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Please Critique this build...

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Howdy All...

After four years i'm going to do my second build. Please rip it apart tell me what you guys think.
I have been reading and specing this out for two weeks. Thought I would throw it out there for you guys
to look at. I would thank any and all thoughts...Thanks guys...& Ladies

Motherboard...DFI LPLT x38-T2R Looked at a bunch of reviews seem to be a good one.
[url] http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813136042

CPU...Intel core 2 duo E8400 Wolfdale From what I could see the motherboard supports the 45nm technology.
[/url] http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813136042

CPU cooler...Scythe SCNJ-CU1000 120mm Ninja Copper CPU Cooler
[/url] http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6835185061
Hope this baby will fit into my case...Anyone know for sure ?
I just plan on a mild overclock...

Video card...SAPPHIRE 100221SR Radeon HD 3870 X2 1GB (512MB x 2) 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express
[url] http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814102723

I'm thinking 1 card now then when the price drops when ATI has a new card out i'll pick another up for a Crossfire set up.....

Memory... CORSAIR Dominator 2GB (2 x 1GB) Another reason i like the Motherboard it supports DDR2.
[url] http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820145165

Hard Drives...Western Digital Raptor X WD1500AHFD 150GB 10,000 RPM 16MB
[url] http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6822136011
And
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3500320AS 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s
[/url]
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6822148288

Sound card...Creative Sound blaster X-Fi platinum fatal1ty champion
[/url] http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6829102014

DVD Drive's... I'll be going with two drives
Samsung Model SH-s203n
[url] http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6827151154
And
Blu-ray
Lite-on Model DH-401s-11
[/url] http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6827106037

PSU...PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750 Quad (Crossfire Edition) EPS12V 750W
[/url] http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817341011

My Case...ZALMAN Z-MACHINE GT1000-T Titanium Aluminum ATX Mid Tower
[url] http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6811235006

Message edited by Bugnosis on 02-06-2008 at 03:55:13 AM

Add a reply

Ok, first drop the DFI board and get a DQ6, which is a much better quality boards and Toms hardware buyers guide recommended. Get the Crucial Ballastix which are gurenteed to have D9 chips so it will OC better. PSU seems like an overkill. Get a Corsair 520HX, unless going Crossfire.

------------------------------

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2617/3815217176_0a5be7955d_o.gif

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3553/3818083596_1a772f7162_o.gif

Reply to Shadow703793

Get some RAM

Reply to happy_fanboy

PSU is not overkill at all, good choice on that. Never get a PSU that is "enough" power, you always want overhead.
One more thing, that DFI board is not Vista Certified.

Message edited by happy_fanboy on 02-06-2008 at 04:40:47 AM

Reply to happy_fanboy

^Vista certification dosen't have to do any thing. I recommended against it was because of the poor quality and OCing ability. PSU is an over kill unless the OP plans on upgrading to a monster like a 2*3870X2 or some thing like that.

Message quoted 1 times
Message edited by Shadow703793 on 02-06-2008 at 09:09:04 PM

------------------------------

Reply to Shadow703793

"Certified with Windows Vista" seal means you wont have to guess if your drivers will work with Vista or not. If you have no intention of maybe installing Vista then I agree it has nothing to do with anything.

I have played the game of trying to make Vista work on a non-certified board many times and I will not play it again.

If you recommend that a user ignore Vista Driver certification, you have not played the challenging game of installing Vista drivers and have no concept of the pain involved.

When a PSU meets the amount of current needed to power a system and has no headroom to support more, it runs hot and sometimes unreliably. Having more wattage than needed means the power supply can relax and not have to work at its maximum capability all the time, therefore reducing the stress and heat within its internal electronics. Overhead is a very good thing, especially if the user wants the ability to upgrade later.

My opinion is if a motherboard does not have the "Certified for Windows Vista" seal on the box, it is not worth paying money for. Vista will soon be mainstream like it or not, and people will want to run it.

As for the original poster's build, I would get at least a 2x2 GB RAM kit instead of a 1x1, and not spend so much on the case. Cases are metal boxes and should not cost that much regardelss of features. If having 4GB of RAM frightens you, remember when people told you that you would never use more than 256MB of RAM or more than 1.44MB of floppy disk space. Experiment with 64-bit operating systems and start taking advantage of large memory sizes before you have to.

Reply to happy_fanboy

I really like my DFI LP LT35 board, and there were no problems installing drivers for Vista 32 or 64 with it. For me there were only two other boards that I found that had what i wanted (3 pci slots with none blocked if I used a dual slot video card), the Abit Ip35 and Gigabyte DS3R. The main reason I got the DFI was the 6-layer construction and 8 phase power. As far as quality goes I can't say but there are an awful lot of very happy LanParty users out there and all boards have their problems (Just look in the Intel section at XS one of the best places to see user experiences with different boards)
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forum [...] y.php?f=59

I agree thats a little expensive for a case but if it is what you want I see no problem with it (close to 10 years ago I paid more than that for a Supermicro Tower with a 400w ps because that is what I wanted).

