New Build Recommendations

[Doom]

Okay...so I just finished up my second rig (I think I've moved on from Padawan Apprentice to full up Jedi Knight of BYOPC). Anyhoo... the rig is for my brother who is graduating from UVA in December and it rocks. I wanted to put the specs here as a recommendation and some lessons learned from first to second builds...

- Chassis = Cooler Master CM 690: My first build was an Antec 900 which I still highly recommend, but I must admit that the CM 690 was much easier to put together, features external SATA, is cleaner inside, has better wiring and pretty much equitable cooling. For first time builders... I think the CM 690 might have the edge. Either one is a good choice.
- Mobo = EVGA nVidia 780i SLI: I had no intent to put cards into SLI...but I stick with this board because it's put together nicely and has served me well twice now. Six USB sockets in the back means it's doubtful you'll run out of room for peripherals.
- PSU = Corsair 620w Modular: If you're not going to SLI...use this PSU!! Modular is so much nicer than the 750w Corsair I have in my original rig. You only have to deal witht the cables you want, and the dual PCI-e cables means you can SLI two cards w/ single power connections or go for a GTX 260 which requries two connections alone.
- CPU = Intel E8400 3.0GHz Core 2 Duo: Okay... the store was out of E8500 chips. Used stock cooling since I will not be OC'ing this guy.
- GPU = EVGA nVidia GTX 260 Superclocked: Paired up with the CUP above...this was a lot smoother in Crysis than my own rig (see signature line below). Not the most expensive GPU in the world but still performs well and I must admit I'm impressed with EVGA. See www.tomshardware.com and check out the quarterly comparisions before buying however. You may decide that another card gives what you want at a better price.
- RAM = 4xGB Corsair XMS DDR2
- Optical = Pioneer SATA DVD-R w/ Lightsciribe: I like Pioneer...but that's me. There are cheaper alternatives that perform just as well.
- HDD = Western Digital 500GB 7200rpm 16MB Cache: Seagate is really just as good though...I got this on special so the price was the driving factor.
- Microsoft Quiet Key 2000 Keyboard / Logitec 5-Button Laser Mouse 400

Tested it out on a free Crysis disk that came with the GPU. Auto detected to High settings and ran flawlessly (better than my own rig actually). The total costs without tax were came to about $1325. If you count the rebates I am applying for, the total cost comes to $1200 for everything except speakers and a monitor.

Hope this helps folks out there. Once again... the skills and help I got on pcmech.com saved me a bundle and my brother is getting one heck of a graduation gift. Cheers

Doom

[minsonngo]

Nice. Looks like you have a great system!