New System Help

[Mintcondition]

Hello Everyone,

I am getting ready to start putting together a new system, which I will use mostly for gaming, and some work (just office tools, etc.). I am going to build it in two phases, so I don't have to shell out $1000-1500 all in one shot. I do enjoy overclocking, and I enjoy getting the extra value out of my components, but I do not intend to spend all of my time tweaking and getting into extravagant cooling systems and such. I have built systems on and off for over 10 years, but it has been about 3 years since I built my last (current) system. With that being said, any input would be appreciated regarding my wish list:


Phase 1 (and of course NewEgg would be down when I decide to link all of this):

Mobo

GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3R Intel Core 2 Duo (Desktop) Socket 775 1333MHz PC2-8500 (DDR2-1066) ATX Motherboard Retail

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=10005276

Memory

Crucial Technology Ballistix Tracer BL2KIT12864AL804 2GB Kit DDR2-800 PC2-6400 Memory Retail

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=80061-32

Is it worth paying a bit more for the Tracers or should I stick with standard ballistix?

Power Supply

PC POWER and COOLING Silencer 610 EPS12V S61EPS Power Supply Retail

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=10005612

Case

I'm looking for a cheap, cooling efficient case, and I do not care much about looks.

Storage

I'm not really too interested in RAID at this time, unless anyone can convince me that there is a benefit for gaming. From what I understand, usually the CPU and GPU are the bottlenecks, and the HDD will not be a limiting factor.

I'm looking at putting my o/s on an 80GB drive and my games on a 250-300GB drive. I am still interested in any input regarding RAID, and Raptor drives.

Phase 2 (hopefully by late February):

I intend to save the video card and processor for phase 2, as it seems like these would be the most beneficial. Any thoughts on this are appreciated as well.

CPU

I am currently looking at using a E6750 or Q6600, but I may be interested in a 45nm core, depending on price.


Video

Right now, I like the looks of the 8800GT.

O/S

This is one of my big decisions. I have not decided whether or not I will step up to Vista or stick with XP. Hopefully SP1 will work out, which should make this easier.

Monitor

I could really use help here too. I've been playing around with dual 17" monitors forever (I know, embarassing). I'm looking to upgrade to a 20-24" flat, and would love suggestions here.

Any suggestions are appreciated.

 

[monste4321]

well let me just say one thing, ands it my opinion and you dont have to listen, but this being said, if your waiting till feb for some of your parts, wait on them all, once the new year rolls around prices will be dropping, no guarentee how much, but savings is savings, and may mean that you can buy the next step up, anyways, i like your build so far, personally im going to building almost the same thing, ill prob end up going with the q6600 if the price drops enough, and vista or xp is hard to tell, wait to see what the do with sp1, mb is good, but if i were you, and since you might be going for vista, look more towards 4 gigs of ram, and either go 19 or 22 inch moniter, and depending if you want hd for movies is a factor in which monitor you want, im going with the antec 900 case for its superior cooling, and it looks cool to, psu should work nicley with that combo, and i dont do raid either so im no help there, hope this helps a lil

 

[Mintcondition]

Thanks for the input monst. I was trying to buy in two parts because I am terrible at saving, but you do have a great point. I may just have to really suck it up and set that money aside, then pick up the pieces later, as you say. I'm curious if anyone thinks that the RAM market will stay about the same or drop further. I just checked out the antec 900, and that looks like a great case, thanks for that.

 

[rgeist554]

CASE: Definitely go with the Antec 900. Good cooling and looks nice. (Pretty cheap now if I recall)

STORAGE: Is the 80GB drive going to be a 10k RMP one? If so, I'd put your games on it as well since it will have faster read/write times (although, load time differences may not matter that much to you). Then use your 250GB for storage.

CPU: Wait until later to buy this. When 45nm comes out, they will offer more flexibility and probably push down the prices of the 65nm chips. Either way, you win.

O/S: Really up to you. If you want to game... I'd say XP still. Vista and XP have similar frame rates most of the time (Unless you run in DX10, which just seems to kill performance), but there still seems to be some issues and I'm not sure SP1 will fix it. On the other hand, developers may start engineering applications around Vista to improve performance...

Monitor: Go with something from Samsung. Choose one with low response time (8ms or lower is generally preferred). You can try to look for one with HD support if you're interested in that type of stuff.

I may just have to really suck it up and set that money aside, then pick up the pieces later, as you say. I'm curious if anyone thinks that the RAM market will stay about the same or drop further

I think the RAM market for DDR2 PC6400 / 800 is about as low as it's going to get. As soon as the mainstreams moves to DDR3, I'd imagine DDR2 prices would shoot up and become a rarity.

 

[monste4321]

ram prices really are right around what i think is a balancing point right now, but i dont think it will change much in the next several months, but like i said, hopefully everything will start to drop even a lil at the new year once some new stuff is released, ddr2 mem wont become a rarity as rgeist554 puts it for quite a while, ddr is still around and easy to get, and look how old that is, but it might start to go up if u ask me in around a year or so, when a very large amount of people start to switch over, even still you can use ddr2 mem for quite a long time to come, at least thats just my 2 cents, also samsung makes nice monitors, so do viewsonic, westing house, sony(pricey), and a few others, but take in mind, the lower the resolution, the cleaner the games run, and if you want hd, and id recomend around 5ms response, it works well, 19inch in imop is plenty, but then again i got a 22 but i watch movies and it was cheap

 

[rgeist554]

...but like i said, hopefully everything will start to drop even a lil at the new year once some new stuff is released, ddr2 mem wont become a rarity as rgeist554 puts it for quite a while, ddr is still around and easy to get...

Yeah, DDR is still around, but it's price isn't getting any lower. Plus, most retail stores around me don't carry any DDR motherboards anymore. I should restate my originally opinion about DDR2 becoming a rarity, because it uses the same 240 pin system that DDR3 uses... so many will probably still use it for quiet a while.

 

[hughyhunter]

I agree with the case... The Antec 900 is very clean and cooling efficient.

I would wait too if you are going to buy in two phases. There is so much coming out in the coming months that if you were try to buy any intel stuff right now like mobos and cpus then you may be disappointed in a few months when those prices drop and newer stuff comes out.

Personnaly if you arent dead set on intel look at the amd/ati combo or spyder platform. You dont have to be an expert to learn how to tweak with that set-up. The 790FX offers a lot of room for upgrades and promising performance without breaking the bank. Also the 3870 in crossfire works well on that chipset with the newer 9500 cpu.

I would definitly consider at least RAID 0+1 with some WD 7200RPM drives if you are interested in gaming. Loading windows, maps really is so much faster with faster hard disk configurations. RAID 0 on 2 160 gig hard disks doesn cost that much more than one 320 gig

 

[Mintcondition]

A lot of great input. I appreciate all of the input and I will definately take it all into consideration!