new build?

[nod32]

Im thinking about building a new system and here are some specs I was playing around with. This is the first time im going to try to build so suggest and comment please

I realize intel price drops are coming(?) so I will probably hold off until then. The prices in the image are in Canadian dollars btw.

 

[X-Istence]

Go with a bigger hard drive. You can get a 500 Gb for as low as $109 USD here. I never buy a CD-Rom drive anymore. I have one I shlep from machine to machine and don't even bother with anything else, I almost never have a need for CD-Rom drives, as I have most of my media in ISO files.

 

[Lawman82]

X-Istense is right you need to go to a large drive, day by day the prices are dropping every where, plus 80GB will be to quick after loading your OS, and other needed programs.

 

[LeeJend]

nod32 are you USA or overseas? Most of your prices look right for USA except the RAM and the Burner.
-RAM has dropped in half, $90 for 2 gig of OCZ DDR2 800 is reasonable.
-The lightscribe DL Lite-on should be available for $30-40.

The HD is not the best choice. If you are paying extra to get the SATA 300 don't bother. The 7200 RPM rating limits the data speed. And 80 gb is pretty light with VISTA. You should be able to get a 160 gig at the same price.

Why are you using a low end aluminum heatsink for a high end system/cpu? Copper would be better.

And just as a warning the 64 BIT OS (VISTA or XP) are light on drivers and support with no substantial benefit beyond allowing over 3 GB of RAM. You could run into issues. Find and OS version that is 32 BITs and allows free upgarde to 64 BIT. I forget which VISTA's allow that path. The OEM aka System Builder versions have nasty limits in the EULAs limiting transfer and upgardes. Find out all the details before you buy.

 

[nod32]

its not that bigger hard drive is too expensive its just that I dont think Ill need it. does 120 gb sound better?

oh and does anyone have any more info on the upcoming intel price drops?

[edit] im in canada. Im thinking about oem because its so much cheaper. I think all the retail versions allow a 32 or 64 bit install

 

[LeeJend]

120 is good for me as long as I don't do much video work and don't keep old, old games installed. I feel like I will never fill up the 160 I'm using now.

The BIG drops are expected in the Quad Cores. I have not heard much on what will happen with the Core 2 Duo. The 6600 is way out ahead of AMD product on performance but AMD has been slashing prices to compensate. It's a toss up on whether Intel will cut the prices on the 6600 much. It has great performance at not too bad a price.

And if you are not in the USA look at pricing on the TAGAN power supply models or Enermax. (I was an ANTEC fanboy but I think they may have lost it on qulatiy AND price this year.)

 

[nod32]

You think I should wait for the quad core price cuts and go with one of them, or is there no point yet? And i changed some things around according to your suggestions

So theres no advantage with going SATA with the hdd or cd drives?

 

[Sazar]

Price cuts will come in a couple of weeks.

I am sure you can wait till then

 

[nod32]

so go with quad core?

 

[LordOfLA]

quad core ftw!

vista 64 is a good bit more stable than 32bit but there's no point unless you have 3GB or more of RAM.

Having said that vista 64bit and 6GB of ram is smooth as ice

 

[nod32]

would it be better to go for 2x2gb sticks of ram or 4x1gb

 

[Sazar]

Depends on you.

Personally I would consider 2x2 so you have 2 dimms left for whatever.

 

[nod32]

Oh ok, i was just wondering if having 2 sets of dual channel memory sticks would have any benefit.

do you think a 600w power supply is a little overkill? Ive been doing some reading and 600w seems a bit much.

thanks for your advice, its very helpful
rome32

 

[Sazar]

Nope, always err on the side of more with a power supply unit

 

[epk]

what are you gonna do with it? cos i tried vista 64 and lots of things either dont work or work really bad

 

[LeeJend]

That power supply is not a good choice for that rig. Especially if you go quad core and/or SLI.

1) The First +12V rail is only 18A, the second is 20A. They should both be over 20 amps for SLI with 8800 GTS cards.

2) The PSU says SLI ready. That just means it has a special connector for the SLI hookup. You want a PSU that is labeled SLI Certified, which means Nvidia guarantees the PSU will work well with SLI.

On the RAM go for just 2 sticks becasue 4 sticks can get finicky, especially with dual channel. This way you also have the option of expanding later.

Are you absolutely sure you want to go with Windows 64 BIT on a gaming machine to start... Everything I've seen says Windows 65 has had issues with driver availability and game compatibility.

 

[nod32]

Thanks for all the tips
@epk -It will be used mostly for gaming
@leejend -thanks for the heads up on the power supply, ill look into a better choice. And im still not sure about 32 bit vs 64 bit... I want to buy oem because it's less expensive, but I dont want to be stuck with just 64 bit. I'll probobly end up buying retail and trying 64 bit out, and hopefully get things working. If not I can always go back to 32 bit.

That list, btw, is by no means final. Im gonna be waiting the the 22nd price drops, and it may look very different by then.

Once again thanks for the help
nod32

 

[epk]

gaming?... then i'd say stay away from vista 64, all games work way slower and lots dont even work

 

[Sazar]

Games are a little slower but there are few that actually have problems.

All titles in my little library work just fine.

Also, the speed is nothing dramatically less, save in a couple of titles.

It's a little slower but heck, 5 fps difference when you're getting 50-70 in most scenarios is nothing too shoddy

 

[epk]

in 64?... dk your games and specs but on my machine (low-mid range now):

d2 goes pretty slow considering how old it is and how well runs in other versions
far cry 64 has texture corruption in some lvls


cant remember the others.... but there's definitely a difference, specially vs xp x86