compatible parts? new pc

[PVSurfrdude88]

Hey guys, new to this forum was just checking it out, looks like a lot of active people helping each other out, which is great, anyway I will stop my rambling. I am about to order all new parts from newegg and build a computer. I have done this once before but it was a shuttle so it was an extremely easy process. I think I can handle building a PC myself with no problems, but I have not been keep up to date with all the new stuff thats out. I just want to make sure this is a great setup as well as everything is compatible. If you have any recommendations I would love to hear them!

Case:
Thermaltake Armor Series VA8000BWS Black Aluminum / Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811133154

hardrive [ I want to hard drives, one that the OS boots from and another for storage use, but I will still use both for storage, will just fillup the second hard drive first, I do not understand the Master - master or master - slave? anyhow ] :
Western Digital Raptor X WD1500AHFD 150GB 10,000 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive - OEM

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136011

hard drive #2:
Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136073

video card:
EVGA 768-P2-N831-AR GeForce 8800GTX Superclocked 768MB 384-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130072

ram [ getting 4 gigs ] x4
CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TWIN2X2048-6400C4 - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145034

mobo [ do not think is SLI compatible only problem]:
GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS4 Rev. 2.0 LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128064

processor: [ not sure which to get, i can also spend some more money, any recommendations]
Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 Conroe 3.0GHz LGA 775 Processor Model BX80557E6850 - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115028

OR
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz LGA 775 Processor Model BX80562Q6600 - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115017

heatsink for cpu [do i really need one if this case has that many fans, I do want to do some overclocking]:
Tuniq Tower 120 P4 & K8 CPU Cooler - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835154001

power supply:
Thermaltake toughpower W0117RU ATX12V / EPS12V 750W Power Supply 100 - 240 V CE, CB, TUV, FCC, UL, CUL, and BSMI certified - Retailhttp://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153036

CD rom:
SAMSUNG 20X DVD±R DVD Burner Black SATA Model SH-S203B - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827151153

floppy drive:
NEC Black 1.44MB 3.5" Internal Floppy Drive Model FD1231H-302 - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16821152005


monitor: [ i used a CRT atm, running at 100 hertz with every game i play, i cannot stand anything below 100hertz because it starts to hurt my eyes and does not look smooth, can LCDS do this or ??? ]
SAMSUNG 226BW Black 22" 2 ms (GTG) DVI Widescreen LCD Monitor - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824001096


Ok guys, responses, recommendations, anything else that you might add, that would be lovely! I will be building my machine as well and in the future I will most likely need some help to make sure everything goes smoothly. I do not really know what SLI is, but from what I have, I think I would want everything to be "SLI ready" or whatever. I think that motherboard is not going to suffice, the ram might be lacking as well. So please tell me what I should get so everything is compatible! I am making this also so in 2 years I can upgrade everything, CPU, Video Card, Ram, I want to make sure I will be able to keep upgrading this for years to come, if I cannot please tell me! Thanks a bunch!

[PVSurfrdude88]

one more quick thing, I want to make sure if I will be getting a different mobo, that it has a lot of room to work with. I like having a lot of usb ports. Also this case is huge from what I know.

[Dark Nova]

1) you know you can buy a USB hub that can connect alot more usb ports, I never use the USB in the back except for keyboard and mouse.
2) Also why spending money on a floppy, almost all mobos boot from USB nowadays, spend your money elsewhere
3) Raptor is faster, but you wont wee much diffrence between the your 2 drives. I would suggest to go with another 500GB, so you get even more storage and for cheaper
4) Are you going sli, thats alot of wattage on a powersupply, garanty youll never use that much.

[PVSurfrdude88]

Well, last time I put together a computer a floppy was needed, but now a days i am not completely sure. As for SLI, I honestly do not know what it is, but if its the future and thats what everything is going to be, I hope to be able to become SLI with upgrades or just use SLI. I honestly dont know what it is, I have to do some researching. From what I was also researching, people said they could tell a little difference between one another.

[Ahura]

SLi is just basically turning 2 identical cards into one w/ double the specs ja.

Someone will tell yu to get Cas 5 ram for Intel. Meybe a GT instead of GTX, better price-to-performance ratio I guess.

Off topic, anyone know how much do yu actually get from "500Gig" ?

[mwhaha]

Firstly, Get a ASUS p5k mobo. I think they are better than Gigabyte.
Get the Q6660 processor, and a retail processor does not need a heatsink as it comes with it.
Samsung Optical Drives are unreliable go with lite-on
Scrap the floppy, they hold practically nothing and a usb holds like 100x more.
That graphics card is the best out atm, but you may want to consider getting a 512mb x1950 PRO(£80 in england so $160 I reckon) until nvidia 9 series come out.

