New gaming rig - Comments and PSU Suggestion

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jadducci

Junior Member
Mar 3, 2007
4
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Well my old rig gaming rig is just about dead so it is that magical time every 3 years to do a serious upgrade. I want to build a solid gaming rig at an affordable price ~1000. I am going to keep my 17in Samsung LCD, SB Audigy 2 Gamer, and peripherals.

Please let me know what you think. I play mostly FPS games; CS:S etc. I also plan on overclocking and I think I am going to stick with stock cooling for a bit and see where that takes me unless you think there would provide enough of a performance gain to go OEM + heatsink.

I plan on upgrading my LCD in 6 months to a year to something in the 19 + range (nothing huge though). If you could please provide suggestions for a quality and affordable PSU I would really appreciate it. Same goes for a CD/DVD burner. All comments are appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

Component Price Rebate
Antec Nine Hundred - Mid Tower w/ 200mm Fan 100 40
Core 2 Duo E6400 2.13GHz/1066 LGA775 (Retail) 221
GIGABYTE GA-965P-DS3 Rev 3.3 124
EVGA 320-P2-N811-AR GeForce 8800GTS 320MB 300 20
DDR2 2GB PC8500 Dual OCZ Speed1066MHz 220 30
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB (16MB) 90
DVD/CD Burner (Suggestions?) ~35
PSU ???

Total 990 so far
 
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chizow

Diamond Member
Jun 26, 2001
9,537
2
0
Nice choice of components :)

I'd save yourself the trouble and get a nice air cooler now. You're not going to want to remove everything to replace the HSF later. Pretty much any review will show a significant difference in temps with the stock cooler even if their results vary when comparing the high-end coolers. Thermaltake Big Typhoon, Scythe Infinity, Tuniq Tower are all nice cooling solutions for @$50.

DVD burner should be an easy enough choice. $40 for a Samsung, Lite-on or whatever else. I'd make sure to get an SATA burner at this point, especially if a tidy case and good airflow is important to you. There's not enough difference in DVD burners nowadays to make this a difficult decision or justify spending considerably more on one over the other.

PSU is a harder choice. It doesn't look like your system is going to be that loaded. 1 optical, 1 HDD (maybe more later), and your GTS. A quality 500-550W PSU should be plenty and give you future headroom as well (more drives, maybe not SLI though). The difference in price will come down to extra features like sleeved wires and modular cables. With an Antec 900, its worth the extra if you care about tidyness and airflow. I would've spent the extra $50 or so to get a modular PSU if I knew I would be moving into a 900.

Just take a look at Newegg's PSU page and look for the features/price that you're willing to spend. If you can increase your budget to @$1200, I'd go for a $100-$150 PSU and a $50 after-market cooler. Otherwise your set-up looks great.
 
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Trashman

Platinum Member
Jan 31, 2000
2,040
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I would've spent the extra $50 or so to get a modular PSU if I knew I would be moving into a 900.
Click to expand...

Best tip you'll get on that case....nice case overall, but very cramped, PSU mounts on the bottom,not much room to stuff extra cables in there...modular cables are the way to go, newegg has the CORSAIR 520HX PSU for 119.99 after rebate.
 
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chizow

Diamond Member
Jun 26, 2001
9,537
2
0
Originally posted by: Trashman
I would've spent the extra $50 or so to get a modular PSU if I knew I would be moving into a 900.
Click to expand...

Best tip you'll get on that case....nice case overall, but very cramped, PSU mounts on the bottom,not much room to stuff extra cables in there...modular cables are the way to go, newegg has the CORSAIR 520HX PSU for 119.99 after rebate.
Click to expand...

Ya my case is pretty tidy, just the bottom with the PSU stalk and the extra cables are a bit unsightly.

Also, about the stock cooler. Not sure what CPU/cooler/case you're coming from but if you go with the stock cooler it'll be the loudest thing in your case by far. 120mm fans are truly impressive in terms of how much air they push relative to noise. When I first booted up the rig in my sig, I thought something was wrong because of how quiet the Typhoon 120mm and GTS were. All I could hear was the 80mm fans in my Lian-Li, which started me on a search for a new case.
 
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darbius

Member
Mar 18, 2005
81
0
0
Personally as far as PSU's, I swear by the Seasonic PSU's because noise (or lack thereof) is important to me. The original PSU that came with my last case was like a turbine, so I grabbed a seasonic and the whole thing just purrs. The fans, quiet as they are, probably make more noise than the PSU. I paid a little more for it, but I love it. OCZ makes great memory but couldn't tell you anything about their PSU's.

The Antec Nine Hundred is a great case from what I have seen, but I would take a quick look at the Thermaltake cases too. I tend to really like the design of the Thermaltakes better and it's a good brand too. I currently have a tsunami and I love it (and it's 2 120mm fans).

As far as the vid card, there are a few brands to avoid for vid cards in general I find (PNY, 3D Fuzion, MSI (great mobo's mediocre vid cards), etc.), but you should be fine with an EVGA. I've had good luck with Chaintech. Anyway, good luck dude.
 
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