NEED ADVICE/COMMENTS ON FIRST BUILD

[TheLaughingMan]

I'm getting my Computer next week finally and need to know you guys think.

New Build for Video/Photo Editing and a little bit of gaming:

E4300 (will oc in the near future and then upgrade to quads next year)
Gigabyte DS3
Antec P180b Case
OCZ GameXstream
OCZ 2GB DDR2-667 Gold GX XTC Dual Channel (Still not sure though...)
Asus Radeon X1950 Pro
Seagate Barracuda 320 GB

Think there all compatible
Looks like $1,350 - $1,450 CDN ($1,500 Budget)

Comments or Problems about this build are welcome

 

[alcattle]

make sure you have the juice for your vid card. unsure what yours will read.

Going with a stock cooler or a better one since you will be O/c right away.

Big Al in Seattle

 

[skyguy]

Very good specs, well researched!!

DVD Burner?

Consider getting a second hard drive for backup/data. Your primary goes down and you're screwed. Trust me, the $100 is worth it if you lose irreplaceable data.

The OCZ is fine, it'll overclock decently, but don't expect massive increases for the price of that stuff.

GREAT case, but definitely not for the rookie builder. Cable management in the 180 is critical and takes a LONG TIME.

Good vid card there, but might be a bit overkill for you. Consider getting a 7600GT from Tigerdirect for $150. Money you save there will get you a backup hard drive. Plus, a 7600GT can handle most modern games no problem @ 1280 resolution (I assume that's your rez?) Then you can upgrade to a mid-range DX10 card down the road on the cheap when prices drop. Planning on going to Vista? That'll make the 7600 purchase even smarter now because that'll give time for Vista to get the bugs worked out before going to a DX10 vid card.


Looks great though, but BACKUP DRIVE! And maybe a 7600GT. Wiser investment and you'll come under budget

 

[chogo]

BTW, how many watts is the power supply?

Where are you planning on getting the parts as some of the cheaper sources include: CanadaComputers.com, and DirectCanada.com (BC so no PST and free ground shipping on orders over CDN$300)?

You can get a BFG 7600 256MB GT for only $120 after mail-in rebate at directcanada.com. What sort of games are you planning on playing?

The extra 2MB of cache in a E6600 would be beneficial for photo/video editing or another option is to wait until the E6320/E6420 (4MB cache) come out.

With the DS3 there is a 6.3% failure rate (Motherboard Failure Rates) but it is a very good OC'ing motherboard.

The OCZ memory should be fine as the 1.8V issue has been fixed with newer motherboard BIOS's and OCZ memory likes voltage for OC'ing. BTW what are the memory timings (eg. 4-4-4-12) as lower latency is better but usually more expensive?

 

[kaen]

The minimum wattage for the GameXStream series is 600, and that should be enough for his build.

 

[TheLaughingMan]

Yeah, I'll probably go for the 600Watts. The 1950Pro and the 7600Gt, the difference between them is $75 dollars and I wont be upgrading the GPU until next year, should I get the 7600 GT instead of the x1950 Pro?

 

[TheLaughingMan]

With the DS3 there is a 6.3% failure rate (Motherboard Failure Rates)

6.3% is pretty high as oppose to the P5B Deluxe that was runner up for my Mobo. Failure rate is the motherboards means coming in DOA right or in general?

 

[TheLaughingMan]

BTW, how many watts is the power supply?

Where are you planning on getting the parts as some of the cheaper sources include: CanadaComputers.com, and DirectCanada.com (BC so no PST and free ground shipping on orders over CDN$300)?

You can get a BFG 7600 256MB GT for only $120 after mail-in rebate at directcanada.com. What sort of games are you planning on playing?

The extra 2MB of cache in a E6600 would be beneficial for photo/video editing or another option is to wait until the E6320/E6420 (4MB cache) come out.

The OCZ memory should be fine as the 1.8V issue has been fixed with newer motherboard BIOS's and OCZ memory likes voltage for OC'ing. BTW what are the memory timings (eg. 4-4-4-12) as lower latency is better but usually more expensive?

I getting most of my parts from a local computer store (there a little more cheaper then the rest). I'll be playing a wide selections of games from new (like oblivion and other upcoming titles) to old ones (WC3, CS).

 

[chogo]

Graphics: The x1950 Pro is more powerful than the 7600 GT, however, at least on the AGP front, there appears to be a lot of DOA cards.

x1950 Pro > 7900 GS > 7600 GT

However, an OC'd 7900 GS will outperform the x1950 Pro (which doesn't seem to OC very well). The BFG 7900 GS 256MB OC can be had for $180 after $40 mail-in rebate (canadacomputers.com). I would recommend this card over the 7600 GT depending on pricing.

You can compare their performances in various games using the online VGA Charts

DS3: Yes a 6.3% chance of DOA is over double that of the P5B Deluxe but is a 93.7% chance of working fine. Since you're buying from a local store, it shouldn't be a big issue as you can always take a DOA MB back except for the return/rebuild hassle. A more comparable board (price wise) to the DS3 is the P5B-E which will OC to a little over 400MHz FSB without issues (P5B-E Review).

PS: 600W should be plenty for your setup.

 

[TheLaughingMan]

I really don't know anything about overclocking GPU's, but is this ok in terms of price/performance

Clink to enlarge

The cheapest I could get x1950Pro is $205+tax. I checked out the VGA, and it seems the 7900 GS is far behind from the X1950Pro. Are you sure a 7900 GS OC would outperform a X1950Pro?

 

[chogo]

Here's a review x1950 Pro vs 7900 GS. Although they give the nod to the x1950 Pro.

OC'ing the 7900 GS is relatively easy, just download and install the Coolbits registry "hack" and then use the NVidia driver or Rivatuner (or even ATI Tool) to up the clock speeds.

At stock speeds, the 7900 GS is (mostly) beat by the x1950 Pro. I would recommend the x1950 Pro except for the issues that people seem to be having with the card (black screens, dumping out of games, etc.). Seems to be caused by a large batch of bad capacitors for voltage regulation. Of course these problems may now be fixed... YMMV.

BTW, in the $200 range I would go with the x1950Pro instead of the 7900 GS and live with the potential issues (seems to be less on the PCIe side than AGP side). I would only go with the 7900GS if you could get it for $180 or less.

 

[MikeGR7]

Get the X1950. It has a lot more shaders and better overall image quality. Power draw is a bit higher but that doesn't affect you anyway. Don't base the gpu selection in OC. GPU's are much different than CPU's. A overclocked gpu, might work fine for some time and then suddenly die or start having issues. Even then the 7900gs can't beat the 1950 in shader heavy depended games like oblivion even with OC. I agree with the back up drive. Good overall system.

 

[TheLaughingMan]

Asus x1950Pro is the only one I can find for around $200 so I'll get that, theres the sapphire one, but its more expensive and a lot amount of people are complaining about the heat issue.