New Build, Need Help/Comments/Recommendations

[Unbekannt]

Hello all,

I'm new to the site and accidentally posted in the computer help thread, my fault for not reading. I have been trying to build a rig for a while now, and finally have what I think is a decent rig. This will be my second rig I have built for myself. My first rig is great and has never had any problems, but in today's computing world it is getting tired. My problems is that I'm a novice at best and would like some comments and feedback to see if I'm on the right track.

Use: Gaming, I'm more the C&C, Age of Empires, WoW kind of player, but at the same time would like the option to try the high end games. General MS Office programs. Surfing the web. Watching movies and other videos.

Budget: I'm willing to go to about $2000 or possibly $2500 if I need it.

Location: I live in Oregon.

Brand Preference: I like Intel and ATi personally, but am willing to try anything if it's a quality product and people here recommend it. I will be starting this new rig from scratch and only using my keyboard and mouse from my old system.

Overclocking: I have never done this and don't really care if the rig can run the programs that I want it too. But with that being said I wouldn't mind trying it. I also have never had enough money to play around with overclocking since if I burn up a component I don't have any money to replace it. I hate being poor, well I mean for the most part, took me two years to save for this new rig.

Build Date: As soon as I get some feedback and get all of the components worked out or unless there is something better coming out in a few months that will be better, I can wait.

Operating System: Windows XP Professional, unless someone can tell me why Vista would be better.

Goals: To get a solid all around rig that won't need to be upgraded for a while, which in todays world is not that long.

Specs: All components are taken off of Neweggs website.

Motherboard ? ASUS RAMPAGE FORMULA LGA 775 Intel X48 ATX Intel Motherboard

Processor ? Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor

Fan/Heatsink ? OCZ Vendetta 92mm Ball CPU Cooler

Memory ? OCZ Flex XLC 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1200 (PC2 9600) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory, 4 GB's worth

Hard Drive ? Western Digital VelociRaptor WD3000GLFS 300GB 10000 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

Video Card ? ASUS EAH4850/HTDI/512M Radeon HD 4850 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card

CD Drive ? ASUS Black 20X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 20X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 14X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache E-IDE/PATA 20X DVD±R DVD Burner

Case ? Thermaltake Armor Series VA8003BWS Black Full Tower Case w/ 25CM Fan

Power Supply ? Rosewill RX950-D-B ATX12V v2.2 & EPS12V v2.91 950W Power Supply 100 - 240 V TUV, FCC, UL, CE, ROHS

Monitor ? SAMSUNG 2253BW Black 22" 2ms(GTG) DVI Widescreen LCD Monitor with HDCP Support 300 cd/m2 DC 8000:1

I'm not to worried about a sound card or speakers right now but suggestions would be appreciated.

That's it. I hope I didn't forget any components. I welcome any comments/suggestions/recommendations/other any other things I have missed. Thanks in advance for the help.

-Matt

 

[faster]

Bro, thats a serious amount of cash you are willing to spend. You can build a great system with kind of flow. I gotta tell ya though, look at ebay for some of those parts. Especially the processor, which by the way, is the worst part of your build. I have two E8400 systems, one one an 650i the other on a G33 - neither one seems as fast (or produces as many resultls folding) as my E6850 on a G33. But you shouldn't go for dual core, you should go for quad core. I gotta Q9450 on a X38 chipset that blows the doors of any quad core setup I have. I'm sure you want the E8400 because of the 3.0Ghz. Well, consider getting QX9650 @ 3.0 Ghz. I just saw one go one ebay last night for $600 (which irks me because I bought one for $800 six months ago on ebay, but it feels good becuase they still retail for $1100).

If you are looking toward the future, Quad core is the way to go because of future multithreading optimisation supposedly forthcoming. Dual core is so "now"

 

[Unbekannt]

Thanks faster,

But my question is that since there isn't hardly any software that take full advantage of the quads is it really worth the money right now, I might have that much but that doesn't mean I want to blow it all on a system. The mobo that I picked out will support quads and if the software comes out in the future that can really utilize it I can always upgrade. Just wondering, thanks for the comments though it's appreciated.

-Matt

 

[DSF]

Originally posted by: Unbekannt
Thanks faster,

But my question is that since there isn't hardly any software that take full advantage of the quads is it really worth the money right now, I might have that much but that doesn't mean I want to blow it all on a system. The mobo that I picked out will support quads and if the software comes out in the future that can really utilize it I can always upgrade. Just wondering, thanks for the comments though it's appreciated.

-Matt

I wouldn't worry too much about quad core. The E8400 is a very capable chip and it will last for years. As you said, if you really feel like you need the upgrade in a couple years, you can drop in a quad core later.

I strongly disagree with two things in faster's post. First, regardless what results he got on his own setups, the E8400 is not a slower chip than the E6850. Second, I would never spend $600 on a CPU that isn't going to produce a $400 speed improvement over a $200 E8400. That QX chip will be less than $300 in a year (likely much less due to the release of Nehalem), and it will be at least that long before it provides a noticeable performance boost over your E8400 in the apps you're using.

I also would be wary of buying processors on Ebay. I've bought parts on Ebay before, but they were used parts and they were cheap. If I were going to shell out over $100 for something on Ebay, I would want to feel confident that the vendor would replace the part if it arrived defective. Not saying that you necessarily shouldn't buy, but I would make sure you've got options if you get a bum part.

