Recommendations on New Build Please

PhilH930

Junior Member
Nov 5, 2006
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Hello. I have often browsed these forums trying to stay up to date on products and feedback and considering I am about to build a new system for my father I felt it would be good to get some knowledgeable feedback. However, I must state that I live in the USA, and my father is in the UK and this will be built during a trip back to the UK in the coming weeks.

The Components I am planning to use are as follows:

Core 2 Duo E6600
Asus P5W DH Deluxe
Corsair 2Gb DDR2 XMS2 6400-C4
EVGA Geforce 7900 GS
WD Raptor 74Gb 16mb cache
WD 160Gb Sata II 16mb cache
Creative SB X-Fi
NEC AD7170 A 18x18 DVD +-RW x2
Seasonic M-12 600W
Antec (Sonata 2 or 3800)

Below is my reasoning:

CPU: Overclocking is unlikely as if something goes wrong it will be hard to fix when in the USA and he is in the UK. Therefore, E6600 offers good clock and the important 4mb L2 cache.

Mobo: Hard decision, but the P5W DH Del seems about the best mobo to date for the Core 2 Duo. I think that the mobo is one of, if not the most important part of a computer from past experiences so I did not want to save on this area. However, I anticipate comments that this board is overkill for a small or no overclock setup. I would have liked to wait for the new Nvidia chipset boards, but time constraints rule this out.

Mem: 2Gb essential nowadays. Corsair has always been reliable for me in the past. C4 latency helps, but is this much of a difference over the C5?

GFX: He loves Flight Sim, especially the new one which needs a fair amount of power. This card has 256mb onboard and is good price to performance. However, this card is a stop gap until the DX10 cards come out which he will want for Flight Sim X to be in all its glory. I figured the 7900GS is inexpensive, good performance and I have always preferred Nvidia GFX cards.

HD: Two drives. One for Windows and programs, the other for documents. The Raptor will offer speed which everyone wants. Whether it is necessary over a standard SataII I am unsure. 74Gb is enough space too. The 2nd HD, at 160Gb is purely for Documents. This is ample space as he only has about 10Gb of documents now (after 3 years).

Sound: I gave him some really good Cambridge Soundworks speakers when I left for the US. His current onboard sound ruined them! I remember how good they sound on my Audigy 2ZS, so I figured might as well put in a current generation sound card that is also reasonably priced. Front panel is not necessary.

Optical Drive: Had to be black to match case. Many positive reviews of these drives on Newegg. Cheap. From my experience Optical drives normally break anyway, so I am not overly concerned here. I've had 3 pioneers break in the same time my NEC is still going strong. Buying 2 just so you don;'t have to chop and change discs all the time.

PSU: Very hard to know what to buy. Seasonic seems to be quality. Modular is important as excess cables in a Sonata II are tight. 600W is overkill for specs above, but I am building in anticipation of a hungry DX10 card. Furthermore, better to have more power than less? I just don't know if the next step down, at 500W would be enough for future use.

Case: Has to be black; aesthetics are important. Sonata II is smart, mid sized, 120mm fans for quietness. Thew plastic door is a little cheap and annoying, but so far I am very pleased with my Sonata II. I hope it won't be too tight for a DX10 card. I managed to fit a first generation 6800Ultra in mine, and those were very big cards.

Fans: I did not state any above, but would be looking for very quiet 120mms that shift a reasonable amount of air.

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So there we go. The computer will have a lifespan of 3 to 5 years and is being built with an upgrade to Vista in mind in a years time. The majority of use will be office work or internet use; however as mentioned before this has to play flight sims, in particular Flight Sim X. The budget was around £1100GBP, at which my father didn't seem to bothered about. He wanted plenty of performance for when he needs it.

I'd like to extend my appreciation to anyone who offers feedback on this build. I look forward to your comments and will take them on board.
 

dBTelos

Golden Member
Apr 17, 2006
1,858
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A M12 600W can not do SLi G80... a much more cost effective solution would be a Enermax Liberty 500W, then a Fortron X3 Booster if it's ever needed for DX10 SLi/CF.
 

Howard

Lifer
Oct 14, 1999
47,982
11
81
Originally posted by: dBTelos
A M12 600W can not do SLi G80...
It can, on the vast majority of gaming-type rigs.

And all the letters of the acronym are uppercase.

EDIT: Er, well, if you use two Molex-PCIe adapters (to get a total of 4 PCIe connectors), you can run SLI G80s.
 

PhilH930

Junior Member
Nov 5, 2006
9
0
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I won't be running SLI, I believe 1 DX10 high end card will be enough. Furthermore, the Asus board won't run SLI, only Crossfire right?
 

Howard

Lifer
Oct 14, 1999
47,982
11
81
Originally posted by: PhilH930
I won't be running SLI, I believe 1 DX10 high end card will be enough. Furthermore, the Asus board won't run SLI, only Crossfire right?
That is correct.
 

Operandi

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
5,508
0
0
You are throwing money away with the X-Fi; the P5W DH has very good HD audio.

The 600 watt M12 is a great PSU but far more then you really need, even for DX10 hardware. If you want to keep the modular aspect there is a 500 watt M12, otherwise the 380 or 430 watt S12 should be plenty.

For the case take a look at the Lian Li PC-7B or for truly top quality case the Lian Li PC-V600 or V1100.

For quiet 120mm case fans look no further then Yate Loon.
 

Baked

Lifer
Dec 28, 2004
36,052
17
81
If running G80 SLI requires 800W PSU, don't you need a 1200W PSU for the 3 card SLI?
 

PhilH930

Junior Member
Nov 5, 2006
9
0
0
I won't be running SLI; please see above. Its hard to find a good motherboard that has only 1 PCI-E slot 16x slot, so having two is part of the package. That doesn't mean I want to. Personally I don't think SLI or crossfire is worth the money. A real high end card will suffice for his flight sims.

Operandi; thanks for the recommendation on the PSU. I will also look into those cases.
 

Howard

Lifer
Oct 14, 1999
47,982
11
81
Flight sims tend to be CPU-limited, so video card performance is not as important a factor as it would be for a gaming rig for FPS games.

That said, the P5W DH is not the only quality board out there.
 

PhilH930

Junior Member
Nov 5, 2006
9
0
0
I see. Well, if they are CPU Limited, then the E6600 is probably my third best choice right now for a system. Considering the price of the 6700 and the extreme, I think the 6600 should help.

Regarding the P5W DH; I have good experiences with Asus so leaned towards them. I understand the Intel board is also very good with a reputation of being very stable. I am considering a 965 chipset board, but for an extra $15 I am able to buy him the 975 chipset in the UK, which in my opinion is worth it. What other 975 chipset boards would you recommend?
 

pkme2

Diamond Member
Sep 30, 2005
3,896
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Build what you need now and be happy.

My recommendation is then to wait till prices come down. Good building.