First time gaming build, 800 dollars, please help!

Tnx

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RAM - CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16820145590
$131.00
($101.00 after $30.00 Mail-In Rebate) Shipping is free

CASE - Rosewill R5604-BK 0.8mm SECC Screw-less Dual 120mm Fans ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147037

$44.99
3 Business Day Shipping $17.44

PSU - Rosewill RD500-2SB ATX12V Ver.2.2 500W Power Supply 115/230 V UL, FCC - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16817182076

$47.99
3 Business Day Shipping $7.64

Hard Drive - Western Digital Caviar SE WD2000JS 200GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
Special combo deal, while supplies last
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16822144416

$59.99
Free 3 Business Day Shipping

MOBO - EVGA 122-CK-NF66-T1 LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 650i Ultra ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813188017

$109.99
($99.99 after $10.00 Mail-In Rebate)
3 Business Day Shipping $6.41


Processor - Intel Core 2 Duo E4300 Allendale 1.8GHz 2M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16819115013

$114.50
Free 3 Business Day Shipping

Video Card - EVGA 256-P2-N615-TX GeForce 7600GT 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130062

$109.99
($89.99 after $20.00 Mail-In Rebate)
3 Business Day Shipping $5.64

CD Drive - LITE-ON Black 16X DVD-ROM 52X CD-R 32X CD-RW 52X CD-ROM 1.5MB Cache SATA Combo Drive - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16827106040

$25.99
Free 3 Business Day Shipping

Mouse - Logitech MX518 2-Tone 8 Buttons 1 x Wheel USB + PS/2 Wired Optical Gaming-Grade Mouse - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16826104178

$39.99
Free 3 Business Day Shipping

Keyboard - Logitech Media Elite 967559-0403 Black 102 Normal Keys 18 Function Keys USB + PS/2 Wired Standard Keyboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16823126178
$23.99
3 Business Day Shipping $6.41

Speakers - Logitech X-230 32 watts RMS 2.1 Black Speaker System - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16836121123

$38.99
3 Business Day Shipping $11.33

I saw on a sticky about graphics card that the Radeon X1900GT is better then the 7600GT, well its priced 130 dollars at Newegg (link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102022) Should I get that instead?
And is my choice of motherboard and processor good? Are there any better substitutes for my list?
 

alcattle

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The e4300 is good budget CPU, and you save more by using slower RAM. That MB will allow more flex with the timing so whatt ever speed you decide to run, the memory can match it without paying for the high priced kind. That XMS2 is a great deal and might be best when you upgrade and need the 800mhz.
Agree that there are better PSUs for the same price. I like those from FSP and hyper is good.
 

Tnx

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akhilles, what do you mean "The 2x120mm fans are begging for an overclock. "?

And I'm seeing lots of reviews saying that people are OC'ing that processor like mad, is it easy to do?

Any other comments or suggestions are greatly appreciated!
 

alcattle

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It is pretty easy to get a 50% boost for free, and after that you might need to buy a better CPU cooler. With a good motherboard like the 650i, all you do is change settings in BIOS.
About fans, he means you are starting with good airflow, which is good when overclocking, and is never bad for any computer. cooling=longer life.
 

Tnx

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Oh hah, I thought he meant that I should overclock the fans to make them spin faster (Is that even possible?)

Oh and you said that "you save more by using slower RAM", are you suggesting I buy slower ram?
 

alcattle

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If budget is tight and you find a better price, using slower RAM will not effect performance, as you will not use all the speed for the RAM. The math is hee somewhere but FSB x2 should equal RAM speed. so 333FSB = 667 RAM.
 

alcattle

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You are right, but what the BOIS is telling you is not quite true. A cpu can't run that fast, 400mhz is max hard core water cooled type stuff. It is telling you FSB is 800 after all the math is done. Closer to 200 quad pumped? Or 233 x 9, or is it 166 times 9. Anyway, 800 is good and 1:1 is perfect.
 

akhilles

Splendid
My bad. i mean the combo is begging for an overclock. It's a budget overclocker's dream.

The mobo doesn't have a southbridge cooler, just like mine. So your overclock will be limited to 1st-ly the chipset temp.

It's not hard to o/c 650i. In fact, it's easier than p965. You can o/c only the cpu & keep the ram at stock. Just enter bios & disable everything you don't need, unlink the cpu & ram & up the QDR/FSB.

