Yet another first build looking for advice

[westcoastred]

Hi All

I’m a big fan of the site and forums but haven’t posted on here before. I’m planning on building my first machine shortly and have been avidly reading both the articles and all your posts. I’m posting this in the hope that any glaring problems will be identified and I’m willing to listen to any good suggestions!

So far this is what I’ve come up with:
(*NB Bear in mind I live in Ireland so I’ve restricted myself to an Irish vendor, also I have a Samsung 26” LCD TV which I’ll use as a monitor and I’ll bring a couple of harddrives from my current pc to this build.)

CASE €119
NZXT ZERO, Aluminum Chassi, 8 Fans, 2xUSB, Screwless design, (Without PSU)
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=327365

PSU €109
Corsair Powersupply 750W Black, ATX/EPS, 140mm Fan, 8xSATA, SLI
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=340678

CPU €299
Intel Core™ 2 Quad Q9550 2.83GHz Socket LGA775, 1333MHz, 12MB, BOXED w/fan
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=344757

MOBO €152
Asus P5Q-E, P45, Socket-775, DDR2, ATX, 2xGbLAN, Firewire, 3xPCI-Ex(2.0)16
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=352405

RAM €95
Corsair TWIN2X 8500C5 DDR2, 4096MB CL5, Kit w/two 2GB Dimm's, E.P.P Technology
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=366762

GRAPHICS CARD €285
EVGA GeForce GTX 260 896MB GDDR3, PCI-Express 2.0, 2xDVI/HDCP, 448bit
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=354882

HDD €75
Western Digital Caviar SE16 640GB, SATA, 16MB Cache, 7200RPM
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=352541

DVD €28
LG DVD±RW burner, GH22LP20, 22x, LightScribe, SecureDisc, Black and White
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=358260

Total cost €1158
Or ex VAT of €197 Total = €961 – I should be able to claim the VAT back

 

[aevm]

I like your case, PSU CPU, MB, HDD, DVD choices.

You did not mention overclocking and you didn't add a high-end cooler to the list so I'll assume you won't overclock, or you'll just experiment a bit with the stock cooler. In this case you can get normal RAM rather than overclocking RAM and save €27.
Corsair TWIN2X 6400 DDR2, 4096MB CL5, Kit w/two matched CM2X2048-6400 Dimm's
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=338074

The GTX 260 is a good card, but it's a bad match for your setup. Get this one instead:
Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 1GB GDDR5, PCI-Express 2.0, DVI-I/HDMI/HDCP
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=388744
It's €14 more than the GTX 260, but it has more RAM, it would allow expansion with a second card in Crossfire (you can't do that with your Crossfire motherboard and GTX 260 cards), and it is faster. Here's an example:
http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=3415&p=4

 

[aevm]

One more thing. Your 26" TV is probably running at 1366x768. If that's true, then it's worth adding a monitor to the list. Of all the monitors at www.komplett.ie that can run 1920x1200, I'd pick this Samsung T240 (€365.00):

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=347597
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824001275&Tpk=T240

The second link is just for information and user reviews - Newegg won't ship outside the USA.

 

[Onus]

+1 @aevm. As far as RAM goes, you'll minimize any compatibility risks essentially to essentially zilch if you get DDR2-800 that will run on the JEDEC standard 1.8V.

 

[aevm]

Well, that's a bit of a challenge to check with that komplett.ie site, they're nowhere near Newegg's level of detail.
The RAM I recommended is also available at Newegg here:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145184&Tpk=TWIN2X4096-6400C5
It shows as 5-5-5-18 at 1.9V on Newegg's page.

I looked for user reviews there showing it used with P5Q-E, found none. That's probably because P5Q-E doesn't sell that much. I did find several people using that RAM with P5Q Pro. I'd recommend keeping the RAM and changing the motherboard to P5Q Pro, just to be sure of compatibility. This also saves 33 euros compared to P5Q-E. The features on the two motherboards are very similar.
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=352394

 

[westcoastred]

Thanks!! The ram compatability wouldn't have been high on my checklist.

Your right i'm not planning to oc right out of the box, i can always add a cooler later, same with the monitor - probably get that after christmas.

As for the Graphics card, is the 4870 1gb card equivalent to the GTX 260, should i consider changing mobo altogether to keep the 260? Or am i being too loyal to nVidia?

 

[aevm]

"Too loyal to nVidia"? If nVidia has worked fine for you so far, why not. Personally I've been happy with both ATI and nVidia, except ATI in 2003 and nVidia in 2007. Both had some horrible drivers at those times and got very frustrating, BSOD all over the place. Both fixed the problem in a couple of months with free driver updates. The hardware itself was fine, both times, and did a great job once the drivers worked.

If you want the GTX 260 and the ability to add a second one later, then you need a SLI motherboard. Lately these motherboards have had a rather bad reputation, but this one is trustworthy IMO:
EVGA nForce-750i SLI, ForTheWin (FTW) €192
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=350152
The Corsair 750W has the connectors and amperes to handle this scenario too, no worries there.
The GTX 260 is a large card, but I think it would fit in the NZXT Zero.

If you just want one GTX 260 and don't care about adding a second one later, you can use the P5Q Pro or P5Q-E all right. You'd pay less for the MB and get a more stable chipset.