Hi all,

I've been reading this message board for the past week in preparation for attempting a new system build, something I haven't done in at least 5-6 years so I'm very out of touch with the latest hardware. Can someone please give a little feedback on the below specs? I'm really looking to make sure I haven't made any terrible mistakes!

Intel Core 2 Duo E6750
Gigabyte GA-P35C-DS3R Motherboard
Antec 900 Case
OCZ GameXStream 700W PSU
Crucial Ballistix 2gb 1066
EVGA 8800GTS 320mb
Western Digital 500gb

Main focus is gaming - needs to run WoW, Bioshock, Crysis, etc. smoothly, but nothing spectacular. Hoping to keep this for a couple of years, and expand as necessary. Seems I can upgrade the CPU and memory on this motherboard fairly easily.

Thanks!
Chris

Quality parts; looks good.
The RAM may be a little overkill though; you could use this Geil DDR2-800 RAM, with 4-4-4-12 timings:
http://www.newegg.com/product/prod [...] 6820144062 for $75 after MIR. Yours is fine too, but this might be a little cheaper.

At some point, especially if you plan a moderate to high oc, you may want to consider a better HSF than the Intel stock.

Agreed with jtt283. All excellent choices.

Are you planning to game at 1920x1200 or more? If yes, you should get an 8800 GTX.

Edit: "running Crysis smoothly" and "nothing spectacular" is very hard to do at the same time. Pick one or the other

If you're trying to keep price down then that looks fine. If you plan on keeping it for several years you might consider a Q6600 so you have more processing power to throw around down the road and also because games like Bioshock are *finally* starting to support multiple cores. If you go that route you should definitely get an aftermarket CPU cooler if you plan to overclock at all.

-mcg

Good point. Are we talking about a build for the next 6 years here? Then definitely Q6600/8800 GTX.

I've got about identical requirements to the original poster -- taking into account some of the comments on this thread, I've got the following proposed build:

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-P35C-DS3R
Processor: Core 2 Duo E6750 (2.66 GHz)
RAM: 2x1GB GeIL DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
Video: EVGA GeForce 8800GTS 320MB
Hard Drive: Western Digital 320MB 7200rpm drive
Cooling: ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro 92mm
OS: Windows Vista 32-Bit Home Premium
PS: Antec NeoPower NeoHE 550 ATX12V
Monitor: Samsung 226BW 22" Widescreen LCD
CD/DVD: Sony NEC Optiarc 18x DVD±RW burner
Case: Apevia X-Cruiser-BK midtower

The main downside to this is that the total ship price from Newegg adds up to $1640... granted, with one of the nicer gaming LCDs and an OS. Are there any obvious places I ought to cut corners (meaning, have I gone way overkill in any area compared to the others?)

It's been approximately a century (VERY approximately) since I last put a computer together, so these threads have been very helpful!

A thing to think about:
I've noticed a lot of the new highend games that will be coming out recommend a graphics card with at least 512 meg.

You have a good point. However, I'm not a huge FPS player (except for Bioshock, due to my adoration of System Shock 2 and the Fallout-like retro style). I'm mainly looking to play RTS/RPG -- Overlord, Bioshock, Starcraft 2, World of Warcraft, etc.

Considering the ~$80 price difference between a 320 and 640 MB, if I swapped in the 640 MB version, I'd have to cut corners somewhere else. I'm not sure where...

GA-P35-DS3R, save $30.

E6550, maybe overclocked, save a bit too. (I'm on dial-up now, too lazy to check prices at newegg)

How much does the Apevia X-Cruiser-BK cost? Would a Centurion case help here?

$10 savings if I replace the X-Cruiser with a Cooler Master Centurion ATX mid-tower, given current Newegg rebates, so I don't think I'll bother.

Swapping out the GA-P35C-DS3R for GA-P35-DS3R, and the E6750 for E6550, results in being able to switch from 320-P2-N811-AR to 640-P2-N821-AR with a net change of +$24. Worth it?

Very difficult to say. In some benchmarks the 640 MB version destroys the 320 Mb version, but I think those are incorrect. In others the difference at 1600x1200 is small and you may actually be better off with E6750+8800 GTS 320 than with E6550+8800 GTS 640. I think I'd go with the E6550+8800 GTS 640 after all, mostly because it's cheaper to replace the CPU than the video card a year from now. Maybe you'll be able to save $300 in the next 12 months and you'll be able to get a Penryn quad for it. Also, future games may indeed have a need for that 640 MB of RAM.

Some examples:

Battlefield: the 640MB version wins by a negligible margin, but that's assuming the same CPU. With a weaker CPU, it may lose, I don't know. http://www23.tomshardware.com/grap [...] &chart=278

Dark Messiah: I think this benchmark is incorrect, no way the difference can be 45 fps vs 13 fps.
http://www23.tomshardware.com/grap [...] &chart=283

http://www23.tomshardware.com/grap [...] &chart=297
Oblivion: again, the 640MB version wins by a negligible margin.

Honestly, I don't know. I'd really like to see what others think. Maybe you should start a poll.

Hi all,

Thanks for everyone who responded to my original email. I've decided to go with the Q6600 and 8800GTX option; a little more money than I had intended up front, but spreading out the cost with a Newegg preferred account will make it bearable. I agree with the assessment that this will last a good long time, and still be upgradeable then. I'll be sure to post my results.

Cheers,
Chris