Merry Christmas to me? Opinions/Advice needed

[millphilxx]

Hello everyone.

After many years of thrashing and bashing it, I have decided to put my current machine out to the email and websurfing pasture. It seems that for the games I am looking forward to playing (TitanQuest, Vangaurd, Gothic 3) this won't cut it anymore.

I am currently looking into building a new machine for a christmas present to myself this year and have compiled a list of what I hope to be a respectable rig. Just wanted to run it by you all to get some opinions and/or advice.

Everything so far has been directly from Newegg since I figured it would be better to pay one shipping price rather than pick parts from here and there. I have tried to get everything as compatible as possible.

Case: Logisys cs888cl Transparent Clear Acrylic ATX Mid Tower 54.99

HD: Seagate Barracuda 320 GB Sata 94.99

GPU's: 2 BFG 7600GT 256mb PCI E 289.00 (total)

PSU: Antec Truepower 2.0 550W 96.99

CPU Cooling: Zalman CNPS9500 62.99

MB: ECS NFORCE 570 SLIT-A Socket T 775 97.99

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 Conroe 230.00

Mem: Patriot 2GB (2X 1GB) 240 pin DDR2 PC2 5300 179.99

I plan on swaping my DVD-Rom and burner from my old machine into the new one for optical drives. I also might entertain the idea of some mild overclocking in the future depending on game demand.

After tossing in a few extras ( Arctic Silver Paste and some rounded cables) my grand total is about $1,150 with shipping which is about where I wanted to be(no more than $1,300).

I do realize that the acrylic case will be a pain but hopefully the shock and awe factor will make up for it once I get it lit up.

I welcome any and all opinions and advice and will try to answer any questions that you might have.

Thanks in advance,

MillphilXX

 

[enforcerfx]

Hello everyone.

After many years of thrashing and bashing it, I have decided to put my current machine out to the email and websurfing pasture. It seems that for the games I am looking forward to playing (TitanQuest, Vangaurd, Gothic 3) this won't cut it anymore.

I am currently looking into building a new machine for a christmas present to myself this year and have compiled a list of what I hope to be a respectable rig. Just wanted to run it by you all to get some opinions and/or advice.

Everything so far has been directly from Newegg since I figured it would be better to pay one shipping price rather than pick parts from here and there. I have tried to get everything as compatible as possible.

Case: Logisys cs888cl Transparent Clear Acrylic ATX Mid Tower 54.99

HD: Seagate Barracuda 320 GB Sata 94.99

GPU's: 2 BFG 7600GT 256mb PCI E 289.00 (total)

PSU: Antec Truepower 2.0 550W 96.99

CPU Cooling: Zalman CNPS9500 62.99

MB: ECS NFORCE 570 SLIT-A Socket T 775 97.99

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 Conroe 230.00

Mem: Patriot 2GB (2X 1GB) 240 pin DDR2 PC2 5300 179.99

I plan on swaping my DVD-Rom and burner from my old machine into the new one for optical drives. I also might entertain the idea of some mild overclocking in the future depending on game demand.

After tossing in a few extras ( Arctic Silver Paste and some rounded cables) my grand total is about $1,150 with shipping which is about where I wanted to be(no more than $1,300).

I do realize that the acrylic case will be a pain but hopefully the shock and awe factor will make up for it once I get it lit up.

I welcome any and all opinions and advice and will try to answer any questions that you might have.

Thanks in advance,

MillphilXX

Good list, but may i make a few suggestions?

Case: Good
Harddrive: Good
GFX: SLi with 2 7600GTs is very pointless and a waste of money. For that kind of cash, you could easily get a 7900GT and beat any pair of 7600GTs. Or try a x1900xt, with the leftover cash from other suggestions i will give.
PSU: Good
CPU Cooler: Good(if you plan to overclock, its good. Stock HSF will do fine though too).
CPU: Drop to a E6300 and save the 40 bucks, and just overclock to the E6400 speeds or higher. If you plan to overclock, the aftermarket HSF will come in handy there.
Motherboard: Looks good, although i havent heard any recent reviews about that ECS board.
Ram: Looks fine to me

Good Luck and have fun of course

 

[The_Prophecy]

Where to start......

