New build to replace my athlon 2200 and radeon 9500pro

[macrymble]

I haven't built a new computer in 5 years and I desperately need a new one. This one will be used mostly for gaming and I'm looking to spend about $1300 (including monitor and peripherals.)


I already have the following 3 items:

Case - $109
LIAN LI PC-61 USB Black Aluminum ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811112025

Power Supply - $130
Thermaltake W0106RU 700W Modular Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817153039

CPU - $170
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz 6MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115037

Newegg also had a $50 combo discount with the power supply and cpu and a $50 rebate for the power supply, so the total for both of them came to only $200.


These are the components that I am looking to buy:

Motherboard - $160
ASUS P5Q-E LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131296

I'm really not sure about this one. I know I want a motherboard with the p45 chipset and Splashtop (I think Asus calls it express gate). The external sata connectors would be cool to mess around with, but I'm not sure if I would ever use them. Are there any thoughts on this selection?

Video Card - $158
ASUS EAH4850/HTDI/512M Radeon HD 4850 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail ($158)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814121253

or

Video Card - $285
VisionTek 900244 Radeon HD 4870 512MB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail ($285)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814129113

This is really more of a personal decision than a technical one. The 4850 seems like a great bang-for-buck card, but I kind of want to splurge a bit on the 4870.

Ram - $109
OCZ Platinum 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820227298

I'm looking for suggestions regarding this, also. I want 4GB at at least 1066MHz, but I don't know what to look for beyond this.

Hard Drive x2 - $160
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3500320AS 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148288

These will be implemented in RAID 0.

Monitor - $200
SUS VW223T Black 22" 5ms Widescreen LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 1000:1 (ASCR 3000:1) Built in Speakers - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824236039

Heatsink/Fan - $32
ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro 92mm CPU Cooler - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835186134

DVD Burner - $24
LITE-ON Black 2MB Cache SATA 20X DVD±R DVD Burner - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827106263

Mouse - $30
Microsoft B7G-00004 Black 5 Buttons 1 x Wheel USB Wired Laser Mouse 6000 - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16826105183

Keyboard - $7
LITE-ON SK-1788/BS 2-Tone 104 Normal Keys PS/2 Wired Standard Keyboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16823107120


Totals:
$1189 with 4850
$1316 with 4870

Thanks in advance for reviewing my build. I appreciate any comments or suggestions that anyone may have.

[Force Flow]

Never heard of SUS monitors. I'd suggest looking at BenQ monitors. I've had good results with them, and they're reasonably priced.

If you're looking to save a few bucks, you can get the plain Asus P5Q. The major difference appears to be CrossFire support, I think. But, you can compare the specs.

Better deal on RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145184

If you're not OCing, DDR2 800 will match the FSB on that CPU. (To match the speed, divide the FSB speed by 4 and multiply by two. That's the minimum matched speed you need. Then, get the next higher DDR2 speed for stability. So, 1333/4 = 333.25 * 2 = 666.5, which is DDR2 667, and the next highest is DDR2 800.)


Also, there's no big advantage to do RAID 0. Basically with striping, the performance gain is almost non-existant, but the risk for data loss doubles because you have two drives storing the information for a single partition. If one drive goes, all the data is lost.

If you *really* want to see about boosting HDD performance, take a look at some 10,000rpm drives. They aren't cheap, though. Either way, the drive you selected will run fine as a single drive.