Advice on new build

[jliles01]

Hi all
I'm looking for advice on my new build. I'm re-using some components from my current system. I can get $110 in rebates between 4 of the 6 new components if I order by 30 Oct.
The new parts I've chosen at this point are:

Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 retail
http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16819115029

Abit IP35 Pro motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16813127030

XFX 8800GTS 320mb
http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16814150251

Silverstone Decathlon DA650 650w PSU
http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16817256021

Corsair XMS2 TWIN2X2048-6400C4 memory
http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16820145034

Lite-On LH-20A1L-06 SATA CD/DVD burner
http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16827106072

I will be re-using:
3 74GB WD Raptors SATA 1.5Gb/s drives (currently 2 in RAID 0, 1 stand alone)
2 250GB Samsung SP2504C SATA 3.0Gb/s drives (currently in RAID 1)
Creative Sound Blaster X-FI Platinum sound card
Samsung 906BW 19" Widescreen LCD monitor (native 1440 X 900 res.)
Silverstone TJ06 case

Primarily gaming (FPS games-COD series, FEAR, Bioshock, upcoming Crysis, etc). Occasional CD burn & rarely DVD burn. General use (Internet, financial, etc.)

I will probably set up dual boot with XP Pro & Vista home basic,both 32 bit. I own both but not using Vista at the moment. I'm not sure if I'll set up the RAID 0 array again, but will probably set up the RAID 1 for documents, music, pictures, etc. I may do some minor overclocking, but not chasing benchmarks. I'm hoping to get decent upgraded performance over my current setup and be able to grow a little more for a couple of years.

I know ABIT doesn't seem to be at the top of anyone's list for gaming computers, but this motherboard had quite a few good reviews @ Newegg.

The XFX 8800GTS card is pre-overclocked quite extensively. The 3-4 reviews I read had it on par with the GTX versions @ lower resolutions. And I have heard/read about the 8800GT coming out. A couple of reviews of this card are at:
http://www.guru3d.com/article/Videocards/465/
http://www.elitebastards.com/cms/ind...=479&Itemid=27

I may move up to a 22" LCD in a few months, if Santa's good to me. That would put me in the 1600 X 1200 range of resolutions. But that would be the largest I'd go due to desk space.

This will be my 4th or 5th build, so not a newbie to the construction part, but all my other builds have been AMD. I read one review on Newegg about Intel Core 2 Duo and the guy was saying you HAD to have a 64Bit OS. Are there any problems with 32bit OS's and/or apps on the Core 2 Duo processors? I tend to take a lot of the reviews on Newegg with a grain of salt, but I do look at the trends in those reviews for the products. However, that one comment has me a little wary.

Any advice/critique would be appreciated.

[flanzig1]

Would go with the CAS5 ram, it works better with Intel chipsets.
For the PSU, this is probably a better PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139002
XFX and their preOCed video cards can be great out of the box or a real pain. EVGA are the top Nvidia cards makers at this time.

[jliles01]

Thanks for the info, flanzig1
After looking at the memory issue, I am now a little confused.

I googled Abit, went to the page for that motherboard, and it says it supports DDR2 800/667.
http://www.uabit.com/index.php?optio...ge=2&model=381

Using the "Manufacturer Product Page" link at Newegg took me here:
http://www2.abit.com.tw/page/en/moth...AME=IP35%20Pro
and this page says it also supports DDR2 1066. So I'm a little befuddled.

If it does in fact support DDR2 1066, should I go that route? I'm new to the DDR2 era. And thanks for the CAS5 suggestion. I've had Corsair for quite awhile, and always been happy.

I'm now looking at these memory options:
TWIN2X2048-6400
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145590
TWIN2X2048-8500C5
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145590

I'm definitely interested in the PSU you recommended. One thing I'm looking at is cable length. The case I have is big, and the MB is inverted.

I'll look at the EVGA cards. I've never dealt with EVGA or XFX.

Once again, Thanks.

