First build, need help and reccomendations

Hello all,

I am a long time reader even if I don’t post much. The time to purchase a new computer is upon me again since my 3.0 Northwood and 9800 pro are aging.

This is my planed build:

What is already purchased:

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R ATX LGA775 Conroe P35 DDR2 161$ CND
Ram : Patriot Extreme Performance 2GB 2X1GB PC2-6400 DDR2-800 CL4-4-4-12
Dual Channel Memory Kit x 2 (99$ CND after rebate)
Hdd: Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 500GB SATA2 3GB/S 7200RPM 16MB Cache Ncq Hard Drive 119$ CND
Cpu cooler: Sunbeam Tuniq Tower 120 S754 S939 S940 S478 LGA775 Heatpipe Cooler 120MM Fan CPU Heatsink 55$ CND

Keyboard + mice: Logitech G15 Gaming Keyboard Usb Black Silver Lcd Panel Programmable Backlit Keys 60$ CND ; Creative Labs HD7600L 2400DPI 5 Programmable Buttons Interchangeable Covers Gamer Laser Mouse 48$ CND

Dvd-RW: Asus DRW-1814BLT Black Sata DVD+RW 18X8X18 DVD-RW 18X6X18 Dl 8X Lightscribe Retail Box 38$ CND

Near future purchase:

Cpu : Quad core Q6600 after price drop and G0 stepping revision (Mid August)
Power Supply: OCZ GameXStream 700W ATX12V 24PIN SLI Ready Active PFC ATX Power Supply 120MM Fan Black 118$ CND
Case: Antec Nine Hundred Mid Tower Gamer Case 900 Atx 9 Drive Bay No Ps Top USB2.0 1394 Audio (108$ CND) Will the tunic fit in this case?

+ Windows Vista 64 bit + floppy drive + Kaspersky Internet Security 6.0 oem (28$ CND).
Which leads to my questions:

- Video card: I’m a casual gamer who plays a lot of Civilization and MTW 2, nothing too heavy (but I don’t mind the occasional RTS or FPS at times) so I have 2 options.
1. Either I go best value for money now (Evga E-GEFORCE 8800GTS 576MHZ 320MB 1.7GHZ GDDR3 PCI-E Dual DVI-I Hdtv Hdcp DIRECTX10 Video Card 327$) and upgrade or step-up later.
2. I could go future proof and buy something quite a bit more expensive like BFG GeForce 8800GTX OC 600MHZ 768MB 1.8GHZ GDDR3 Dual DVI-I HDTV Out HDCP DIRECTX10 Video Card (539$) or even the new 2900xt 825mhz 1 gig ddr4 core Extreme PC Exclusive SI Diamond Radeon HD2900XT 825 (574$)

I do have a Diamond pro 2060u monitor which has a native 16x12 res (that I may or may not change to LCD)


- I’ve looked into the whole Q6660 vs e6850 (or 6750) question and I do think that the quad core is a better option for the long term. It can overclock to same stock speed, multitask as well even if all the cores are not used for gaming (anti virus, ripping music…), but I still am open for arguments.
- 600W or 700W power supply. Is OCZ a good choice for that build?
- Will there be any compatibility problems between board and memory?
- Second optical drive: Is it advisable in order to preserve burner from overuse?
- Raptor or no raptor: Is it better to purchase a drive for OS + applications and another for storage? If yes, would Western Digital SE16 500GB SATA2 7200RPM 16MB Cache 8.9MS Ncq Hard Drive Oem 3YR Mfr Warranty do instead?
- Sound card or no sound card? I listen to a lot of classical music (Cds and FLAC rips from CDs)
- Speakers’ recommendations?

Sorry for the long post, second computer only. Thanks in advance

at the rate computers are changing, theres no such thing as future proofing. you'll need the 700w power source. get a sound card. nobody really knows about compatibility. and i would get a raptor for windows and another drive for storage. i trust western digitals drives. a sound card is a good idea. logitech makes good computer speakers.

First of all congratulations, you've done your homework. I would pick exactly the same parts, after months of reading review after review.

Get the 8800 GTX rather than the Diamond Viper. Here's a review I read yesterday, I found it very useful:
http://www.firingsquad.com/hardwar [...] 00_xt_1gb/

Scythe Ninja is a good cooler too.

I wouldn't bother with a Raptor, especially because it's noise would interfere with the music listening.

I wouldn't mix Seagate and WD disks, why have two sets of drivers loaded...

700W gives you more room than 600W to add disks or overclock. Seasonic might be a better choice than OCZ.

Second optical drive: only if you copy disk to disk very often. Even then, it's safer to have a hard disk image. No, I wouldn't buy two optical drives.

Sound card: normally not necessary with that motherboard. If you really like music and your ears and speakers are better than average then go for it, get an X-Fi ExtremeMusic (avoid ExtremeGamer, some quality issues there).

If you want a quiet case then Antec P182 is better than Antec 900. The 900 is better for overclocking though.

Love the Q6600, long-term it's definitely the smarter choice.

Speakers: sorry, no idea. I've got an Altec Lansing set and a Logitech set, forgot the model numbers and I'm not at home right now. They're both excellent but if you have $300 or more for this I'm sure you can get something better these days.

Good luck !

excellent setup. id go with the fastest dual core and 8800gtx or 2900xt.the quad cores dont have much use for the moment and when they will have, the q6600 and faster quadcores will be cheap (i expect 2 years or more for some adoption of quad core technology just ike dual core adoption in games is pretty slow)

sorry I meant 8800gts 320mb not gtx... edit function not working