The ram speeds don't matter to 650/680i.
 

Tnx

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But if I do anything wrong, won't it like totally mess up my computer? Should I just opt for a 6600? Or is the 4300 good enough for moderate gaming?
 

Tnx

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Ok I don't get what OEM is exactly, like do they only sell that product and it doesn't come with extras like a heat sink and stuff? (I googled "OEM wiki" and I'm guessing its 'Original equipment manufacturer, the original manufacturer of a product, which may be resold by another company')
 

alcattle

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yes, that is about right. Most times things are sold like that to builders who don't need manuals and CDs. They buy parts 100 at a time and they get each part that way. The end up with exactly the amount of parts they need to build a system with nothing extra for lower costs. If you have the extras, like when you replace a CPU, you won't need another heatsink so just buy the CPU-OEM.
 

akhilles

Splendid
OEM means that, but it's now abused to mean computer parts w/o retail packaging. It could be a resale, used item (open box), refurb, etc.

As for cpu, I always buy retail cpu's cuz it has LONGER warranty & a cooler, not for me, but for the next buyer. :) I keep my aftermarket coolers, etc.
 

zenmaster

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Don't worry about over-clocking, just ask lots more about it on the forum.

Back in the day CPU's often shipped near their performance limit and it took advanced cooling and other measures to get significantly more performance out of them.

This is no longer the case.

The E4300 is built using the same material and basic process as an E6800.
Yet the E4300 is only clocked to 1.8 by default while the E6800 is clocked about a full 1ghz higher. There is little reason to not turn up the E4300 to run at the speeds to which it has been engineered of 1ghz more. Mind you it has not been "Tested" at that speed so may not work optimally, but finding somebody who could not reach these speeds due to an issue with the CPU and not a poor selection of supporting pieces is between rare and non-existent.

(Note: The X1900GT would be an excellent choice @ $130 if you are going to game.)
 

Tnx

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Ok then, I'm going to buy retail because I need the heatsink and stuff I'm guessing. I'll stick to the E4300 since you guys seem to not have any complaints or qualms about it.

Now onto the graphics card, I recall my neighbor having bought a ATI 9600 three years back (we both wanted to play BF1942 together) and my integrated card worked well, while he lagged alot and eventually his onboard card seemed to be better then his 9600, and so it was discarded. It's anecdotal but I'm shying away from ATI for this reason.
I'll go read up on the two cards and see, oh and, won't I have to change up my motherboard? (Since they are opposing companies and such, won't it cause driver/firmware conflict?)
 

Tnx

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Ok I just saw a sticky in the graphics card section, and it had the X1900GT rated higher in performance then the 7600GT, and it seems to be a steal over at newegg..

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102022

There's talk about a revision or something, I guess ATI crippled the card a bit?
Does anyone have any objections towards this card, or should I get this card instead of the 7600GT?

EDIT: Darn I didn't think of editing my last post, sorry guys, but I'll do it here...
This drive is OEM, does this mean I must buy a cable or whatever thing that connects this to the PSU/Mobo?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106040
 

akhilles

Splendid
I want to be left out of video debates. No comments. :)

No you don't have to worry about chipset-video compability. They're separate. As long as you run a single card. Any mobo will do. However, you can't sli crossfire cards & vice versa. i.e. run 2 nvidia cards linked in crossfire mobo.

BTW, a retail mobo including yours comes with all the basic cables so you don't need extra.
 

Tnx

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Ok, I'll compile a final list so you can guys look over it once again, then I'll order later today.

EDIT:

Ok I'm torn between these two PSUs..
HIPER HPU-4M480-PS ATX12V v2.2 480W Power Supply 100 - 120V AC cUL,TUV,CB,CE,FCC - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817128005

FSP Group (Fortron Source) AX450-PN, 12cm FAN, version 2.2, 2 SATA, PCI Express, 450W Power Supply - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817104954

Please help me on this guys, I'd like to order today!!
 

easyg

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Ok, I'll compile a final list so you can guys look over it once again, then I'll order later today.

Before you make your final decision, check out these modules:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146565

Plenty of reviews online if you wanna compare. These are premium modules, not budget stuff. See for instance: http://hardwarelogic.com/news/60/ARTICLE/1338/2007-01-19.html

And they are really really cheap right now. $139.99 for 2x1GB Ballistix DDR800 (6400).... Damn good deal. Couple months ago they were about $300.00.