Mid-range gaming build. Looking for advice. (PSU in particular)

My current rig has seen better days... Originally assembled in 1999 and partially updated a few years later when the mobo offed itself, taking the CPU with it. It was a great system back in the heyday of UT99 but it has long since fallen behind. It is time to build a new system.

Below are the specs for a new build I'm working on. Nothing has been purchased yet -- though the case and mobo must be purchased soon to get the rebate. Please tell me what you think.

Case
Antec Nine Hundred ~85.00

Mobo
Abit IP35 Pro ~150.00
Solid mobo with plenty of features and great overclocking. I may yet go with a DS3R for the superior on-board sound (I'll be sans-soundcard for while.). It's a tough call with the IP35 coming in at only +$20 (after rebate).

CPU
Q6600 SLACR ~250.00
Will overclock, to be sure.

HD
320GB Seagate Barracuda SATA 3.0GB/s ~75.00

RAM
2x 1GB Crucial Ballistix PC6400 DDR2 ~50.00
Nothing but great reviews for this set of memory. Great price point as well.

GPU
Not sure...yet. Looking at a eVGA 8600GT 512MB GDDR3 for 140.00

PSU
Undecided. Could really use your suggestions here.

Optical
Undecided. Suggestions for a DVDr would be appreciated.

Additional Cooling
I'm told the Antec case is plenty cool by itself. If you see something that really should have additional cooling, please let me know.

OS
I'll probably just recycle my copy of WinXP. If I go with Vista it will be 64-bit for the 4gb memory support.

Well, there it is. Let me know what you think.

Here are two decent PSUs that should have plenty of power.
I strongly prefer the PC Power and Cooling one, but the EarthWatt
is a Tier 3, which are considered quality PSUs.

PC Power & Cooling 470w for $75
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817703011

Antec EarthWatts 430w for $30 AR
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817371006

There is no point to 512mb of RAM for the 8600GT.
It's not powerful enough to need that much RAM.
You should be able to find a 8600GTS for that price.

Starting Monday, The 8800GT should be available for about $250.
This is an incredible deal of you can swing the money.
You may also be able to find the 8800GTS for the very low $200s very soon since the 8800GT is better in every way.

Rumor has it the "Old" 8800GTS cards will get a refresh which means the old ones should be very cheap very soon.

I think thats a good hint that you prolly shouldnt 1. post. 2. build your own rig.


nice looking build so far OP, but i would have to agree with some suggestions from zenmaster... Take a look at the new 8800GT here
http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/1 [...] index.html

Those PSU's are nice, generally stick with PCPC, Antec, Thermaltake and Corsair atm.

Any ODD would be fine they are all pretty much the same and cheap as chips, id recommend getting a SATA one to avoid those big IDE cables.

Good Luck

I wouldn't even consider an 8600GT...go for an 8800GT or GTS for sure. Why create a bottleneck for the system? The difference from the 8600's (128bit bus) to the 8800's (320bit bus) is like night and day.

A PSU that I highly recommend and use, is the Corsair HX520. You will be hard pressed to find a better performer, and the PSU is the MOST important part of any build, so don't scrimp in that area.