New to Computer Building

[Vitaminx]

Hi, I'm new to this forum and also new to computer building. I think I know enough though that I can successfully build one on my own though. I was just needing some clarification in some areas: Compatibility, stability, and gaming performance are the three big ones. Will are of these parts work well with each other? And also will I have to mess with the voltage of say the memory once everything is installed or will it be good as is? And do all of these parts have a good price to performance ratio? Do you guys think I will need the Zalman CPU cooler? Doubtful I will be doing much over clocking also.

Here's a list of my parts:

Case - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129021
Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Hard Drive - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148288
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3500320AS 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

Video Card - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130312
EVGA 512-P3-N841-A3 GeForce 8800GTS (G92) 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card

Power Supply - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153040
Thermaltake Toughpower W0128RU ATX12V / EPS12V 650W Power Supply 100 - 240 V

Memory - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227231
OCZ Reaper HPC Edition 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory

Motherboard - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813188024
EVGA 132-CK-NF78-A1 LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 780i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard

Processor - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115028
Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 Conroe 3.0GHz 4M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor

CPU Cooler - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835118223
ZALMAN 9500A 92mm 2 Ball CPU Cooler

Operating System - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116056
Microsoft Windows XP Home With SP2B 1 Pack

 

[beurling]

looks good.. if you can find an E8400, get it instead of the 6850.

Your memory should have a recommended voltage on it, something like 2.0V and you may want to enter that manually as auto voltages sometimes set too low, or high.

 

[Vitaminx]

Do you think http://www.memoryexpousa.com/noname100.html is a legit site? It was listed on Pricewatch.com after I typed in E8400

 

[endorphines]

i agree that the e8400 would be a better choice than the e6850, the graphics card should be pretty good, i've got the 320mb version and it'll do crysis on everything high with and amd 6000+.
i think your ram will be a bit over kill, you can get other stuff for half as much money and the performance difference between what you've got listed and some normal enthusiast ram that's overclockable should be marginal.

 

[Vitaminx]

What type of Ram do you suggest thats 800 mhz? I was looking at Corsair and Crucial as well. Do You think that the zalman cpu cooler is overkill as well. And is that hard drive i listed supposed to be better then western digital's 500 gb hard drive? More stable and faster?

 

[amd_fanboi]

the E8*** chips seem to have problems with temperature... with that in mind, i don't think a ZALMAN will be overkill...

 

[chuckm]

2 gig of Crucial Ballistix is $30 after rebate, it calls for 2.2v;
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16820146565
I'd look at this cooler instead of the Zalman;
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16835233003
Maybe this PSU;
http://www.buy.com/prod/corsair-620w-sli-certified-modular-atx-power-supply/q/loc/101/203270718.html

 

[Vitaminx]

Isn't thermal take supposed to be like top of the line in power supplies? or they aren't that reliable?

 

[amd_fanboi]

they aren't... PC Power & cooling, Seasonic... they are...

 

[Vitaminx]

Do most cpus come with thermal paste? Or is that heatsinks?

This psu good and reliable? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817703005

 

[chuckm]

That's an excellent PSU, most heatsinks come with some kind of paste , but you should still get some MX-2 or something along that line.
You haven't mentioned a budget, I suggested the PSU that I did because it's one of the best deals for the money at the moment.

 

[rockbyter]

Memory :the corsair 2 stick bundles are never a bad thing. XMS2 always has a decent price on it, and should last the life of the system.

You can never overcool a processor. the larger the cooler and more heatpipes, the quieter the fan can run (technically speaking). Zalman doesnt really make a bad one, so 9500 should do nicely, and it comes with a bit of thermal compound.

 

[Vitaminx]

Right now total computer budget without operating system I'd say my range is around $1000 - $1400 or so. Yea that seems like a good psu but how come the fan is so small 80mm? That seems small to me after looking over other power supplies. Is the thermalright ultra 120 extreme supposed to be a good price to performance ratio for a cpu cooler?

 

[chuckm]

The Thermalright is going to also need a fan, the Xigmatek that I linked to above comes with a fan and its getting very close to the same results. It's also less money. It's your call on the power supply. You're looking at a board that will do SLI, are you planning on adding a second GPU and doing SLI? If you are, you may want to go ahead and get something in the 750watt range.

 

[Vitaminx]

Nah, just one 8800 gts for now. For the power supplies I'm thinking either

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151028
SeaSonic S12 Energy Plus SS-650HT ATX12V / EPS12V 650W Power Supply 100 - 240 V UL, CE, CB, TUV, FCC

or

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817703005
PC Power & Cooling S610EPS EPS12V 610W Continuous @ 40°C Power Supply 100 - 240 V UL, cUL, CE, CB, TUV

Since someone above said those two are top end psu's and are reliable. Only difference I see is the fan sizes, unless I looked wrong.