I think you get about 463.66 or so.. I think 7% is taken up.Its like 1 gb on your harddrive is actually 1.33736283 etc on Windows. The harddrive manufactors use 1gb exactly for simplicity.
SLI is a waste of time, It does not give you 100% increase in performance, its like 20-30%. You will know if your stuff is compatable as it will usually say SLI-Ready. I would spend 100 quid on a good sound card rather than that much on a second graphics card.

I am not too familiar with master on hdd, but I think that the master harddrive has more potential, can anyone confirm exactly what it does?

[Dark Nova]

Originally Posted by mwhaha Firstly, Get a ASUS p5k mobo. I think they are better than Gigabyte. Get the Q6660 processor, and a retail processor does not need a heatsink as it comes with it. Samsung Optical Drives are unreliable go with lite-on Scrap the floppy, they hold practically nothing and a usb holds like 100x more. That graphics card is the best out atm, but you may want to consider getting a 512mb x1950 PRO(£80 in england so $160 I reckon) until nvidia 9 series come out. I think you get about 463.66 or so.. I think 7% is taken up.Its like 1 gb on your harddrive is actually 1.33736283 etc on Windows. The harddrive manufactors use 1gb exactly for simplicity. SLI is a waste of time, It does not give you 100% increase in performance, its like 20-30%. You will know if your stuff is compatable as it will usually say SLI-Ready. I would spend 100 quid on a good sound card rather than that much on a second graphics card. I am not too familiar with master on hdd, but I think that the master harddrive has more potential, can anyone confirm exactly what it does?

Gigabyte is a good brand, hard to get, but still a decent brand, altought I agree on that the P5k is one sick mobo. He has SATA HDDs no need to worry about master or slave configurations.

[Katreat]

Generally SLI is not recommended. History has shown that each new generation vidoe card performs better than two older generation in SLI. So you are money ahead if you just upgrade to the new generation video card more often. SLI is all abut making the best better! If you really need the speed right now then two 8800 ultras will run faster than one.

I second the recommendation to look at the Asus P5K. I have heard good things about the gigabyte also but have no experience with them. I think gigabyte is made by Asus? Anyway, I would just stick with a P35 board to take advantage of the 1333 FSB that is comming out on new CPUs

The E6850 is overpriced for the performance you gain over the E6750 so I would step down to the E6750 if you go due core. The Q6600 has gotten great reviews and is more future proof but a bit slower. When I buildt my last system I went with the E6750 figuring I would get the speed advantage and wait for the quads to drop in price a bit. The P5K can handle both so I am waiting for a 1333 FSB quad to get within my price range and will use that as my first major upgrade. At the time there were no games that took advantage of quad cores so there was little advanate to having it. I think there are some in development now though so it might be a wise investment at this time. Kind of a trade off between speed now and potential performance gains in the future. Both are very respectable gaminig CPUs and will make you happy.

I would skip the floppy and the aftermarket heat sink. The standard heatsink that comes witht he CPU will allow moderate OC'ing and maintains your warrenty on the CPU. Use of aftermarket heatsinks void the warrenty. If you get into heavy OC'ing in the future you can always add one.

I agree with others on the raptor. They are faster but not so much most people notice a difference. From personal experience they are also very noisy when the wind up. In my opinion they are not really worth the cost but that is just an opinion.

The ram is great for stock or mild OC'ing. If you plan to do heavy OC'ing then you might up the speed. However, 800 is already a step above CPU speed so you have room for moderate OC'ing with it.

Did not know they had a GTX supperclock? Is that s step below the Ultra? Anyway, the GTX is the top dog card right now so if you need the speed it is the spot to be. I would check out the new 8800 GT if cash is a little tight. It slips in between the GTX and GTS line-up and is much cheaper. If you can live with a slight dip in performance it offers alot more bang for the buck.

I have heard mixed reviews on Thermaltake PSUs. If not going SLI you can probably drop your wattage a bit down to around 550 or so. I went with the Coursair 620 and it is very nice but more than I need also, I just like headroom for futre upgrades. Thermaltake makes the good list but you dont see them recommended often.

Lite-on gets recommended for opticals over the samsung. I would trust the experts and swtich for Lite-on.

