Please advise me on my new build

[CIS]

Hello,

My new PC is going to be used for programing, gaming, downloading, and watching anime. I have a budget of $1200.
I want my specs to be: Intel CPU, ASUS MB (for future overclocking),good quality RAM ,silent PSU, water cooling system, fulltower case, and that's it.

I've already got:

Seagate 500gb 7200rpm 16mb Cache Sata (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148136)

ATI Radeon X1650XT 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 CrossFire Supported Video Card (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814195035&Tpk=ati%2bx1650xt)

Ultra / X-Connect / 500-Watt / ATX / Dual 80mm Fan / Titanium-Color / Modular Power Supply (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2974644&Tab=11&NoMapp=)

Windows Vista Ultimate 32-bit

I also have the monitor, speaker, keyboard, mouse, DVD-Writer, CR-Writer, CD-Rom, and printer.

Q1. Which is better (performence + price), to upgrade my video card or buy another one (CrossFire Edition) ?
Q2. Which is better, Intel Core 2 Quad or Intel Core 2 Duo?
Q3. Which Windows edition is best for me, 32-bit or 64-bit?
And Finally your recommendation on the specs.


Thank you so much for reading :)

[Devastator]

You might want to look into a better supply, say the Corsair 520W HX.

32 bit would do fine.

A Core 2 Duo would be your best bet.

Seems a good set-up however I prefer Nvidia to ATi. One graphics card is best at the minute.

The ASUS P5K would be a good mobo, I would reccomend the P5KC as it supports DDR3 ram.

Corsair 2x1GB kit XMS2 stuff would be good ram to choose for the moment (DDR2)

Are your dvd drives SATA? If not you might want to switch them.

[XenaWP]

I like my X1650XT just fine but the 2600 series (DirectX10) is pretty close in price and is the latest generation. You might look at those.

[Katreat]

Q1 - Generally, upgrading to SLI or Crossfire, is not recommended. Both of those technologies are designed to make the fastest even faster. When you start using them on older cards you end up slower than the new generation cards anyway for about the same price of just buying a new card. So I would recommend a new card. The Nividia 8800 GTS is a good place to start for gaming and about the best for preformance/price right now. Other options would be the 8800 GTX and ATI 2900 series, both of which are more powerful and more exp.

Q2 - Hard question to anser. For the price you can get more bang for the buck with the duo. On the onter hand the quad gives you more future proofing. If you are gaming the duo will give you better performance now. Very little gaming software is desinged to take advantage of multipal cores so 2 is plenty. This will likely change down the road a year or so when more software starts to be optimized for multipal cores.

Q3 - 32 is generally recommended. Much like the core questions above, until software is optimized for 64 bit the only real advantage is using more than 3.2 gigs of ram. Since 2 gigs generally will handle most games just fine there is very little reason to move to 64 bit at this time. There are a few buisness applications that could use more ram but you need to know what you will be running and plan accordingly.

As for general recomendations I would suggest P5K, C2D E 6750, 2 gigs of name brand ram. I dont know your PSU but I would check to see if it is on the good list, you dont want a weak psu in a new system with newer video cards. Your HD looks good. I would upgrade at least your main burner to SATA. The MB will support IDE but with a 3rd party controller so it is generally recommended to go SATA on newer MBs. For video card look at the 8800 GTS, very fast and 10x compatible. If you are a big fan of ATI I think the 2900 has been getting some good reviews lately also but will cost a little more. If that is outside your budget then you can look at the 8600 GT, but it will force you to turn down settings some in games.

Kat

[perkster]

water cooling could blow your budget i think youd be better off with a good airflow case and some good fans

[glc]

Ultra hardly makes a quiet power supply, much less a quality one. Quiet quality is Seasonic and those that are made by Seasonic, such as Corsair and PC Power & Cooling and some Antecs.

[CIS]

To summerize it, I got two specs:

1. For the budget:

MB: ASUS P5KC LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131188) ($144.99)

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 Conroe 2.66GHz 4M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115029) ($194.99)

RAM: CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145015) ($51.00 after $30.00 Mail-In Rebate)

Good airflow case with fans instead of water cooling would be:
Case: NZXT Zero Black/Silver Aluminum ATX Full Tower Computer Case (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811146029) 8 Fans :) ($114.99 after $35.00 Mail-In Rebate)


Plus keeping my: ATI Radeon X1650XT 256MB (Free), the current PSU (Free), and the IDE DVD-Writer (Free).

Total = $505.97 (half my budget :) )

--------------------------------------------------------------

2. While for the higher performance (just guessing):

MB:
ASUS P5K3 DELUXE/WIFI-AP LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131181) ($239.99)

===

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 Conroe 3.0GHz 4M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115028) ($279.99)

OR

CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz 2 x 4MB L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115017) ($299.99)

===

RAM: CORSAIR 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145182) ($399.00)

Case and cooling:Thermaltake Armor LCS - With Liquid Cooled System - Black (http://www.xoxide.com/thermaltake-armor-lcs-ve2000bws.html) ($259.99)

PSU: Rosewill RT650-135-BK ATX12V v2.2 650W Power Supply ($59.99) - (optional for me right now)
Single Silent 135mm 2 Ball-bearing Blue LED Fan

Plus keeping my: ATI Radeon X1650XT 256MB (Free), and the IDE DVD-Writer (Free). Because they are easier to upgrade later.

