Critique my build!

[tauzro]

One last check before i buy it (in about 2 weeks) Feel free to bash it in any way that you see fit.

This build is the result of 2 months or research, going through benchmarks, reviews etcetc Keep in mind that i am still debating which mobo to use, the P5B Deluxe Edition/WiFi or the P5W DH/WiFi. SO if anyone can help me decide, it would be greatly appreciated. oh and overclocking potential will be a factor.

If there is any way to make this build cheaper without sacrificing overclocking potential, performance or looks (yes, i know i can save at least $150 if i opt for a case/psu combo) it would be greatly appreciated. i really DONT want to spend anymore money than i am on this build.

The computer will be used primarily for photoshop, however i will be gaming, running autoCAD and 3DsMAX, and using it for general multimedia.

build is as follows:

Intel Core™2 Duo Processor E6400 2.13GHz w/ 2MB Cache

Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler for P4/775

Asus P5W DH Deluxe w/ DualDDR2 800, 7.1 Audio, Dual GB Lan, 1394, Crossfire Dual PCI-E x16

OCZ 2GB PC2-6400 EL Platinum XTC Edition Rev. 2 Dual Channel DDR2 Kit (2 x 1GB)

Antec P180 Advanced Super Mid Tower

OCZ 600W GameXStream Power Supply w/ Quad +12V

Seagate 320GB Barracuda 7200.10 SATA II w/ NCQ, 16MB Cache

Pioneer DVR-111D 16x16x8 Dual Layer DVD+/-RW Drive, Black

eVGA e-GeForce 7600 GS 256MB PCI-E w/ eVGA Fan, DVI, HDTV-Out
(this video card is only temporary and should hold me over until nVidia announces a midrange 8 series card)

Acer AL2016W 20in Widescreen LCD, 8ms, Silver-Black

Microsoft Ergonomic Value Pack, Keyboard and Mouse, OEM

Total cost, including tax, recycling fee (for monitor) and assembly fee is
$1989.04 CDN (which translates to roughly $1727.04 USD)

thanks in advance.

also, can someone verify if the RAM is compatible with the P5W DH? i know it works well with the P5B, but i got cold feet and decided to go with teh P5W DH yesterday and havnet had time to check the compatibility.

 

[ZozZoz]

Seriosly. Sometimes I think that people post here to show off, and feel proud of themselves. I mean all those similar posts like "is this a good videocard" from a guy that bought an 8800GTX, or, "is my cpu any good?" from someone with an E6800 and upwards".

Considering that you dd spend 2 months on research, you should feel pretty confident about your own decision.

 

[apt403]

christ dude, he was just looking for a little input. if i was spending $1700 on a computer i would want some too!

anyway, get a scythe infinity for the hsf, this ram, and i would consider getting the P5B deluxe instead, but its your call.


oh, and ZozZoz, its spelled seriously, and X6800, not E6800.

 

[ZozZoz]

well whatever. You're gonna pick on me for a couple of typos? The bottom line is: my English is better than your Russian. That's for sure.

And btw: think of it: TWO MONTHS OR RESEARCH. Gosh, I used to spend a tenth of that writing my term papers.

Final thoughts: replace the arctic cooling freezer with something decent.

 

[apt403]

well whatever. You're gonna pick on me for a couple of typos? The bottom line is: my English is better than your Russian. That's for sure.

well, youve got me there, now i have to learn russain! damnit! ive actually always waned to learn russian.

 

[ZozZoz]

What for? I guess it's somewhat exotic, but is that enough of a reason? It's not spoken anywhere outside of Russia. (let alone some areas of NY and LA, heavily populated with Ukranian and Russian immigrants, and, former Soviet Republics) So why bother?

Oh, and speaking about HDD's - that particular Barracuda sports a fluid dynmaic bearing doesn't it? It was marginally faster in some tests and apps, But WD's 320KS - was found to have lower operating temperatures, and noise. I think. There was a review of the two of them recently, can't remember where I'd seen it.

