Well, it's that time again...

[Deckard_BR]

It's been a few years since I built my first from-scratch system, and, since I always come here for advice, I figured: why stop now?

So, I think I've settled on the parts I want, but I want to make sure I'm not overbuying or creating any bottlenecks. Here's how it's shaping up:

GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3R LGA 775 mobo
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128050

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4 GHz
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115017

2GB of Kingston DDR2-800 PC2-6400 RAM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820134117

Antec Sonata III Case w/500W PSU
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811129024

eVGA GeForce 8800GTS 320MB PCIe Video Card (588 MHz Bus)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130040

Creative X-Fi Extreme Gamer Fatal1ty Professional Series Sound Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16829102005

I am hoping to carry over the optical drive and HDD from the old system. I'm reasonably sure the HDDs have SATA hookups, but the DVD drive is an IDE. And I'm sticking with Windows XP for the usual reasons.

Any obvious problems I'm missing?

Btw, as you've probably guessed, the system is going to be used at least in part for gaming, so framerates and video quality are two big concerns (*cough*Bioshock*cough*). I also want a certain amount of future-proofing. I don't plan to be multitasking a very great deal, however, although my AV does tend to throw down at really inconvenient times, and things chug along for a bit.

[Cricket]

Switch the Kingston RAM to Corsair or Crucial...Kingston has been having quality control issues and people have been having problems with their RAM.

You may want to replace the IDE optical with a SATA one...the latest Intel chipsets don't have native support for IDE anymore so the motherboards use a third party IDE controller and sometimes those controllers have stability issues. Best to just use all SATA drives in a new build.

Cricket

[Deckard_BR]

There's some Corsair TwinX DDR2-800 PC2-6400 RAM on special this week at Micro Center. I figured that was a good alternative. However, this particular model number isn't on the Gigabyte Qualified Vendors List. Should I avoid it?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145177

Or, on the other hand, I could just go nuts and pick up some 1066 MHz RAM that is on the QVL:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145043

[flanzig1]

The XMS you linked is CAS4 and the Intel chipsets tend to work better with the CAS5 versions of ram.

[Deckard_BR]

So, this instead?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145175

[doubledragon5]

Those should work...

[Katreat]

Everything looks compatible, if you are looking to save a bit of cash I might suggest you try on-board sound first and then add the sound card if you are not satisfied. The on-board sound on new MB is very good and sound cards are easy to add if you deside you need it.

I second the comment to go SATA if it fits in your budget. I know a person who used an older IDE burner on his new P35 MB (P5K) and he had no problems so I am guessing it should work.

Finally, I have not read anyting on power usage for the quadcore CPUs so you might run a power check to be sure 500w is enough. I tend to always leave a lot of headroom when I build so it just looks a bit small to me but let the experts chip in.

Kat

[Deckard_BR]

A quick followup. The above system with the new SATA DVD Writer and Corsair DDR2 800 RAM works just fine with no apparent PSU issues. Only remaining issue is purely a software one (32-bit OS caps memory recognition at 3.25 GB, and I've got 4 in there now), which is low-priority. I suppose if I ever get nervous about power usage, I could slap a 600W+ in there.

[Katreat]

You will have to go for a 64 bit OS to see more than the 3.2 of ram. I think you said you stayed with XP so when you upgrade to Vista you can give the 64 bit OS a try. I would not recommend going to XP64, it was never supported well and from all that I have read is much more buggy than Vista 64.

Kat