Second Rig, mostly for gaming

[Escal]

I built my first rig with recommendations off these boards, and it has lasted me 4 years with very little upgrading (thanks), so here I go again.

I am going to build a new system and pawn off the old system on my wife and kids for a browsing/word processing, etc system. I am going to keep using my 2x Dell 2001FP and my Logitech MX518 mouse. Everything else goes with the old system. I will also be setting up a small wired home network to share my internet connection. I do not plan on overclocking this system.

This system is primarily to be used for Gaming in one form or another. I also have some databases that have tax information stored in them, so I want to use RAID 1 for reliability. This thing needs to last for a while since I am an old guy now with young kids and can't upgrade all that often anymore.

Any thoughts apprecaited:

Case: Antech 900 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811129021 I have been very happy with my Antech lanboy case, so I don't see a reason to change. It comes with 3 fans, would I need more cooling?


PSU: Corsair 550vx http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139004 The 12V rail is rated at 41 amps, and my chosen video card says it needs 26. Anyting else I should be looking at?

MOBO: ASUS P5K-E/WIFI-AP LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131196
It seems that I can run RAID 1 with this board. Anyone have experience or pro or con information? Memory speed is DDR2 1066 according to specs. Is DDR2 800 RAM appropriate or should I go with a different speed? I admit how the DDR speed compares to other speeds confuses me.

CPU Intel E6750 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115029
I thought about going to a quad core lower speed processor for about the same money, but it seems the consensus around here is that for now at least, most if not all games do better with 2 cores running at a higher speed. This may be a spot for an upgrade later as costs come down. The 6850 is nice, but from the benchmarks I see, it does not appear to be a huge upgrade for about $100 more.

RAM: Corsair XMS2 2x2GB http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145176
What is the difference b/t XMS and non XMS memory from corsair? Do I need to check voltage against something here? 2x2 GB gives me an easy way to upgrade later if needed.

HDD (RAID 1)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 250 GB 16 MB Cache. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148262 I use 60 GB on my current drive now , so this gives me some future proofing if needed.

Optical: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827106057

SATA Cable:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16812106201 Mobo comes with 2 and I need 3

Video: EVGA Geforce 8800 GTS 640 MB There are 4 or 5 of these EVGA cards built on this chipset and amount of memory. Any suggestions on how to split them out? This is the one I am leaning toward, but suggestions on how to differentiate these cards would be appreciated.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130071 I went with this one because it had a lot more reviews at newegg.

Keyboard: G15 by Logitech. Price has come down to where I can weaselly justify it.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16823126179

Mouse for wife's computer:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16826105048
She doesn't use any features but the standard two buttons.

Monitor: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824001096 This is to hook to the old system for my wife to use. I am going to use my good old 2001FP's from Dell.

Router D-Link EBR-2310 This seemed to get good reviews, thoughts? I mainly want a hardware firewall and a way to split my internet connection. I have DSL.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833127091

Ethernet cable: 2x Belkin a3l791 CAt5e cable Run from my router to each box

OS: Vista Home Premium. I have heard a lot of back and forth over this and in the end, I decided not to go with the 64 bit version. OTOH, I did want to be able to use DX 10

This total's up to be about 1900 before rebates, and about 1775 after rebates, right at where I told my wife it would be, so I am happy.

Anthing I have left out or that needs to be changed?

Thanks,

Scott

[RazR]

build looks good..
for the GPU, i would push for the 8800GT
the benchmarks that i have seen show that it outperforms the 320 and 640 880GTS's
and comes close to the GTX
and considering the price of the 88GT, i wouldn't be too bad of a pick up

Edit:
unless you plan on going with 4gbs of ram, you won't see all of it in a 32-bit OS

[Jimmy0]

You are perfectly fine to run DDR2 800MHz RAM in the P5K.

[shadowpr]

Could save some money with this ram: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145184

Would also go with the 8800gt.

And would just dive into vista 64. I works good for me, but you might want to make sure your programs that you currently use will work too.

[wildfire]

I third on getting a eVGA 8800GT, it outperforms the 8800GTS and the 8800GT is cheaper. The 8800GT is very close to the GTX for a fraction of its price. 2x2GB ram is pretty expensive, you could get like 4x1gb ram for about $120 but if you want the room to upgrade, stick with 2x2gb ram.

[Escal]

I am liking what I see about the 8800GT, but it appears to be pci express 2.0, does that mean I need to look for something special on my mobo to make sure it's comatible?

Thanks,

Scott

[RazR]

i'm assuming that pci express 2.0 is just the new version of pci express..
so it should be compatible with pci express 1.0
that would have been a very dumb move on their part if it was not compatible with the orginial pci express

[Devastator]

The Lite-On Optical you chose is Retail meaning you get a SATA cable with it. You also get Nero too, so good choice.

[EM199Si]

I am gonna say go for the EVGA 8800GT as well.

[Escal]

Here are the adjustments so far...

1. Raid 1 is out. A poster on the MOBO forum convinced me that raid 1 is not as good of a solution as an external drive for backup and regular backups. I can either cut 1 HD out of the build or go to raid 0 to try to get a performance increase. Suggestions?

2. I am sticking with the same MOBO for now, the new x38 northbridge and pci express 2.0 is tempting but on the video forum posters suggest there isn't a lot of difference in performance for a single video card b/t pci 1.1 vs. 2.0. The review on Tom's hardware seems to back this up, although I may be misreading it.

3. I am on board with the 8800 GT (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130302) Looks like a deal to me at $310.

4. I am now leaning towards vista x64 as my OS. I hope I am not buying the new version of windows ME, but it's a chance I have to take. If I go to vista x64, does this change any hardware requirements? The main software I use (World of Warcraft, Pokerstars, Pokertracker, Pokerace HUD, and Word) don't seem to have huge conflicts with vista in the x64 flavor. Only bad part is that newegg doesn't currently carry vista x64 home premium OEM.

5. I am going to stick with 2x2 GB for memory for now. 4x1 gb makes it expensive later to add significant ram and at some point I can probably spring for a couple more sticks and get a better bang for the buck. Is the only difference b/t what I had listed and what shadowpr showed heat management? If I am not overclocking, can I get by with the cheaper ram?


Thanks for the help, the responses have been extremely valuable.

Scott

[bd1886]

One thing too... Newegg has an incredible deal on some Crucial 2gig kit memory. Highly overclockable and the rating looks like the "real deal". ($65.00 after rebates. Can't believe the prices on quality memory these days.) Item#:N82E1682014814

Edit: Can't seem to get my links to work? Sorry

[shadowpr]

Originally Posted by Escal Only bad part is that newegg doesn't currently carry vista x64 home premium OEM.

I bought mine from mwave.com They should have it there.

And either memory will probably be good. Could check corsair.com and see what they have tested with that MB if you like.