New system build, please help

[wrath]

Hello all,

I'm building a computer for the first time, and I had hoped some of you would be able to offer me some aid. As I said, this is my first build, although I've done work inside computers before (installing drives, RAM, etc - nothing too technical). As such, I'm primarily concerned with stability, not absolute cutting-edge performance. I want it to look nice when I play games and run fast when I tell it to, but I don't want to sacrifice stability for an extra handful of FPS. I've been doing research online, but I've seen a lot of conflicting information. Any help you can offer would be appreciated.

The system computer system will be used primarily for gaming and movie-watching, though it will also be used for computer algebra systems (eg Mathematica) on a regular basis, as well as for occasional work in photoshop and with 3D graphics (nothing too serious - I'm a hobbyist, not a professional) I'm looking to get a moderately high end and somewhat future-proof system. My budget is around US$2000-2500 for the computer itself, and another $500 or so for peripherals (namely monitor(s), keyboard, etc).

Unless someone gives a good reason why I shouldn't, I'm almost certainly going to purchase:

Intel Q6600
EVGA GeForce 8800 GTS Superclocked 640MB
COOLER MASTER Stacker 830 Evolution Black
Real Power Pro 1000W Power Supply

I've found a great deal on newegg for the case and power supply (~$200 off a $600 pricetag), which is the main reason I'm getting them. Besides, Tom's Hardware gave the case, at least, a positive review.

I found a similar combo deal on tigerdirect for the GTS and q6600. Yeah, ideally I'd be getting a GTX (or a pair of GTXs) and a QX6800, but given the budget, I think can get similar performance from the far cheaper Q6600 and GTS, especially if I overclock. Is that true? I definitely want quad core, if only for the multitasking possibilites, and I've heard there is little functional difference between the GTS and the GTX besides price, unless you're working at really high resolutions. I probably won't go above 1680x1050.

As far as motherboards go, I was choosing between the Intel p35 chipset and the nVidia 680i. It seems like the 680i has a lot of compatibility problems; of the customer reviews I've seen, there were a ton (10%+) which indicated the board had either failed or simply didn't work as it was supposed to. The P35 seems to have been more successful, but it doesn't support SLI, unless I'm mistaken (as I understand it, you need nVidia chipsets to link two of their cards). At the moment, I lean towards the P35; this is my first build, and I'm more worried about stability than absolutely ultimate performance. Any suggestions, either with regards to chipset or specific boards?

I'm also not sure whether to get a board compatible with DDR2 or DDR3. Granted, DDR2 is cheaper (and, I believe, faster) at the moment, but I have a feeling I might kick myself in a year or so DDR3 is cheap and fast and I'm stuck with outdated stuff. I was thinking of getting a DDR3 board and buying some (relatively) cheap RAM, and then upgrading in a year or two when 45nm processors are available and DDR3 has become reasonably priced. Any advise would be appreciated.

The rest of the build (optical drives, HDs, etc) is up in the air. I want 2x DVD±R/RW, and I was thinking of getting the Lite-On LH-20A1S SuperAllwrite (tigerdirect, $40), because of its high (20x) DVD±R speed and low price. But its difficult to tell drives apart online; they all seem more or less the same. I'd rather have a drive that'll last, recognize most media, and not be too loud than one which spins faster but'll burn out in a year and sounds like a table saw. I've had that problem before, in a laptop - drove me nuts.

And for hard drives, I'm even more clueless. Online reports are incredible conflicting. Going with the full RAID-0 Raptors seems incredibly fast, but I've heard horror stories of difficult to set up arrays and sudden drive failures, plus its really expensive. I'm considering setting up a RAID-5 array with WD 500GB SE16s or RE2s, since they seem like a good mix of size, price, and reliablity; I'm aslo considering getting a single Raptor to hold the swap file and boot from, since they are so fast. Would that give good enough performance? For that matter, do I need RAID at all? I should mention that I'm very impatient. I hate waiting for my computer to catch up with me. I've also heard bad things about onboard RAID on many motherboards... is it worth getting a dedicated RAID card?

