Opinions and advice on my first rig please.

[thenetvines]

Hi, well i'm building a rig for the first time, even though my knowledge is pretty basic i wanna give this a try so...




First off, this will NOT be a gaming PC, i'll be on a budget around 600$ dollars, and basically i want the most powerful, and faster PC for the money obviously, adding a few hardware i already have.


Hardware i already have:

1-(PNY Verto) Nvidia GeForce 7300 GT PCI Express (256MB) GPU
2-DVD+CD Combo Drives
3-LCD Monitor + keboard,mouse,etc...

What will be the purpose of this rig?

Basically i got sick and tired of my current slow PC... I want the fastest processor for media rendering and converting, i'm also sick and tired of having a Liva Cam Optia AF webcam, and suffer slow frames, and bad picture quality, and last but not least, i need a durable rig for multitasking, that will be easily upgradable for future upgrades.



So here's a noobish list of the hardware i pickedAll US dollar, from Newegg)



Processor:
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz 2 x 4MB L2 Cache LGA 775 Quad-Core Processor - Retail = 194.99$

I can see i7 being way out of my league,and i plan on learning more about overlocking.



Motherboard:
GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3P LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
2 oz copper PCB + Easy Tune 6 for OC = 114.99$ (after rebates)




Hard Drive:
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3250410AS 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM =54.99$




Memory:
PNY OPTIMA 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail=25.99$





Case:
COOLER MASTER RC-690-KKN1-GP Black SECC/ ABS ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail = 79.99$




Power Supply:
CORSAIR CMPSU-550VX 550W ATX12V V2.2 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply - Retail =64.99$



My main concern is the power supply, since i'm a noob i am afraid of going cheap and choosing a case that comes with a standard PSU, not being good enough, and damaging my mobo and processor. I understand PSU's with dual rail are not really necessary, and peak wattage is not as important as other factors, like continuous wattage and having a good distribution of amps through the rails, specially the 12v one, that's why i decided to play it safe and buy a case and a power supply separately.



The total comes to around 535 US dollars... so will this rig give me top performance for the price?, are all the hardware compatible, durable, and easily upgradable? (for things like SLi cards for example), and lastly,
Will and AMD processor and MOBO maybe give me the same performance for a cheaper price? xD


Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[theAnimal]

I would suggest a few changes:

CPU: Q9400 $230 - faster and cooler
HDD: WD Caviar Black 640GB $80 - much better bang for the buck
RAM: 2x2GB G.Skill or Mushkin 1.8V DDR2 800 $40

The mobo, case and PSU are good choices.

An AMD quad setup would cost around the same.

 

[xthekidx]

This is a great deal on a Q9300, which will be better than that Q6600 for less its faster and cooler. This processor usually sells for $250, I suggest you jump on it before the deal expires.
http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0299998

+1 to theAnimal's other suggestions.

 

[Akebono 98]

+1

 

[xthekidx]

Or Q9400
http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0301968

 

[thenetvines]

I really appreciate all of your help guys, i'm learning a lot as i type this searching this forum.


To TheAnimal and xthekidx, basically prices always varies if i hunt elsewhere other than Newegg, and that Q9300 is a hell of a deal, but price aside, i made the choice of the Q6600 based on future use, since i was planning on learning to OC, most people agreed that this PCU would do fine around 3.2GHZ even with its stock cooler, so i just wonder how much of a difference would a Q9300 really make? I'll have to digg more into it, but i guess i'm just being cheap since i really am on a budget =/

I'll take your advice on the memory RAM, i chose that RAM for its price, but after many reviews, it seems G, Skill and Corsair are better brands, but again, does 2G over 4G of RAM make a significant difference while multitasking?

I'll take your HDD pick though, i just hope it's not noisy as some people reviewing it say it is, but i guess the speed will make up for it.


I'm being too picky, but my biggest concern is the processor right now, so i'll see if i can research a lil better.

Thanks again for your help, and sorry for my English.

 

[xthekidx]

Most people recommend the Q6600 because its usually cheaper than the Q9XXX processors and can be overclocked to outperform them, but the Q9300 is better in every way and will overclock great, all Core 2's do. Since its cheaper than the Q6600, you have nothing to lose by getting it.

Yes the extra ram will definitely help you with multitasking, the more the better.

 

[thenetvines]

Thanks again xthekidx, for the moment i've settled for this, until i research a lil more, prices will vary but it's around 575$ total.

Processor:
Intel Core2 Quad Q9400 2.66GHz LGA 775 95W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80580Q9400 - Retail = 179.99$

Motherboard:
GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3P LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
2 oz copper PCB + Easy Tune 6 for OC = 114.99$ (after rebates)

Hard Drive:
Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM =79.99$

Memory:
G.SKILL PI Black 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail=54.99$

Case:
COOLER MASTER RC-690-KKN1-GP Black SECC/ ABS ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail= 79.99$

Power Supply:
CORSAIR CMPSU-550VX 550W ATX12V V2.2 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply - Retail=64.99$

 

[xthekidx]

All solid choices. If you won't ever get another video card or a different one that is very power hungry (and you don't seem to have the need at the moment), you could get a cheaper PSU, like this one and it will power your system fine, this one actually gives you headroom to get a more powerful GFX card, probably up to a 9800GTX or so.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371006

Also, since you don't need 2 PCIEx16 slots, you could get a different mobo, like this one and save a little there too:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128372

 

[Akebono 98]

Also, since you don't need 2 PCIEx16 slots, you could get a different mobo, like this one and save a little there too:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128372

Since you're overclocking, best to stay with Gigabyte's EP45-UD3P for 2 video slots and UD3R if you only need 1 slot, and not go below that.