 

[apt403]

russia is the largest country in the world, and the russian white house looks alot better then the one here, you guys make AK-47's, and i like the look of the characters in the russian alphabet. thats good enough for me.

 

[mad-dog]

I agree whole heartedly with ZozZoz my Russian Cold-War Comrade, 95% of these rate my rig threads are totally ridiculous, i don't even reply to most of them anymore.
Every single one of them is virtually identical with the exception of a different PSU (which most people skimp on) or Case.
please rate my rig and tell me that i did good so i can pat myself on the back for being able to look up stuff on the internet....
Jeez louise, just follow the advice that we gave the last 500 noobs before you...
Which is faster, a 3800 or 5200....
Which hard drive is bigger, a 320 or 250....
How's this build for $....17,846
Help, i need to build a top-shelf gaming rig that will play BF2 at max settings but i only have $420.....
blah blah blah

 

[ZozZoz]

Yep, and you can drink and smoke anywhere, (cafes and restaurants too). You can go for a walk at 3 am in the morning or hitchhike without any fear of being shot or mugged etc.
And women. Yeah, lotsa beautiful women. We're famous for that. (The persistency with which some western media portrays them to be something like the proverbial "babushkas" is getting annoying already.)
Hardware prices piss me off though. E6300 costs smth. like 180 at newegg, and 225 down here.


But I digress...
I personally, went with the aforementioned WD drive.

 

[ZozZoz]

That's exactly what I wanted to say. Thanks bro.

 

[ZozZoz]

There it is:

http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=2803&p=11

WD is 2 degrees cooler in idle mode and FOUR degrees cooler under heavy load. Quieter in both modes.

 

[tauzro]

im acually new to these forums, and i didnt think that asking people to improve my build would result in this much hostility.

bottom line is:
im a design student and i have loans and tuition to pay off, bills/rent to pay, and i make minimum wage working in a restaurant.

burning $1700 CDN on a computer (or anything else, for that matter) is a huge deal for me and i really dont think i'm showing anthign off since this is essentially considered a midrange level computer, and not a gaming or high end box.

also, how does reading someone's build over the internet allow them to show off? online, everyone is hiding behind a computer monitor. so as far as im concerned, you are all faceless users to me, not "the guy who has a QX6700 + 8800 GTX SLi combo"

at any rate, i'll remember not to use these forums, when looking for help in the future.

 

[mad-dog]

Don't get your panties in a bundle, I'm not singling you out....
We all get a little punchy sometimes and lately there is a flood of identical questions, like nobodys happy with somebody elses answer, they gotta have their own answer to the same question.....it gets frustrating....
just don't take it personally or we will assimilate you, resistance is futile.
This is a rockin place to hang out and there is a wealth of information here, i just need a good bitchslap up the side of my head to set me in line sometimes....

 

[69camaroSS]

If you are doing CAD work, get a CAD video Card. ATI Fire card and Get two 250GB cuda's and stripe them instead of one big one.

 

[69camaroSS]

If you are doing CAD work, get a CAD video Card. ATI Fire card and Get two 250GB cuda's and stripe them instead of one big one.

 

[tauzro]

If there is any way to make this build cheaper without sacrificing overclocking potential, performance or looks (yes, i know i can save at least $150 if i opt for a case/psu combo) it would be greatly appreciated. i really DONT want to spend anymore money than i am on this build.

yeah.. so this kind of eliminates teh possibility of me getting a fireGL or quadro card. since i dont want to spend anymore than i usually do. i want to do some gamign on it as well.

 

[chogo]

You could save money on the system by making the following changes:
1) E6300 , savings of C$60, still overclocks like heck but with 7x cpu multiplier instead of 8x

2) Are you ever planning to get 2 graphics cards? If not then get a mid-range motherboard such as the P5B-E or Gigabyte S3/DS3 and save some $ instead of a crossfire/SLI MB.

3) You can probably get by with DDR2-667 4-4-4-12 memory. You can maintain the tight timings at higher frequencies by increasing the voltage.