Total = $1258.96 Which is almost what I've got.



Thanks everyone for the quick responding. If there are any more thoughts I need to know, please let me know.
For the windows, I'll stick with the 32-bit :)

[glc]

A Rosewill PSU is no better than an Ultra. There is no such thing as a quality 650 watt PSU for less than $100. Low quality units may work fine - but are generally made with low quality components and they skimp on circuitry - and if they fail (or even become unstable) they can damage other components. Quality units can fail too, but generally die gracefully without zapping anything else.

The general hardware forum has sticky threads that talk about power supplies, you may want to look at them.

[Freakitchen]

I notice that with all the lists you suggested so far, you intend to keep your existing video card. While that's fine in terms of compatibility, it does mean that you'll see hardly any increase in gaming performance with your new build. More RAM and a more powerful CPU helps, of course, but the video card as much more influence than any other component.

I reckon you should go somewhere in-between those two lists above. DDR3 is hugely expensive, and offers little performance increase at the moment, so I'd stick with an ASUS P5K variant with 2GB of the Corsair memory in your first list. From then, I'd choose between the E6750 or the Q6600; the Quad core is a more 'futureproof' but in terms of performance increase, you'd only benefit from it in the immediate future if you were doing lots of multitasking. The E6750 is probably better *value* for money at the moment.

I've already commented on the video card, if you want better gaming performance, consider an upgrade here.

I'd then get a better power supply, regardless of what kind of specs you go for - having a quality one is more important than the majority of people realise - you're trusting expensive components to it. The Rosewill is no better than the Ultra. This unit is top quality, and yes, it's worth spending that kind of money.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139001&Tpk=corsair%2b520

Finally, I'd stick to air cooling. The Thermaltake watercooling kits, I'm reliably informed, are in no way worth the expense. Even with air, you don't need 8 fans to keep a system cool by any means - one intake and one exhaust is more than adequate with good cable management, even if you overclock the processor (its cooling should be taken care of with a good aftermarket heatsink/fan).

[CIS]

That sounds fair to me, I'll go a few steps down and choose these specs:

List (3) ;)

MB: ASUS P5K-E/WIFI-AP LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131196) ($154.99)

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 Conroe 2.66GHz 4M Cache LGA 775 Processor (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115029) ($194.99)

RAM: CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145015) ($51.00 after $30.00 Mail-In Rebate)

PSU: CORSAIR 520W Power Supply (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139001&Tpk=corsair%2b520) ($109.99 after $10.00 Mail-In Rebate)

Case: APEVIA X-PLEASURE-BK Black Aluminum ATX Full Tower Computer Case (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811144128) ($99.99 after $30.00 Mail-In Rebate)

Video Card: XFX PVT84JYAJG GeForce 8600GT 512MB 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16 SLI Supported Video Card (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150247) ($129.99)

CD / DVD Burner: LITE-ON 2MB Cache 20X DVD+R 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM SATA DVD Burner with LightScribe (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106072) ($40.99)

Total = $781.94 :eek: WOW!
That is awesome! The only thing I'm concern about right now is the quality and the lifetime of my PC (upgradeablity).

Devastator, XenaWP, Katreat, perkster, glc, and Freakitchen, thanks to all of you for your help. :)

[Freakitchen]

Much better :) My only concern there is that the 8600GT won't be a huge jump from the card you currently have. I'd suggest an eVGA 8800GTS for a more balanced system. If you want good gaming performance - not to mention longevity - it'll be worth it.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130082

[glc]

Your link is to DDR2-675 ram. Here is what you want:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145590

[Katreat]

Very well explained Freak. For any computer you want to keep things in balance. It makes little sense going all out on one component when the other components dont support your build and hold you back. I also agree with Freak's suggestion for video. The 8600 is a bit weak compaired to the rest of your system if you intend to use it for gaming. It is a decent placeholder if you need to save some cash, but your older card would do that also. The 8800 would make your system true gamer.

As for water cooling there are only a few who really need it. For someone who wants the ultimate quiet computer I understand you can drop the noise level with proper water cooling. It can get expensive but for those who really need quiet it can help. There are quite a few other quiet options for most people using air cooliing so watercooliing just for silenance might be going a bit far. The other use is extream OC'ing. Most OC'ing (from what I have read) can be done with standard air cooling but as you crank the fans up it will get loud. So, if you plan on a heavy OC then water cooling gives you the ability to cool without having to create a wind tunnel in your computer room. Like others have said, for most air cooling is the way to go, it is much cheaper and much more problem free.

Kat

[CIS]

I'll order my computer this weekend, the same as the third list with switching video card to 8800 and that increases the total to about $900 without the shipping costs, but still good :)

[Katreat]

Hope you picked up on the ram change glc posted. To take full advantage of the processor you should be using 800 ram.

Kat