyte DS3 $149.99
Was originally the Asrock 775Dual-VSTA but decided against it for the sake of a higher quality board.

Video Card: SAPPHIRE 100149L Radeon X1900XT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 VIVO PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail . It goes for 319.99 plus a 30 MIR which brings it to 289.99.

Hard drive: Seagate 320GB SATA 7200.10 $94.99

Case: Antec SLK2650BQE w/ 350 watt PS- Already purchased

Optical Drive: Lite-On DVD+/-R 4x Burner- Already purchased

Monitor: Samsung 15" SyncMaster 150N (1024x768)- From previous PC

Power Supply: Fortron Ax450 450Watt 51.99

Tenative Parts:

Memory: Corsair 2x1GB DDR2-667 Value Select $167.99
In terms of memory, im primarily concerned with the ram's compatibility with my paticular motherboard given how new both the mobo and the processor is.

Feel free to add any thoughts, comments, and suggestions about my new build. I am pretty much set on all the parts except the memory and video card. If anyone has any better alternatives for a similar price range, let me know. This PC will be used mainly for gaming although it will also be used for school. I am totally excited to start building and using this pc!

This will be the first pc that i will be building from scratch even though i have upgraded pcs countless times before so bare with me if i ask some newbish questions during the building process .

Changes
- Replaced the Asrock board with the Gigabyte DS3.
Decided to go for the Fortron AX450 Watt as opposed to risking my video card with the antec SP 350 Watt.
Going with the Sapphire X1900XT for video card.

I am hours away from ordering this sytem. If anyone has any last minute comments, suggestions please talk now or forever hold your peace!

 

[gramboh]

A few things,

with a 1024x768 LCD, you are going to have trouble letting the 1900XT shine in current games, you might cut back a bit on the video card and buy a bigger LCD? Not sure if it's in your budget.

For the video card, I like Sapphire for ATI, but from my experience MIR's take about 3-4 months to get back from the time you send it, so the MSI will take forever to get that cash back in your hand. Everything else looks good, nice HD, not too sure on the MB personally I'd go with a 965 but it's a lot more money.

 

[stickybytes]

Originally posted by: gramboh
A few things,

with a 1024x768 LCD, you are going to have trouble letting the 1900XT shine in current games, you might cut back a bit on the video card and buy a bigger LCD? Not sure if it's in your budget.

For the video card, I like Sapphire for ATI, but from my experience MIR's take about 3-4 months to get back from the time you send it, so the MSI will take forever to get that cash back in your hand. Everything else looks good, nice HD, not too sure on the MB personally I'd go with a 965 but it's a lot more money.

Bump ^.^

True, my 15" inch monitor will have trouble displaying the full capabilities of the 1900XT but i do plan on upgrading my monitor in the future, preferably to something 19" or larger. Therefore, i think purchasing this higher video card is justified in order to be more future proof.

Any more suggestions or comments? Can someone address the question i have about my Powersupply?

 

[Pabster]

Originally posted by: stickybytes
Any more suggestions or comments? Can someone address the question i have about my Powersupply?

Not sure I'd go with the ASRock unless you have legacy parts you NEED to be able to keep using. Performance is OK but it isn't the most feature rich board, and overclocking is very limited.

As for the power supply, I'd dump that Antec, quick. There's a plethora of decent sub-$100 choices. Fortron or Seasonic come to mind. If you can spare $200ish a high-end PC P&C unit will remove any power supply worries for years to come.

 

[stickybytes]

Originally posted by: Pabster

Originally posted by: stickybytes
Any more suggestions or comments? Can someone address the question i have about my Powersupply?

Not sure I'd go with the ASRock unless you have legacy parts you NEED to be able to keep using. Performance is OK but it isn't the most feature rich board, and overclocking is very limited.

As for the power supply, I'd dump that Antec, quick. There's a plethora of decent sub-$100 choices. Fortron or Seasonic come to mind. If you can spare $200ish a high-end PC P&C unit will remove any power supply worries for years to come.

Regarding my power supply, I see that my video card (1900XT) is very power hungry. Can someone reccomend me a good power supply choice that will support my video card but preferably not >100??

