Time for a new build

[ryema22]

It?s finally time to upgrade from my now painfully sluggish P4. I?m pretty sure I want to wait for the July price drops and get a Q6600. I?ve done a little bit of homework but I was hoping to get some input. This will get mild gaming use, video editing, photoshop, lots of media encoding. I?d like to keep this around 8-900. It will be XP Pro for now, but I may migrate to Vista in the next year, I don?t know for sure. I?m going to grad school and will be on a tight budget so I want to be reasonably ?future proof? for the next 3-4 years.

1. I?m looking at the P5K Deluxe board, it seems to be well liked on the forum. Should I go with that or does someone have an equally good, cheaper, solution? Only requirement is onboard audio with coaxial/spdif out and decent over clocking ability.

2. It seems like there?s a million different memory options all rated at the same latencies. Is any one actually better or should I just get whatever?s cheapest for a given speed?

3. Currently thinking 8600GTS. I?d like to have the DX10 capability even if there are faster DX9 cards for less.

4. I?m going to get a sata hdd for the OS and put my current optical drives on the pata channel. Are there pata>sata adapters to connect my current hdd?s for additional storage?

5. Finally, recommendations for a PSU and a cheap and quiet HSF?

 

[cprince]

Get the cheapest memory with heat spreaders on them. You have to check the buyer's rating to see which has the least problems. But, with memory, it's a hit or miss game.
The 8600GTS card might not be good enough for some games in the future. It's very unfortunate that the graphic card prices are so high right now.
There are PATA to SATA converters out there. Just search for them on google or newegg. Another option is to get an IDE PCI adapter card. It costs just as much as a single PATA to SATA converter, but you can put four hard drives on one card.
I don't know about PSU, but I recommend the ZEROtherm BTF90 for HSF. Don't forget case fans.

 

[ryema22]

With the 8600GTS, when you say it might not be good enough for some games down the road, do you mean that it wouldn't be able to run them at a playable framerate or that I wouldn't be able to turn on eye-candy? I understand GPU's have a limited lifespan, I'd be satisfied if I could play titles in 3 years even if I have to turn down the quality.

Can anyone tell me what size power supply I'd need for this? A little headroom is okay, but I don't want to go overkill.

Any thoughts on the P5K deluxe or another mobo?

 

[hurtstotalktoyou]

Frys.com and/or Frys B&M frequently have rebate deals on PSUs. They change their ads twice a week, so I'm sure if you keep an eye out you will be able to find something nice for very cheap.