need help building a c2d system!

[stringer98]

ok so my 7 year old computer officially stinks. need a new conroe system. now ive been reading and reading to try to put together parts for my 1st build so here it goes. i need all the advice i can get!

Antec Performance I P180B Black

Corsair HX620w ATX12V v2.2

ASUS P5B Deluxe/WiFi-AP Socket T

Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 Conroe 2.13GHz

CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800

Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound

ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler

Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD3200KS 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb

SAPPHIRE 100168L Radeon X1900XT 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 VIVO PCI Express x16 CrossFire Video Card

NEC Black 16X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 16X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2M Cache IDE/ATAPI DVD Burner - OEM

Atech Flash XM-28U BLACK 28-in-1 USB 2.0 Internal Card Reader

Microsoft Windows XP Home With SP2B 1 Pack

Total - $1596


first of all is everything compatable? and, with keeping this as a max spending amount, is there anything i should change?

i am particularly perplexed by motherboard, video card, heatsink, and optical drive choices. i will be buying a 20"-22" widescreen lcd monitor for this and dont know what impact this may have on my video card choice.

again this is for a 1st build so i may be missing items i dnt know. i tried to do all the homework i could before bothering any of you with this.

so here are my choices in all their glory (or not). this will be for gaming and office work. please any advice would be great. thanks in advance!

 

[stringer98]

any help at all?

 

[lxskllr]

Are you going to overclock?
What's your intended use for this?

 

[Baked]

Looks like a sweet system. You might have people come in an tell you to buy $60 heatsinks, but I say the Freezer Pro's sufficient enough for a 3.2GHz OC. If you need some 120mm fans, check out the Yate Loon over @ Nexfan.com or Jab-tech.com. Nexfan has a buy 2 get 1 free deal. You get get a $2 discount on the nexfan shipping, giving you a total of $5 per fan.

 

[Leros]

Good lord, thats an upgrade.

 

[stringer98]

Originally posted by: lxskllr
Are you going to overclock?
What's your intended use for this?

hi. i have no idea how to overclock. however i want to leave all options open so the ability to overclock would be nice.

gaming, emails, surfing, hopefully figuring out new things to do. lots of office forms etc. really want to catch up on some games. havent been able to play anything decent on this thing in awhile as u can probably imagine hehe.

 

[stringer98]

Originally posted by: Baked
Looks like a sweet system. You might have people come in an tell you to buy $60 heatsinks, but I say the Freezer Pro's sufficient enough for a 3.2GHz OC. If you need some 120mm fans, check out the Yate Loon over @ Nexfan.com or Jab-tech.com. Nexfan has a buy 2 get 1 free deal. You get get a $2 discount on the nexfan shipping, giving you a total of $5 per fan.

thanx for the info! i guess ill stick with the freezer 7. im not sure if i need any other fans. this case says it comes with 3 120mm ones. are these of decent quality i wonder? or would i need additional fans? if i need others ill check out the ones u mentioned, i read alot of ppl saying good things about those.

 

[stringer98]

wow this video card deal is hard to figure out for me. i dont know if i need to go ati or nividia or what. basically i want it to go real well with a 20-22" widescreen lcd. pretty much the best card under $250 or so is what im looking for.

 

[Baked]

You picked a very good video card. I have the cheapy X1600Pro and love the video quality. The Antec fans are not bad at all, the Yate Loon fans was just a suggestion. They are just quieter than the Antec fans.

I'd stick to the Freezer Pro 7, it's an excellent HSF for the price.

 

[Conky]

You need XP Pro for the dual cores.

Other than that, you look to have a fine system. :thumbsup:

 

[tbike06]

Originally posted by: Beachboy
You need XP Pro for the dual cores.

Other than that, you look to have a fine system. :thumbsup:

Actually XP Home is fine for dual cores.

 

[Bill Brasky]

Originally posted by: Beachboy
You need XP Pro for the dual cores.

Other than that, you look to have a fine system. :thumbsup:

I've never heard that either. Did you read this in forums or from an article?

Actually, I just read Home doesn't support dual socket, but dual core is fine.

 

[Leros]

Originally posted by: Zaitsev

Originally posted by: Beachboy
You need XP Pro for the dual cores.

Other than that, you look to have a fine system. :thumbsup:

I've never heard that either. Did you read this in forums or from an article?

Actually, I just read Home doesn't support dual socket, but dual core is fine.

XP Pro is only needed for two physical processors.

XP Home can only address one physical processor, but it can address multiple cores within that processor.

Trust me, I've run a dual core CPU on XP Home before.

 

[Bobthelost]

My thoughts:

RAM, you're throwing your money away on this. For a mild overclock DDR2 667 is sufficent, this is much better value for money at the 800 speed:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145590
Any budget 667 RAM would be sufficent for a mild OC. If you're not overclocking at all you'd be best off with 533 RAM.

