Looking for some advice

[Sirkwa]

**Updated**

I would like someone to take a moment and review and comment on my setup. But first a brief introduction on everything.

I have been using a PC for a little over 15 years, dating back to my fathers commodore 64, and 128. I still remember typing load “digdug” on, from what I remember, a blue screen. I feel that I am around a medium skill level when it comes to computer tech. I understand most of it until the power supply comes into play. This will be my first computer build from ground up. I am looking to spend around $1,000 to have a good gaming PC which will be easy to upgrade down the road.

The following is an overview of my setup that I will be looking to build.

Case - NZXT Apollo Black SECC Steel Chassis ATX Mid Tower
PSU - FSP Group (Fortron Source) Blue Storm II 500 ATX 2.2V 500W Power Supply
Mother Board - GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3R LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel
CPU - Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe 2.4GHz LGA 775
HDD - Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 (Perp. Recording) ST3250620AS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA
Graphics Card - SAPPHIRE 100186L Radeon X1950XT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16
RAM – CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500)
Sound Card - Creative Sound Blaster SB0570 Audigy SE 7.1 Channels PCI
DVD/CD Drive - ASUS 18X DVD±R DVD Burner w/ LightScribe and 14X DVD-RAM Write SATA
Internal Card Reader - Atech Flash Xm-4U 11-in-1 USB 2.0

Total Cost - $1,040.82
(minus cost of anti-static ground strap)

I will be reusing my HP f1503 Monitor, Logitech Mx518 mouse, and Kb-0228 HP keyboard.

I decided to go with the GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3R mother board because, down the road when prices drop, replace the E6600 with the Q6600. Also update the 2GB RAM with compatable RAM, I know the motherboard is a little RAM picky. These upgrades will draw a little more power so I think it is smart to go with a larger PSU to accomidate these down the road.

I am very comfortable on building this and have had experience upgrading computers in the past. I am only a little distraught and nervous about the power supply, the watts/voltage/amps/wiring, everything has me a little lost at that point. Am I shooting to high going with the 500w. If so, what would you recommend? As far as the PSU wiring, everything should line up, just mount and plug, I don’t need any splitters or converters or anything of that sort do I?

Please let me know what you think and if there are any compatibility issues. I am open to criticism and any input will help and be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time.

- Justin

[Cricket]

You really don't want to use a Rosewill power supply, get something better. See this thread.

And you don't want to use Kingston RAM, they've been having quality control issues for awhile now and people have been reporting lots of problems with their RAM. Go with Corsair ValueSelect instead.

Do you really need 4GB of RAM? I'm sure that no one (other than servers) would need 8GB of RAM in a home computer.

The retail Intel C2D processor already comes with a heatsink, no need to get the Arctic Cooling Freezer 7...beside, if you do use the Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 you'll void the 3 year warranty on the retail C2D.

And I wouldn't use the Sabrent card reader...their quality control isn't the greatest and they have a high DOA rate. Look at Atech Flash, SIIG or Koutech instead.

The rest of the parts look okay.

Cricket

[Sirkwa]

Thank you for your input cricket. Based off what you recommended I went ahead and made a few changes. I swapped the 550W PSU out with a FSP Group (Fortron Source) Blue Storm II 500 ATX 2.2V 500W Power Supply.

I also changed from DDR2 800 to DDR2 1066, down the road when I want to bump it up to 4GB i have 2 open slots to add more RAM instead of going to 4x512 where I would be wasting RAM sticks by replacing them. If that reasoning seems logical, which I think it does. Its kind of hard picking the RAM because, from what I have read,there is a compatability issue with RAM with this motherboard. But I really like the motherboard because it supports Q6600, which is the route I will probably go down the road when prices drop.

The thrid change I made was the card reader, went with a better quality one.

The final and last change I made was removing the CPU heatsink and fan, since the C2D already came with it, which I did not know.

Let me know if anyone else has any comments or suggestions. Thank you very much!

- Justin

[flanzig1]

You don't really need the DDR2 1066 ram unless you going to do some heavy OC. If not planning any OC, the Corsair Value Select DDR2 667 will run in the system very nicely.