As for heatsinks, yea I'm going with the one you listed http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233003
XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler

 

[amd_fanboi]

for now... why wait? if you are going to do it, then go ahead and get a better powoer supply now... else you'll have to end up replacing it...

 

[Vitaminx]

Hey are there any sites like this http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=108088 that show the rankings of memory modules?

 

[chuckm]

I haven't seen/found any lists like that for ram. Look at the results posters are getting with different board/ram combinations and that may give you an idea. As example, I'm seeing several people having problems geting DDR2 1066 to overclock and run stable. What works well for one may not work well for you. I generally suggest Crucial Ballistix because they have Micron chips, which are supposed to be the best for overclocking.

 

[jevon]

Welcome to the forums Vitaminx!

First off, I have to plug my favourite case: Coolermaster 690, great for cooling and it will save you a bit of cash too. But to each their own, the Antec 900 is my 2nd fav

I agree on getting the E8400, though their availability is somewhat limited right now.

For the memory, you may want to make a quick visit to the support forums of the respective manufacturers to see if there's any glaring issues people are having. Otherwise, any DDR2-800 from OCZ, Corsair, Crucial, Mushkin, and some Patriot ones are your safest bet for compatibility. Just try and find the lowest timings you can for the price (ie, 4-4-4-12 is slightly faster than 5-5-5-15).

That 610W PSU from PCP&C is great, and since you wont be pushing it's load the 80mm fan shouldn't be that loud. Another excellent and very efficient PSU is the Antec 650 Neo Blue and it can often be found on sale for around $120ish.

Probably the IMPORTANT recommendation I can make is that you don't get a nVdia motherboard, especially if you don't plan on going SLI. The boards are generally more unstable with less driver support, have more memory issues, and run hotter when overclocking. I'd only recommend them to users who are familiar with troubleshooting PCs and BIOS tweaking, and who really want to go SLI.

Instead, I would get a P35 motherboard like the Gigabyte P35-DS3L. It has all the features you will need, is very stable, and overclocks well. And it's only like $100 You don't need to think about X38 boards unless you want to Crossfire two ATI cards.

The Ultra-120 is pretty much the best Heatsink out there, but does require a 120mm fan (I like Yate Loon or Scythe). Another heatsink that performs very well is the Tuniq Tower 120, which does come with a 120mm fan so I would probably recommend that for you if you plan on doing some overclocking. I'd also get some seperate compound like MX-2 that is non-electric/conductive so that there's no risk of currents making any show-stopping jumps (ie, short circuits if the past leaks a little) and it doesn't need to "burn in" or settle for ~200 hours like a lot of the other brands before you know how good a job you did and what temps you can expect.

Hope that sort of helps, good luck with the build!

 

[Vitaminx]

If I can't get the E8400 should I go with the E6850 or something lower? And are you sure I shouldnt get the EVGA board if I wont be doing SLI. I was drawn to EVGA for the lifetime warranty they offered. Plus I heard they are solid gaming boards.

Is MX-2 better then arctic silver 5?

 

[jevon]

If you can't get the E8400 right away another option in the mean time is a E2160 for around $80. They overclock really well and should hold you over for the next 3-4 weeks, mid Aprilish seems to be when we can expect to see large quantities of E8400's shipping..

There's nothing wrong with Artic Silver 5, it's a very good compound. But if you look around at some reviews and forums, you'll find MX-2 is becoming very popular because it's a bit easier to apply, there's no wait/setting time after applying it (AS5 = ~200 hours before you know if it's a good job or not), and it's non-conductive as an added safety bonus. If I had any AS5 laying around I would use it before buying MX-2, but if I needed to get some new compoud it would definately be MX-2. Most reviews even put it at 1-3 degrees cooler, but IMO thats a really tough thing to consistently benchmark and wouldn't put too much weight into it.

I'm sure most people around here would agree that if you aren't going to use SLI then generally the nVidia chipsets are way more trouble than they're worth :/ I understand how EVGA's warranty is appealing, but honestly I don't know anybody or can even think of hearing about a situation when someone has needed to RMA (return) their motherboard after having it for a few months.. Generaly, it will either arrive borked or it should last until whenever you decide to build again.

The Gigabyte boards have a 3 year warranty I believe for comparisons sake. You may or may not be building again in 3 years, but again I can't imagine what the odds are of having a board failure of some kind after a year or two of no problems (that's actually covered under warranty...ie, not cause by you forcing a video card into a memory slot).

 

[Vitaminx]

Is this a tier 1 PSU?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817703005

 

[jevon]

Yep, that's definately high end! PC Power and Cooling are among the best in the business It's 12V rail is awesome, which is the most arguably the important part of a PSU.

 

[Vitaminx]

I'm going to go with this as my motherboard:

ASUS P5E LGA 775 Intel X38 ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131219

What do you think?

 

[jevon]

Good choice, that's the board I would go with unless something like the Maximus Formula was on sale.