first build, $2k AMD gaming rig, please evaluate

[crazy pook]

I desperately need to upgrade, but my system is so old I decided to start from scratch and build my own. I already have a monitor/keyboard/mouse. Here is what I'm looking at:

CASE: $117.72
Antec P180 Advanced Super Mid Tower - mid tower - ATX
http://www.securemart.com/cgi-bin/fu...0.html?pcode=1

PSU: $139.99
Silverstone SST-ST56ZF 560 Watt Power Supply PCI-Express 20+4 Pin Retail
http://www.clubit.com/product_detail...C-pr1c3grabb3r

MOBO: $232.47
Asus M2N32-SLI Deluxe
http://www.xpcgear.com/asusm2n32slid.html

CPU: $359.98
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ Dual-Core 512K Per Core 90nm (Socket AM2)
http://www.monarchcomputer.com/Merch...&AFFIL=pg&NR=1

HDD: $88 (x2) = $172 (RAID 0)
Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD2500KS 250GB Serial ATA II 7200RPM Hard Drive w/16MB Buffer
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/Produc...t=pricegrabber

RAM: $269
Corsair TWIN2X2048-6400C4 2GB Kit DDR2-800 XMS2-6400 Xtreme Performance Memory Retail
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/Produc...t=pricegrabber

DVD: $43.62
SAMSUNG DUAL LAYER 16X DVD-RW + - W/ SOFTWARE EIDE BLACK
http://www.a2zcomp.com/buy.asp?REF=12&SKU=263OEM1

VIDEO CARD: $521
EVGA 512-P2-N575-AX GEFORCE 7900GTX 512MB 256-BIT GDDR3 PCI E X16 VIDEOCARD
http://www.pagecomputers.com/store/p...t%5Fid=1022589

TOTAL: $1859.78 (these prices include tax and shipping)

Okay, now for the details. I will be playing mostly MMORPGs (WoW, EQ2, SWG) but also system hogs like Oblivion, Tomb Raider Legend, etc.

1) Please evaluate my choices for compatibility and performance/value.

2) Is this power supply sufficient? And will it still be if I go SLI and add an X-Fi sound card down the line?

3) I just chose this case arbitrarily. Can I do better? I'm not concerned with looks or portability, only durability and maximizing airflow and having enough space to fit everything in there.

4) The HDDs are OEM and I want to put them in RAID 0. Do I need to buy anything extra to do this?

Any additional comments are welcome. I know it's a lot of questions but I just want to make sure I'm good to go before I drop the cash.

[hagatha]

My preferences would be....

Antec NeoHE 550 Power supply (great for cable management)
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ (L1 128k - L2 1mb) the cache is the real work horse.
XFX for the video card. (much better warranty)

I'm not familiar with mobo but check out what the OC options are. The XFX vid card has a really great OC feature.

Save yourself a few bucks... check out the ASUS A8N-SLI mobo

The rig looks good... what speed and amount of memory?

hagatha

[blue60007]

1) Looks like a healthy build - one thing I would chang though would be dump the Samsung drive...get something from LITE-ON or NEC - I have a Samsung drive and it's pretty junky.
2) Something like this looks like a more powerful unit and it won't cost you a penny more...
3)That looks like a very nice case - Antec makes very quality products, I think you'll like it
4)No, the motherboard will come with necessary cables

I've never heard of any of these stores before. You might want to double check their ratings at www.resellerratings.com if you've never used them before. You might also look at buying everything at one place...you might save a few bucks on shipping.

EDIT: Oops, we both forgot the OS. Win XP Home OEM will be fine unless you need the extra networking features of Pro.

I don't think the NeoHE 550W is SLI certified for 7900GTX's - I just don't think it'll handle dual 7900GTXs.

Agreed about the 4400+ - I think the doubled L2 cache would help some.

I haven't heard many good things about XFX. The A8N-SLI isn't a AM2 board.

[crazy pook]

The reason I chose the power supply I did is because I read somewhere that each 12v rail should have at least 18 amps. I was originally looking at the FSP one you suggested but it only has 15 amps. Can anyone comment on that?

Question about the HDD: which is better, SATA 150 10,000 rpm, or SATA 3gb/sec 7200rpm at half the price? In other words, am I better off getting a Raptor?

Another question about the case, should it be cool enough without any additional parts? It comes with the 3 fans but I really don't know anything about cooling.

Also, I chose the evga card because it is looks like it has the fastest clock settings out of the box and honestly, I'm not comfortable fiddling with that kind of thing myself.

Finally, I chose the 4200 because the price jump to 4400 was a big one. But I didn't notice the cache difference, I'll have to reconsider that.

Thanks for your responses!

[FireByyrd]

About the HDD question, I would have to say you would see more of a difference in speed with the RPMs over the sata transfer speeds.

I would go with the raptors, great hard drives and they come with a longer warranty.

3 Fans should be good enough, the case you picked is excellent choice in my opinion, it looks great too. If you want additional cooling, you can always try watercooling for your AMD processor, but if your not into overclocking and everything is just going to run stock.. I don't see any heating problems in that huge case with 3 fans. Basically to answer your question, it should cool your computer fine.

[blue60007]

That FSP has *four* 12V rails at 15a each. It's that total count (60a) that counts. I think one rail is for the CPU, two for each video card, and one for everything else.

I'm not really sure how much performance difference there is with the doubled cache, but I'm sure it's pretty decent. That might something to research.

http://www23.tomshardware.com/cpu.ht...=74&model2=236

I didn't look through them all, but it looks like it helps in some areas by a decent amount and others no real gain.

[crazy pook]

Ah, now I understand about the current. I think I'm going to get the 700w version of the one you suggested, it's a small price difference.

Here's a question about the case/PSU combo:

I found out today that the case is a bottom-PSU case. Are the PSU cables going to be long enough? I'm a bit worried about that, but this case seems like it's very cool and very quiet from the reviews I've read.

Can anyone recommend a similar case? Durable, cool, quiet, big enough for all this stuff?

[blue60007]

Ah, yes, I've heard that can be an issue. (of course, they say Antec PSUs are just fine )

Thermaltake also has some nice cases you might look at.

[crazy pook]

Thanks for all your help everybody. Here's what I went with:

CASE:
Antec P180b Advanced Super Mid Tower - mid tower - ATX

PSU:
FSP FX700-GLN 700 Watt Power Supply

MOBO:
Asus M2N32-SLI Deluxe

CPU:
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ Dual-Core 1024K Per Core 90nm (Socket AM2)

HDD: (x2) (RAID 0)
Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD2500KS 250GB Serial ATA II 7200RPM Hard Drive w/16MB Buffer

RAM:
Corsair TWIN2X2048-6400C4 2GB Kit DDR2-800 XMS2-6400 Xtreme Performance Memory Retail

DVD:
NEC ND-3550A 16X Double Layer DVD±RW Drive (Black) Retail

VIDEO CARD:
EVGA 512-P2-N575-AX GEFORCE 7900GTX 512MB 256-BIT GDDR3 PCI E X16 VIDEOCARD

So I upgraded the power supply, got a better quality (I hope) optical drive, upgraded the processor, and went with the black case. I read that the cables on this power supply are very long, so they will hopefully reach. If not, I have to spend a couple more bucks.

This would have been under 2k except Monarch isn't getting this CPU back in stock until July so I paid a little more from Tiger Direct. No big deal.

Thanks again for all your help!