[Sirkwa]

I am having issues on selecting RAM for this motherboard. There are only certain brands and models supported. According to this. So to do this the easy way I am going with a little more expensive but pretty much the same motherboard. It is the P35C model.

GIGABYTE GA-P35C-DS3R LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel

That eliminates the RAM issue. On top of that it also supports DDR3 RAM. which i may never use but its there if neeb be.

Let me know if you have any more suggestions, I really appreciate it.

Thanks

- Justin

[andper10]

I would make a few changes:

$70 - NZXT Apollo Black SECC Steel Chassis ATX Mid Tower - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811146025 - Case choice is a personal thing. If you like it then get it.

$90 (if you use/create a google checkout account) - CORSAIR CMPSU-520HX ATX12V v2.2 and EPS12V 2.91 520W Power Supply - Retail - http://www.buy.com/prod/corsair-520w...203270716.html - Buy.com currently has it cheaper than newegg. I just got one with my upgrade and it is rock solid. Most people around here recommend them for any single video card setup. It has one big 12 Volt Rail capable of 54 Amps Maximum (from what I have been told) even though it is listed as 3 seperate 12V rails. Some things to look for in a PSU would be: Amps (12V is what the video card uses for power), Watts (but amps are more important), Active PFC or not (Active PFC is a good thing), Effiency (helps save your electricity bill), Fan size/speed (how loud or quiet the PSU will be).

$145 - ASUS P5K LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131180 - Unless you need those DDR3 slots for future upgrades, most people around here would recommend the Asus P5K. It supports the Intel Quad Cores. Asus it about the best you can get when it comes to motherboards.

$223 - Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe 2.4GHz LGA 775 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115003 - Wait until the July 22nd price drop to save some money on this or upgrade to the the Q6600 after the price drop.

$68 - Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 (Perp. Recording) ST3250620AS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148144 - Seagate Hard Drives have a 5 year warranty and the PRT on the 7200.10 series makes them fast. Good choice.

$280 - EVGA 320-P2-N811-AR GeForce 8800GTS 320MB 320-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Video Card - Retail - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130082 - I just recently upgraded to an X1950XT and I really like it, but with your budget I would try to go for an 8800GTS so that you have DX10 for the future. You will notice a nicer video card when gaming a lot more than higher speed ram with a cheaper video card.

$80 - CORSAIR ValueSelect 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) Desktop Memory - Retail - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145098 - From what I have heard/read, DDR2 1066 will only benefit you if you are overclocking heavily. If you still want to get some "nice" ram then you could get some Corsair DDR2 800: $113 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145590

No Sound Card - Try the onboard sound first and see if it is good enough. That's not a very expensive sound card so it might not be much better than onboard in terms of quality.

$39 - LITE-ON Black 20X SATA DVD Burner with LightScribe - Retail - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827106072 - Retail LiteOn Drives come with burning software.

$25 - Atech Flash Xm-4U 11-in-1 USB 2.0 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820176825 - If others say it is a good brand then they are probably right.

That comes out to $1020, cheaper than your picks but I would say better for gaming. However you forgot an OS, so that makes it a grand total of $1110 before shipping.

$90 - Microsoft Windows XP Home With SP2B 1 Pack - OEM - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16832116056 - You forgot an Operating System. We recommend Windows XP until Vista gets some service pack(s).

Beware of Mail In Rebates because they void your newegg warranty (quote from newegg website: "Products missing UPC codes or serial numbers from the box are NOT returnable").

Don't worry about the PSU too much. As long as you get one from the "good" section on this list: http://www.forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?t=131195 then you should be ok.
Enjoy your build.

[oddjobguy147]

What andper10 posted could be summed up as, "well yeah, that's pretty much what I was gonna say" or "took the words right outta my mouth."
But I'll post in detail my suggestion/reasons:
Gigabyte isn't a brand you really want to get. They're not reliable, and for the most part stink.
ATI isn't really worth getting. A lot more games (sadly) are simply biased towards nVidia, and naturally perform better, and otherwise the 8800GTS outperforms the card you first planned on getting. Plus it has that cool green logo.
Stick to onboard sound. If you don't like it, and you want serious gaming, get really nice headphones (i recently purchased Sennheiser HD 555 headphones, found on newegg) and the X-Fi XtremeGamer sound card (which I also recently purchased). But I suggest getting those hand in hand (or at least high-end headphones if you want to be able to appreciate the sound card, and vice versa). However, that is an extra $200 give or take you can save for a while.
That is a decent power supply, but getting more wattage would be better. Actually your probably fine, from what I know of, assuming your not going SLI and using one monitor.
BTW I'm looking @ your updated list.
And cases are all on your taste, I have a $40 one I got from the computer show, and I love it.
Well give some thought to these last couple posts.

