Proposed system needs critiquing (edited for sexiness)

[metal_dawn]

First of all, this is my first post and I registered just to ask you fine folks your opinions. I'm working on a build which hopefully I will put together in the near future, if my sweety will let me spend the money for it.

This all being said, here is what I've come up with so far.

Maxtor / DiamondMax 10 / 80GB / 7200 / 8MB / SATA-300 / OEM / Hard Drive (1 lbs)
$57.99 EACH

x2 = $115.98

HEC Orion Power 585watt (7 lbs)
$38.99

Power Up Black 302 ATX Mid-Tower Case with Fron USB and Audio Ports (6 lbs)
$25.99


LG GCC-4522B / 52x32x52x CD-RW / 16x DVD-ROM / Black / Combo Drive (2 lbs)
$35.99

GIGABYTE 965G-DS3 Intel Socket 775 ATX Motherboard / Audio / Video / PCI Express / Gigabit LAN / S/PDIF / USB 2.0 / Serial ATA / RAID (2.8 lbs)
$190.99


OCZ Dual Channel XTC 1024MB PC5400 DDR2 667MHz Gamer Memory (2 x 512MB) (0.2 lbs)
$165.99

Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 1.86GHz / 2MB Cache / 1066MHz FSB / Dual-Core / OEM / Socket 775 / Processor (0.1 lbs)
$241.99


XFX GeForce 7600 GT XXX Edition / 256MB GDDR3 / SLI / PCI Express / Dual DVI / HDTV / Video Card (1.35 lbs)
$190.99

Now, I'm predominantly interested in using this computer for playing Counterstrike source, WOW, and URU. I'd like it to be future proof "enough" that it could handle the next years upcoming games at low level settings. I realize 1 gig of ram is very little, however it's something easily upgradeable in the future.

I guess what i'm interested in is how you all think the components would work together, and how is the overclockability of the system? how are the timings on the ram CAS Latency 4-4-4-12. Is the video card I've selected overclockable? Is it even worth it to do so?

Mull it over, and post your reply. I've done a fair amount of thread lurking here and you guys always seem to be helpfull, so I'll be looking forward to your replies.

 

[raven_87]

HDD -- fook maxtor. Same price you can pick up a Samsung Spinpoint....look into it.

PSU: HEC, Foxconn, anything star.... cheap. dont skimp on the PSU, its your systems heart. something better if you will.


Case sounds cheap, but thats your call.

DVD ROM - that'll do fine

Board - $150 gets you an Asus P5B =)

Later down the road, your going to want at least 2GB of memory. Make sure you have at least 4 Dimm slots for a 4x512 config.

CPU is fine

For the price of that 7600GT you can get an X1900GT easy.

 

[metal_dawn]

well, thanks for the quick reply. I suppose I should have given a little more information. First of all, everything on this list is in canadian funds, and all of these components have been selected and priced off the tigerdirect.ca e-tailer.

As for the hard drive recommendation, I will look into it, but could you give a little bit of explanation why maxtor drives "suck"?

And I'm having a hard time understanding this bit: "PSU: HEC, Foxconn, anything star.... cheap. dont skimp on the PSU, its your systems heart. something better if you will. " Are you saying that hec, foxconn etc are cheap and should be avoided? What is a brand that has good price for performance than? I don't think I need anymore than 500 watts, if that, but i know nothing about PSU's and on this build tried to save money where I can.

Trust me, legitimizing these purchases is going to be hard enough as it is...

As for the case... A case is a case... it had some decent online reviews and I intend to do a lil dremmel and 12cm fan action on it... I know it won't provide sufficient ventilation out of the box for overclocking, and that's fine by me.

As for the MOBO would a P5B-VM be recommended over a P5B-E? The P5B-E is going for 215.99 on tigerdirect. Anyhow, thanks for the quick reply once again, and I look forward to more suggestions.

 

[raven_87]

Seagate bought out maxtor, however the quality hasnt yet set in. I'm not saying their drives are horrible, but I'd go with Samsung first.

Your PSU choice blows (no disrespect) not the wattage, but the quality of the unit. yes they should be avoided. FSP, Antec, TT, PC&P, Zippy, Sparkle, Silverstone and OCZ all make good units. I'm sure I forgot one, but hey.

tbh most anything in the P5b series might be better than Gigabyte. every since the rubyconn capacitor thing, I've tended to stay away.

 

[ben72227]

Seagate bought out maxtor, however the quality hasnt yet set in. I'm not saying their drives are horrible, but I'd go with Samsung first.

Your PSU choice blows (no disrespect) not the wattage, but the quality of the unit. yes they should be avoided. FSP, Antec, TT, PC&P, Zippy, Sparkle, Silverstone and OCZ all make good units. I'm sure I forgot one, but hey.

tbh most anything in the P5b series might be better than Gigabyte. every since the rubyconn capacitor thing, I've tended to stay away.

+1; Maxtor is teh suckage. And for less money, you can get a 320GB Seagate Barracuda. Here is the tigerdirect link

 

[NewbieTechGodII]

Yeah...Uhmmm...Well...Uh-huh...

Nope...No Sir. I don't like it. Any of it. You would be better off getting a Dell.

