New computer(first time build)

[CanadienDude]

Alright well I decided I'll try and build my first computer, on sort of a budget and wanted some opinions.

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E4400
Or should I get an E6300?

Case: Coolermaster Centurion 534 ATX Tower Case

Motherboard: ASUS P5B ATX LGA775 Conroe 965P

Video Card: EVGA E-GEFORCE 8800GTS 500MHZ 320MB

Power Supply: FSP Fortron AX500-A 500W

RAM: OCZ Gold XTC PC2-6400 2GB 2X1GB DDR2-800

OS: Should I just stick with XP or go Vista?

CD/DVD Drive: Unsure

Computer will be used pretty well to play games, surf, and do a little programming. I have a monitor, speakers, keyboard, mouse. Suggestions, Comments?

[Alaron]

Looks like a great list to me.

I would go with the E6300 instead of the E4400.

You may want to bump up to the Asus P5K instead. It is a revision of the P5B with addition for some future CPUs, including the new 1333FSB chips.

I would stick with XP for now, but its up to you.

Here is my suggestion for a DVD Burner: http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...facture=Liteon

[CanadienDude]

Originally Posted by Alaron Looks like a great list to me. I would go with the E6300 instead of the E4400. You may want to bump up to the Asus P5K instead. It is a revision of the P5B with addition for some future CPUs, including the new 1333FSB chips. I would stick with XP for now, but its up to you. Here is my suggestion for a DVD Burner: http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...facture=Liteon

the E4400 is on sale and $50 cheaper than the E6300, is it worth the extra $50 - $60?

Also, do i have to worry about anything in terms of a heat sink? will one come with the mobo or processor? should i actually purchase one?

[LeftyAce]

Not sure on the differences between the CPUs. This comparison makes it look like they're about the same (it only has the 4300, so presumably the 4400 would do even better?) http://www23.tomshardware.com/cpu_20...=881&chart=425

Alaron may know something I don't (actually, he knows lots of things I don't, but specifically related to this cpu he may have more info).

Intel retail CPUs come with a heatsink which you have to use in order to preserve the 3 year warranty. They're perfectly adequate if you're not overclocking.

[Alaron]

I was thinking along the lines of future-proofing. The E6300 will give you more mileage in the months/years to come compared to an E4400.

Also, the 8800GTS you have listed leads me to believe you're looking at some high-end gaming. You wouldn't want to hold that card back with a lower-end chip.

Finally, the E4400 has the 800Mhz FSB, not the 1066Mhz FSB on the E6300.

The budget is of course all up to you. But those are some reasons why I would make the upgrade.

[CanadienDude]

in terms of the p5k, which were you speaking of specifically?

something like:

this one?

or

this?

Also that RAM, is there any other specifically, or is the ones i named fine?

[Alaron]

The second link was the one I was referring to; the 'base' P5K. You can look at the other versions if you need any extra features, but that one will be fine.

The OCZ RAM in your link is fine. That is a good price.

[CanadienDude]

Would it be worth to just save up and get the E6750 instead of say an E6300? 185 plus tax vs 229 plsu tax. I know ill need the p5k mb.

[Cricket]

If you have to stick to a budget get the E6300. If your budget is flexible, get the E6750. We can't tell you which one to get...you have to decide since it's your money.

Cricket

[CanadienDude]

i decided to expand my "budget" by just saving up for some better components, thus asking the question. I have the ram, power supply, case, and video card now. I need the MB, OS, CD Drive, and processor, of which ill hopefully get within the next month - month and a half.

[CanadienDude]

Updated List
** = purchased

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E6750

**Case: Coolermaster Centurion 534 ATX Tower Case

Motherboard: ASUS P5K ATX LGA775

**Video Card: EVGA E-GEFORCE 8800GTS 500MHZ 320MB

**Power Supply: FSP Fortron AX500-A 500W

**RAM: OCZ Gold XTC PC2-6400 2GB 2X1GB DDR2-800

OS: Still deciding between XP and Vista.

CD/DVD Drive: Liteon LH-20A1S DVD+RW 20X8X16 DVD-RW

Reading some reviews, and i keep hearing about needing to update the bios to use the 1337FBS, is that gonna be hard?
Also will this be able to run say Bioshock without much of a problem?

[CanadienDude]

Well I have just the processor to get now and decided ill just get the few extras like speakers, possibly a keyboard. What would be the best recommendations? Don't want to go over the top, moderately priced would be ok.

Also, In terms of setting up my hard drives, would it be ok to use a 40 gig IDE drive to put just applications/OS on it and then just use a larger slave drive for media/games? Would using the IDE drive slow down anything?

And finally, once i get this all set-up I'll need a wireless router to get two PC's and a console online (two wires and one needs to be wireless), I know the recommended is the Linksys WRT54GL, would the best route be to get a USB receiver? or actually get a PCI wireless card?

[Alaron]

Logitech and Klipsch make some nice speakers. Check them out.

That hard drive setup is fine. Lots of people use one drive for the OS and a large secondary for storage.

