Few questions and opinions

[noob81]

I've been lurking for awhile, and this seems like a friendly place to answer a few questions I have. I'm thinking of putting together my own pc. I do some graphic design, photography, and a little gaming. (BF2, COD 2 and the like)

Here's what I'm thinking of putting together, taken from reading other threads on this forum.

INTEL C2D E6300
Asus P5B or the Intel DP965LT
CORSAIR VALUE SELECT DDR2667/1GB
SEAGATE 250 GB 16mb PRT Hard Drive
XClio 450w PSU
EVGA 7600GT or the Sapphire ATI Radeon X1650 Pro

I have two questions.

Graphics card- am I going to see a huge difference between those, if one is 256mb and the other 512mb? (as in is it worth the price difference)

And two questions about the motherboard.

First, which is the better of the 2?

And second, I was looking at the Asus boards on newegg, and they have one for 120 and one for 150 (P5B and P5B-L)...is the only difference the option for RAID? Is that worth the extra 30?

Same with the Intel DP965LT? whats different than the Intel DG965WH (seems to be alot of those on ebay)

Sorry if these questions have been asked 50 times...I did try to read through some of the threads first. Thanks for any help!

[glc]

1. No - 256 is plenty good. There is a 7600GT at Newegg for $100 after rebate, that's an excellent deal.
2. They are both very good boards, the Intel cannot be overclocked though.
3. You mean P5B-E? It also has Firewire. Don't bother with RAID, that doesn't need to be part of the decision process.
4. The DG965WH has onboard video.

If you are doing graphic design, consider 2 gigs of ram, especially if you want to play BF2. Whatever you get, get a dual channel kit, not a single stick.

[noob81]

Originally Posted by glc 1. No - 256 is plenty good. There is a 7600GT at Newegg for $100 after rebate, that's an excellent deal. 2. They are both very good boards, the Intel cannot be overclocked though. 3. You mean P5B-E? It also has Firewire. Don't bother with RAID, that doesn't need to be part of the decision process. 4. The DG965WH has onboard video. If you are doing graphic design, consider 2 gigs of ram, especially if you want to play BF2. Whatever you get, get a dual channel kit, not a single stick.

Thanks for the help. Oops, yes, I meant P5B-E.

[KilluminatiStyle]

7600GT for 89.99 after rebate

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130062

[danielson]

You should definitely go with the P5B-E, it does have firewire and e-sata, but also uses better capacitors and has a better bios. The other board I would suggest is the Gigabyte 965P-DS3, those 2 boards are probably the top picks for C2D's. I do have to say though, if you're getting the E6300, the strength of it is in it's overclocking ability. So if you aren't overclocking you'd get almost identical performance with an AMD offering and pay quite a bit less. For instance, you can buy a Biostar Tforce mobo and an X2 3800+ EE combo for about the same price as just the E6300. Anyway, other than that, I would also say this. Don't get the 250GB HD, for very little more money you can get the 320GB version, which is the best seller on the market right now. Also, a 2GB kit of Corsair Value Select Ram PC-5300 is only about $160. It will make a big difference, as one other person said. Especially if you multi task.

Antec SonataII w/450w PSU or Antec P150 w/430w PSU $120 or $150
E6300 $185
P5B-E or DS3 $150
2GB Corsair Value Select PC 5300 $160
Seagate 320GB HD $88
7600GT $100 If your monitor is only 19 or 20 inch then 256mb version is fine.
Use motherboard sound, unless you find it's not enough. Use the Spdif out to connect to your speakers. If you have no speakers get the Logitech X-530 for $65. Good starter set.


That's about $800....$900 if you get the speakers and the P150. It will serve you well.

[glc]

The Sonata II is on a $50 rebate right now.

[noob81]

wow, thanks for all the help guys. I'm looking into your suggestions and matching it to my budget.....which will probably go over as budgets always do.

[noob81]

ok....i think i'm going to wait for the price drop in april and get the e6600

but i'm going to start buying the other components...I got a 320 SATA drive and a liteon dvd burner....wow newegg ships fast, had it in 2 days.

The next item I'm buying is the case and the power supply. I've read the one I have listed above is good, but would it be worth upgrading to the 500w for a couple extra $$?

And this seems to be a good case? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811133017

[maxnik]

that's a nice case

[Katreat]

If you are waiting for april, I would wait on the video card also because prices always seem to drop on those and a bunch of new 10x cards are suppose to be in the works.

I am about the to a very similar build and this power supply has been recommended in case I want to upgrade video to a 10x card when prices start to drop.

CORSAIR CMPSU-520HX ATX12V v2.2 and EPS12V 2.91 520W Power Supply

It is also on sale right now at Zipzoomfly for $106 and free shipping. Suppose to be a very good unit and quiter then many and should provide enough buffer for going up to a single 10x card in the next year or so.

Case seems to be more of a personal choice and I would just spend a few minutes reading the newegg reviews and see how easy they are to work with. That one seems to get pretty good reviews if you like wndows and lights. All the lights personally drive me crazy, have had one case with lights and its not my thing.

[noob81]

ok.....got everything but the E6600...hurry up april 22!!


I have a question though. The board says it also excepts pentium 4's. I have a 2.0 pent4 in my current computer. Can I take it out and put it in my new machine (till i buy the new processor) I opened up my current computer, and the processor seems way smaller than the space on the Asus board. Will it work? ...and yes, I'm that much of a noob.


Also, I have everything in my new build hooked up and ready to go, soon as I pick up the processor. Can I power the system on real quick without the processor to see if its running. The reason I ask is my friend bought 2 of the same seagate harddrives from newegg that I did, and both of his started smoking on power up....he got them replaced ....but I would like to try mine now instead of waiting till April...and my current rig doesn't support SATA. (The other option would be let him test them.)

Sorry for the long questions...thanks for the help!

[Alaron]

Your 2Ghz P4 is an older socket, 478, and the motherboard is the new socket 775. They are physically different, so you can't put the old chip in the new system.

[noob81]

Originally Posted by Alaron Your 2Ghz P4 is an older socket, 478, and the motherboard is the new socket 775. They are physically different, so you can't put the old chip in the new system.

thanks....thats kinda what i figured.

anyone on the other question?

[glc]

No, it's not going to power up without a processor.

Why don't you just spend 38 bucks and get a Celeron-D for right now?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819112206

Beats sitting there and staring at a pile of parts you can't do anything with. It will let you get it running and USE it till you get the Core 2 Duo price reduction. Even that Celeron-D will beat the pants off your old P4 system.

[noob81]

Originally Posted by glc No, it's not going to power up without a processor. Why don't you just spend 38 bucks and get a Celeron-D for right now? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819112206 Beats sitting there and staring at a pile of parts you can't do anything with. It will let you get it running and USE it till you get the Core 2 Duo price reduction. Even that Celeron-D will beat the pants off your old P4 system.

hmm....that sounds like an idea....least that way i can start trouble shooting. thanks glc, you've been a big help.

[bbk]

Hi noob81,

For what it's worth, I just built my first system this past Friday evening and had zero trouble with the DG965WH motherboard. I picked it for the onboard graphics, but it sounds like you want/need more than I do.

In any case, everything came up and started running with no issues the first time - including BIOS and driver updates.

I am not even close to being a hardware expert - I just no how to research and follow directions. If you can do that, you will do well.

Good luck!
bob