First Build, First Post, Need HELP!!!

I built a similar system just around Christrmas, its under my name to the left. The Abit IP 35 motherboard let me overclock very easily. It was relatively easy to build and was first time building as well. If you post a budget others more knowledgable than me will assist. My system was around $1,600 US without monitor. To me your CPU, memory, PSU, and burner seem like good choices. Vista 64 is working well for me. Good Luck.

abit's IP35-E/IP35/IP35 Pro are a good range of mobos. http://www.abit.com.tw/upload/engl [...] /index.htm
From what you say I suspect that Crossfire & SLI are of little interest to you (basically ATi's & nVidia's separate ways of using 2 GPUs in parallel to increase gfx performance) & as it doesn't sound like you are going to be pushing for a maximum overclock you can save some $$s & rule out the Pro.
The IP35-E & IP35 are basically the same mobo but the IP35-E has only 4 SATA ports whereas the IP35 has 6 (plus RAID capability but again that will probably be irrelevant for you atm) & firewire.

abit USA also have a great user forum where you will get all sorts of help if you need it.

Just from reading I though the 680i/780i boards were more geared towards future upgrading?

I also read somewhere that there were issues with the 680i SLI boards supporting dual monitors, is this true?

Thanks for the responses.

I never had any issues with running dual monitors on a 680I as far as being future proof the 680I won't support the newest Intel quad cores but they will support the new dual cores. Not sure if the 780I will support the new quads or not.

If your planned use is gaming, start with the best video card that you feel comfortable buying. Look at this list for some guidance: http://www.tomshardware.com/2008/0 [...] rd_for_290
My suggestion today is the 8800GTS-512-G92. It is a bit more expensive, and just a bit faster, but it has one big advantage: a good cooler that will direct vga heat out the back of the case, keeping all the interior components cooler. I would pick the evga card just on the possibility that you might want to step-up to a better card which could be announced within 90 days.
For gaming, the cpu is less important than the vga card unless you will play one of the few cpu intensive games like flight simulator x. A E6750 would suffice. There are very few games out today that will take advantage of more than 2 cores. By the time that changes, nehalem will obsolete any current or penryn quads. For the same price as a quad, you can benefit from the higher clock speed of a duo, and get less heat. For the same price as a Q6600 @2.4, you could get a duo E8500@3.16. If you will do lots of multitasking, then consider a quad. In the next week or so, the new 45nm penryns should launch. They will be perhaps 20% more cost effective than the current 65nm cpu's, so I would wait just a bit to see what comes out.

As to the motherboard, with the same cpu, they will all perform about(1-2%) the same in application performance. Pick one based on vendor quality, features, and price. It does not matter much if the board is based on P965, P35, X38, or x48, or nvidia. Only for high overclockers does it seem to matter. It does not matter if it uses ddr2 or ddr3 memory. Some motherboards seem to have a problem with 8gb of memory. I have been researching this, and have come to the conclusion that a Gigabyte P35 board is the most likely to be successful, particularly using the memory you picked out. I just ordered a GA-P35-DS3R, and hope to try 8gb sometime in the future. If your budget is not unlimited, any sort of dual vga card system is probably not in the cards. I do hope that the vista you bought is a 64 bit version, home premium at least. There will probably not be any worthwhile upgrades dependent on the mobo until nehalem arrives.

The zalman is a nice looking cooler, but the thermalright ultra 120 extreme is more effective. http://www.anandtech.com/casecooli [...] i=2981&p=3

I have been very happy with the samsung 203b burner, It is very quiet, which I like. There is a litescribe version 203N http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6827151154

If there is a single future proof component that you can buy today, it is the monitor. You will be looking at it for several generations of pc's. It is worth it to get a good one. One thing I look for is a 178 degree viewing angle which shows up on only the pricier models. What that means is if the viewing angle is small, like 160 degrees, you have to keep your head in a certain horizontal/vertical relationship to the monitor to keep it form looking washed out. Samsung makes the panels for a lot of vendors, so I like them, I figure that they keep the best parts for themselves. Look for the "T" suffix monitors like the 245T http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6824001246 , 940T, or 305T.

What are you looking for in a case? Most will work, and there is a lot of personal preference involved. If you want "bling", I can't help you there. If you want quiet, I can recommend the Antec P182, or Solo. Personally, I don't like front doors, and am very happy with the Solo.

