New Build Advice Appreciated

[mikec]

This will be my first build, and if I hadn't stumbled across this forum, I don't think I would be doing it. Compatability issues were a real concern of mine, but the advice given in this forum has been invaluable in helping me to make a decision on components, which will be evident in my build list ;) What made me sold on this forum was the general consensus amongst the senior members and supporters, whereas other build your own pc forums have as many differing opinions and recommendations as members. Kudos, to glc, newbuilder, mr. f, alaron, freakkitchen, and others.

My main purpose is for gaming, but will be used for light video editing and general office apps. No real interest in overclocking. All parts are from Newegg.

Case: Antec Performance One P180B - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16811129017) $129.99

PSU: Corsair CMPSU-520HX - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16817139001) $119.99 According to Corsair website forum, the cables are long enough for this case.

MOBO: ASUS P5B-E LGA 775 Intel P965 Express ATX - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16813131070) $150.99

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16819115003) $316.00

RAM: Corair XMS2 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16820145590) $181.00 after rebate

GFX: Diamond Radeon x1950pro 256 PCIE - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16814103021) $199.99 Plan on upgrading to DX10 card in about a year or so.

HDD: Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 250GB - OEM (http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16822148142) $74.99

OPT1: Lite-On SATA 16X DVD Burner - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16827106046) $36.99 Currently, out of stock :( May have to look for it elsewhere.

OPT2: Lite-On SATA DVD-ROM - OEM (http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16827106039) $20.99 Also, out of stock.

OS: MS Win XP Media Center Edition 2005 w/ Vista upgrade coupon - EOM (http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16832116171) $109.99 I have Win XP Home, but want the remote desktop function. Willl wait to install Vista after kinks are worked out.

If you see any concerns with this build or have suggestions, please give your opinion. Thanks in advance.

[newbuilder14]

Looks solid to me, but go for the 7200.10 hard drive with 16MB of cache: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822148144

Sapphire and PowerColor are alternative video card brands.

[glc]

In stock:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827135143

Then you could just get an IDE DVD burner.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827106043
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827106050
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827106045

Oh, good! The 16mb 250's have been out of stock.

[mikec]

Thanks, guys!

I've updated my list to include the Seagate 250 GB 7200.10 16mb drive - OEM, Asus SATA DVD-Rom - Retail, and the Lite-On 20X IDE DVD Burner - Retail.

Perusing this forum distilled 6 months of confusion, hesitation and uncertainty into a decision in 3 days. :D

I'll let you know how the build goes!

Thanks, again.

[mikec]

I ordered parts from Newegg on Friday, Feb 2 at 11:30 pm. I received everything except one optical drive on Monday, Feb 5 by noon. I do live within the same geographical area as Newegg's California warehouse, but the delivery was a pleasant surprise. The missing optical was shipped from Tennessee and arrived Thursday.

I waited until this weekend to attempt the build as it was my first and I wanted plenty of time to troubleshoot any problems.

The Corsair PSU fit in the Antec P180B case just fine, and the cables were long enough to reach the connections on the P5B-E mobo. Plenty of room for everything in the case, and although the cabling is not a professional job, I think it's adequate and allows for plenty of air flow. Except for attaching the power cables to the PSU in the case lower chamber, I had no trouble with installing any of the components. It was a tight squeeze in the lower chamber between the PSU and fan, but still adequate room; just needed to be more conscious that the cables didn't interfere with the fan. Four and a half hours later I was ready to throw the switch. Since this was my first build, I was stressed by this time wondering if this was such a good idea. What if nothing happened when I turned on the power? Did I really want to unassemble and re-assemble? Or worse, fried components?

Holding my breath, I threw the switch. Fans started whirring and the blue power light turned on, and the system posted. What relief! :D Except for boot sequence I didn't change any defaults in setup, and proceeded to install Win XP. After windows installed, I tried to update the intel chipset using the Asus setup disk, but it failed and had to reinstall windows over as drivers were corrupted. Unless there is a compelling reason to try again, I passed on that update.

I figured I saved about $400 from not buying a prebuilt with the same configuration, so I bought a new monitor, Samsung 226BW 22" Widescreen LCD from Circuit City applying a 10% off coupon purchased on Ebay for $2. :) What an unbelievable difference from my 8 year old 19" CRT. WoW never looked so good, nor ran, so well. No lagging for me anymore!

The system rocks, the monitor is fabulous and I couldn't be happier.