I'm building a tower for the first time and I would greatly appriciate ANY comments or suggestions for my build. I'll be running XP with the new rig.

P: QX6700

I was thinking of the 6850 but from what I understand, I can simply overclock the 6700 to 3.0 and performance wise, it'll be the same.

MB: ASUS P5QC LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX

Asus are supposedly pretty solid as a MB, or so I've heard. This is probably the best MB I could find for the price range I was looking at.

VC: VisionTek 900241 Radeon HD 4850

I may decide to either run parallel or have it as a single card, not sure yet.

PS: ___

No idea. Some have told me that a 550w will not be enough to run the card, while others said it would be fine. Would I be better off with a 700w+ ps?

C: ___

No clue. I don't need one that's flashy but definitely one that will accommodate future video cards and/or components.

Ram: ____


This has been a huge pain in the ass. I've been getting all kinds of recommendations. I want to run 4gb. Someone told me that XP can only recognize 3gbs....really?



As you can see, i'm still a far ways off before I can start building. Any insight would be great.

About the RAM, yes. 32-bit XP only recognizes about 3.25GB. If you really want to use 4GB, get 64-bit Vista.

By C I assume you mean cooling. Unless you plan on massively overclocking, you don't need anything higher than stock cooling.

550W is plenty as long as you're not running CrossfireX.

I think he meant case, in which id say Antec 900 is probably the most commonly recommended.

However I like the way the antec 1200 looks a bit better, and it has washable filters which I think is pretty cool.

The P5QC is a gimmick board that runs both DDR2 and DDR3. You do not need it. It also is NOT a crossfire board.

Get a P5Q Pro or a P5Q -E.

Your actual usable memory with XP 32 bit depends on a number of things, but as a general rule you will get somewhere from 2.8GB to 3.6GB of usable memory. In your case 3.2 to 3.4 probably.

If you want to keep open the option of adding a second 4850 in the future, then I would recommend the Corsair 750TX PSU:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] &Tpk=750TX

Finally, a Q9650 will give you just as good performance for a fraction of the cost.

Look here:
http://www.tomshardware.com/charts [...] U,817.html

just wondering why the qx6700, why not like the q9550 and overclock that?
dont get a motherboard with both types of ram just get a normal ddr2 motherboard if you are buying before nahelm
i really like my corsair vx550, but the corsair hx620 is modular, a little old but...
get ddr2 800 ram whatever happens to be cheap and a good brand when you buy

I've managed to get a qx6850 so i wont be overclocking the new rig at all. This being my first build, i want to make sure things work first before I mess with anything that might compromise system integrity.

The mother board i'm looking at was the ASUS P5Q Pro LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX. I will only be running 1 video card so crossfire is not tremendously necessary. Would this be a good choice or should I go for something else. I'm not certain if this mother board has too much for my uses or not enough. I want to try and keep price in mind. A friend of mine has a gigabyte motherboard that he says is rock solid, any comments?

both asus and gigabyte have their fanbois but when it comes down to it both are generally very good boards

microsoft says Windows XP 32bit uses all 4gb of ram even though it only shows 4 gb of sys mem total
they claim unreported ram volume used for back round system requirements.
Bah.

Ok! So I think i've put together the build. Please critique this system for compatibility and add any suggestions that you may have.

I have a QX6850 processor in wait as the brains.

I am looking at ASUS P5Q Pro LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX. It has a crossfire function, which I will be taking advantage of later on down the road. I'll only be running 32-bit xp right now, but I will probably upgrade to vista in the future (soon).

The power supply will be a Thermaltake 850-Watt TR2 RX Power Supply. This, I believe, will easily handle everything I throw at it (including a secondary card in the future).

I'll have one 4850 card for now, and in about a couple months, i'll upgrade to two newer cards.

The case i'm going to be using is a Thermaltake Soprano Mid-Tower Case (Mo. 8763126). This was kinda just a random pick, of sorts. I don't want to spend too much on a case (I can get this one for $50).

The ram is up in the air but i'll probably put 4gbs in there even though xp will only recognize 3 (2gbx2). Suggestions?



So thats the build. This is my first computer i've ever put together so i'm kinda nervous about everything but I think i've made some solid choices.