My future PC build

[Yangsing]

I'm planning on building a new PC when the new Penryns come out. I've researched this for a couple months now. I plan on using this system for mostly gaming and hope to OC after getting the system all set up.

Here's what I'm planning on getting:

Case: Antec P180 (Already purchased.)
CPU: Q9450
Heatsink: Tuniq Tower
Motherboard: Abit IP35 Pro
Memory: Corsair 2gb TWIN2X2048-6400C4DHX
HD: Samsung Spinpoint 750GB
PSU: OCZ GameXStream 700W
Videocard: EVGA 8800GT 512mb (mostly for step up program)
OS: XP

My budget is pretty flexible, just nothing too expensive. I'm still wavering on the motherboard. Trying to decide between the Gigabyte P35 DS4, Asus P5K-E, and Abit IP35 pro.

Any suggestions on my build is appreciated. Anything is still open to change at this point before I purchase. I really want stability and being able to get a good OC.

 

[BlueAcolyte]

Looks good!

You might want to rethink the RAM and the PSU, nothing wrong with those.

You could probably get a PSU with a lower wattage and run fine, and get some less expensive RAM (unless it has rebates?)

 

[Markfw]

Gigabyte P35 DS4 or DQ6 definitly ! I have had trouble with ASUS being stable on my quads, and the Abit is not as good as the DQ6, not sure about the DS4.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

The 700W OCZ is above requirement, unless you're going to run a lot of hard disks. I don't know about the power-consumption on the 8800 GT card. I DO know the 8600 GT 512MB uses signif less wattage than my 8800 GTS 640MB, and the performance is said to be stunning. for that, you could plan to put two such cards in SLI unless the mobo uses an Intel chipset, and I think one or more of your options does so.

I'm out of date for the reviews on OCZ PSUs. I have a Powerstream 520 awaiting reinstallation to another system build. That's early 2005 vintage, and the efficiency was at most 75%. A comparison report at Tech Report, Tech Review (or some such web-site, but it's reliable) -- put it at the top of the heap, but that was two years ago. It had very low voltage ripple and rock-solid voltages even under high load.

This last year or two, Seasonic has taken many kudos, and you can buy them to be 88% efficient. While the air coming from the OCZ PS 520 felt like a summer day in Death Valley, my Seasonic M12 750 doesn't even get warm to the touch. Even a 650 model would be more than enough for you, I think.

You could do marginally better in the choice of a cooler with the ThermalRight Ultra-120-Extreme. you could match the Tuniq's performance with a ThermalRight Ultima 90, and not worry whether it would fit in the case (versus the TRU120Ex.)

But I'd advise you to lap the heatsink base of either thermalright cooler. So as it moves you, the Tuniq is fine.

 

[bryanW1995]

the ip35 pro has a good rep with quads. obviously it is not in the same category as the dq6, but it holds it's own nicely against the sub-$200 p35 mobos.

 

[Fraggable]

I dont know why you'd get a quad and 2GB of memory for gaming. You want 4GB or more these days for anything newer than BF2.

I also recommend Vista, always have. No measurable difference in speed as far as performance is concerned, and when gaming Vista doesn't use any more memory than XP. With memory as low as $20/2GB anymore who would care? If you're OCing maybe you should go with 2X2GB sticks.

 

[brencat]

Originally posted by: Fraggable
I dont know why you'd get a quad and 2GB of memory for gaming. You want 4GB or more these days for anything newer than BF2.

No point in him getting 4GB RAM if he's using XP as he won't be able to address it all. Overkill IMO unless he goes Vista 64.

 

[Dadofamunky]

2 GB should be enough for XP. He could buy 3 GB... it wouldn't hurt.

 

[Yangsing]

I do plan on eventually upgrading to Vista. How's over clocking with 2gb ram sticks?

 

[brencat]

Originally posted by: Yangsing
I do plan on eventually upgrading to Vista. How's over clocking with 2gb ram sticks?

If you are going Vista someday, then certainly you can get 4gb. Just realize XP or even Vista 32 will only address about 3.3gb of it.

Re your other question, most 2gb sticks are CAS5 and generally don't OC as well as 1gb or 512 sticks. It's a tradeoff -- some mobos have trouble running with all 4 slots filled. In that case, if you want 4gb, you'll have to go with 2 x 2s but just realize you probably won't be able to do CAS4 much above 375mhz.

 

[DSF]

What are you doing with this besides gaming? I ask for two reasons.

1) A quad-core processor is going to provide little, if any, benefit in gaming. You ought to consider going with a dual core, especially since two (and often even three) of your cores are going to be twiddling their thumbs a lot of the time.
2) You aren't likely to see any difference in gaming performance between your stock 2.66GHz chip and overclocking it.

You could save yourself at least $100 on the CPU and some additional money on the cooler.

As far as 2x2GB RAM, you'll be fine. It'll be easier to overclock that way than with 4 sticks installed. Brencat may be right that you won't get the timings quite as tight, but timings are mostly hype anyway. You're certainly not going to notice a tangible benefit to your gaming moving from CAS5 to CAS4.

And whoever said that you don't need 700W is dead on. Even if you want to overclock, a quality 500W supply is enough.

 

[Fraggable]

Originally posted by: brencat

Originally posted by: Fraggable
I dont know why you'd get a quad and 2GB of memory for gaming. You want 4GB or more these days for anything newer than BF2.

No point in him getting 4GB RAM if he's using XP as he won't be able to address it all. Overkill IMO unless he goes Vista 64.

There's a few holes in that.

1) XP Pro X64 does address more than 4GB memory and would work fine.

2) XP would see ~3.5GB of memory. So it doesn't use all 4GB, who cares? He could pay $75/4GB of quality DDR2 800 and the PC wouldn't use about $10 worth of that memory with a 32-bit OS. Is that so bad that he shouldn't get the benefit of that additional 1.5GB because of a $10 'throw away'? Keep in mind that most games from BF2 on won't run smoothly at high settings with 2GB or less - which is find for midrange rigs but this is a high end setup.

3) He is planning to upgrade to Vista, when he does, Vista X64 costs the same as 32 bit, he'll then be able to use it all.

 

[Yangsing]

Originally posted by: DSF
What are you doing with this besides gaming? I ask for two reasons.

I don't plan on getting a new pc for at least two years afterwards. My thinking was getting a Quad for down the road.

Will there be any problems with having 4gb on 32-bit XP other then all of the memory not being in use?

 

[tallman45]

useage of 3.5gb would be far better than 2gb, even with 512 wasted it is still better to have the extra 1.5gb in the rig

 

[DSF]

Originally posted by: Yangsing

Originally posted by: DSF
What are you doing with this besides gaming? I ask for two reasons.

I don't plan on getting a new pc for at least two years afterwards. My thinking was getting a Quad for down the road.

Will there be any problems with having 4gb on 32-bit XP other then all of the memory not being in use?

Considering that most games and applications are still really single-threaded, not even dual-threaded, quad-core isn't going to be necessary in two years. Four years, maybe a different story, but by that point you'd probably have upgraded anyway. It's your call I guess.

As far as the RAM, there shouldn't be any compatibility issues or anything. I'm running 4GB on Windows XP just fine.

 

[Scottae]

I am running G.skill 4Gb ram kit doesnt go over 1000Mhz at all but OCZ has a new 1066Mhz 4Gb kit coming out ... and the prices are near the 150$ for 4GB kits these are both 2 x 2GB