Jester Box II

[Jester]

COOLER MASTER RC-330-KKN1-GP Black SECC ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

ASUS P5B Deluxe LGA 775 Intel P965 Express ATX Intel Motherboard

EVGA 8800GTS

XCILO Greatpower X14S4P4 650W ATX12V PSU

Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4gHZ E6600 Conroe

2 GB Corsair XMS2 DDR2800

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 (Perpendicular Recording) 250 GB

Lite-On 16X DVD+/- Burner w/ Lightscribe SATA (per GLC's suggestion on 965 chips)- Retail

Windows Vista Ultimate - OEM (do I want the 32-bit or 64-bit version?)

Total Cost - 1616.93

Well all I have had "Leslie II" for about 4 years. She was my first build and an experience for all here. If you all recall this is the build that the wife (Leslie I) marked the side window with dry erase marker. Also the build that I stripped one of the mobo mounts (both ends) and the mobo is permanently affixed to the case.

I have upgraded it to what is in my sig, and it will become my media PC. I might buy a smaller case and transfer it so it fits nicer next to the TV. I got the dremel so I could theoretically remove the mobo.

It is time for me to move up in the ever progressing tech world to "Jester Box II". You will notice that there is not a side window on this one .

I will be taking a few odd parts from the old box such as the floppy, keyboard, mouse, and speakers, and some other odds and ends and transfering it to the new box.

Let me know what you guys think. I checked the QVL on the Mobo, and did some power calculations on the PSU. It should be about 50W bigger than what I need (Just in case I go SlI in the future). Constructive critisim welcome. I thought long and hard about this box and "trimmed the fat" on the price. I am really happy with what I came up with, but I want to make sure I didn't miss anything... especially in the PSU area.

[glc]

Why don't you wait till at least April? The price of C2D's is being reduced significantly and there will be better Vista/DX10 stuff out by then.

P5B's don't do SLI, by the way.

[flanzig1]

The CAS 5 of the XMS ram is more stable with the P5B.

[Mr.Ferrari]

I would personally go with a quality 700w, if you do go SLi with a SLi board.

[TimPoet]

I like your choices.

But that case is not one I would recommend. That's exactly the case I just built with. I know it's a Coolermaster but the thing is quite shoddy. The screws don't have a place to be mounted in for the PCI cards so they just sort of hang there.... There was an intermittent problem with the USB ports in the front of causing the system to shut down. The I/O shield just don't fit.

Get something else. You deserve it.

[newbuilder14]

I'd make that power supply a Corsair HX520 since you won't be using SLI with the P5B Deluxe.

I'd also switch the memory out for CAS5 latency memory as noted above.

[chuck4456]

If you want to keep that case budget close, get a CENTURION 5. There are screw holes beneath the plastique clips for PCI. Just pop the clips out and use screws.

[Jester]

Ok so I am going to stick with the mobo. Changed the ram to the 5-5-5-12, No SLi, and I changed the case to The Centurion 5 w/o the window.
GLC I am not building this system till July because I am still in Afghanistan . I am not going to worry about quad core either. Right now I want a machine that is a work horse that can do some gaming. Since I have re entred school the games get a little neglected but I will still be playing the video intensive games.
Few Questions questions.

I thought the Lower the CAS number the better i.e. 4 better than 5...is this not true with DDR2

With this set up how big of a PSU do I really need? Plannning on the Xcilo 550w now because of no Sli

Do I want to go with the 64-bit vista or the 32-bit?

[TimPoet]

Originally Posted by Jester Couple questions. With this set up how big of a PSU do I really need?

550W from a quality supply.

Do I want to go with the 64-bit vista or the 32-bit?

64 bit is kinda cranky, not a lot of friendliness for various applications

[Mr.Ferrari]

For a single 8800GTS you should be good with a quality 500w psu. The Silverstone ST50EF is a good choice. Or anything above from that.

Lower CAS does make a tiny difference, but the CAS4 and CAS5 versions of that ram are exactly the same. Just relabeled. By the time it gets in your bios, the CAS4 will automatically be set to 5-5-5 anyway due to that being the default of 965. In order to get it lower, you will have to manually set it.

64-bit vista is a NIGHTMARE. Drivers issue galore, it won't even run monitors properly without drivers.

[glc]

The E6600 is dropping close to $100 in April. If you are building in July, good chance Vista and DX10 dust will be pretty clear. Revisit your power supply options then when you finalize the video card choice.

The CAS 5 XMS2 is proving to be the most stable in the P5B - and the C2D architecture could really care less about latency.

[Jester]

Update. I will not be going for the Macbook Pro as I have stated in previous threads. I will be building a new desktop and getting a black macbook. Its about the same price.

Here is the new list. Please let me know what you all think.

Cooler Master Centurion 5

ASUS P5K Deluxe

Corsair 620W PSU

Core 2 Quad

2GB DDr2 1066 Crucial Ballistix

320GB Seagate SATA HDD

Lite-On SATA DVD Burner

EVGA 8800GTS 640MB GDDR3

[Cricket]

New list looks okay...be sure the Ballistix RAM is compatible with that motherboard. I haven't heard too many good things about that particular Crucial RAM.

Cricket

[Jester]

checked it against the qvl and read a lot of reviews. I haven't seen anything bad about it. Alot of people are very happy with its stability and overclockability.