Planning to try my hand at building a gaming system, hoping for a little help...

[drunkonarrival]

I'm hoping to build a system that will last me a few years before needing to be replaced and hopefully cost <= $1100.00. For gaming purposes, I'm hoping to use the following case as I'd like the tower to be a little more "portable" than average (I move my pc a lot...)

http://www.xoxide.com/nzxt-blackrogue-ledgamecase.html

Here are the parts I've identified as wanting to include in the build (these are listed with newegg.com part #s)

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Model BX80570E8400 - Retail
Item #: N82E16819115037

Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD6400AAKS 640GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
Item #: N82E16822136218

Western Digital VelociRaptor WD1500HLFS 150GB 10000 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive (bare drive) - OEM (for the operating system/applications & games)

GIGABYTE GV-R487-512H-B Radeon HD 4870 512MB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail
Item #: N82E16814125225

SONY DVD/CD drive provided by a buddy of mine (IDE)

I'll be running Windows XP rather than Vista for more compatibility/speed for now.

My issue is in making sure that the M-ATX board I choose will be compatible w/ everything (motherboards are not a strength of mine) including the odd choice of case, and that I get the correct type of RAM to go with it. I'm hoping that someone might be able to point me in the right direction on this...

One other question would be whether or not the VelociRaptor is worth it not as much for decreased loading times in gameplay (which is not that big an issue), but rather for increased OS speed? Would this really make all that much difference? I work with a lot of very large Zip and RAR files, so I was hoping the extra speed would make a difference w/ that as well, but I don't know anyone who actually has a VelociRaptor drive to ask about this. Thanks in advance to anyone who feels like giving a little input! ;-)

Edit: (Asking in this forum as my greatest fear would, of course, be that I order all parts and they end up not being compatible...)

 

[Denithor]

Welcome to the forums!

Do one of two things: either go with a 300GB Velociraptor only or go with the WD6400AAKS only. Two drives in a small case just means extra heat and that's something you don't need.

Motherboard & RAM:
Gigabyte EG45M-DS2H $116AR
Mushkin 2x2GB DDR2-800 $50AR

Depending on your gaming resolution you may be better served with a 1GB 4870.

EDIT: You could also consider this motherboard: DFI Lanparty JR P45-T2RS for about $150. Probably more than you need but cool. Only mATX motherboard I'm aware of that supports crossfire.

 

[betasub]

Ha, nice one Deni - first you get him to drop the second harddrive because of heat output, and then you tempt him with crossfire!

OP shouldn't be too worried about hardware incompatibilities: there are very few of those compared to few years ago (or whenever OP's previous build was) - apart from the obvious socket and BIOS limitations. Furthermore, don't be afraid of moving to Vista based on old stories about "incompatiblities", particularly considering this is a new build. (Of course, if you already have a valid XP licence then you don't need to spend $ on an OS).

 

[Denithor]

Originally posted by: betasub
Ha, nice one Deni - first you get him to drop the second harddrive because of heat output, and then you tempt him with crossfire!

Sorry -- couldn't resist -- that is one nifty but rather impractical motherboard!

OP shouldn't be too worried about hardware incompatibilities: there are very few of those compared to few years ago (or whenever OP's previous build was) - apart from the obvious socket and BIOS limitations.

Now this I will disagree with to a degree. Last year I got a pair of OCZ Gold DDR2 sticks that will only boot in one motherboard (out of nine I have tested). And that's an ASRock that I really don't want to use for anything serious.

Last night I was assembling the "folding" rig in my sig -- and found that the shipping BIOS didn't support nVidia 8/9/200 series cards. I couldn't get video signal out of it with 8800GS, 9600GSO, 8800GT, 8800GTS or a GTX 260. I found an old X600 in the closet and two minutes later was flashing the BIOS. Then everything worked fine. Thank goodness I never throw "leftovers" away!

So incompatibilities do occur sometimes. Not often, but I generally try to steer people away from stuff I've had problems with, such as OCZ memory.

 

[drunkonarrival]

I very much appreciate the tips, Denithor! Now that I've done some research on Crossfire I'm thinking I'll end up going with that motherboard you mentioned as it would provide some potential for a cheaper graphics boost in the future with the purchase of another 4870 (hopefully priced much less by then).

I also just realized that I forgot to ask about a power supply... From what I'm reading choosing a power supply isn't really rocket science, but if anyone has a suggestion to throw in, I'd be syked to hear it! ;-)

 

[Denithor]

Antec EA650 $55

Great deal on a solid PSU.

Corsair 750TX $82AR (coupon code esave15)

Higher power, get this one if you seriously plan to use crossfire.

 

[DSF]

I would skip Crossfire. First, it's not meant for small cases where things will heat up quickly. Second, it's not going to provide the performance bump you're looking for a year or two down the road. At that point you'll be better served with a single new card.

 

[Roguestar]

I came here to post what DSF just said; the possibility of non-linear performance scaling, setup and program support issues, and the extra heat and power consumption of another card (not to mention having to invest more initially to rely on being able to add a then-mediocre card later on) isn't worth it, especially in a small case, compared to saving cash and getting a single better card later on.