Potential Setup for New System

[jwhicks727]

I'm going to be building my first PC, with the intention of playing games and doing multitasking (e.g. running Azureus in the background while playing a game). I'm a beginner but looking for a challenge and am definitely interested in overclocking. I'm upgrading from a four-year old Dell notebook I'm using as a primary, so no salvagable parts obviously, it has to be from scratch. Here's what I'm looking at so far:

Opteron 165

Gigabyte 7800GTX

OCZ EL Gold GX XTC 2GB PC4000

DFI LanParty UT NF-4 Ultra-D

2 x 74GB Raptor (RAID 0)

Antec P180 Case

Antec TruePower 2.0 550W

Thermalright XP-120

Samsung Syncmaster 915N 19" LCD

Plextor PX-712SA

Logitech G7 Mouse

Logitech G15 Keyboard

Any general thoughts about the setup? Specifically, does anyone have an opinion about using the onboard sound (as I'm currently planning to do)? Also, thoughts about the less important components I also included would be welcome. Thanks!

 

[fishmahn]

Are you overclocking? If not, get PC3200 RAM and an A64 X2 3800+ (3800+ is faster than 165 @stock and the extra cache in the Opteron doesn't make up the difference). If you're overclocking, get what you've specified. Also be sure you get a good fan for that XP-120, I don't think it comes with one.

Onboard sound is good enough for me.

If you're not stuck on the Plextor, NEC & Lite-On make good burners for a lot less.

Mike.

 

[jwhicks727]

Are you overclocking? If not, get PC3200 RAM and an A64 X2 3800+ (3800+ is faster than 165 @stock and the extra cache in the Opteron doesn't make up the difference). If you're overclocking, get what you've specified.

I'm definitely overclocking, so I'll stick with this one. Do you have opinion on the 165 vs. 170 or 175?

Also be sure you get a good fan for that XP-120, I don't think it comes with one.

Yeah, it doesn't come with one. Is there a difference between "case fans" and "cooler fans," or will any 120mm one work? I'm looking at the Antec 3-speeds...

Thanks for the other suggestions!

 

[Rugger]

I'd stick with the stock HSF - if you run into heat problems, then you can upgrade to an XP-120...JMHO

 

[jwhicks727]

I'd stick with the stock HSF - if you run into heat problems, then you can upgrade to an XP-120...JMHO

Yeah, that's what I was thinking of doing too. Like I said, I'm a beginner with overclocking so I don't plan to push it all the way right out of the gate. If I get to a point where I need better heat dissipation I can always upgrade, and at that point I might prefer to go right to liquid anyway.

Incidentally, I'm wondering how to go about monitoring heat as I start overclocking. Does the motherboard come with heat sensors, and if so are they enough? I've heard of people monitering heat on everything from RAM to their northbridge, so I assume you can add your own heat sensors... Is this true?

 

[Rugger]

Most mobos come with a ealth monitoring utility. If the DFI doesn't have one, then you can google one.

 

[jwhicks727]

What about the actual sensors though? Are they integrated into the mobo, or do you have to set them up?

 

[Rugger]

On the mobo - you don't have to manually setup the heat sensors.