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New Conroe Rig. Please review

Forum Homebuilt Systems : General Homebuilt - New Conroe Rig. Please review

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I'm looking to build a new system mostly for browsing, gaming , video encoding. Gaming will be high end Oblivion, Bioshock, FEAR. I'm looking for parts from www.canadacomputers.com (they have a store close by and their prices for most items can't be beat in Canada from my research). Budget appears to be $2,500.00 LOL.

Motherboard: $239.00
Asus P5B Deluxe

CPU: $369.99
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 2.4 GHz

Video Card: $309.99
Sapphire ATI Radeon X1900 XT 256MB

RAM: $399.99
Corsair XMS2 2GB (TWIN2X2048-6400PRO)

Case: $148.99
Thermaltake Tsunami Black w/ window

PSU: $128.50
Antec TrueControl II 550W

Hard Drive: $99.00
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 250GB

DVD Burner: $39.99
NEC ND-3550 (Black)

Floppy Drive: $29.00
Mitsumi 7-in-1 Internal Floppy Drive w/ card reader

Keyboard: $79.99
Logitech G15

Mouse: $79.99
Logitech G7

Monitor: $299.99
ViewSonic VX922 19" LCD 2 ms

Speakers: $0.00 (from current setup)
Creative Inspire T7700 7.1

Sound Card: $0.00 (from current setup)
Audigy 2 Platinum

Thermal Compound: $10.00
Arctic Silver

Total Cost = $2,234.42

I've never OC'd and I doubt I will but I'd like to leave my options open. I'm pretty confident with this build but i'm not sure about the choice of memory (is it overkill). Also I plan on upgrading to a DX10 card in about a years time. Your thoughts and suggetions would be greatly appreciated.
P.S.
This is my first build.

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Quote :

I've never OC'd and I doubt I will but I'd like to leave my options open. I'm pretty confident with this build but i'm not sure about the choice of memory (is it overkill).

That RAM is good for a C2D, whether you overclock or not. C2D likes the fast RAM.

As for everything else, well, I'm in the same boat, but my budget is half of yours. (Then again, I'm using USD, not CDN.) So I keep seeing things to remove (FLOPPY DRIVE) and prices to cut in half (PSU + case = $300? Are you kidding?).

Looks good. Bit much if you're not into OC'ing, but those parts are quality whether you torture them or not and will keep you gaming for years to come.

Reply to Sunburn

Quote :

Wow, man good job. The only thing I do not like...is the GPU. Get a 7600GT for now, and in a couple of moths when Vista comes out, get a DirectX 10 card. The Directx 9 cards out now will support DX 10, but not all of the features. That is my opinion. If you get the 7600GT, also get an aftermarket HSF/fan because the fan is loud!

Reply to qwazzy

Very good build. You can either go with the X1900XT and not upgrade to DX10 until it is bug-free and mastered or get 7600GT and upgrade when vista and DX10 cards are out there. But either way, your build looks very good. Maybe you're not overclocking now (and by all means you don't need to), but as time goes by and you need more power out of your system, you'll have very good overclocking potential.

Reply to zrawas

Its a very good list. And I like your choice of the X1900XT.
Considering you're going to be playing Obilivion and FEAR downgrading the video card would make a big difference in how much enjoyment you get out of the other quality components.

If you do ever decide to overclock you have the right stuff in your list. And for upgrading - you have the right motherboard for a C2Q Kentsfield.

Reply to WR2

The X1900 is fine. FEAR and Oblivion will love you for the card...they like the fast Radeons. Don't worry about replacing the stock cooler, it's fine. I'm running it now, doesn't bother me a bit, and my last computer was an ultra-silent notebook.

You don't need RAM that expensive, though, that's my only problem. Intel CPUs aren't as sensitive to CAS latency, so feel free to get RAM with a CL5 rating. You won't notice a difference. You want to game, not to benchmark. Leave that to the low-lifes with 6GHz C2D overclocks on phase change cooling who run 3DMark for 15 minutes and waste $7000 when it overheats and breaks itself.

FYI...the AMD CPUs are sensitive to clock speed, and I'm using CL5 RAM. I don't notice any performance problems. FEAR still runs maxed. No biggie. I can afford to compromise...seeing as how I'm still in college.

Reply to yourmothersanastronaut

Thanks for all the replies. I'm happy with the choice in video card; it should keep me going for 1 to 1-1/2 years. I might take out the mouse, keyboard, floppy and burner and use them from my current setup. Save a few bucks - upgrade later. Only things is they are beige not black. Dunno.

@YourMothersAnAstronaut I belive the Ram I was talking about is CL5. See specs
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820145589 My knowledge of memory is'nt great. Should I stick with what I picked out or go a little cheaper? If I do OC it definitely won't be anything huge, your right it's about preformance not getting your ego stroked with impressive benchmarks.

Reply to DeadShallWalk

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