Reserarching for Feb/March purchase

[Klutz_atlantis]

I've been pokeing around looking at buying a new pc in Feb or possibly March. This is what I've come up with:


NZXT Zero Black/Silver Aluminum ATX Full Tower Computer Case - Retail

ASUS P5K-E LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail

BFG Tech BFGR88768GTXOCE GeForce 8800GTX 768MB 384-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail

CORSAIR CMPSU-520HX ATX12V v2.2 and EPS12V 2.91 520W Power Supply - Retail

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz LGA 775 Quad-Core Processor Model BX80562Q6600 - Retail

CORSAIR XMS2 4GB(2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TWIN2X4096-6400C5DHX - Retail

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3320620AS (Perpendicular Recording Technology) 320GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

LITE-ON 20X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe Black SATA Model LH-20A1L-05 - OEM

ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro 92mm CPU Cooler - Retail

I'm looking for a nice machine to play games (WoW, NWN2, Supreme Commander, etc), do work on (spreadsheets, graphics, codeing), and what ever my college course work decides to through at me. As you can see I have about a $1400-1500 budget, and I do not need anything else -- just the tower.

The biggest questions pressing my thoughts right now: Is the PSU going to be enough for this system? Will I have enough overall cooling with the case I've selected?

Any thoughts, tips, or hints would be much appreciated.


Klutz

[mwhaha]

You've made good choices, however I would go with the 620w corsair psu to be sure.

Also, unless your overclocking there is no need to get a CPU cooler. What OS you going with? xp or Vista? 32 bit or 64? If 64 bit I would recommend 4 gb ram

[shadowpr]

Good part selection.

Only suggestions I have is that you look at the retail version of the lite-on dvd burner.

And like has been said, unless you plan on overclocking, you don't need a cpu cooler. The stock one that comes with the retail processor is good enough.

[Katreat]

Agree with the rest, build looks good. If you stay with the 8800 GTX I would probably suggest going for the Corsair 620 also, just to give you a bit of head room. Couple of suggestions.

Get lite on retail, you get Nero for like $2 and it is the full copy, very nice software.

Look at price break on the GTX. If is definately the top card out there, but performance wise you are paying alot of cash for that last little increase in speed. I think the 8800 GT and GTS (the new G92 versions) have a lot more "Bang for the Buck". Check out this compairson for price/performance

http://www.tomshardware.com/2008/01/...ming_graphics/

Xp and Vista 32 will only recognize like 3.2 gigs of ram so if you want to utilize all 4 gigs you will need Vista 64. This is a bit problomatic because Vista 64, from all that I have read, will actually work a little slower because it has to convert most programs, which are 32 bit, to 64 bit as part of the process. There is also a bit of lag in support for 64 bit because it is not yet mainstream. So, it is kind of trade off you should be aware of. Reality is that most programs will run with 2 gigs just fine so have 3.2 is plenty and you can stick with 32 bit if you dont mind having a bit of extra ram just ideling in your computer.

Agree with other on aftermarket heatsink. Using it will void your warranty and with the new CPUs that run cooler there is generally no need for one unless you are OCing.

Finally, I think Intel is about the bring out there faster quads, 1333 FSB, so if you are not building for a month or so you might keep your eye on what pricing changes are going to happen with the new introduction.

Kat

[Klutz_atlantis]

Thanks for all the information

I've since gotten rid of the aftermarket cooler and switched out the PSU and the DVD burner to the ones below.

LITE-ON 20X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe Black SATA Model LH-20A1L-06 - Retail

CORSAIR CMPSU-620HX ATX12V v2.2 and EPS12V 2.91 620W Power Supply - Retail


Is there a major difference as far as performance between the P5K and the P5K-E?

thanks again,


Klutz

[shadowpr]

http://usa.asus.com/products_compare...1637,1866&l1=3