First time PC builder needs advice

[qTTro]

I looked into many things , this is the best i could come up with for the price, considering i dont want to spend over 1100$.

2 hds working in raid0 Seagate barracuda 7200.10 80gb
want to overclock as high as possible on air cooling q6600
Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L
G.Skill 2x2gb ddr2
Mid tower Rosewill case
rosewill psu 550w
evga 8800gt

This build is totally open to any suggestions , as a said im a newb, 1st time builder, i really dont know if the PSU is any good with this system, or the ram, or is everything going to fit nicely in that case, also i have no idea what cooling to get, ive been reading lots of forums, and i saw some of the more popular ones zalman 9700, tuniq tower (which prolly wont fit in this case) and yeah im clueless. any help is appreciated

 

[DrMrLordX]

A few notes:

1). The PSU shouldn't be too bad, but I personally would feel a little squeemish using one to power a GT and overclock a quad. Maybe I'm just being foolish. Jonnyguru.com has a review of a seemingly-similar Rosewill unit here:

http://www.jonnyguru.com/revie...s.php?id=48&page_num=1

That unit did pretty well except for a few points, such as the questionable caps and a shortage of SATA power connectors. The unit you selected seems to be an update on that PSU with a better selection of connectors. If it uses some of the same caps as the unit madmat reviewed, you will definitely want good cooling in your case before using one of these. Also, the efficiency on the unit you listed seems rather poor compared to other units on the market.

Personally I'd go with a Corsair VX or HX instead, depending on whether or not you want modular cables. It will cost you more up front but could save you a little on your power bills over time.

2). Is there some particular reason why you want to go Raid0? I think you'd be better off getting a single 250gb 7200.10 drive so long as you get one with 16mb of cache. That's the smallest drive available with a larger cache size.

 

[Ika]

You're probably better off with a hard drive like this. That's a 7200.11 Seagate HDD masquerading as a 7200.10 - it has a single-platter 250gb design, runs VERY fast, is thin, and is super quiet... pretty much everything you'd want in an HDD, barring size, but since you were planning on RAIDing together 80gb HDDs, I'd say size isn't a problem.

 

[qTTro]

I only wanted RAID because i heard that its a lot faster, initially i wanted to get 10000rpm 160gb, then some1 told me that 2 7200rpm hds in raid would give me same performance, maybe i was misinformed, any recommendations for air cooling? thanks in advance
on another note, i dont really need a big hd, 150gb should be plenty for me, just looking for performance

about the PSU, between the corsair 520hx and 550vx which one is betteR? i see that 520hx has 3 +12v rails while the vx has only one, im not really sure what that does but ive heard that its of importance, so yeah ill get one of these two instead of my initial choice

 

[MarcVenice]

Raid 0 is almost completely useless for an everyday user. Go with the single 250gb HD as suggested, it will be equally fast in almost everything, cost the same or maybe less, and gives you 250gb instead of 80gb. As for the PSU, I completely stand by what LordX suggested, go with a corsair 450vx if you are on the cheap, or a antec earthwatts 500w. You could get a somewhat prettier case for that money btw, imo the other 560x cases from rosewill look a lot better, but that's debatable of course.

 

[qTTro]

okz, so the 450vx would be able to power everything just fine? thats awesome, ill go for it then, as far as hd, ill get the 250gb 7200 as u suggested, about the case ur right, i like the r5604-tbk better thanks, i dont have any clue about what type of air cooling i should use

 

[MarcVenice]

air cooling ? You mean for the CPU ? If you want to go high with a q6600, then you should get a tuniq tower 120 or a thermalright 120 ultra extreme, the latter costs considerably more though. The tuniq comes for 45$ at newegg which is a pretty good price for the performance it gives you.

 

[qTTro]

ive heard lots of great things for both of these, but are they going to fit in that midtower case?

 

[chuckm]

Go with this case. $5 more at Newegg.

http://www.rosewill.com/produc...uct.aspx?productId=782

 

[wwswimming]

what type of air cooling i should use

Noctua NH-U12

http://www.xoxide.com/noctua-nh-u12-cooler.html

similar performance to the TR 120 but - flatter. a lot of people
are reporting flatness problems with the TR120 & TR120E.

it is not that hard to take an assembled heatsink and put it in
a fixture and flycut it to assure flatness. that's the manufacturer's job.

http://www.frostytech.com/

... good table format comparisons of the Scythe, the TR,
the Noctua, etc.

second favorite - Zalman 7700. very direct path from the
CPU to ambient air.