Need advice on 1st new build

[rigger]

I've gotten a lot of great info from reading the forums, but I've never built a system from ground up, so if I could get feedback on a potential build, I'd appreciate it.

My husband thinks it would be less trouble to just get a $800 Dell, but I'm not thrilled with the components at that price point, and I've done a lot of interim upgrades on our old system so don't mind doing the assembly myself. We won't be overclocking or running more than one video card, but I also don't want to be immediately obsolete. For gaming, we play Atlantica and Guild Wars right now, and our current system can't even always handle real-time rendering of the other players.

Other uses are Office Suite and some graphics editing -- Adobe Macromedia suite and basic photo/video editing) I'm looking at the following components:


Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

ASUS P5Q LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard

SAPPHIRE 100255L Radeon HD 4670 512MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card

Antec earthwatts EA430 430W ATX12V v2.0 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC

Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 Wolfdale 3.16GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core

CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)

W/D Caviar Black WD5001AALS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

LITE-ON 20X DVD±R DVD Burner Black IDE Model DH-20A4P-04

Antec 761345-75120-9 120mm Case Fan

Creative Sound Blaster SB0570 Audigy SE 7.1 Channels PCI Interface Sound Card

Not sure if the video card is overkill for our needs, but I appreciate all advice. I tried to share a wish list for this build at NewEgg but am not finding it on the public list. Does this work?

 

[MTIH1992]

Seems like that system would be perfectly ample for your needs, and would be pretty futureproof too. For games such as those mentioned that card is fine.

However, to be completely honest unless you're a DJ or something to do with heavy audio editing etc, the onboard 7.1 Surround on the motherboard would easily cope. I run a high spec gaming machine, but use onboard audio as - well tbh I can't tell any difference between my humble onboard sound and Mr Fancy's $300 Soundblaster.

Its also a waste of a precious PCI slot!

 

[rigger]

Thanks -- I wasn't sure if the onboard audio would handle the video rendering, so was tossing in the card just in case. Glad to shave off a few extra dollars!

We're running XP, so I know it won't see all 4GB of RAM -- does it cause any problems to put them in anyway?

 

[loneninja]

Thanks -- I wasn't sure if the onboard audio would handle the video rendering, so was tossing in the card just in case. Glad to shave off a few extra dollars!

We're running XP, so I know it won't see all 4GB of RAM -- does it cause any problems to put them in anyway?

No problems will come from having 4GB of ram. As you already stated you just won't see all 4GB in windows, it'll be 3. something.

 

[rigger]

Reading the various builds on the forums, I notice a trend towards the P5Q Pro as a standard mobo -- is there a particular reason to select that one over the standard version I listed? There is only a $5.00 difference in the list price on NewEgg.