What do you think about this rig?

[Goldbling]

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9650
Gigabyte GA-EP45T-UD3P
ATI HD 4870 512MB
4GB DDR3 PC3-12800 MEMORY KIT / PATRIOT
And I need suggestions for Hard drives and DVD/CD ROM drives

 

[aford10]

Optical drives are all pretty similar. I would go with LG or Sony Optiarcs. Here is the best price/performance drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136319

If you have the $$, the best drives are the velociraptors.

 

[theAnimal]

WD Caviar Black 640GB or 1TB perform nearly as well as the Velociraptors for much less.

Pioneer optical drives are good.

I would also change to the DDR2 version of that mobo, and get DDR2 800 (or 1066 if you're doing any major OCing).

 

[aford10]

The DDR2 version of that board is a bit cheaper, and the RAM would be significantly cheaper. This is the board Animal is referring to
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128358

The HD I linked above is the best price/performance drive. However, if you have the budget the velociraptors will perform better. It all depends on what you want to spend.

 

[theAnimal]

The DDR2 version of that board is a bit cheaper, and the RAM would be significantly cheaper. This is the board Animal is referring to
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128358

The HD I linked above is the best price/performance drive. However, if you have the budget the velociraptors will perform better. It all depends on what you want to spend.

Sorry, I didn't click on your link so that's why I mentioned the Black HDDs.

 

[Goldbling]

The DDR2 version of that board is a bit cheaper, and the RAM would be significantly cheaper. This is the board Animal is referring to
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128358

The HD I linked above is the best price/performance drive. However, if you have the budget the velociraptors will perform better. It all depends on what you want to spend.

Ive veiwed the price diffrence, and where I shop there is no real signifigance in price. Should I still get DDR2? the timings on the DDR3 RAM I posted are 7-7-7-20 witch isn't as bad as DDR3 timing normally are

 

[fishstick919]

Get the DDR2 board trust me it is amazing im using it in mine now, You really dont get much more performance with DDR3 over DDR2 for the price.
And Western Digital is the way to go with HD's.
My Rig:
E8400 @4.05ghz
4GB of GSkill 1066@1300
PNY 9800GT 1GB
Rosewill 500w ps
Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P mobo
Vista Ultimate 64-bit/XP Pro 64-bit Gamer Edition dx10

 

[aford10]

The timings are better on DDR2 RAM

 

[Goldbling]

The timings are better on DDR2 RAM

Okay time for a revised Rig:

Mobo:
Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P (ddr2 board)-$134.99

CPU:
Intel Core 2 quad Q9650-529.00

GPU:
Dimond ATI AD4870 1GB DDR5 GPU-259.99

Hard drives:
Seagate 1TB drive- 99.99
2 WD Caviar 320GB-59.99 ea.
I want to put them on RAID 5

Optical Drive:
LG 22X SATA DVD/RW Internal-49.99

RAM:
4GB DDR2 PC8000 Dual ELK/ Patriot-79.99

 

[oatastemur]

Okay time for a revised Rig:

Mobo:
Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P (ddr2 board)-$134.99

CPU:
Intel Core 2 quad Q9650-529.00

GPU:
Dimond ATI AD4870 1GB DDR5 GPU-259.99

Hard drives:
Seagate 1TB drive- 99.99
2 WD Caviar 320GB-59.99 ea.
I want to put them on RAID 5

Optical Drive:
LG 22X SATA DVD/RW Internal-49.99

RAM:
4GB DDR2 PC8000 Dual ELK/ Patriot-79.99

That'll go nowhere without a decent power supply and case. For the case I'd recommend an Antec 300 or 900. They're quite roomy inside, so you can easily fit that 4870 in. As for the power supply, I really have no idea as I'm not really experienced with them. Just don't get one of those cheap generic ones and you should be fine.

 

[smithereen]

For the kind of money you're spending on that processor, you're really better off getting a Phenom 2 system and Crossfire/a 4870X2 or a Core i7 system.

 

[Goldbling]

That'll go nowhere without a decent power supply and case. For the case I'd recommend an Antec 300 or 900. They're quite roomy inside, so you can easily fit that 4870 in. As for the power supply, I really have no idea as I'm not really experienced with them. Just don't get one of those cheap generic ones and you should be fine.

I already have a crossair 750W PSU and my case is a Armor+MX it dosent have as many fans as I thought but just as roomy as the 300 and 900 nonetheless

 

[Goldbling]

For the kind of money you're spending on that processor, you're really better off getting a Phenom 2 system and Crossfire/a 4870X2 or a Core i7 system.

and I7 isn't worth it, i've evaluated it, their like little furnaces right now and this isn't a final list, I may just go back to my original plan to get a Intel E8500 witch is a very good possessor for the money at a base of 3.16GHz and can be easily OC's to 4.0, although its not a Quad and therefore not Future proofed I can always wait for the processor that I want right now to go down in price. I am a little confused though, I hear I should get the 8400 and that is a OC machine, but I like the sound of the 8500 better, and if I drop down to the 8500 I can get all the parts this weekend instead of over a long period of time

Edit:and the way I see it is that it cant be any worse than the little furnace that you guys know as the ancient Pentium D that I have right now in my current 4 year old computer, and it surprisingly runs just as fast as the day I bought it

 

[aford10]

The q9650 is way overpriced. If you want to spend that on a cpu, get the i7 940. It will give you as much 'future proof' as you can get at the moment. However, the E8500 is probably the best option for the price. The E8500 will OC higher than the E8400, but they both OC nicely.

Either way you go, you will be much happier coming from Pentium D.

 

[mamw93]

Since your that hard core already I would either go with the Western Digital 2TB hard drive or 2 of the 1TB hard drives in RAID 0. OR... Pick up either the 2TB HDD or the 1TB HDD and also buy 32GB solid state drives or 2 16GB solid state drives in RAID 0 (for the best performance possible) to load Windows onto so boot up speeds are fast as hell and you have a lot less wait on Windows native programs. I have Windows installed on 2 32GB solid state drives and I boot up in under 30 seconds. I only bought the 2 larger drives cause they were all I was buying in the order and I wanted to add my most used programs to those drives and have optimal performane in games. I load my games and photoshop and sony vegas pro on the drives and I have no wait time for anyhting. I only use the HDD's for mass media storage and lesser used programs.