As for the remaining stuff - I want a 22" widescreen monitor (2 if I can afford it), and I'll probably get a Razer Copperhead and a Logitech g15. I'm sticking with onboard sound for the time being, though I'll probably upgrade in a few months (I'm not too old to make christmas lists for Santa, right?). I'll also need a CPU cooler, since I've heard the stock intel ones stink. Any recommendations/ thoughts on any of the above? And is there anything I'm forgetting?

Well, I've asked questions about nearly everything - sorry if the post is too long. Any help you can offer would be appreciated; I'd like to order parts sometime in the next week or two.

Thanks,
Wrath

 

[foxrocks]

That PSU is overkill to be honest: you'd be perfectly fine with something in the 600-800W range, ideally by Corsair, Seasonic or PC Power & Cooling. That said, if the combo offer works out to be financially superior then you might as well go for it.

If you're gaming at 1680x1050 then a 640MB 8800GTS should do you fine. It won't outperform a GTX of course, but you'll probably get better bang for buck at that resolution.

If you're not buying two 8800GTX cards to use in SLI, you're better off with a P35 board. I'm sure you've seen plenty of people recommend the Gigabyte P35-DS3R on these forums, but if you think you might want to move to DDR3 before you want to upgrade your motherboard again, one option would be to pay the extra $30 or so and get the Gigabyte P35C-DS3R. The boards are identical apart from the two additional DDR3 slots on the P35C model. This would allow you to get some DDR2 now, which is obviously much better value at the moment, and then move to DDR3 when it comes down in price.

You're right that optical drives are more or less the same. Just get something by a reputable brand that's SATA-based and has good newegg comments and you'll be fine.

Stay clear of RAID 0 IMO; the small performance boost isn't worth the potential data loss risks. A single Raptor is fine and dandy if you can afford it, but to be honest they're luxury items and you can usually get a better performance increase by spending that sort of money elsewhere.

If you want the best air CPU cooler you can get, buy a Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme fitted with a Scythe S-FLEX fan. It's not cheap, but it'll keep your CPU cool as ice and will grant you the best overclocks if you're into that sort of thing.

 

[wingsofzion]

The Power Supply
Like the previous guy said, that PSU is wayyyyyyyyyy over kill. I can understand if you were doing a SLI Nvidia 8800GTX set up to warrant such a high PSU but a 600W one will be plenty and WAY cheaper than going for a 1K watt PSU that'll make your house lights flicker when you turn your PC on. A 1K PSU ranges from $250 to $400 bucks. If you go with a 600W you'll be spending about $110 to $160, that's a $140 to $240 dollar savings that can be applied clearly towards something else.

Raid
To be honest i've found people go raid for all the wrong reasons. I wanted to go RAID on my last build but looking at all the configs, it just made more sence to just use straight drives instead of setting up RAID on them. I'm impatient too so here is what i did to help with speed on my system. My OS is on a 75GB Raptor Drive. I partitioned 15GB on that 75GB for the C: drive alone. What this did was basically put my entire OS install on a 15GB space (this is for XP of course). This helps alot with windows' boot speed because the drive is 10K rpm. My PC loads XP in under 5 seconds after the bios screen. Windows starts up clean and is smoother. The remaining space on the 75GB drive is where all the programs are stored. The rig i am building now will look like this. It'll be a dual boot system of XP and Vista (cause many programs i have cannot run under Vista at present)

Drives:
150GB Raptor
500GB WD.

Partitions:
C: for XP (in a 15GB partition)
V: for Vista (in a 30GB partition cause the install of Vista is about 15GB)
G: for games and high end programs (photoshop, NERO, etc...) installed on the raptor's remaining 100GB of space
P: for mass storage, back up, and a basic junk dumping ground. This is all installed on the 500GB drive.

With this set up all the OS's are isolated in there own sectioned partitions, the programs are in another segregated space and my storage is in another location. This set up is pretty good and i have not had any performance problems and going RAID would have really not helped me do what i wanted.