Opinion about this setup? Anyone?...Anyone?

[ezmack]

Hows it goin' guys?
Probably get a lot of these questions but i was wondering if you could give me your opinion and also help me out with selecting a couple of parts for this system i am building for the first time....

C2D E6600 2.4ghz
MSI P965 Platinum Motherboard
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper TX
EVGA or XFX (please advise) GeForce 8800GTS 320MB
Hard-drive (2 of my older hard-drives, 60gb and 40gb for the time being (till my next paycheck)

I am still trying to decide on memory......thinking about 2GB (2x 1024) but have no idea which brand/type/speed to get....

PSU - thinking about 550 watt....think that would be sufficient since i might be overclocking to maybe 2.9 or 3.0 and also 20" LCD? i know that to run the 8800GTS smoothly you should have at least 420 or 480 or something.....


Note, i am only a student and have saved up some money for a new computer (been using a Dell Dimension 4300, 1.6ghz p4, 512mhz ram, geforce 2 64mb graphics card for the past 5 years). Also, i have done as much research as i could and the only reason for this post is to be ABSOLUTELY sure before buying. I dont want to spend my hard earned money for something i wn't be satisfied with later.

Oh yeah and is the MSI P965 Platinum a good choice or should i just go for the MSI P965 Neo-F? any major differences?

 

[gators1223]

for the gpu i would go with EVGA because of the warrenty and i have never had any problems with their stuff. As for ram i would go with ddr2 800 here is the ram i would choose

 

[goldragon_70]

Are you going to be doing something other then gaming on your computer? If you are it sounds like a good set up, otherwise go with a slower chip that will overclock better, and get a better 8800. Just make sure you power supply has the rails needed to supply the power you need.

 

[ezmack]

Are you going to be doing something other then gaming on your computer? If you are it sounds like a good set up, otherwise go with a slower chip that will overclock better, and get a better 8800. Just make sure you power supply has the rails needed to supply the power you need.

which one would you recommend? How many watts? and yeah i'll be using this computer for a lot of different things, i mainly play Counter Strike Condition Zero but i will be playing Source once i get the new setup and maybe some other games too

I can go with either an Ultra ATX case that comes with a Ultra 700 Watt PSU for a total of $149

Any other suggestions?

 

[goldragon_70]

It depends on what card you settle on to what amperes you need from a rail. If your going to game I haven't seen many games that need more the 2.0Ghz, and most games will benefit from a better graphics card.

 

[nvalhalla]

Not much of a "budget" computer... I like to items you have chosen. An 8800 640 might be better than the 320, especially in the future. Go with 2 GB of RAM, newegg has some decent RAM for $100. Gskill and A-Data come to mind. PSU is always a tough choice. Look at the recommended PSU list Mplichfamily made in the PSU section of the forums. Don't worry too much about the volts, you need to look at the amps on the 12v rail. I just bought a nice 550w Antec TruePowerTrio from Frys.com for $70 shipped. 3 12v rails, 18a each, 42a max. More than enough for a single card setup. Not sure what that cooler costs but if you want to OC and money is tight, go with a cheaper CPU and get a nice Thermalright Ultra 120 and a quiet fan, say a Noctua or S-Flex sff21f, total cost is about $65-70. The money you save on CPU can get you a better card. Hell, stock cooling on an E4300 can get you to the E6600 speed.