School/Gaming rig build

[optomos]

I'm trying to build a good gaming/school/work rig. I am an IT major so I'm a HD whore, always switching them out working with both Windows and Linux OS's etc, etc, but I also want a nice gaming rig for free time.

From what little time I have had to spend researching, this is what I have come up with:

Mobo - Gigabyte GA-965P-DQ6
http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?p=MB-965PDQ6&c=PG&pid=6877f133efeb4e0b1ccbf7b1c3d611cb011f49693ef4b50de4afef7ce37a2f97

CPU - Core 2 Duo 6400
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=80859&prodlist=pricegrabber

RAM - Super Talent DDR2 T800UX2GC4 pc6400 2gig kit
http://www.ibuildcomputer.com/cgi-bin/szc.cgi/st_prod.html?p_partnum=ZMA100021257&p_vlt=F

Video - XFX Extreme GeForce 7950 GX2? or 7900 GS? (Not sure if there are any DX10 ready cards)
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=321074&prodlist=pricegrabber

PS - Thermaltake Thoughpower 750
http://www.directron.com/w0117ru.html

Case - Thermaltake Tai Chi Liquid Cooled
http://www.xoxide.com/thermaltake-tai-chi-liquid-cooled-case-vb5001sna.html

Hard Drive(Primary) - Western Digital Raptor 150gb
http://www.isquaredinc.com/WES150R2info.html

Hard Drive(Secondary) - Seagate Barracuda 320gb SII X2
http://www.acnt.com/product.asp?pf_id=HD320S500

CD/DVD - Plextor PX-760A
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=173443&prodlist=pricegrabber

Sound Card - Creative X-Fi Elite Pro
http://www.pagecomputers.com/store/product.asp?catalog%5Fname=Audio+%26+MP3+Devices&category%5Fname=1g1c542s2119&product%5Fid=879382

Keyboard - Logitech G15
http://www.pcconnection.com/ProductDetail?sku=6012563&srccode=cii_5784816&cpncode=10-25186824-2

Mouse - Logitech G7
http://www.clubit.com/product_detail.cfm?itemno=A5047113&cmp=OTC-pr1c3grabb3r

Speakers(Maybe) - Creative Gigaworks S750 7.1
http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?sku=A0234852&cs=04&c=us&l=en

Any and all comments welcome.....just be nice

 

[shadowduck]

Here my opinion..

Ditch the Raptor, its not worth the cost. Switch both drives to Seagate 7200.10 s. The Raptors will beat them on access, but the Seagate wins big on throughput.

Buy name brand RAM. Never heard of that stuff.

On the video card, GS is low-end so avoid that. I would go X1800XT/X1900XT right now, and move to DX10s when they are out. No current card can do DX10 so a 7900 GX2 is overkill right now.

I don't see the need for watercooling. The 6400 overclocks just fine on air.

 

[optomos]

Here my opinion..

Ditch the Raptor, its not worth the cost. Switch both drives to Seagate 7200.10 s. The Raptors will beat them on access, but the Seagate wins big on throughput.

Buy name brand RAM. Never heard of that stuff.

On the video card, GS is low-end so avoid that. I would go X1800XT/X1900XT right now, and move to DX10s when they are out. No current card can do DX10 so a 7900 GX2 is overkill right now.

I don't see the need for watercooling. The 6400 overclocks just fine on air.

Hm, I guess I will just raid two of the seagates together. Tnx

 

[Houndsteeth]

Yes, the C2D will OC on air just fine, but if this system is to give you an education, why not also use it to learn how to build a water cooled rig? It's not that much more expensive, and it will also lead to a potentially quieter box (a MUST for crowded dorm rooms).

Since you like to switch from one OS to another, make sure you set up one environment that makes use of virtualization (like VMWare or Microsoft VirtualPC) so you can run multiple OSes from the same host OS. This will make flipping between development environments much easier than having to reboot every time you wanted to run a Linux or Windows compilation.

As far as hard drives go, access speed is everything. The shrter amount of time it takes for a hard drive to find and begin retrieving data, the better the response of your sytem will be. Throughput is only important when you are moving large files over the bus, and since most situations don't require this, the Raptors are actually a good investment if performance is everything (the only way to get faster response is to go to a pure SCSI or SAS system, which means big $$$). Otherwise, stick with the Seagates. Their access time in a striped array is actualy very good. Just be aware that if one device decides to die, you lose everything, so BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP.

I would also recommend steering away form the 7950GX2 as the return is marginal at best for the investment. Go for the 7900GTX or 7900GT, or look at buying an X1900XTX or X1900XT, and put the money you save from not buying the 7950 in a savings account so you can spend it when the DX10 cards come out. Multi GPU rendering is the future, but I think the current SLI and Crossfire topologies are both dead end orphans. Something better is on the horizon (think of what AMD could do with HyperTransport interlinks for ATI Dual Core GPUs).