CPU: Intel Core 2 E6300. Save yourself some cash and drop to the E6300. If you need more power (which I don't think you will for awhile), these chips overclock very well.

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3. SLI is a pointless waste of money, especially if it's being done with 2 7600GT's.

Video Card: Like above, SLI is pointless, especially with 2 7600GT's. Drop one of them and wait for DX 10 to arrive, then get a single high end card.

CPU Cooler: Lose this altogether. You indicated there would only be mild overclocking involved, which means a high end aftermarket cooler like the Zalman you picked out is way overkill for this system.

RAM: OCZ Gold 2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR2-800 This set should provide better performance, despite the higher timings.

Power Supply: Antec NeoHE 430W <--- This system isn't going to need any more than this, unless you start adding a bunch of extra hard drives. This PSU is much more efficient than Antec's Truepower series, and has Active PFC (Power Factor Correction). The TP 550W you picked does not have PFC at all.

 

[phreejak]

SeaSonic S12-500 ATX12V 500W Power Supply ($129)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817151024
dual 12v rail with good amps (17, 16 amps), excellent rep, Active PFC

SILVERSTONE SST-ST50EF ATX12V 500W ($89)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817256001
dual 12v rails, strong amps (18 per rail), excellent rep, Active PFC

Thermaltake W0057RU-01 PurePower TWV ATX 12V 2.0 500W ($129)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817153031
dual 12v rail with good amps (18 amps per rail), excellent rep, Active PFC

ENERMAX Liberty ELT500AWT ATX12V 500W ($105)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817194003
dual 12v rail with STRONG amps (22amps per rail), excellent rep, Active PFC

XCLIO X14S4P3 500W ATX 500W ($95)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817189012
triple 12v rails (18, 18, 16 amps), modular, Active PFC, Good Rep

ENERMAX Noisetaker II EG495P-VE ATX12V 485W ($90)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817194009
dual 12v rails, strong amps (22 per rail), excellent rep, Active PFC

FSP Group (Fortron Source) AX500-A, 2.0 version, 2 SATA, PCI Express, 500W ($90)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817104934
dual 12v rails, amps are ok (15 amps per rail), excellent rep, Passive PFC

 

[The_Prophecy]

I think you could save $30 and get an Arctic Freezer 7 Pro. I'm not sure on how ECS is doing nowadays, but they put out a few pieces of crap a few years ago.

It's on Newegg for $35 shipped, but Provantage has it for $17 + shipping. I havn't ever bought anything from them, but their Reseller Ratings seems ok.

This would be a waste of $17 + shipping..... he doesn't need it. The stock cooler on mild overclocks will be able to handle the heat load with plenty of room to spare.

 

[Robovski]

Another vote for avoiding the twinned 7600GT SLI setup. Seriously, get a 7900GT for more power at same or less cost, and later you can SLI that. Also while the 6400 is a nice processor, you really have 3 items to consider in the C2D range - the 6300, the 6600, and the 6800. The Extreme is extremely expensive but is the most power you can get right now. the 6600 gets you a 4MB cache true Conroe processor for the least cost, and the 6300 gets you a C2D you can overclock the whahoozits out of to beat the best AMD chips at the cheapest cost. So get the 6300 and save or push out the boat and get the 6600.

 

[The_Prophecy]

No, it's not a waste. Why spend more money on a cooling set up that isn't necessary? These chips don't have to be overclocked, they already perform well.

 

[The_Prophecy]

I know that's the whole point of OC'ing, but once you see these chips perform at stock, you may not want to OC them.

My whole point here is that there's no point in wasting $20-30 on a cooling setup that you're not going to need if you're not going to overclock by more than a specific amount.