First Time Build Rocks

[Doom]

After two months of reading, researching, price comparing and asking PCMech a ton of questions, I finally completed my first build. I have a Micro Center nearby and was able to get all the parts I wanted there at or below Newegg prices... plus savings in shipping. I built the system today and was fortunate enough to have it boot up on the first go. I've officially traded in my 2002 Gateway relic for...

- Antec 900 Case
- Intel Q9300 2.5GHz Quad Core
- 4GB Corsair DDR2 800MHz RAM (2x 2GB)
- Cooler Master CPU Cooling
- EVGA 780i nVidia SLI Motherboard
- Pioneer DVD+/- SATA w/ Litescribe
- Western Digital Caviar 500GB 7200RPM Hard Drive
- EVGA 9600GT 512MB nVidia GPU
- Corsair 750W PSU
- Microsoft Curve Keyboard
- Logitech Professional Mouse

We'll see if I have any problems over the first couple of months, but my understanding is that getting the initial post is 90% of the challenge. As a comparison, my old system ran F.E.A.R. at about 30FPS on the lowest settings. My rig today had all settings on maximum and averaged 167FPS with a 280 max!!! Boo-yah. The only trouble I had (other than going very very slow to make sure I didn't mess anything up) was with wiring. Maybe I should have gone for a full tower... but it feels like this thing is packed w/ wires, and if it weren't for the plethora of fans in the Antec 900, I'd probably be having lots of airflow problems. I think I'll have to re-attack that in a few months should I add a second 9600GT for SLI.

Thanks a ton to everybody on PC Mech... but especially to shadowpr, Katreat and Alaron. You guys have been a huge help. It would have cost me $4000+ to get a similar system from Alienware or any other dealer... but the total price (including tax and two games) was only just over $1600.

[Kov-Ice]

Congrats, Doom. Unfortunately, now you're addicted...

Your last paragraph should find it's way into a PCMech advertisement somewhere!

[shadowpr]

Glad you got it up and running and are enjoying it.

Those are some impressive fps on FEAR. I think I need to upgrade soon.

[Katreat]

Congrats. I agree with you that wiring is a bit of a challenge in the 900 case. If you decide to clean it up a bit, you can buy these little sticky squares with a little hook on them at radio shack, I assume other places also. I found they made things a lot easier than just zip ties. I located them around the MB and such to keep the wires in place, not just bundled. Wish I could give a better name, but they where easy to work with, just peal off the back, push them in place, and lock your wiring down.

Kat

[shadowpr]

I had a wire management problem. Here is my fix: http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?t=186240