Guru review request - Near Final Build sheet

[wayninja]

Looking for a computer to do everything well from web hosting and Photo editing to movie encoding and gaming. Max budget is 2200 USD, but I'm not seeing performance gains that really warrant spending much more than 1500 to have a decent system for the next 2 or so years.

Here's what I'm looking at so far, I'm definitely open to suggestions. I'm no computer novice but haven't really done too much with overclocking. I hear that these types of setups beg for it though.

■ Processor: Intel Q6600 quad

■ CPU Fan: ZALMAN CNPS9700
Any experience with this fan and the mobo below appreciated.

■ Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L
Cheap so I could easily go to a SLI capable board if I wanted, depending on how GPU's and PCIe 2.0 shake out this year.

■ Memory: GeIL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (4-4-4-12)

■ Video: XFX PVT88PYDE4 GeForce 8800GT Extreme 512MB 256-bit GDDR3
Don't really know if the extra 40mhz clock is worth 30 bucks...

■ PSU: CORSAIR CMPSU-520HX
Seems highly reccomended and not too steep

■ Hard drives: 2x Western Digital Caviar SE WD3200AAJS in RAID 1 (hosting the family web)

■ DVD Burner: Asus 20x - Solid, 40 bucks, nuff said

■ OS: Vista Home Premium (system builders)
Haven't had personal experience with vista yet and very few of my business customers use it so any advice is appreciated.

■ Case: Largely undecided... Looking at offerings from Antec and Thermaltake... any advice? I like the bottom PSU design of the antecs but how many 3.5" bays do they think I need?

Already have a 22" 1680x1050 native LCD, now wish my KVM had DVI...

 

[g-paw]

Over all looks good. If you haven't done so, check out the ASUS P5K E with or without WIFI, they have a lot more features then the Gigabyte, e.g., 6 SATA connectors, 3 PCI slots, and onboard eSATA and firewire. If you're not heavily overclociking the standard HSF will work. Antec makes really good cases, the Sonata III is nice and comes with a good PSU and both the the 900 and 182 are nice. Antecs are quite and easy to work with.

 

[chuckm]

Here's good deal on the power supply;
http://www.buy.com/prod/corsair-520w-sli-certified-modular-atx-power-supply/q/loc/101/203270716.html

 

[wayninja]

Yeah, I am definitely leaning toward an antec (either of those two models look good).

Not sure if 2 more SATA connections are worth $50 to me, I will only have 3 devices, maybe 4 (won't use eSATA or firewire). I want a cheap motherboard because that will probably be the first thing I upgrade...

I will probably overclock as much as I can get away with using air cooling.

Thanks for the thoughts.

 

[wayninja]

Here's good deal on the power supply;
http://www.buy.com/prod/corsair-520w-sli-certified-modular-atx-power-supply/q/loc/101/203270716.html

Sweet, exact PSU I'm looking for much less than newegg. I've heard people saying that newegg charges exorbitantly for PSU's...

 

[amd_fanboi]

but if you get the sonata III it will come with a PSU... whereas the antec 900 won't... get the 900, though; much better cooling if you want to OC

 

[CNeufeld]

I just put together a system with an E8400, an Antec P182 case, and an Asus P5K-E Wifi board.

WRT the case, I can't believe how much quieter my drives are in it, compared to my old Sonata II case. Same drives (Seagate 7200.11 500GB), but no longer hear the chirping as it gets hit.

I'm pretty happy with the setup.

Clint

 

[acidpython]

I really wouldn't recommend running your dedicated web page off your personal box. You will be needing IIS with windows, don't even look at apache. The reason i would stay clear of running a dedicated web page off your PC is that your documents and files will be at constant risk.

Running confidential information inside a DMZ is never a good idea.

 

[wayninja]

Haha, I know about the security risks, I'm not worried about it. The only people who would ever even find the site is my Friends and Family and all of the 'confidental' information is simply vacation pics of my wife and Family. I've been running the site on my current setup (AMD XP 3200) for over a year now with no issues.

If you set up IIS correctly, impersonation can only get you very limited access to the web server.

Thanks for the heads-up though.