Am I good to go?

[tm_vegh]

I posted last week with a similar build, but since I had to delay my purchase a week, I modified it a bit. Can anyone see any problems with this planned build? I intend to try a decent overclock.

CPU Intel Core 2 Duo E6600
RAM Patriot Extreme Performance 2GB PC2-6400 DDR2-800
VID EVGA E-GEFORCE 8800 GTX
MOBO Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3
MOBO COOL Thermaltake CL-P0114 Big Typhoon
NB COOL Thermaltake Extreme Spirit II
HDD1 WD Raptor 150GB
HDD2 Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB
DVD LG GSA-H22L
POWER Zalman ZM600-HP 600W
CASE Antec P180 Black
OS Win XP Home w/ Vista Coupon

Thanks in advance!

(Suggestions for changes/improvements welcome!)

 

[pmr]

Drop the raptor

 

[proof]

MOBO Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3
MOBO COOL Thermaltake CL-P0114 Big Typhoon
HDD2 Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB
POWER Zalman ZM600-HP 600W

The motherboard I dislike because I dislike Gigabyte. Get an ASUS P5B or Stryker Extreme. I am getting an eVGA T1 680i Motherboard and they are incredible.

Ditch the Typhoon and get a Noctua NH-U12F.

Since you are probably going to use the Seagate for storage I would suggest getting two 16MB 250GB perpendicular recording Barracudas and do a RAID0 array. Then use the Raptor as you OS disk.

Don't buy a Zalman PSU. How about a Thermaltake Toughpower 750W or PC Power & Cooling 750W Quad?

 

[jeff_2087]

The motherboard I dislike because I dislike Gigabyte. Get an ASUS P5B or Stryker Extreme. I am getting an eVGA T1 680i Motherboard and they are incredible.

Although everyone is entitled to their own personal preferences, it's a bad idea to impose yours on someone else. Gigabyte is a good company and the DS3 is an excellent board. Unless you have some real justification to suggest a switch, don't suggest it at all.

The DS3 overclocks as well or better than the P5B and Striker. I hope the Striker suggestion was a joke, though. What a ridiculously overpriced board, it's close to $400 and nowhere near worth it.

 

[geofelt]

You may have to mod a small part of the hard drive bay to fit the 8800GTX, which is a bit long. Otherwise, looks good.
---love the raptor---

 

[proof]

The motherboard I dislike because I dislike Gigabyte. Get an ASUS P5B or Stryker Extreme. I am getting an eVGA T1 680i Motherboard and they are incredible.

Although everyone is entitled to their own personal preferences, it's a bad idea to impose yours on someone else. Gigabyte is a good company and the DS3 is an excellent board. Unless you have some real justification to suggest a switch, don't suggest it at all.

The DS3 overclocks as well or better than the P5B and Striker. I hope the Striker suggestion was a joke, though. What a ridiculously overpriced board, it's close to $400 and nowhere near worth it.

Just many bad experiences with Gigabyte boards. Your rightthough. No techniccal benchmarks or anything to back that up, just personal experience. And the Stryker is ABSURDLEY overpriced.

 

[proof]

Ahhh... the eVGA boards are not the expensive but there are certainly cheaper boards out there. What is your budget op?

 

[pmr]

The only thing I dislike in the ds4 is the lack of e-sata, which is a must in a $160 mobo nowadays.

 

[proof]

Same with CoolerMaster products such as the UV SATA cables and fans. Noctua stuff is not all that common either. Wish newegg would get some of those things in. The Stacker 830 case is almost ALWAYS sold out.

 

[tm_vegh]

Great lots of feedback! I'll try and respond to all of them. First I should mention that I'm pretty much at the top end of my budget with what's quoted, so if I switch to a more expensive part in one place, I probably need to switch something else out.

The motherboard I dislike because I dislike Gigabyte. Get an ASUS P5B or Stryker Extreme. I am getting an eVGA T1 680i Motherboard and they are incredible.

I'll never be going SLI, so I don't really see any advantage to a 680i board, and the DS3 seems to be a pretty good OC board, from what I've read here and other places. The other options all seem around $100 more (Canadian), and why pay for SLI if I'm never going to use it?

You know, I would actually wait on the hdd, there's a massive 1tb drive on the way that is as fast as the raptor, and only $400...

Interesting. Maybe what I should do then is ditch HDD2, stick with just the Raptor, and get a 1TB drive in a few months?

Also, dump the big typhoon for something better or cheaper, it's a waste, either you go all out with the tuniq (in stock and usually on sale at xoxide) or you go with the arctic cooling freezer 7 pro from another site...

Yah, unfortunately I'm limited to ordering from Canadian online retailers since the additional cost from customs is pure insanity. I do see the Arctic 7 on directcanada.com though, that sounds like a good choice as long as it will fit the case and the NB cooler, which it looks like it will. (Also, there isn't a single Tuniq in stock anywhere in Canada.)

For the psu, I would ditch it as the other say, if you can afford a pc power and cooling psu, go for that...

