Please critique my midrange Core2 system

[Athadeus]

Hello, I am new to anand forums, but have been reading reviews here for years. I am planning to order parts for my new midrange system after work and I thought I might be able to get some last minute advice on parts and a general okay from everyone. Here's what I intend to purchase:

from Newegg:
Case - $80 - GIGABYTE GZ-XX1CA-SNB Black Aluminum
PSU - $80 - Antec TRUEPOWERII TPII-550 ATX12V 550W Power Supply
Mem - $180 - CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit (5-5-5-12 at DDR2800)
Video - $200 - SAPPHIRE 100154 Radeon X1800XT 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 VIVO PCI Express x16 (625/1500 and 16 pipes, ___? shader units)
HDD - $70 - Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD2500KS 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s
Fans - $90 - ZALMAN VF900 ? CU 2 Ball VGA Cooling Fan/Heatsink
ZALMAN CNPS9500LED 92mm 2 Ball Blue LED Light Cooling Fan with Heatsink

from TigerDirect:
Mobo & CPU - $400 - Intel D975XBXLKR Intel Socket 775 ATX Motherboard and an Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 1.86GHz OEM Processor
Audio - $110 - Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic

already have:
DVD-ROM - Samsung 16x black
DVD-RW - Samsung 16x dual layer etc. etc. - they match nicely
Monitor - Samsung 712N 17" 8ms 700:1
Let't not even get started on the monitor. I went to BB and CC a few times this week and bought and returned a 204B 20.1" with height adjustable stand, and a 931B which had a bright green stuck pixel. The good news is I got out of trouble without paying a restocking fee, thanks to my charisma and good packing skills.

= $1210 total + shipping
(probably with fedex cause of UPS horror stories and a friend of mine who told me of their shipping procedures)

Substitutions I am currently considering:
Fan - $47 - Sunbeam / Tuniq T-120 CPU Cooler
PSU - $100 - HIPER HPU-4K580-MS ATX12V 580W Power Supply 100
Video - $310 - SAPPHIRE 100149L Radeon X1900XT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 VIVO PCI Express x16

I really don't want to deal with compatibility issues, so I didn't consider the OCZ gold series which has that sweet golden honeycomb heatsink.

So that is what I am looking at as of now. I am looking for advice in particular on whether the Tuniq or the Zalman CPU cooler is better based on cooling, noise, weight, and size. I would also the cabling ease of that hiper modular PSU or modular ones in general. Finally, I want to know if $110 is worth it to double the memory and such on the X1900XT. Do those 48 pixel shader units make that much of a difference, and how many does the X1800XT have? I have the money for the upgrade, I just don't want to pay a lot more for a small performance increase, and I don't want the price to tank like it did when I bought my 9800pro for $290 to $180 a month later.

Finally, I want to know how easily I can reach 2.2, 2.4, and 2.6ghz with the proc. I don't want to overclock the video card because I'm just not that good, and the fan is to keep it quiet and cool at stock speeds. I had an audigy, and I have heard good things about the X-Fi quality, and have some Sennheiser HD-590's so don't question that part, I couldn't go without it. I gotta get going now, but thanks in advance for any suggestions!

 

[HannibalX]

Welcome to the forums! I am sure others will be happy to give you feedback on your buid.

 

[ViviTheMage]

purpose of rig?

 

[Operandi]

You can do much better then Antec for the PSU, and forget about Hiper. Give Seasonic, Enhance, Forton-Source, and PCP&C a look.

For the CPU HS/F the CNPS-9500 is great if rather expensive choice. Good alternatives would be the Thermalright SI/XP-90, SI-120, Ultra-90, or Ultra-120; I would avoid Thermaltake.

For the case I prefer Lian Li but that's more of a personal preference. Still give them a look; the PC-7B can be had for well under $100.

On board audio has improved to the point where a sound card is not needed. Maybe for high-end gear like those Sennheiser's you would hear a difference but I remain skeptical until somebody proves it with blind listening tests.