[perkster]

DDR2 800 is one step faster than 1:1 for your processor, so no need to go higher than that unless doing some serious overclocking.

the corsair 620W HX modular power supply is excellent cable length wont be a problem.

EVGA make the prototypes for NVIDIA so definitely the best brand in GPUs

for ram, go for corsair, 2GB, DDR2 800mhz XMS CAS5.

in terms of the comment on new egg, core 2 duos and quads work fine on 32 bit OS's so no idea what they guy is saying, like most reviews on newegg..

[Katreat]

List looks good to me. I used a Abit on my last rig and it is still up and running. I went with the Asus P5K on my current build. I have read some reviews and the Abit P35 board has been getting good ratings. Only bad thing I remember is the Abit manual for my last build sucked, Asus does a much better job explaining things and provides better schematics. I would suggest you take a look at the P5K as an alternative but that is mainly because I found it very easy to set up and Asus is known for very high quality boards.

Ram speed is not that important unless you are OC’ing. Before the new 1333 FSB CPUs you could get away with 667 without noticing a difference. Now they are recommending 800 to stay a little ahead of the CPU speed. Going faster will only help if you get into heavy OC’ing.

I am using a 8800 GTS 320 on a 22in widescreen and running everything I play at high setting without a hitch. From the reviews I have read the 640 will help on bigger monitors with higher resolutions but I think they are talking about really big like the 30 inchers. Your system will handle a 22 in widescreen just fine.

I went with Vista and am pretty happy. I had heard that most bugs had been fixed and have not had any problems yet. I just wanted to avoid a duel boot set up so I took the plunge and so far it is working out. I am running Vista 32 Home Premium so don’t think you should have a problem. The poster at Newegg might have been trying to get it to recognize more than 3.2 gigs of ram in which case you will need a 64 bit OS.

Kat

[jliles01]

Thanks for the replies.

I believe I will stick with the 800 ram, I don't plan on doing much, if any, overclocking.

I have found some posts in other forums about an issue a small minority of people are having with the IP-35 boards and Corsair 520HX and 620HX PSU's. Apparently they don't want to POST sometimes. I think it also involved some Seagate PSU's. Corsair, Abit, and Seagate are aware and working on it. But it is a small number of people having the problem, from what I understand. I think I'll still go with the Corsair PSU.

However, after some of the reviews I've read in the last 24 hours, that 8800GT is looking very good! I'm probably going to change to it, even if I have to wait a little longer.

I've had 3 ASUS boards and was happy with them all, am still using 2 of them. But there are some features on the ABIT board I'm interested in. From what I got out of the reviews, there's not much performance difference in the ABIT and ASUS boards. One reviewer did point out that on the IP-35 Pro the LAN was on the PCI bus instead of on the PCIe bus and was 20-40% slower. I'm wondering if I'll be able to tell a difference. I'm pretty sure the LAN on my current board is PCI.

Actually, I've had 4 ASUS boards. On my last build, within 2 days of receiving my ASUS A8R-MVP motherboard, they released the A8R32-MVP. I ordered it and never even used the A8R-MVP. It's still in the box it came in. My plan was to get another X1900XT and try Crossfire. Of course, that never happened. I have no doubt that whatever I buy now will be almost obsolete in a matter of months, if not weeks. Nature of the game. No matter what you get, it's only "top-of-the-line" when you place the order.

Once again, thanks for the info and advice.

[whubbard]

Asus makes great boards.
Now if the 100 MB/S lan is, lets say, 30% slower, that would be bad. But I think it might mean it can't handle up to 100 MB/S, and only goes up to 70 MB/S which you wouldn't notice.

[jliles01]

I just placed the order with Newegg. I went with:

Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 retail
Abit IP35 Pro motherboard
Corsair TWIN2X2048-6400 RAM
Corsair 620HX PSU
EVGA 512-P3-N802-A1 8800GT
Lite-On LH-20A1L-06 SATA CD/DVD burner

All in stock. 3 day shipping. No payments for 6 mos.
Life is goodhttp://forum.pcmech.com/images/smilies/smile.gif


Thanks to all for info & advice.