4) Also, you can save a few $ by getting the non WiFi version of the MBs unless you have a need for it.

BTW, a 965 based motherboard will overclock higher than a 975 based motherboard like the P5W.

Where are you planning on getting the system from as there may be cheaper sources?

 

[yourmothersanastronaut]

I have two WD 2500KS 250GB drives. My WD Raptor runs several degrees cooler than both of them, in a Lian Li case with a 120mm fan blowing air over all three.

But there's still no problem, both are great drives.

And you'll have to forgive the angry posts. There are a lot of "rate my build" threads on this website, and after a while they all start to look the same. A lot of them are probably trolls just trying to brag about how much money they have, whether they really can afford and intend to spend $100,000 on their computer or not.

That being said, I too understand the college woes...especially during finals week :x

And FireGLs are actually not bad for gaming, considering what their primary function is. In fact, if you install an X1900XT under Linux, it calls it a FireGL (fglrx driver). That's how close these cards are. However, a FireGL would most definitely break the proverbial bank...

For starters, you can get rid of the extra cooler. The stock one is fine, works quietly and efficiently. And if you want to save cash wherever possible, that would be a good place to start, since there's a free part that will do the job just fine. And trust me, once you get the e6400 up and running, you won't feel the need to OC. You could even dumb it down to an e6300 and save a few dollars there.

If you can afford it, I'd say get a card with 512MB of texture memory. At 1680 x 1050, you'll want the extra buffer, especially if you're doing Photoshop or modeling. That and the games will run smoother at native res. Doesn't the 7600GS have a 512MB version?

Also, a RAID 0 array will help loading times in Photoshop. The place where RAID 0 sees the most benefit is if you're loading a lot of large files, and your preferred applications will load and run a little faster on a striped array. Whether it will justify the extra cost is up to you, there's plenty of information on the differences. A pair of 250GBs may be just a little more expensive than a single 320GB.

Other than that, looks good.

EDIT: Make sure you get DDR2-800 RAM. Timings are almost irrelevant to an Intel CPU, they're not as sensitive to CAS latency and timings as AMD CPUs because Intels have the memory controller on the socket opposed to the chip.

 

[69camaroSS]

Take your time with your system build if money is an issue. You need to build the system that works for you. If that takes some time, use it. Save the money for the parts that works for you.

Get a mATX G965 set up to cut board costs. Get the 6300. You don't need SLI for gaming or graphics. you really don't need the extra fan.

You do a lot of heavy graphic work. Spend the money on the fire card.

Wait until after Christmas when demand from manufacturer has fallen. Things tend to get cheaper. Especially in the processor area.

Point: Do it right and the system will last. My average build lasts 6 years running really high end stuff. I run CAD and Adobe Production Suite. Games run easy on everything I build.

 

[cb62fcni]

well whatever. You're gonna pick on me for a couple of typos? The bottom line is: my English is better than your Russian. That's for sure.

And btw: think of it: TWO MONTHS OR RESEARCH. Gosh, I used to spend a tenth of that writing my term papers.

Final thoughts: replace the arctic cooling freezer with something decent.

Da, ya nehorosho goveryu parusski, ee ya ploho peeshu parusski. Mozet bit vi goveritye pahangliski horoshee, chem mi. No mi znaem bolshe o komputerih, chem vi. U vas est mnogo krasivie devushki, ya znaiu.

Hahahaha, man it's hard to type russian without a cyrillic keyboard. I'm sure you can decipher it though. I don't know any good insults, so the third sentence will have to do. The bottom line is: I know it probably rankles you to see people appear to be flaunting their good fortune by listing out specs that few of us can afford. But the reality is that a lot of them are just kids, and first-time computer buying can be really confusing given the sheer variety of parts out there and the random incompatabilities that occur with anything so complex. If you get so mad about it, no one is making you look at all these posts, so why torture yourself? Snap out of that gulag mentality and embrace the capitalist future!!!