Need a "professional" view on this

[arawn]

This is my second build-up and while I know some basics about components, items like motherboards, memory speeds and dual/quad cores still go beyond me hence I need help. Mainly conserning compatibility... OH and this computer will purely be used for gaming. So here goes

Corsair XMS2 PC2-6400 DDR2 Memory $100

- I got this from Tom's hardware page somewhere, basically I'd rather go with DDR2 than DDR3 and fast is always good ;P if you have a better suggestion, please go ahead.

Zerotherm BTF95 CPU Cooler €50

-This was on the holiday gift page. A) Looks great B) Passive heating - less noise. The only problem is will it cool enough, say a

Core 2 Duo E6850 €250

-Got a good review, from what I understood. I don't overclock so anything related to that is the same to me. Got anything bad to say about this?

Gigabyte ODIN GT 800W Power Supply Unit

-Also got a good review, yet I haven't been able to find it from Finland yet so I guess I'll have to change. I assume 800W is enough. This also had many different options and the wires very easy to keep in tidy shape.

Gigabyte's GA-X38T-DQ6 Motherboard €230

-Next generations motherboard, or something like that. Like I mentioned on the start I'm not good with mobo's so not much I can say about this one. It is good and has some features for upcoming stuff, that's all I need.

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10/Western Digital WD5000AAKS (500GB) at €100

-This was just something I picked up. Is there really a big difference between HD's reading/writing speeds these days? Got anything better to offer?

Nvidia 8800 GT OC G92, 660 MHz, 1900 MHz, 512 Mb, GDDR3 €280

-Straight from Tom's hardware page (again) Best card for that price range.

So anychance these items won't be compatible with eachother? Many of these are picked purely because the review said "it's good" I lack the needed skill to really evaluate my need on these item and so I'm here =) Thanks in advance everyone!

 

[rgeist554]

Two concerns:

Passive Cooling... I'm not sure how well this will do as I've never dared to use it my self. If you game a lot, then you may just want to go with an Arctic Cooler Pro. It has a fan and is pretty inexpensive.

Power Supply - You don't need 800W. For your rig, anywhere from 500-600W is more than enough and will give you some room to OC should you decide to. (The best brands are on this list: http://www.tomswiki.com/page/Tiered+PSU+Listings?t=anon - Tier 2 and up.)

Everything else is fine, you may not even need a cooler if you buy a retail E6850. It should come with a factory heatsink that will work fine on stock settings. I think some people have even been able to do some small OC's on it.

 

[zenmaster]

Two concerns:

Passive Cooling... I'm not sure how well this will do as I've never dared to use it my self. If you game a lot, then you may just want to go with an Arctic Cooler Pro. It has a fan and is pretty inexpensive.

Power Supply - You don't need 800W. For your rig, anywhere from 500-600W is more than enough and will give you some room to OC should you decide to. (The best brands are on this list: http://www.tomswiki.com/page/Tiered+PSU+Listings?t=anon - Tier 2 and up.)

Everything else is fine, you may not even need a cooler if you buy a retail E6850. It should come with a factory heatsink that will work fine on stock settings. I think some people have even been able to do some small OC's on it.

Agree for the most part.

Are you sure you need a motherboard that expensive?
No motherboard will future proof you beyond this time next year.
Intel will have a totally new chips out then and you will want to upgrade again.

I would stick with something much simpler like the DS3-L, unless you are going to use SLI/CF or RAID right now.
That will put alot of money in your pocket for your next upgrade.

 

[zenmaster]

Oh, Forget the E6850 as well.
It will be replaced by the E8400 next week.

The new chip is better in every way, including price.

 

[The_Gremlin]

If you decide to get the Seagate HDD, get the 7200.11 instead of the 7200.10. Newer is better! !
Although, the WD AAKS is a nice line also...

 

[arawn]

Thanks for the advices! Means a lot to me =)

The idea with passive cooling was mainly the noise factor but I guess you are right rgeist554. And I'll be sure to drop the W to 500-600 as you suggested then

As for Zenmaster, yeah good point on the future proof. And I had thought of going SLI sometime in the future but I guess I can upgrade then, IF I still decide to go SLI. I'll be sure to check out the DS3-L you mentioned. And also thanks for the tip on the CPU.

Thanks for the tip Gremlin, newer -is- better ;P

One thing though, about the memory. I've been wondering why in most test sets its 2 x 1 GB, why not 1 x 2 GB? And do I really need the fastest memory available? Or will for example 400 mhz be enough?

 

[timaahhh]

The stock 8800 GT is the loudest nVidia card around. Do get a cheaper Mobo. You want your memory dual channeling so you want 2 sticks. If you want 2 gigs get 2x1GB. If you want the extra room you will still have 2 slots in the future. Also your PSU is huge lots of watt! More watts then you need. Not a problem, but for that system I would be more mindful of my wallet. If you significantly upgrade your processor and Video Cards to like SLI 8800 GTX cards then that is a logical choice otherwise I would tone down the spending.

 

[tlmck]

Don't know about the shopping options in Finland, but the Enermax Liberty is a very good deal in the states right now in the 5-600w range. Excellent quality as well.

The 2x1gb Corsair is also in the $30-40 range after rebates.

Since the X38 supports ATI Crossfire technology instead of Nvidia SLi, you might opt for a HD 3870 card instead. Not as fast as a 8800gt, but good enough for most. You can also get it with this type of cooler, although you can get the 8800gt that way as well. http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/VGA/Products_Overview.aspx?ProductID=2735
http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/VGA/Products_Overview.aspx?ProductID=2752

If you opt for a single card, a P35 based board will be a better choice.