PSU: Waste of money, nice PSU but overkill, massive overkill. Knock $40 off and go for this one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817139001
Still overkill, but not as much a waste of money, then again this is even better value:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817194003

Graphics card: Good choice, you'll be happy with it. However i'd be looking at the 512mb version of it. The larger your screen the more processing power you need in the graphics card and the extra RAM starts to be helpful. It is a bit loud with the stock cooler, i'm not sure if that matters to you. Then again you can get a 3rd party heatsink later on if it does bother you.

 

[Bill Brasky]

Graphics card: Good choice, you'll be happy with it. However i'd be looking at the 512mb version of it. The larger your screen the more processing power you need in the graphics card and the extra RAM starts to be helpful.

I think that's pretty good advice, especially since the OP isn't a frequent upgrader. The difference between 512mb and 256mb is relatively small right now, but this probably won't be the case for games released a year and a half from now. For me, it would be worth the 50 extra bucks. Check out this link for more info.

 

[stringer98]

thanks alot everyone. i am taking everyones advice here. this is great. im getting alot closer to finalizing every last part. even got the monitor picked out.

actually all that remains is the motherboard. i dont know what to go with. i would think that an sli board with provide more future-proofing but i dont know. i just read about a 590 sli asus board coming out soon and wonder if i should go with that. by far the motherboard is the hardest part for me to figure out.

then i have to figure out how to put all this stuff together lol

 

[Baked]

SLI is a waste of money unless you're running a Dell 30" LCD.

 

[Bobthelost]

Originally posted by: Baked
SLI is a waste of money unless you're running a Dell 30" LCD.

:thumbsup:

It's also a really crap upgrade path imo. Only buy a SLI (or crossfire) board if you're going to be buying two cards from the start.

 

[stringer98]

thanks! understood!

so i guess i dont need sli. whats the best board for me? the most important aspect would be for it to work right out of the box. i wouldnt know how to flash a bios or troubleshoot etc. also integrated wireless would be important ... or do all board have that now? *confused* oh and ddr2 800 support would be good right?

 

[Bobthelost]

Integrated wireless brings the options right down. It means you're looking at the top of the line boards ($100+ extra) while an add in card only costs $40.

DDR2 800 support would be standard, it's nothing special.

The motherboards to look at are the Gigabyte 965P DS3 and the Asus P5 deluxe range.

 

[stringer98]

Ok here it goes. This is my slightly revised list. Please hit me with some comments if something doesn't look ideal

Antec P180b

Corsair HX520w

Asus P5B Deluxe / Wifi

Conroe E6400

CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 PC2 6400

Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound

ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler

SAPPHIRE 100149 Radeon X1900XT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 VIVO PCI Express x16 Video Card

Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD3200KS 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

NEC Black 16X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 16X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2M Cache IDE/ATAPI DVD Burner

Atech Flash XM-28U BLACK 28-in-1 USB 2.0 Internal Card Reader

Rosewill RC-403 56Kbps PCI Bus (Plug and Play) Conexant Modem

Microsoft Windows XP Home With SP2B 1 Pack

Microsoft Comfort Curve 2000 B2L-00047 Black 104 Normal Keys 9 Function Keys USB Ergonomics Keyboard Mouse Included

ALTEC LANSING VS2220 5 Watts RMS(Front Speakers: 2.5 Watts/channel @ 4 ohms @10% THD @ 20 Hz - 20 KHz 2 Channels Loaded) 2.0 Speaker

BenQ FP202W Black 20.1" 8ms Widescreen LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 600:1 0.258mm Pixel Pitch

Total: $1935


holy crap this is alot of money. worth it in your opinion?

would this video card go well with this monitor?

you sure this PSU will handle everything (video card, monitor) fine and have room for upgrades?

motherboard thoughts? still the hardest thing to choose

well this is my saved list now any thoughts would be awesome. thanks so much!

 

[Rubycon]

Holy crap those motherboards are expensive - it's a desktop board!

 

[Leros]

Originally posted by: MS Dawn
Holy crap those motherboards are expensive - it's a desktop board!

It has integrated wifi.

Why not just get a PCI wifi card? Or if you need more PCI slots, get a USB wifi adapter.

 

[Bobthelost]

Not that RAM, get the cheaper DDR2 800 at least. Timing make next to no difference anyway.

 

[stringer98]

Originally posted by: Bobthelost
Not that RAM, get the cheaper DDR2 800 at least. Timing make next to no difference anyway.

i went to the asus site to look up compatable ram. the only corsair 1024mb, ddr2 800 sticks on the list are the 6400C4 & 6400PRO. I chose the C4 since its cheaper. did i do the right thing?