Kat

[PVSurfrdude88]

Well, I am still hesitant on the ASUS PK5 Mobos, I have been reading a lot of reviews and so far it seems like most of the mobos have trouble recognizing a lot of things, never boots up correctly the first time, and is just a pain in the ass. Therefore I am still unsure if I want that, seeing how I dont have a lot of experience putting computers together but I do have some. I am still leaning towards the GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS4 Rev. 2.0 LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128064 over the ASUS Pk5 mobo - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131182. Supposedly the Gigabyte almost always boots up the first time correctly and recognizes everything with no problems. The Asus mobo, if you get a big graphics card, it does not fit that well covering a few things, while the Gigabyte does not. The only problem with the gigabyte is that the OCing can be a pain? People have said that you have to somehow guess and that it is trial and error, I guess I might have problems with this. As for the Lite On I got LITE-ON 20X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe Black SATA Model LH-20A1L-06 - Retail http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827106072. For the processor I decided to do what you said and I went with the E6750, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115029. As for the power supply I changed to the Thermaltake toughpower 600watt, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817153033. Like I said before, I want to be able to upgrade everything, but from what it seems DDR3 is going to be the next main thing when it comes to RAM. So I was considering getting a mobo which can do just that, only problem is the DDR3 RAM at the moment is extremely overpriced. What should I do!

[Dark Nova]

If your considering going with DDR3, get the Asus P5KC supports DDR2 and DDR3

[Alaron]

Do a bit of research on DDR3. Not only is it ridiculously expensive but right now is no faster then DDR2. Build for now, stick with a DDR2 motherboard. It's not going anywhere anytime soon.

I'd stick with the Asus P5K, we recommend Asus because they are tops in quality. Newegg customer comments need to be taken with a grain of salt. You'll find a dozen complaint posts for every one positive because of squeaky wheel syndrome. And keep in mind that Asus *is* Gigabyte. They merged. Asus brand is top quality, Gigabyte is midrange and Asrock is the low end.

[PVSurfrdude88]

yes I do understand that, but the layout of the ASUS PK5 is a problem, a big graphics card will not fit exactly how it should. It covers a few parts or something like that from what I have read. I really dont want any problems when I am putting everything together as well as installing everything. If I do everything correctly I hope that a ASUS mobo would not give me problems, but even from what newegg people say, it still does. I know a lot of people are complete morons but still... Also its not worth even getting the DDR2 / DDR3? Or should I just wait till DDR3 actually starts getting good and lowers in price. Then upgrade everything? Thats the only problem I see at the moment :[, still frustrated on which mobo to buy :[. Which one is easier to OC on?

[Katreat]

DDR 3 is something for the future. The main advantage of the DDR 3 platform is the speed. DDR 3 can be buildt faster than DDR 2. But, since DDR 2 is already faster than the CPU speed DDR 3 is not going to really give you an advantage unless you are doing a serious OC on the processor. So, until they develope new processors that are way faster than they are today the advantages of DDR3 will not be relized.

Build for today. Save DDR 3 for your next build when it becomes the new standard.

I know this is just one example, but I plugged everytiing into my P5K and it booted right up. I have a 8800 GTS supperclocked card which is just a little bit shorter than an 8800 GTX and cant think of even one socket it covers up. Do those people explain what the video card is blocking?

Kat

[shadowpr]

Have to agree with Kat. I built with a P5K, and it started fine the first time. I also have an 8800gts in there, and have not had problems with fit for anything else.

[PVSurfrdude88]

Alright so I guess I will go with the pk5, even tho a lot of people say it has a lot of problems. Only dilemma is I am unsure of which ASUS mobo I should get. Which would be the best for my parts, also so I can upgrade in the future, going quad or extreme or whatever. I would maybe guess http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131182 but I am not completely sure? If someone could show me the exact mobo I should get, ASUS, which would be the best for the parts I am buying, that would be greatly appreciated. One more thing, is the ram I am buying that good, or should I go with someone else. I do want to OC this system as well.

[shadowpr]

For ram, if you want 4gb, get a 2x2gb pack from corsair.

[Katreat]

I am not into OC'ing, but from all the posts I have read the Corsair XMS is great ram for mild to moderate OC'ing. If you where thinking about really going for bench mark records then you might want to do a bit more research. If you are sure you are going to OC then you could always bump up the the next higher speed to give you a bit more room. It should step down fine if you decide not to OC the processor but would allow you more flexability if you do.

Kat

[glc]

For the money, I like the P5K-E. It's a LOT less than that deluxe board with all those frills. If you need it, get the Wifi edition.

[PVSurfrdude88]

I guess the majority of people are saying get the P5K-E or deluxe, even tho from what I have read many people have problems with it. My second dilemma is which OS should I get. I am only familiar with XP PRO, I do not know Vista whatsoever and I do not know 64. I think there are a lot of glitches in 64, some in Vista as well. But which should I use?

[glc]

XP 32 is fine. It will see 3.25 gigs of ram, I would recommend you get a 2x2 gig kit of DDR2-800.

The problems I believe relate to AHCI and the JMicron controller. If you use nothing but SATA hard and optical drives and leave the ICH controller set to IDE, there should be no issues. This is not an Asus issue, it's an Intel issue.