The case I have now was $90 but it has just what I was looking for, decent cooling in a relatively small and light case. The air intake is in the back almost inline with the heatsink and the exhaust right in front of the main HD cage (both 120mm fans).

Message edited by Ancient_1 on 02-07-2008 at 08:36:18 AM

Reply to Ancient_1

Leave the DQ6 and get a Gigabyte P35-DS3R mobo it over clocks better ( if u know what u are doing) the rest seems to be a fine build enjoy.

------------------------------ Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R
Intel Core2 D E8400 OC (3.4Ghz)
Gigabyte G Power Pro Cooler
2GB AXE-ram DDR2 1066Mhz OC (1210Mhz)
Reply to quadrilogy

You don't need an aftermarket cooler for a mild overclock. The E8400 overclocks like a king and still runs cool with stock HSF. The Corsair 620HX is a good PSU choice. Plenty of juice on the 12V rails and great stability. Its also modular so you dont have all those unsightly (green plastic) wire covers strewn everywhere.

Reply to ibleet

Shadow703793 wrote :

PSU is an over kill unless the OP plans on upgrading to a monster like a 2*3870X2 or some thing like that.

That's exactly what the OP said they were considering doing!!!!

I was reading on the ATI (ati.amd.com) site that they reckon you will need 750W for 2x 3870X2. I am working on a spec (no 3870x2 available in Brisbane, Aus that I can find apart from Power Color...) However I am looking at a 850W PSU to be safe!!!

------------------------------ It is better to be thought a fool then to open your mouth and remove all doubt.
Reply to hassa

Thanks all for your replys.
I do plan to all another 3870 X2. I hope when ATI comes out with there next line of cards that the 3870 X2 takes a price drop. Hassa replied that you would need 750 watts to power two of them cards..Should I go to a 850w...Don't want to be under powered.

This motherboard pick is a tuff one. Shadow703793 said to get a Gigabyte DQ6. I looked at the reviews for that board, seem there are big problems with DOA and memory ie: more than two sticks. quadrilogy
said to go with Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R. I'll read on that board. Then there is another board i've been looking at ASUS MAXIMUS FORMULA LGA 775 Intel X38...Any thoughts on this board guys. I know that all boards have there problems...I'm just hoping for a few less...lol

Also I do plan to have both XP pro and Vista on this build are there not alot of problems with drivers and software with a 64-bit operating systems?

ibleet replied You don't need an aftermarket cooler for a mild overclock. I want my build to be as cool running as I can with a fan heatsink setup & in the future might Overclock to the max with air before my next build.

Ok again thanks for all your replys....

Reply to Bugnosis

As said in previous post, you need to see
"Certified for Windows Vista" on the BOX of the Board if you want guaranteed stable drivers for Vista, 32 or 64 bit.
Look at the Gigabytes boards, most have the seal.
And please note: just because one user of a non-certified board says Vista works fine on it does not mean another user will have the same experience. Not all applications make driver issues become apparent, and almost no user has the exact same setup comonent for component.

Reply to happy_fanboy

Better 4-4-4-12

G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit F2-6400CL4D-4GBPK

Reply to mlaporta

I'm looking at the Max Formula to...

Here's the PSU requirements

http://www.sapphiretech.com/at/pro [...] p?gpid=209

"550 Watt or greater power supply with two 2x3-pin PCIe® power connectors required (750 Watt and four 6-pin connectors for dual ATI CrossFireX™) ."

Also - here's a link I found for certfied PSU

http://ati.amd.com/technology/cros [...] wn2.html#1

------------------------------ It is better to be thought a fool then to open your mouth and remove all doubt.
Reply to hassa

Go with the Silencer 750 Quad since you do plan to run 2*3870X2s. Also see:
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forum [...] p?t=108088
for PSU tire listing. You would need one in the top 2 tires if going with that kind of graphics.

------------------------------

Reply to Shadow703793

Unless you're going to be doing some audio recording, there's really no reason to get the X-Fi Champion. The Xtreme Gamer Fatal1ty Pro edition's the exact same card without the front panel box and remote, and it's quite a bit cheaper. Also, the DFI board has been removed from Newegg (at least, it is as of this moment), so I'd get either the Maximus Formula or the Gigabyte GA-X38-DQ6. Both are quality boards from quality companies. I'd personally go with Gigabyte, but that's due to my experiences with Asus; I'm one of the few who have had issues with their boards, so I'm definitely the odd man out. Power supply looks like a winner, I've used PCP&C supplies before and they work extremely well. As for the case, seems somewhat silly to me to spend that much on a mid-tower that really isn't anything special. If I were you, with the 3870 X2 being as long as it is, I'd look into a full-tower case, probably either the Thermaltake Armor+ or Cooler Master Cosmos or Stacker. All three have excellent ventilation and are great cases. Aside from that, I think you're set.

--chedrz

Reply to chedrz

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