 

[Athadeus]

Hey again, and thanks already. I didn't know how fast paced the forums were here. I have never been a big forum junky anyways. The purpose is primarily gaming, and medium level multimedia like photoshop, dvd transcoding, etc. The last system I built was just before HL2 came out and I wanted it to run well, which it kind of did, but my kingston hyper-x 3500 changed models to 3500a and I could not get a matching stick to have dual channel easily. That's what I got for trying to save a little on the mem, and blowing too much money on a 9800pro. Anyways, I'd like to be able to run prey, fear, hl2, bf2, oblivion, and any strategy games very well.

Operandi, I saw your posts in a couple other threads, and I am interested in what you have to say about antec. I don't know what the 'cap' is on power supplies, and I had an Antec TruPower 1.0 430w before which worked well. However it had 2 80mm fans and was not really silent. I have seen the seasonics, and they sound very good, I just didn't consider them because they seemed to be the same specs but cost a lot more. Should have read into the technical reviews more I guess. Would you please explain what is not so good about the Antec? And could you tell me why hiper is no good just for reference? Also I will consider that Lian-Li. I guess I hadn't seen it, and it is the style I'm looking for. Thanks!

Also I would really really like some advice on the difference between the X1800XT and the X1900XT in terms of performance and how effective the 48 pixel shader units on the 1900 are. There is an article just posted just yesterday http://anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2812 on midrange gpu roundup, and I was dissappointed that they didn't include the X1800XT since it has a good price at $200 from newegg and the same clock speeds as the 1900.

I also have Klipsch ProMedia 5.1 speakers and I don't think my audigy is pushing them as much anymore. Maybe the voltage has dropped over time, or maybe I'm just starting to lose my hearing... Anyways, I have heard that the X-Fi's abiilty to clean up bad mp3s described as magical, and I have some poor quality songs I really like that I can't easily find better copies of. Also, I think it will take a little load off the processor and for bragging rights since my best friend has an audigy2. I just wish it were $80 after rebate like a week or two ago, but I don't want to wait and use integrated audio for a while just to save the money, plus more orders is more hassle. Well thanks again!

 

[imported_Truenofan]

if im not mistaken the audio on the intel boards is very nice, either way why go with the creative x-fi, if you need to run all your speakers buy this.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16829127001
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16829156001

one of those two cards will probly do you nicely. im personally getting the xplosion 7.1 since i will be upping my system to a 7.1 home theatre system.

 

[gobucks]

if you wanna overclock, the intel board is not a good idea. unless i'm mistaken, the only intel-made mobo with good OCing is the 975X "bad axe" mobo, and it's like $250. with that e6300, you need a mobo that can hit high FSB. I personally like the Gigabyte DS3, i've got mine at 400FSB (e6400 tops out at 3.2GHz for me) and i've seen reviews where they hit like 500MHz FSB. with the e6300's 7x multi, the only way you can hit 3GHz speeds is if you have a mobo that can hit north of 400MHz.

 

[Athadeus]

I am sorry if I did not make it clear gobucks, or perhaps I am mistaken, but I do think I mean to order that particular intel motherboard. Here is a link to the combo to verify, but I checked, and the D975XBX is the Bad Axe, and the D975XBXLKR is just the full intel model number I think. Correct me if I am wrong, I would not want to pay a ton more for a cheap mobo, but it doesn't seem like a rip off. If it is in fact the Bad Axe, then $230 for proc + $250 mobo = $480, and $480 - $400 which is the actual price = $80 saved.

 

[Operandi]

"Cap" as in capacitor. I'm sure you've seen them before, but you can get a good look at a bunch of good ones here, and if you look around some more even more pictures of bad ones. When a low quality cap goes bad so dose the PSU; and if you?re unlucky so dose the other hardware attached to it.

Antec has been using some pretty low end caps in their PSUs for awhile; stuff you would normally see in sub $40-$50 units. At the prices they are charging Antec doesn?t have any excuses.

Hiper is the perfect example of a posser. Adequate voltage regulation, mediocre efficiency, and no PFC, not even passive. Basically aside from the it's bling factor and the gimmick of "avionic quality" modular connectors it has nothing to offer compared to the competition in it's price range.

About the audio; the Intel board has very good integrated audio as it is. I really doubt you would be able to tell the difference, and even if you did it wouldn't be worth $100. I should probably say that use my PC (with integrated audio) for a lot of casual music listening but I have an Adcom, DCM setup when I want to really hear something.