 

[thenetvines]

I'll keep that in mind Akebono, it would be nice to do dual SLi cards in the future, but i'm not sure what other benefits i would get from that besides gaming and better picture quality on .MKV files maybe.

xthekidx you're a machine! thanks again, i'll keep updated as soon as i find and do better research.

 

[dirtmountain]

I like xthekidsx advice, in a non- gaming rig you don't need a 550w power supply a 380w-450w has plenty of power for your uses. You also don't need a crossfire capable motherboard, a single socket will be fine for you. With the money saved on the motherboard and power supply upgrading your CPU/ RAM/ hard drive should fit right into your budget.

 

[thenetvines]

I like xthekidsx advice, in a non- gaming rig you don't need a 550w power supply a 380w-450w has plenty of power for your uses. You also don't need a crossfire capable motherboard, a single socket will be fine for you. With the money saved on the motherboard and power supply upgrading your CPU/ RAM/ hard drive should fit right into your budget.

It's such a hard choice, because seeing that i'll be studying graphic design using software like Maya and 3Ds Max, maybe i'll regret in the future not having that crossfire capability for that extra picture quality.

Thanks for your input, i'm trying to decide on cons and pros right now, so the more advise the better.

 

[Akebono 98]

I'll admit that I'm not familiar with the requirements of Maya and 3Ds Max, but you'd better have a closer look at the hardware requirements of those software packages, and perhaps ask your classmates what they use. A 256MB 7300GT seems awfully light to me.

 

[xthekidx]

Yeah the 7300GT is a card I would use as a very cheap alternative to onboard video if I were building a basic computer that wasn't going to be used for anything but surfing the web and writing papers. It definitely will not be useful for rendering any images with your software, all that pressure will be on your cpu, not the gpu. Newer GPUs like the GT200 take a lot of that pressure off your cpu and greatly speed up the process, although it sounds like these are outside of your budget.

 

[thenetvines]

Thank you for your inputs, and that's exactly what i'm talking about xthekidx, since i plan on upgrading what i can in the future, it'd be nice to have that crossfire feature and not stress the CPU as much, also with computers improving so fast i wouldn't want my rig to be left in the past too early too soon in the future.

Just thinking about Tesla Supercomputers dropping prices in the near future makes me wonder lol, but yeah this basic computer sounds nice thanks to the help i got here.

 

[xthekidx]

Well you cannot use two Nvidia cards on that mobo, it only suppports xfire. Which means you can either use up to two ATI cards, or one Nvidia card, but not two Nvidia cards unfortunately. So I'm not sure if you planned on adding another 7300gt or not, but it won't work for you on that mobo. Single graphics cards solutions are always better than dual or more graphics cards solutions, which is why I suggested you just get the board with 1 slot for a video card, since you will have to buy a brand new card anyway when you decide to upgrade.

 

[thenetvines]

OH I'm confused, i read in the specs that my mobo had 2 PCI x16 slots, but it turns out one is x8 actually, so that means in order to use the Sli feature of my old GPU i'd have to get an even older GPU x8 ready that wouldn't make sense to combine with?

 

[xthekidx]

No no no. You can run two gpu setups on that board with one card running in 16x mode, the other in 8x mode. That board has 2 PCIEx16 slots. The second one in 8x mode is in the PCIE16x slot, but can only run up to 8x bandwidth. But P45 motherboards do not support SLI, they only support xfire, you would have to get an nvidia chipset (680i, 750i, ect) to use SLI, and I would encourage you to not do that, SLI chipsets are not worth the time, too many issues. Nvidia decided not to support P45, which was stupid because the nvidia chipsets that came out were very unstable and their sales suffered for it. (Not sure if you are aware of this, but Crossfire and SLI are the same thing, two video cards working in a linked configuration to produce one image. SLI is the Nvidia version, Crossfire is the ATI version.)

 

[xthekidx]

Use the video card you have until you decide that it is too outdated, then chuck it and get an ATI card, which you can use in xfire later with another ATI card.

 

[thenetvines]

Yes that cleared that up for me!, not very savvy on this stuff as you can see, so i guess dual GPU won't be an option.

 

[xthekidx]

Not unless you feel like buying two ATI cards. Although I would think that you should consider it, that 7300GT is ancient.

 

[Guest]

wow, those are awesome prices on the processors. what's ipsg? and what's wrong with them? something has to be up for them to be that price?

 

[xthekidx]

I think, and would hope, that those prices are a result of competition in our free market economy and advancements in technology, not due to them being faulty.

 

[xthekidx]

I just found the catch on those microcenter processors
They are available for in-store pickup only.