 

[edmetalhead]

LG GCC-4522B / 52x32x52x CD-RW / 16x DVD-ROM / Black / Combo Drive (2 lbs)
$35.99

This is probably not the advice you were looking for, but why not go for a DVD Burner?

For instance you can get NEC's dual layer burner:

NEC Super Multi (AD-7170A) / 16x DVD±R Read / 18x DVD±R Burn / 8x DVD±RW / 8x DVD-R DL / 12x DVD-RAM / 48x32x CD-R/RW / Silver / OEM DVD Burner

For $50.99...thats only $15CA more. (NB this is an OEM drive).

 

[akahuddy]

Your PSU choice blows (no disrespect) not the wattage, but the quality of the unit. yes they should be avoided. FSP, Antec, TT, PC&P, Zippy, Sparkle, Silverstone and OCZ all make good units. I'm sure I forgot one, but hey.

SeaSonic of course.

 

[metal_dawn]

KK, well far as psu goes I've decided to go with this ULTRA psu Should be slightly better quality.

As for the hard drives... I'm more interested in the RAID array than I am in storage space, hence why I went with 2 small cheap drives. a 320 gig seagate baracuda, while pretty is too expensive for me to justify 2 of them, plus that is a ridiculous amount of data storage for my needs. Hell, 160 gb is ridiculous for my needs.

One question I do have, is 16 mbs cache in 2 drives in raid 0 really going to show an appreciable difference? Would 8 mb cache do me fine? of course bearing in mind, this is not meant to be too high end.

I thinking 2 x 80 gb seagate sata300 w/ 8mb cache would be a good compromise. It's a product from a manufacturer that you've recommended, but not more than I need.

Also, no comments on my ram? is it decent for overclocking? I mean, I only plan to push the E6300 up to 2.2 or 2.4 ghz, do you think it will survive? I'm hoping yes.


EDIT: and I'm still thinking over my mobo choice. doing a little research on what I want and need. I like the p5bvm suggested except the 16x PCI slot on that board looks really cramped. I has "some" better features than the gigabyte on that I have listed such as firewire support, but i doubt if I will ever use them. both boards are quadcore compatible.

 

[mcain591]

dont skimp on the PSU

I learned that the hard way.
DONT GET AN ULTRA!!!! (That was the one I learned on).
If you get an ultra, you are giving your system a death warrent in a year.

Also, that motherboard price (DS3) is a little high. I built a system for a relative recently, and I got it for 130. (That was b4 christmas).\

Ram. Go higher.

 

[bobert866]

I personally have never heard anything good about maxtor hd's.
I think you could do alot better on the power supply.
Your graphics card is prolly overclocked close to its edge as it is, idk how much more ull get out of it.
Sorry, i dont know much about the components selected.

 

[geofelt]

I would reconsider the 965G mobo. The "G" stands for onboard graphics which you might not need. It also limits the overclocking you can do. You can get the 965P version for less, and spend the difference on a better PSU. A FSP 400watt unit for $50 wull work fine.
Alternatively. look at the antec NSK4400, a nice looking quality case .
The included 380w PSU is more than you need for your components.
You could spend a bit less on memory. The corsair xms2 5400c4, for example. Spend the difference on the VGA card, or flowers if necessary.

 

[metal_dawn]

dont skimp on the PSU

Also, that motherboard price (DS3) is a little high. I built a system for a relative recently, and I got it for 130. (That was b4 christmas).\


Mccain keep in mind these are CDN prices. As for the power supply, you all may think it's reckless but I'm going to keep with the ultra simply because it's in my budget now, it's one of those things I'll upgrade in the next few months, along w/ the amount of RAM but as of right now my current config w/ additions I've made tonight, (HD, PSU) is running 1200+ after taxes. Thats 100 more than I wanted to spend. Thanx so much for your help, I'll be looking into different MOBO's and of course any good 965P suggestions are most welcome.

oh, and NewbieTechGodII... you can keep the barbs to yourself, I've been "out of the loop" for a number of years is all. Last system I built was a p4 2.4c config.

 

[mcain591]

Oh, on the CAD, and the PSU (As long as you only use it for a few months, as they are notorisly known to have a one year lifespan). But be warned, if it does fry on you before you upgrade, your SOL. I had to replace most of my computer. So, best of luck to you.

 

[customcomputer1]

LG GCC-4522B / 52x32x52x CD-RW / 16x DVD-ROM / Black / Combo Drive (2 lbs)
$35.99

This is probably not the advice you were looking for, but why not go for a DVD Burner?

For instance you can get NEC's dual layer burner:

NEC Super Multi (AD-7170A) / 16x DVD±R Read / 18x DVD±R Burn / 8x DVD±RW / 8x DVD-R DL / 12x DVD-RAM / 48x32x CD-R/RW / Silver / OEM DVD Burner

For $50.99...thats only $15CA more. (NB this is an OEM drive).

You do know that you can get a samsung DVD burner with lightscribe for $38 shipped from newegg?: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827151136
I got it for $28 w/ free shipping for xmas.

 

[metal_dawn]

you do know that newegg does not ship to canada right?

 

[TeLu1]

Ultra IS made by those cheap company's listed above. So rather then getting an ultra, just spring for a chepo. You have been warned about the psu, thats where you really don't want to skimp, even if it sounds like we all are over exaggerating, trust me, at least I am not.