Now, on to my recommendations.

X48 Motherboard: This really isn't necessary for what you're doing, and doesn't do a whole lot to extend the life of your computer despite its high cost. (For a basic gaming rig, you should be looking to spend $150 or less on a motherboard unless there's a specific feature you know you need, such as SLI support or dual ethernet or somesuch.) You're better off with a P45 chipset motherboard, with the de facto recommendation around here being the ASUS P5Q Pro, probably due to the good combo deals Newegg is offering. (I believe there's a savings if you buy it in combination with either the E8400 or ASUS HD4850.) I'm not recommending the Gigabyte P45 motherboards right now because there seems to be an issue with the stock BIOS and video card compatibility, but it should be a solid series of boards once the kinks are worked out.

CPU Cooler: Not that the Vendetta, is a bad choice, but this deal on the Xigmatek HDT-1283 is very good. You may want to consider buying a retention bracket to improve over the stock push-pin mounting design.

Memory: No reason at all to pay for DDR2-1200. RAM speed has very little impact on computer speed on current Intel systems. The primary importance of fast RAM is to provide overclocking headroom. To make a long story short, if you don't intend to overclock your E8400 past 3.6GHz, you'll be fine with DDR2-800. If you ever want to try to go faster than that, you'll likely need DDR2-1000. Here's a good DDR2-800 kit, and here's a good DDR2-1000 kit. Note that these are pairs of 2GB sticks, so you only need to buy one kit, not two.

Hard Drive: If you want the best conventional hard drive you can get right now, the VelociRaptor is it. On the other hand, pretty speedy drives are available for right around $100, like the WD Caviar 640GB or the Samsung Spinpoint 750GB. It's up to you to decide whether the performance increase of the VR is worth $200. You're probably looking at a decrease in boot times of a few seconds, and a decrease in game loading times of a couple seconds at most.

Power Supply: Rosewill makes the occasional good PSU, but I don't know whether or not this is one of them. Either way, 950W is far and away more than you need. I would stick to a proven PSU manufacturer like Seasonic, Etasis, Corsair (made by Seasonic or CWT), Antec (made by Seasonic), OCZ or Coolermaster. Even the good companies make a bad model once in a while, so I'd check reviews before you buy even if it's a solid company. (And I don't mean Newegg reviews, I mean reviews on Anandtech, Xbitlabs, jonnyGURU and other good hardware review sites.) Never cheap out on the power supply, as a power supply failure can take everything else down with it. For your computer, assuming you're sticking with a single video card, I'd recommend something like the Corsair 520HX or 450VX/550VX, Seasonic S12 500W, Antec Earthwatts 500W or similar. Note that there are two models of the Earthwatts made by different companies. The EA500 is made by Seasonic and the EA500D is made by Delta. Delta's not a bad company, but that model is newer and unproven. Also, shop around for your PSUs. Newegg has great prices on CPUs, Video Cards and Memory, but better deals are often found elsewhere on PSUs and Cases.

Sound Card: I've been using integrated sound and I've been happy with it for gaming. I hear some people saying there's an improvement from a sound card, and some people saying it's not worth it. It's one of those questions that can only be settled on a case by case basis - some people have finer or poorer hearing, for example, and some people just don't care about having premium sound. I would try integrated first, and buy a sound card if you're not happy.

Hope that post isn't too much info all at once.

By the way, nice combination of username and avatar.

 

[Unbekannt]

Thanks DSF,

Pretty cleaver huh, that is also my gaming name. I appreciate the comments and suggestions. I have also been fine with onboard sound as I usually have it down anyways since it gets off after a while listening to the same effects. I have reworked based on your comments and the sites suggestions and posters, my rig and it now looks like this.

Motherboard ?ASUS P5Q LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard

Processor ? Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Model BX80570E8400

Fan/Heatsink ? ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro 92mm CPU Cooler

Memory ?G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory

Hard Drive ? Western Digital VelociRaptor WD3000GLFS 300GB 10000 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

Video Card ? SAPPHIRE 100243L Radeon HD 4870 512MB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card

CD Drive ? SAMSUNG 22X DVD Burner Black SATA Model SH-S223F

Case ? Thermaltake Armor Series VA8003BWS Black Full Tower Case w/ 25CM Fan

Power Supply ? Antec TPQ-850 850W ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply 100 - 240 V UL, CUL, FCC, TUV, CE, C-tick, CCC, CB - Retail

Monitor ? Acer P243WAid Black-Silver 24" 2ms(GTG) HDMI Widescreen LCD Monitor with HDCP Support 400 cd/m2 3000:1 ACM

Again all these were grabbed from Newegg. Thanks in advance for all the comments, it's really appreciated.

-Matt

 

[modoheo]

Great-looking build now. The PSU is overkill, but I won't fault you for that (plus the one you chose is a good value).

 

[Unbekannt]

Thanks modoheo,

Well if the rig is looking good, I have another question. I've been reading a lot of forums but I'm still at a loss as whether to upgrade to Vista. I have been hearing all kinds of feedback and now I'm not sure if staying with XP Pro is worth it. And If I do upgrade to Vista what version should I get? Thanks in advance.

-Matt