New Build, Few things needed

[Brassman101]

Hey everyone,

Building a new PC for myself and have been researching and looking into certain parts. I've gotten most of the grunt work done, but there's a few things i have questions about. Here's the specs so far.

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe 2.4GHz 4M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 1066mhz/FSB
Motherboard: Intel BOXDG965WHMKR LGA 775 Intel G965 Express ATX
Memory: 4x 1gb sticks running 2gb DualCh. pqi TURBO 1GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 533 (PC2 4200)
HDD: 2x Western Digital 160gb 7200rpm 16mb cache SATA 3.0gb/s
Video card: nvidia 7950GT - (core - 550mhz, 24 pipes) (mem - clock-1400mhz, 256mb, 256bit, GDDR3)
Sound card: Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio 7.1 Channels 24-bit 96KHz PCI
TV Tuner: ATI
DVD&CD Burner: Samsung DVD-RW/CD-RW (+ 18x/8x/16x, - 18x/6x/16x, DL 8x/8x/16x, CD 48x/32x/48x)
Floppy Drive: It's black?
Monitor: NEC 19" 4ms 700:1 400cd/m2
Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811146029
Power Supply: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817162014

Speakers/Keyboard/Mouse i'm not replacing.

Alright, thats what i'm at so far. All the stuff is coming from newegg so i read through the reviews and whatnot to help with some of the choices.

I'll explain what i can about why i chose some of the parts and what i'm trying to get out of this.

Processor and board have 1066fsb, memory running dual channel is 1066, so there wont be a bottleneck there. Motherboard has raid, which i'll be mirroring just because for 63$ a drive, i can be lazy and not lose stuff. The drives aren't scsi but they are pretty fast w/ 16mb cache. The memory is 3-3-3-8 which is lower than the timings of my original choice, and seem to be pretty low. Video card is high pipes, semi-high end clock speeds, decent amount of memory, and good speed. All the other parts are pretty self explanatory.... except...

The case and power supply which i always usually get an inadequate case, and get a power supply that works but dont really know what to look for like in a CPU or board or something. Let me know how those 2 i choose are, and any recommendations will be greatly appreciated on those 2 especially.

My room gets HOT in the summer.. and Air Condition isnt an option (Old house wiring cant support it). So the case has 7 fans... really my only basis for choice... (and newegg doesn't have a 200mm fan search yet... which is strange).

Any critique would be great, i dont plan on ordering til Monday the 2nd of April, so i can get opinions.

I'm sure that's enough information... Thanks.

Chris

edit: trying to keep the price down on this overall... I dont plan on overclocking at all due to my heat issues in my room, and i've been game free since i broke the EQ/WoW addiction in 2005... but i want the possibility

[glc]

If you can wait till the END of April to order, you can save about 80 bucks on the processor.

You need DDR2-667 ram.

Why are you getting a motherboard with onboard video?

Samsung opticals are not recommended.

That power supply is garbage.

[Brassman101]

Cant wait til April, the other PC is getting given back to old friend.

Why do i need 667mhz ram? can you explain the bottleneck or issue?

No real reason for onboard video... searched and thats the one that came up with what i needed. Going to look again and check for one w/o video.

I"ll get the Sony Burner then, unless there's better?

Figured the PSU wasnt great. I'm looking through newegg for the ones listed in the sticky as "good brands".

Other than that, the case, and everything else seem to match?

[glc]

Intels benefit from ram one step faster than FSB - and it's the same price as 533 anyway.

Look at the Asus P5B series boards and the Intel DP965LT.

I recommend a Lite-On SATA burner, retail box so you get software.

Hold off on the sound card till you try the onboard - you can add a sound card ANY time.

A power supply that would handle that card and probably any future upgrade would be a Corsair 520HX.

[Brassman101]

Got the 667mhz memory now, but had to settle for 4-4-4-12 instead of 3-3-3-8, since the price jump was huge.

Lite-On retail burner

Holding on the sound card after hearing a sample at a small local place... i dont know why i or many other people always buy sound cards for things... even some pretty new games sounded great.

Will the 520w PSU be enough? I'm sure your right, but i'd just like to know how you got to that conclusion and maybe what makes Corsair stand out above other companies. I'm going with it also just because of the VERY long warranty... 5 years is amazing.

The motherboard is still an issue... a lot of people rated the Intel Board i had choose bad, Dead on arrival, sound not working, wont post, etc.. But it has a 3yr warranty, which is the minimum i try and get so the expensive/vital parts are all good for 3 years. The Asus board you recommended has a 1yr/1yr warranty.

Thx glc

Chris

[glc]

If you are more comfortable with the DG965WH, no reason why you couldn't use it.

Ram timings are almost meaningless with Core 2 architecture.

That 520 watt PSU puts out more clean power than 700 watt low quality units. You can't go by just the advertised wattage rating.

[Brassman101]

as if i was deciding on a video card or processor... what are the main factors of a Power Supply specs? Clean wattage seems to be the primary one? I'm aware I'm PSU illiterate...

Cool, other than that i need to decide on just the board and I'm done.

Thanks

[Brassman101]

Current and near final build

Went with an ASUS board, Corsair memory, and a highly effective case that a friend of mine has.

Please Give it the once over before i press the order button

[kobalt58]

Originally Posted by Brassman101 Current and near final build Went with an ASUS board, Corsair memory, and a highly effective case that a friend of mine has. Please Give it the once over before i press the order button

It looks like your motherboard does not support your processor. You need a motherboard that supports core 2 duo processors.

[glc]

Only the 2.0 version of the P5LD2 supports Core 2 Duo. Buy your ram in dual channel kits, not single modules.

[Brassman101]

Cool updated those things in the list.

Will the dual channel memory have issues if it's not in a 2 pack but still the same exact 4 sticks?

[glc]

It *might*. If they are not matched pairs you may have instabilities or errors - or they won't run in dual channel mode.