Advice on New Build

[wz2p7j]

Hi everyone,

Been reading this board for a long time and have learned a lot but this is my first post. I've read the great advice given to others posting here regarding their new builds and am looking forward to tapping into the knowledge here. Here's the skinny on my build:

It will be used for a lot of multitasking. I often have stuff like Excel, Quickbooks, Photoshop all opened at the same time. It will be used for graphics like pictures and media using Photoshop and other programs. And a lot of web surfing. I'm kinda impatient and am looking for fast boot ups and program launches. I'm not a gamer and this unit will likely not be overclocked.

Here are some of the components I am looking at:

MOBO and cpu:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...277&CatId=1599

Fan:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...299&CatId=1588

Drive:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148309

And then there is some stuff I'm getting thru Circuit city just because I have several hundred dollars worth of bankard points to burn there. The prices are higher but, using the points, it's essentially free. Here goes:

Case:

Antec 900

Power supply - budget $50-100 - need enough watts for the unit as built - not worried about upgrading at this point.:

Thinking of the Antec Basiq 500 W

http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Antec...oductDetail.do

Some other Antec PS's on CC:

http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Power...ategorylist.do

Thermaltake PS's on CC:

http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Power...ategorylist.do

Video card - undecided - budget $100-150:

http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Video...ategorylist.do

Optical drive - this is the only thing that looked decent I could find at CC:

http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/HP-In...oductDetail.do

Memory - 4G DDR2 880 MHz- brand undecided - read here that Corsair is good (but CC wants a fortune for it.)
4 GB memory at CC:

http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/PC-me...ategorylist.do

Thanks in advance for any comments:

Chris

[Lucky23]

First of all i would advise you to buy MOST/ALL of your parts off newegg do to the fact that normally Tigerdirect is usually more expensive.

I also would not buy a graphics card or other parts from circuit city or BB and such. The graphics cards at those stores are over priced, can be outdated, and they usually have a small selection compared to what is on newegg.

[wz2p7j]

Lucky,

Thanks for the comments but please re-read my post. The Circuit city stuff is essentially free as I have a bunch of CC gift cards to burn. I know Newegg is cheaper I know it has more selection but the budget for this project won't pass muster with the wife unless I use those cards. Plus not all the stuff at CC is that bad. I was shocked to see they carried the Antec 900 case I want.

Chris

[Lucky23]

Sorry about that i missed that part.

Everything looks good. As for the Graphics card i personally dont recomend anything lower then the 8800GS. Circuit city has alot of 8600gt's and GTS but the 8800gs will outperform those. The 9600gt is even better along with the 8800gt, 3850 and 3870

I would also recomend this power supply or better to make sure you have enough power.

http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Antec...oductDetail.do

I would also just make sure the Burner is SATA cuz i missed that in the discription if its listed.

Besides that it looks good. But for the processor and motherboard i would just check newegg to see what prices they have on that same setup.

Also i looks like the OCZ ram runs at 2.1v and some motherboards have the RAM set at 1.8v by default. I would look in to this and see what setting for volts the motherboard has by default. Reason being if the motherboard is set by default to 1.8v and you put ram in that runs at 2.1v it might not post. Which would me you would have to put 1.8v ram in to get it to post then go into the setting and change the 1.8v to 2.1v and then take out the 1.8v ram and install the OCZ

[wz2p7j]

I'll look into the RAM voltage settings on the MOBO and investigate a bigger power supply.

It looks like the 8800 vid cards and above are out of my budget. Is an 8600 card really that bad for the type of usage I am planning? What is the best among the different variants of that card? Again, I'm not a gamer.

The optical drive is IDE. Other than speed, is that a huge thing? I don't use my DVD/CD drive very often.

Thanks, Chris

[Lucky23]

If your not a gamer then dont worry about the g-card. Its only important if gaming or doing video intensive programs. an 8600gt will be fine
This 8600gt is the same price as the others but it has DDR3 instead of DDR2 so i would go with that one.

http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/nVidi...oductDetail.do

IDE is fine but you motherboard supports SATA also. SATA is better and it should be close to the same price if you want to go SATA. Either way it looks good

[Katreat]

If buying new I would go for SATA just because IDE is on its way out. Newer MB do not support IDE natively, it is provided by a third party controller. It should work, but from posts and reviews it has been problomatic for some. If the cost is nearly the same it just does not make much sense spending for IDE on newer boards. If you have an older unit already by all means try to use it, but if buying new then go for what is supported natively by the MB.

I am one who who would generally recommend staying away from tirger direct for parts that you might want to return. From personal experience they are a pain to deal with on returned parts. I would also recommend for your uses going with a retail CPU and just using the stock cooler. You get a much better warrenty and it does not look like you are planning on OC'ing which is the main reason for upgrading coolers for most people.

For the video card you are planning on the 500w Antec should be good. In your build the video card is really determining how much power you need so 500w may limmit upgrade potential but is big enough for your current build.

Kat