First build - any suggestions?

[mattfred]

I think I'm going to try for the Q6700, but I'm not even sure if its going to drop in price.


ASUS Black 18X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 18X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 14X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA DVD Burner with LightScribe - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827135146

COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 CAC-T05-UW Black Aluminum Bezel, SECC ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811119068

Western Digital Raptor WD1500ADFD 150GB 10,000 RPM 16MB Cache Serial ATA150 Hard Drive - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136012

2X SAMSUNG SpinPoint T Series HD403LJ 400GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822152085
(Should I put these in RAID?)

SCEPTRE X20WG-Naga Black 20.1" 5ms (GTG) DVI Widescreen LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 1000:1 Built in Speakers - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824112006

EVGA 640-P2-N821-AR GeForce 8800GTS 640MB 320-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Video Card - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130071

OCZ Technology, Inc. News Room
OCZ GameXStream OCZ700GXSSLI ATX12V 700W Power Supply 100 - 240 V - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817341002

2X G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231098

MSI P6N SLI Platinum LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813130081


I'm concerned about the PSU and the mobo. I originally went with an ASUS P5N-E 650i, but after looking through the customer reviews this seemed like a better choice. There seemed to be a lot of heat complaints as well as memory compatibility issues.

Thanks a lot for your critiques.

[jer888]

Optical Drive- Stick with Lite-on opticals

Case- No comment

Hard Drives- The Raptors only give you minimal improvements at a big cost. Go with the Seagate 700.10 line of hard drives. They come with a 5 year warranty, and like I said, are only marginally slower then the Raptor.

Moniter- No comment

Video Card- Good, with the money you can save on the hard drives, you could get a GTX.

Power Supply- Check out the Corsair HX520 and HX620.

RAM- Unless you are overclocking, go with Corsair Value Select 667mhz RAM. You won't see any performance increase with 800mhz RAM.

Motherboard- Go with something from Asus, particularly the P5K line.

[mattfred]

All of the Lite-On SATA optical drives seemed to get pretty poor reviews. I had originally had one selected, but was advised against it.

Everyone else has told me that raptors really are worth it. I would like to hear more about them from someone who disagrees.

I switched to this monitor: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824112009

I also heard that the GTX wouldn't have any improvement over the GTS unless I was running at much higher resolutions? I don't recall where I heard this, but I have been wondering if it is worth the extra money.

Even if the performance increase is slight, since the price is so close wouldn't it be worth getting the 800 mhz ram?

I was looking at an Asus board for a long time particularly: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131142

After reading through all the reviews I became concerned about the numerous temperature complaints. Several people recommended that board I listed above instead. I don't really know anything about mobos so I don't really know which to choose. Its my first build so I like the Asus because a lot of people said it is durable, but I also plan to keep this computer for a long time(4+years?) so I want it to last longer and as far as I know cooler temperatures will help that.

Thanks for all your comments I'm looking into all those suggestions. Anything else would be appreciated.

[Jimmy0]

Take the reviews at Newegg with a pinch of salt, most of them are made by people who don't really know what they are talking about.

You cannot go wrong with a Lite-On optical drive, they are very reliable and I would strongly suggest that you get one.