New build questions

rtonkins

Junior Member
Feb 4, 2007
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0
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Currently have a Athlon64 3200 with a Geforce 6800. Time to upgrade and many things have changed since my last build.

Upfront qualifications to help fine tune any suggestions:
  • I will not be going Raid -ever
    I will not be going SLI- ever
    I "may" do some slight overclocking, but likely not.
    This will be used primarily for gaming and general day to day use

Build:
Motherboard: Asus P5b-Deluxe
Processor: Dual core 6600
Video card: Evga 8800GTX
Memory: 2Gb -Gskill #F2-6400CL5D-2GBNQ - This is a good deal on Newegg right now at $184
Sound Card: X-fi extreme music
Hard Drive: 150gp Raptor (great timeing to catch the 169 BB deal)
DVD/CD: NEC ND-3550A burner- Seems to be at the top of everyone's list. I wanted a SATA drive though.
CASE: Needing suggestions considering this set up - but I have my eye on the Antec 900
Power Supply: Needing suggestions considering this set up

Questions:
1. Will I be able to reasonably run games (BF2, BF2142, Everquest 2) at 1600x1200 on Vista with this config?
2. I wanted to go SATA on the burner but read there is problems inherent with loading operating systems off a SATA DVD drive on some motherboards - is this true?
3. The comments on Newegg for the Ram state that gskill recommends a different ram for the pb5, yet people are seeing success with this ram. Anyone using this with a PB5?
4. Is the motherboard overkill for what I am trying to accomplish? I am looking for stability, reliability, ease of set-up, and lack of headaches over bells and whistles.
5. I if I don't plan on overclocking, is there a cheaper alternative to the ram...any value ram?
 

moosey

Golden Member
Apr 18, 2001
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0
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#4. The Deluxe edition has a lot of the "bells and whistles" and if you don't need them, I'm sure the P5B-E, S3, or DS3 with the solid caps would do fine.

For a PSU, look at Corsair, Silverstone or Seasonic...something along those lines for a good quality unit.