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First build - reality check needed before I order

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Retired programmer now doing video and photo editing -- this seems like a reasonable setup to me -- anything obvious I'm missing? Thanks... (all prices from newegg)


MSI 975X Platinum V.2 LGA 775 Intel 975X ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail $166.99

Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 Conroe 2.13GHz LGA 775 Processor Model BX80557E6400 - Retail $222.00

ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler - Retail $29.99

CORSAIR XMS2 DOMINATOR 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TWIN2X2048-6400C4D - Retail $302.00

SeaSonic S12 Energy Plus SS-550HT ATX12V / EPS12V 550W Power Supply - Retail $139.99

COOLER MASTER Centurion 534 RC-534-KKN2-GP Black Aluminum & Mesh bezel / SECC Chassis ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail $49.99


Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 ST3500641AS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM $339.98 ($169.99 each)

GIGABYTE GV-NX66L128DP GeForce 6600LE 128MB DDR PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail $53.99

2 OKGEAR SATA II cable with metal latch,Silver Model GC24ATASM - Retail ($2.99 each)

Microsoft Windows XP Pro SP2b 1pk w/Upgrade Coupon for Vista - OEM $139.99

Subtotal: $1,450.90

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Drop the MSI board, i would get a Gigabyte DS3 or Asus P5B-E instead. The ram is overkill for your system, this ram will work just as well, and its considerably cheaper. I would get a pair of these instead of the Seagate drives on your list, there a little cheaper an will perform just as well. Might want to get a different gfx card, the 6600LE will work, but its a little under powered, the 7600GS would be a better choice, and its only about $40 more. The psu is also overkill, this one will work fine, and its almost 3 times cheaper.

You're going to overclock, and you don't play 3D games.
If this is true, then it's a good build.

I like the P965 chipset over the 975X.
Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 will overclock to over 500MHz.
It only has one PCI-E x16 slot.
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First, let me say I am amazed at the speed number and quality of the responses so far. Thanks all!

So here I am now, with some substitutions as per your replies. And one more question -- is the 6600 really worth $100 more than the 6400?

BFG Tech BFGR76256GTOCE GeForce 7600GT 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card

FSP Group (Fortron Source) AX450-PN, 12cm FAN, version 2.2, 2 SATA, PCI Express, 450W Power Supply

SUPER TALENT 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory

ASUS P5B-E LGA 775 Intel P965 Express ATX Intel Motherboard

Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

Agree with many of the suggestions, above. Since you are doing pix and vids, have you considered video capture and larger storage capacity? What are you doing for redundancy of all those files you generate? You'll be happy with the WD HD, along with the good performance already mentioned, they are very quiet drives. IMHO, unless you are gaming, I think you'll be fine with the E6400. If you need a little more juice, it overclocks another gig quite easily. I'd spend the attention and money on storage capacity and redundancy.

I'll be getting two of the 500gb WD drives, and will use my older drives for offline backup. I'll also be moving my dvd writer and dvd player from the old machine, along w kbd mouse and monitor. Gotta save money somewhow...

For video capture (whatever you might mean by that) I either have firewire on the motherboard, or I have a PCI firewire card.

"capture," if you needed to pull off of an S-video or composite video source. Sounds like you're just going directly from device to capture software. You might want to get a card reader for some of your media memory chips, otherwise it looks good. Oh, BTW, I read another post that claims the E6600 is better for your use because of the 4M L2 cache, which video-editing software apparently hogs, irrespective of clock speed.

Final total is $1480. I upgraded the PSU to a 500w model, just for piece of mind, and upgraded the processor to the E6600. Thanks all.

1 MB ASUS P5B-E P965 775 - Retail
1 CPU INTEL|C2D E6600 2.4G 775 4M R - Retail
1 CPUCOOLER|ARCTIC P4|ACFZ7-PRO R - Retail
1 MEM 1Gx2|STT DII800 T800UX2GC4 R - Retail
1 CASECOOLERMAS|CAC-T05-UW BLK RT - Retail
1 VGA BFG BFGR76256GTOCE 7600GT 256M - Retail
1 PSU FSP GROUP | AX500-A 500W RT - Retail
2 HD 500G|WD 7K 16M SATA2 WD5000AAKS - OEM

1 SW MS WIN XP PRO SP2B EN 1PK DSP % - OEM
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