I'd go with a PCI wireless card over a USB dongle. Get a Linksys to match the router.

[Katreat]

SATA drives are better for the P5K mb because it and most newer boards do not have native IDE support. That being said I have a friend who used IDE on the P5B with no problems so it can be done. If you can swing it, get one SATA and use it for everything. If you have IDEs laying around you can always grab and external enclosure and use them for backups and stuff.

The one review I saw on the P5K said it now comes with support for the 1337FBS, perhaps early versions required a bios upgrade. The intel chips have been around for a while now and the P5K is a popular board so it is likely that you will get the newer bios and have no problems.

Kat

[CanadienDude]

If I were to get these:

Speakers(on sale for 69.99 plus tax)

Would I need to get a sound card, or would the on board still be fine?

Or is this too much and should I just get something less?

Also in terms of a HDD, im noticing some of them saying Sata2, this much of a difference then the ones listed as just sata?

[LeftyAce]

You're probably fine with onboard sound. I'm using a pair of BOSE headphones, and my ASUS onboard audio sounds just great.

Technically SATA2 is a faster interface (SATA1 = 1.5Gbps, SATA2 = 3Gbps). But some drives don't bother specifying that they're '2', because most are at this point. Double check the transfer rate to be sure. You DO want SATA2

[CanadienDude]

Alright im going to purchase to processor either today or tomorrow and just thinking about one last thing, would the Q6600 be overkill for my computer? Will it be worth th pay the extra $80 - $90 over an E6750? If it is, will the 500W PSU be handle to everything in my system?

[Katreat]

The PSU should be fine for your system. If you where going for an 8800GTX you might need a bit more but I think your fine with the 8800GTS. Quad core provides more future proofing but the E6750 is faster. They are probably both fast enough for what you plan on doing so it is really just your preference. Personally I am building with the E6750 right now because I want the performace and figure I can always upgrade to quad when games and other applications really start taking advantage of more cores.

Kat

[LeftyAce]

I'd get the 6750, since you're interested in gaming. Few games use more than 1 core right now, so faster with fewer cores is better. Dual core should keep you going for a while.

The 500W psu will be fine. Even with an 8800GTX (But if you want some headroom for a vid card upgrade down the road, you might go higher).

[Krazeee]

If you haven't purchased it already, I'd replace the Video Card with the OC'd version, it's only an extra $15 or so, but as was stated, it's your money, but the boost in performance is nice for the cost of a DVD.

EVGA GeForce 8800GTS 320MB PCI Express x16

EDIT, Just saw that you did already purchase the card. No worries, I'm sure it will work just fine for you.

[CanadienDude]

Alright well the rest of the parts are on there way and I should receive them this week, or next monday.
Just two final questions.
1 - If in the future I were to purchase another monitor, would the performance of my video card take a big hit if both monitors were running off it? would it better better to purchase an additional vid card if i went that route?
2 - If I were to try and overclock a few things would the PSU still be ok? (video card, ram, maybe processor)

And thanks for the advice everyone, I'll be sure to post how the build goes -_-

[flanzig1]

1: Good question. If your intent is to dual monitor your game play then yes, I would think that there would be some performance loss per monitor. If the second monitor would be for having the desk top showing, then probably minimum performance loss.
2: The FSP PSU is probably good for basic OC, if changing CPU voltages then may see some PSU limits and more likely heat problems on the CPU.

[LeftyAce]

Most people with a dual monitor setup still use only 1 monitor for gaming (Having a big set of bars in the middle of the screen is seen as a disadvantage in games, for some reason :-)

As flanzig said, if only 1 monitor is gaming, you won't notice a performance hit.

[Katreat]

Originally Posted by LeftyAce Most people with a dual monitor setup still use only 1 monitor for gaming (Having a big set of bars in the middle of the screen is seen as a disadvantage in games, for some reason :-) As flanzig said, if only 1 monitor is gaming, you won't notice a performance hit.

I love the way you said that I have often thought about a second monitor just so I could have the desk top up while gaming but never considered actually splitting the gaming screen. Those frame bars would be a distraction.........

And I agree with Lefty about performance. I have lots of friends that run duel monitors to keep their desktop up and there does not appear to be any notable performance hit. Perhaps if they where watching a dvd or something that really required the video card to work over time it would be different, but for a little internet browsing or checking e-mail you should not even notice.

Kat

[CanadienDude]

Thanks for the advice, and yeah thats what i meant by dual monitors (1 for gaming, other for browsing, e-mail, ect ect). Would XP still be recommended at this point over Vista? as i'm looking through threads it seems to be recommended more and more.

[shadowpr]

i think what it comes down to now is personal preferance.

with xp, you know what you're getting. it's been out a while and proven to be very stable, and has a lot of updates made to it already.

vista is newer, but it seems to be quiite stable as well, just takes some time to get used to the differences. a few minor bugs will probably be worked out in sp1, but there basic updates seem to be good too.

so it really comes down to preference as it seems like most drivers are out for vista, and most software compatible....as far as i can tell.