Need help building new rig (~$2500CND)

[Wolfbeta]

My old first-gen Pentium 4(Williamette) PC finally died on me, it's probably just the PSU but I'd like to take this as an omen for me to buy a new computer.

I've been out of the hardware scene for awhile and have been studying the parts for the past two weeks now. Here's what i've come up with so far, there are some blanks that I'm still not 100% on.


Budget:

~$2500CND


Specs:

*All Prices courtesy of Canada Computers*
CPU: E6600 ($379.99)
GPU: eVga 8800 GTX ($684.99 *price from directcanada.com*)
Optical: going to use old ones
Storage: Raptor 36GB + going to use old ones ($132.99)
Memory: OCZ DDR2 PC2-8500 2x1GB ($389.99)
Mobo: *read below* (~$150 - $300)
Case: Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX ($129.99)
PSU: Antec True Power 650W ($139.99)
HSF: Zalman CNPS9500 ($74.99)

Total: $1932.93 (w/o Mobo)
$2203.54 w/ tax


Background + Requirements:

I work as a photographer so performance in programs like Photoshop CS2, Lightroom, etc is critical. Along with that I do a lot of videoediting so Adobe's line of products need to run at their peak performance.

I have a curiosity in 3D Design. However, I haven't had the ability to play around with it since 3D Studio Max 3.
I'd really like to be able to get back into it and have a powerful enough workstation to do so. I don't nessasarly want a Workstation GPU for this, I still would rather be able to play games and daddle in 3D Design.

I'd also like to try my hand at overclocking, nothing extreme, I'd like to be able to have a system that will last me several years, I don't want to burn out any parts too early due to insane ocing.

Most of my gaming is done on console. However, I'd like to get back into playing on the PC, I deeply miss the RTS genre.

SLI is far from my mind.


Questions:

• I'm confused by all of this SATA lingo. I have 2 WD Cavier 250GB, I'd like to add a 3rd raptor as a boot/scratch drive and add my two old optical drives. I see that PSU's generally say they have 4 SATA connections, am I screwed?
  
  Another thing is RAM... I'm at a complete loss, I was using Rambus up until now and it was fairly simple. Now there are so many numbers associated it tends to go right over my head.
  
  Motherboards are even worse, I can't decide between ICH7 and ICH8; 680i, 965 or 975.
  Should I consider 4GB of ram instead of 2GB?
  
  Last question, I have an old school Apple Cinema Display 22" from the G4 Era. Will this monitor have problems with ghosting while gaming?

 

[engiNURD]

1) No, get an adapter. Most boards come with one.

2) You don't need DDR2-1066 RAM. Intel platforms are quad pumped, so thats 4x the base FSB for an effective FSB of 4 * 266 = 1066Mhz. Your DRAM is twice the speed of the base FSB because its dual channel, so 2 * 266 = DDR2-533. Now, if you want to overclock (which you can certainly do without sacrificing any stability, since these chips have a ton of headroom), you'll need some higher speed ram to make it easier. So the E6600 is 9 * 266 = 2.4Ghz, and can reach 9*333 = 3Ghz on the stock intel cooler. That modest OC will require some DDR2-667 RAM. Since you use photoshop and do photo/video editing, I'd suggest going for more ram, and not so high speed, since you won't really need it. 9 * 400 = 3.6Ghz (which requires a better HSF than the intel stock).

3) It all depends on what you need. If you need SLI, go for the 650i or 680i. If you need crossfire, go for the 975X or Xpress 3200 IE. If you don't need a dual card setup (dont game on large LCD monitor; 24" or larger), then stick to a P965 Express or 650i Ultra board (which I dont think are out yet). Look into the P5B-E or GA-965P-DS3 for P965Express boards. Look into the P5N-E SLI or P5N32-E SLI for SLI boards. And look into the P5W DH or Intel BadAxeII, as well as the DFI Xpress 3200 IE for Crossfire.

4) Maybe, since its response time is most likely high. Sell it and get a new one, they're much cheaper these days. Or, keep it, and add a new one for gaming; they're much faster these days, hehe. Dual monitors will not need SLI/Crossfire unless one of those monitors is 24" or larger. A 22" LCD does not require SLI/Crossfire, either.

 

[saiku]

enginurd,

Do all these rams DDR2-533, DDR2-667, DD2-800 work on 965 motherboards (such as the BIOSTAR 965PT) ?

 

[engiNURD]

Yes, that board supports all of those ram speeds.