Slightly tweaked $625 build questions...

[krause]

It has been forever since I have been on here but its good to be back!

Just last night I ordered all of the parts to build a slightly modified version of the $625 build for February. I upgraded a few of the components. I used the Hard Drive (Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB) and Power Supply (CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX 650W) from the $1250 build. I also sprung for the slightly upgraded mobo (GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3P) and the upgraded ram (G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 1066) because it was litterally the same price. I kept the same processor (Intel Pentium E5200 Wolfdale 2.5GHz).

Basically Its my first build in like 3 years and I am trying to avoid pitfalls I have fallen into before. So I have a few questions that I hope you all might be able to help me with.

- Should I dl drivers from Sapphire or ATI for the video card?

- Should I dl drivers from Intel or Gigabyte fo the mobo?

- What OS should I use XP or Vista, 32 or 64?

- I have two old sound cards that were good at the time the E-MU 1212m and SBL Audigy 2ZS PP are either of these still viable or should I just go with on board?

- I have an old lian li v1000 will all of this fit in it or should I be ready to get a new case?

Anyway I know thats a lot and any answers or advice you might be able to offer me would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!


P.S. I have a bit of a suggestion for TH too... If you could possibly change the function that caused my rediculous long message to get erased the first time I posted, because I forgot to select Sub-category, that would be awesome. Not a big deal for most I am sure just a thought.

For anyone interested here is the full list of components from newegg...

1 x Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

1 x Intel Pentium E5200 Wolfdale 2.5GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Model BX80571E5200 - Retail

1 x CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX 650W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply - Retail

1 x Nippon Labs 15 ft. USB2.0 A/male to B/male cable Model USB-15-AB - Retail1 x GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3P LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail

1 x SAPPHIRE 100259L Radeon HD 4870 512MB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail

1 x G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-8500CL5D-4GBPK - Retail

1 x LG 22X DVD±R DVD Burner Black SATA Model GH22NS30 - OEM

1 x ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro 92mm CPU Cooler - Retail

1 x Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound - OEM

- Other items I am taking from the old box...

- Audigy 2ZS PP or E-MU 1212m

- Lian Li V1000

 

[loneninja]

Go to AMD's website and find drivers for the video card on there. The motherboard will have a disc that should have all working drivers with it, you'll want to check out Gigabytes website to see if they even have newer drivers. Personally I would run Vista 64.

 

[The Third Level]

Get Vista 64-bit, so your build will recognize 4gb of Ram and up.
Im not sure which versions of XP come in 64-bit anyway.

 

[jitpublisher]

And start out with the on-board sound, see how you like it. It will likely be better than the sound cards you mentioned......and if you get Vista 64, (you should) you won't have to worry about trying to find 64 bit drivers for those old cards, it they are even available.

 

[The Third Level]

Also if you dont mind switching to AMD I would rather go for an Athlon X2 over the Pentium.