My First Build - help

[Albo]

I am about to start my first build. I've chosen most of my bits n pieces, these are-

AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego
Asus A8N-SLi SE nForce4 SLi
Corsair 2GB DDR XMS4000PT TwinX
Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 10 NCQ 250GB 6V250F0 SATA-II 16MB
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Platinum eX
BFG GeForce 7600 GT OC 256MB GDDR3

I am going to try my hand at overclocking however, I'm a bit unsure as to what sort of power this setup will need? Is 450W ok?
Also any feedback/suggestions you have would be very welcome.

[MakeYourslf2012]

nope, you need an SLI certified PSU, and I believe the lowest one is 550W.

Choose one from this list:
http://www.slizone.com/object/slizone2_build.html

Other than that, it likes like a nice build so far.

Don't forget case, opticals, OS, and floppy (not necessary, but its good to have one)

[Albo]

Have you got any suggestions as to which ones? I'm not too sure which is a decent make or not. Also, i'd like it to be as quiet as possible

[Albo]

sorry, scan read your reply and missed the suggestion you put - duh!

[Albo]

Thanks for your reply. I haven't forgotten about those - I'm having a hard time choosing the case (there's so many) and don't want to pick my optics until I know which case. i want them to match you see. i was thinking about the Scan Alpine 7104 Black Case Midi

[kram 2.0]

The case looks fine. If you intend on using SLI, you will need a power supply unit from the nVidia SLI-Certified PSU list - these are quality units with generally a high real-power output.

kram

[Albo]

Ok, going to order my parts today. What do you think?

Motheboard Asus A8N-SLi Premium
CPU AMD Athlon 64 3700
Memory Corsair 2GB DDR XMS4000PT TwinX
Graphics Card Leadtek GeForce 7600 GT Extreme 256MB GDDR3
Soundcard Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Platinum eX
Hard Drive Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 10 NCQ 250GB 6V250F0 SATA-II
DVDRW Sony DWG120A 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter
PSU CoolerMaster 550watt REAL POWER SLI PSU
CPU Fan Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro socket 939
Floppy OcUK Value Floppy Drive - Silver
Fan controller Akasa AK FC-03 Fan Controller Pro
Case SilverStone "TEMJIN" J02S-W (Silver) Aluminium

[freakitchen]

You can drop to regular Corsair Value Select RAM unless you're a serious overclocker.

I'd suggest giving the onboard sound a go before you go for a sound card, if you're not happy then purchase one later.

Sony DVD-RW are just re-badged Lite-ons, and I've heard the bundled software isn't very good. Lite-on drives come with Nero.

Are you getting the retail box processor? If so, it comes with a Heatsink, Fan, and thermal paste. No need for an aftermarket one.

FK

[Albo]

I wasn't going to get the retail box because I'm planning on overclocking, so thought better cooling would be in order. Also because I am overclocking should I stick with the Corsair 2GB DDR XMS4000PT. And what advantage would that give over the DDR400?

[freakitchen]

Ahh, I see you stated your desire to overclock in your first thread, apologies for missing that one. In that case, keep the aftermarket heatsink.

The Corsair XMS memory gives tighter memory timings over the standard Value Select. Now, I'm no overclocker, but I've heard that Athlon 64s overclock well with standard Value memory, nevertheless, most OCers go for the high spec RAM. There's an overclocking sticky at the top of the 'Processors' forum, and this thread might help too.

http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.p...erclock+athlon

FK

[Albo]

Thanks for that. I'm still unsure as to which RAM to get. Shall I go for-

Corsair 2GB DDR XMS3200C2PT TwinX - 2-3-3-6 or......
Corsair 2GB DDR XMS4000PT TwinX - 3-4-4-8

[Melchett]

The first one is better

[Albo]

why's that?