[Sirkwa]

*Update*


After reviewing your suggestions and input I made a few changes.

NZXT Apollo Black SECC Steel Chassis ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
I left this the same as before. I like the look of the case and it has 2x120mm fans decent airflow to keep it cool.

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3320620AS (Perp Recording) 320GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s
I bumped this up to the 320GB, 120GB for only $10 more, i'll take that.

GeForce 8800GTS 320MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Video Card
The X1950XT was a decent card, but soon down the road I can see replacing it to handle future games. So I took andper10's advice and switched over to the 8800GTS.

CORSAIR CMPSU-520HX ATX12V v2.2 and EPS12V 2.91 520W Power Supply
One thing I do not want to go cheap on is the PSU. Having a very strong and stable PSU to handle the computer is very important. The last thing I want to do is go cheap and end up kicking myself in the end. Using the eXtreme PSU calculator and setting everything at what I would like it to be, such as Q6600, 4DDR2 sticks of RAM, etc. it was around 400w. Don't know exactly what I will be adding so I will anticipate using more wattage so I will stay with the 520w that was suggested. (Unless you think its too much)

Atech Flash Xm-4U 11-in-1 USB 2.0 Black & Silver Internal card reader
Left the same.

ASUS 18X DVD±R DVD Burner w/ LightScribe and 14X DVD-RAM Write SATA
Keeping this the same. To be honest, I have had a DVD burner for 4 years on my current rig and I have not used it once. So a faster 20x is not that important.

CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) Desktop Memory (x2)
I currently had this set at 4GB, but I moved it down to 2gb. 4GB is not just needed. Small inexpensive upgrade down the road if I need more.

ASUS P5K LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard
Will I use DDR3? No. Chances of a dual Graphic cards? No. with that answered I changed the motherboard to this based of andper10's suggestions.

Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe 2.4GHz LGA 775
Kept the same for now. I knew about the Intel price slash so I am waiting to see what the outcome is. If the Q6600 drops drastically I will be switching to that.

**Microsoft Windows XP Home With SP2B 1 Pack**
Vista in my eyes needs some work before I will use it. I know this is a downer because of how hard they are pushing Games for Windows exclusives to Vista. also Vista is dx10. This is where I am a little hung up.


Whould it be better to Buy XP and then down the road upgrade to a Vista SP when service packs are out? Or would it be easier just to go Vista off the bat? Say I want to upgrade/redo/replace anything, will the XP with the Vista upgrade be a problem and a hassle?


Taking oddjob's advice I removed my PCI sound card that I had selected. Right now I am using a 2 speaker set up and it works fine. I use headphones most of the time anyways.

To get it up and running will put me a hair above $1,100.

I use a 2.4ghz w/ HT, 1GB RAM, 100GB HDD, and a 64MB nVidia, my 128 9800Pro fried. This HP rig just doesn't cut it anymore for my games, graphic/web design and developement and minor animation.With this new set up I think I should be sitting pretty good for a couple years especially with all the room for improvement with the hardware selected.
I appreciate your input.

Thanks

- Justin

[marine63]

get the nvidia 8 series cards for directx 10 and get windows vista to do directx 10
http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16811119106
check out this case cost less has 2x120 mm has air duct and its made from aluminum which dissipates heat better than steel
also have u thought about which 8800gts card you want?
also intel recommends getting anti static gloves instead of wrist strap
http://www.directron.com/dirsthd.html
wats a card reader?
if it was me id get a 320gb hdd but thats just me :3
one 8800gts card is more than enuff to handle any future games plus id rather just by a new 9000gts later than get another 8800 :P

[Sirkwa]

When purchasing from newegg, would you recommend any extended warranties? Do you think the manufactures warranty are good enough?