---good luck---

SLI stands for scalable link interface, it is used with nvidia graphics cards and nvidia chipsets to combine the power of two graphics cards for a single task. You do not get twice the power, the increase is in the range of 10% to 50%, depending on the game. For Intel chipsets, it is called "crossfire", and must use ati based graphics cards with the same limitations in performance. I think it is not economic unless a single graphics card will not suffice. If you have two or more pci-e slots on your mobo, you can have two or more graphics cards. A single graphics card can usually support two monitors. Even then, if you only have a single pci=e slot, you can add another pci graphics card if you need more than two monitors. A pci based graphics card will have limited performance.

I suggest the GA-P35-DS3R. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813128050 It is reasonably priced, and has lots of back panel usb ports. The P35 bios has had time to mature, and they promise 45nm processor support.

With 8gb, you might have to run the memory at 667 instead of 800. It's not a problem because the C2D processors are not very sensitive to memory speeds. I was impressed by a poster on the corsair forum who used 8gb with vista-64. He said that performance was wonderful with 8gb. I can't remember if it was the asus boards, or the nvidia chipsets that were giving problems with 8gb. Read some of the questions on the corsair memory forum to get a feel for it.

On Jan 21, some new intel processors will be available. They are up for pre-order in some places already.
E8400 3.0 $200-$210
E8500 3.16 $290-$305
Q9450 2.66 $350 in feb.
They have 6mb cache, and some new, faster instructions, so they are about 5% faster, clock for clock.

Full version ultimate will come with both a 32 bit dvd, and a 64 bit dvd. Good. Also, there is a deal for full ultimate owners to buy an additional copy of home premium for $50, a good deal.

Here is a good review on the antec 900 http://www.bjorn3d.com/read.php?cI [...] ageID=2739
Of particular interest to me is the comparison of the cooling efficiency vs. the noise level with the Antec 900,Solo and the lian-li G70. At the same noise level, each case cooled the same! The 900 cooled the best, but that was only when the fans were on high, and it was noisiest. The solo was the quietest when the fans were on low. Lian-li was in the middle. Pick what is most important to you. I like quiet, and my Solo fans are on low with no cooling problems. I also like washable filters to keep the case cleaner. The Solo has this, as does the P180 and P182.

All cases are reasonably easy to build in, and you are only doing it once. A few tips:
Mount the cooler and memory outside of the case. You need to do this to either put on a back plate, or seat the push pins properly. I also attach the case front panel connectors with the motherboard outside the case. The connectors are small, and my fingers are big.
Get a #2 phillips head screwdriver with a magnetic tip. I find this very useful to hold and seat the mobo screws before screwing them in.

Thanks, this forum has been a great help. I will let you know how it all turns out.

I have been reading some reviews on the P35 Motherboards and just wondering if the Gigabyte GA-P35-DQ6 might be a better option then the GA-P35-DS3R?

I will never use a 3rd monitor and probably not 2 video cards either.

I might want to dabble a bit with overclocking as I become more familiar with it. Definitely with the processor.

So Far I have the Following set up in mid:

CPU: Intel Q9450. Is the chip really going to be released on the 21st of Jan?

Mother Board: GA-P35-DS3R
Graphics Card: Geforce 8800 GTS SSC
Memory: Corsair TWIN2X4096-6400C5DHX 8GB
Cooling: thermalright ultra 120
Power: Silverstone S75F 750w (any thoughts?)
Hard drive: (2) ??? Western Digital 500GB WD5000AAKS OR Seagate Barracuda 500GB ST3500630AS ????? Which is better???
Burner: (2) Samsung 203b
Case: Antec Solo (will I have a problem fitting the MOBO in this case?)
OS: Windows Vista Ultimate

Questions:

Am I missing anything? parts?
Seagate or Wester Digital?
Will I have problems running 8gb of ram? I didnt find too much information on this.
If you had to chose one other P35 (or X38) motherboard besides this one (assuming you were using DDR2 Ram), which one would it be and why?
How much do you think I can overclock the CPU to? Speed is very important to me.
Is over clocking a difficult nut to crack?

When all is said and down will this be a nice system?

Thanks for all your help, time and patience with me. If your ever in NYC look me up, I owe you a drink!!!

just realized I had

1 4gb Corsair 2X2048-6400C5DHX
and
1 4gb Corsair 2X4096-6400C5DHX

is this going to be a problem?

Best graphics card bang for buck is the AMD HD 3870s. Unless you don't care about image quality in the game, than go NVIDIA.

The Gigiabyte P35-DS3R isn't bad... was a board I was going to get, but decided to get the P35-DS3P since I plan on running crossfire. NVIDIA chipset motherboards suck at overclocking quads and run hot as well.

PCI-E 2.0 isn't really necessary... kind of like AGP 8x didn't really make much difference when compared to AGP 4x. It's just to help the bandwidth for the card as well as provide some more juice for it.