Right, so PSU selection is a big problem for me. I can't get my head around which are the good (but not crazy expensive) PSUs. I'd like something modular, and I thought the Zalman was a decent one from reviews. what would you suggest? (I'll also check that DVD RW out.)


So... PSU suggestions? I'm looking for soemthing modular at around the same price (~130 Canadian).

Thanks in advance! (again )

 

[skyguy]

I'd hate to have a 1Tb drive......it craps out and you are S-C-R-E-W-E-D. You'd need a backup drive. So, bigger the primary, the bigger the backup. End up spending double the money for security. $800 is alot for drives in my opinion.....could build a whole rig for that

 

[proof]

I have no idea wth 130CAD is in USD. But I saw some benchmarks the other day in which the Raptor still beat the 1TB HDD. PC Power & Cooling makes some of the best PSUs.

 

[proof]

Here, this is a Candian shop with the tuniq tower
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=17867&vpn=T-120&manufacture=Sunbeam

I think getting a raptor then adding the tb drive later on would be an excelletn idea, since it gives you time to save up, but I don't know about finding a modular psu for only $130, the only good modular ones are expensive, and the cheaper modules are outclassed by the zalman, that makes it difficult to select from
here's a cheap modular psu, but I wouldn't bet my money on the stability of it
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=15576&vpn=HPU-4B580&manufacture=HIPER

The HIPER PSUs are okay but the Zalman is better.

 

[proof]

Sorry but can everyone take a look at this thread? Also any mod ideas for it would be awsome! (you will see what I mean in the thread)

http://forumz.tomshardware.com/hardware/Hit-Buy-Help-Make-Perfect-ftopict229351.html

 

[geofelt]

re: psu selection. pick a unit from this list:

http://forumz.tomshardware.com/hardware/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=1491365#1491365

For the P180 case, modular is probably a good idea; the area gets very crowded. Also, find a PSU that has extra long cables. The bottom mounted PSU area can cause you a problem, depending on where the mobo connectors are.

 

[tm_vegh]

Here, this is a Candian shop with the tuniq tower...

Unfortunately NCIX (just like every other rEtailer) is out of stock... and none of them will commit to when they will have stock. I'll probably go with the Arctic 7.

re: psu selection. pick a unit from this list:...

Yah, I think I'll spend some more time with that list and reading more reviews.

If I do drop HDD2, I've got some more room to get a more expensive PSU though: probably up to $210 Canadian. I definitely don't want to skimp out on the PSU, even if I have to make sacrifices in other places.

Thanks for the feedback so far guys, you're really helping me!

 

[tm_vegh]

Right, so after a little more investigation (and another round or two at the PSU 101, Extreme Power Supply Calculator, and the PSU Reference List), I'm thinking that the Corsair CMPSU-620HX 620W might be a good choice for me. It's entirely within my price range, has gotten good reviews and has the +12 Amperage and overall Wattage I'll need.

So the updated build would be:

CPU Intel Core 2 Duo E6600
RAM Patriot Extreme Performance 2GB PC2-6400 DDR2-800
VID EVGA E-GEFORCE 8800 GTX
MOBO Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3
MOBO COOL Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro
NB COOL Thermaltake Extreme Spirit II
HDD WD Raptor 150GB
DVD LITE-ON Black LH-20A1H-185
POWER Corsair CMPSU-620HX 620W
CASE Antec P180 Black
OS Win XP Home

I'm feeling better about this build, I admit. One other question: is the Thermaltake NB overkill? I'm wondering if I shouldn't follow the trend and just attach a quiet fan directly on top of the stock fins.

Any other suggestions? I'm hoping to order tonight so I can get it for building on the weekend of the 31st.

Thanks

 

[tm_vegh]

I'd say you're far better off with a nb cooler instead of popping on a fan...

That's what my gut was telling me; I guess I'll stick with the Thermaltake cooler as originally planned.

I think it's looking pretty good now, but I'm wondering, can you wait until april 22?

I could (maybe... I've been without a decent box for so long now), but I'm actually buying two of these suckers: one for me and one for my geographically-challenged friend. His job is sending him deep into the arctic north for several months in a little less than a month, so time is a factor.

 

[proof]

Looks good save the HSF.

 

[tm_vegh]

Yah, I think I'll just pull the trigger on both of them. Part of the fun will be building them together, since neither of us have ever built a machine from scratch.

Again, thanks a ton; I really appreciate the help.

(...also, expect me back in a couple weeks in the OC section, under a topic 'OMGWTF i just blew up my machine oh noes all i did was try to oc it to 8Ghz!#!@1211!')

 

[geofelt]

Instead of a NB fan, you might instead order a couple of 120mm fans for the front to increase the airflow. If they turn at 1000 rpm they won't be heard.

Also, if you are considering Vista, it is probably better to order it initially, instead of trying to do an upgrade install later. Most of the problems have come from upgrading. I have been using Vista home premium with no real problem.

 

[tm_vegh]

I'm not touching Vista until maybe November or December. I like to game, so that means XP for a while. I'll just re-format if/when I go to Vista, no biggie.