 

[Operandi]

That PSU will provide enough power, but I'd ditch it due to Antec's questionable quality.

I would suggest a Seasonic S12; the 380 or 430 version will be more then sufficient.

ASRock is the low end budget brand of Asus. The motherboard is the foundation of your system, so unless you are living off mac and cheese I'd suggest moving up to a regular Asus, Gigabyte, or MSI board.

 

[stickybytes]

Originally posted by: Operandi
That PSU will provide enough power, but I'd ditch it due to Antec's questionable quality.

I would suggest a Seasonic S12; the 380 or 430 version will be more then sufficient.

ASRock is the low end budget brand of Asus. The motherboard is the foundation of your system, so unless you are living off mac and cheese I'd suggest moving up to a regular Asus, Gigabyte, or MSI board.

The Seasonic S12 430W is 99.99 and while that isn't too much, this system is already exceeding my budget of 1000 dollars. How does this Fortron AX450-PN 450W look:http://www.newegg.com/Product/CustratingReview.asp?Item=N82E16817104954 ?
This one goes for 51.50.

In response to the comments about the Asrock motherboard, I realize that it is indeed a very low budget motherboard. I am more than willing to spend ~150 for a motherboard but the problem is that there are no decent one's out there yet. I've looked at the Asus P5B and the Gigabyte DS3 but there are many reports of incompatible memory, instability, etc. I read AT's review of Asrock and they had nothing but praise for the board, especially considering the price.

I also do not intent to overclock at least for the next 6 months, and by that time, i will probably get a new mobo that was designed with conroe in mind or move to a shuttle xpc or other SFF system, which would also mean a new board.

 

[Operandi]

Originally posted by: stickybytes

Originally posted by: Operandi
That PSU will provide enough power, but I'd ditch it due to Antec's questionable quality.

I would suggest a Seasonic S12; the 380 or 430 version will be more then sufficient.

ASRock is the low end budget brand of Asus. The motherboard is the foundation of your system, so unless you are living off mac and cheese I'd suggest moving up to a regular Asus, Gigabyte, or MSI board.

The Seasonic S12 430W is 99.99 and while that isn't too much, this system is already exceeding my budget of 1000 dollars. How does this Fortron AX450-PN 450W look:http://www.newegg.com/Product/CustratingReview.asp?Item=N82E16817104954 ?
This one goes for 51.50.

In response to the comments about the Asrock motherboard, I realize that it is indeed a very low budget motherboard. I am more than willing to spend ~150 for a motherboard but the problem is that there are no decent one's out there yet. I've looked at the Asus P5B and the Gigabyte DS3 but there are many reports of incompatible memory, instability, etc. I read AT's review of Asrock and they had nothing but praise for the board, especially considering the price.

I also do not intent to overclock at least for the next 6 months, and by that time, i will probably get a new mobo that was designed with conroe in mind or move to a shuttle xpc or other SFF system, which would also mean a new board.

Thats a low end Forton-Source, it's a decent PSU but nothing compare to a Seasonic or higher-end Forton.

If you can't find a good board maybe you should just wait till there are better options, thats what I ended up doing.

 

[stickybytes]

After doing some more reading, i going with the Fortron 450Watt for 51.99. I was going to try how my antec Smartpower 350watt would hold out but im not risking my 300 dollar video card in the process .

As for the motherboard, I have also changed it to the Gigabyte DS3 for 149.99. Since I have read that the Asus P5B is not core duo compatiable out of the box depending on which bios revision you have, I will go with the DS3. I don't want to go through the hassle of requesting a new bios chip from Asus. This will be my first experience with Gigabyte after using 3 comps with asus in the past, and im hoping that it will be a good one.

 

[Zinn]

Originally posted by: stickybytes
Video Card: SAPPHIRE 100149L Radeon X1900XT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 VIVO PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail . It goes for 319.99 plus a 20 MIR which brings it to 289.99.

better re-check that math

 

[bamacre]

I would shop around, especially at ZipZoomFly. Their E6400 is 250 shipped.