I do have a 4gb 2X4096 (at least I hope I do). Check out frys they have a great deal on it $79.99 after $30 rebate. From what I can tell this is just 2 sticks of 2gb ram.

The only difference between the two sets of ram I have is the timing:

2X4096 = 5-5-5-18
2X2048 = 5-5-5-15

Other then that they are exactly the same. Will I have a problem because if this?

Sorry guys, but the most important item is to read the motherboard manual before even ordering parts. You can download it off the motherboard webpage for your manufacturer. Cheaper boards will have poorly written or incomplete manuals. This is most important for a first time builder. Forget all the other posts until you complete this. You'll get a much better idea if building your own is right for you and how much time to set aside for your first build. Faqs are also available here or at other hardware websites. I recommend you install the cpu/heatsink and memory before mounting the board in the case. Use only the standoffs that fit under the board mounting holes; remove any extra that can touch the circuitry. Standoffs are usually brass colored. Asus, abit, gigabyte, and msi usually have complete manuals. Avoid ecs, pcchips, and biostar for first builds only. As you get more experience, you may be able to use cheaper boards in later builds.

I looked at the fry's site, and I do not see the referenced ram. I do see a corsair4gb kit (2x2gb) 5-5-5-18for 99.99-30=69.99 which is what I think one of your kits is. Perhaps the price has gone down. That should be good.

Corsair does not make a 2x4gb kit, nor does anybody else. If you have the memory in hand, tell us exactly what it says on each package.

On intel chipsets, a slight mismatch will work, as long as the voltages are the same. If there are differences in specs, the ram will work at the lowest common speed. It is much better to get two identical sets. That is why they sell kits of matched pairs of memory. Over time, the components used in a stick can change, even though the specs and product codes remain the same. If you have two mismatched kits, see if you can exchange one for a matching kit. That should not delay your build because 4gb will be enough, and it is very easy to add two more sticks later.

actually the voltages do appear different V1.2 vs. V1.8.

The problem is the the first set I purchased (V1.2) was son long ago that I cannot return.

I can return the new RAM i purchased from frys (V1.8) but I cannot even find the old RAM for sale anymore?

Will the system be drstically slower because of this?

As near as I can tell, the top item is a single 2gb stick. If you have two of them, you are ok. The bottom 4gb kit is made up of two of the top 2gb modules. I suspect that the timing of the top module 5-5-5-15 is a bit better because it is tested as a single module. When tested as a pair, it can't do quite as well.

I think you should be ok. Plan on running memtest 86+ as your first task. You can download it to a floppy, cd, or usb thumb drive(haven't tested that). Start with putting in one stick at a time for a full pass. Assuming each stick looks ok, then put in a second stick and do another pass. Lastly, put in all 4 sticks and try again. If any of the multiple stick tests fail, you will have to adjust something. The first would be to set the memory at 667. You may also have to set the voltage up a bit. The ram should have the max voltage printed on a label. I think it will be 2.1v. The ram is normally tested at 1.8v for normal situations, but if you have lots of sticks, or higher speeds, then the voltage needs to be upped to the mfg spec limit.

Over time, the components of a stick can change. If they do not match then the issue is will it run at all. If they all run together, then I would expect no real performance hit. If they do not run well together, I would just run with one 4gb kit, and try to buy a second matching kit. Sell the one you don't use on e-bay.

If you have a buddy watching over you for the first build, then you can basically ignore my first post. You're lucky. About 80% of first time builders don't.

At one time, I had a 305T and a 8800GTS-640. The 8800GTS-640 powered both the 305T and a second 24" 244T with no apparent problem. I played civ-4 without a problem on it. I even tried the crysis demo and found it playable, although not at the highest settings. I loved the acerage the 305T gave me, and the picture was flawless with no suspect pixels. I changed to a pair of 275T monitors, largely because the larger pixel size made it easier for me to see small text.

I can heartily recommend the Samsung 305T. I don't know about the Dells, but I understand that Samsung supplies them with the panels, so they should perform the same. I suspect that Samsung might keep the best quality parts for themselves first.

The Gigabyte P35-DS4 should be a good board for you. I have been pleased with a 965P-DS3 anf the P35-DS3R.

It would not be wrong to get a 8800GTS-512-G92 today, particularly from EVGA. It is faster than my old 8800GTS-640, and would likely be all you need. The EVGA step-up program would allow you to upgrade if a much better card should launch within 90 days, and you feel you need/want it. If no monster card happens soon, I imagine that it will before year end. At that time, you should still get good value for your 8800GTS-512-G92