Newbie Here, any advice for first build would be greatly appriciated

[Damien123456]

Hello,
It is my first custom build and any advice is welcome ! ( about compatibility/specs etc... )


I'm looking for something strong enough to play recent games and will be easily updatable in a few years. And since the last PC I knew was some kind of P2-200 MMX or something... I'm quite lost
It's not the most powerful PC, but It's not really expensive. So I'm wondering if I can get some advice from you guys.


Motherboard: ASUS P6T Deluxe V2 X58 ATX LGA1366 DDR3 LGA1366 3PCI-E16 PCI-E4 2PCI CrossFire SLI SATA2 Motherboard

CPU: Intel Core I7 920 Quad Core Processor LGA1366 2.66GHZ Bloomfield 8MB LGA1366 4.8GT/S

Ram: Aeneon Xtune AXH860UD20-13G-K-4G 4GB 2X2GB DDR3-1333 PC3-10666 CL8-8-8 240PIN DIMM Kit

Video Card: EVGA E-GEFORCE 9800GT 600MHZ 1GB 1.8GHZ 256BIT DDR3 Single Slot Dual DVI-I HDCP HDTV Out Video Card

HDD: Western Digital WD1001FALS Caviar Black 1TB SATA2 7200RPM 4.2MS 32MB 3.5IN Dual Proc Hard Drive OEM

Power Supply: OCZ StealthXStream OCZ500SXS 500W ATX12V 24PIN Active PFC ATX Power Supply 120MM Fan Black


Thanks Again !

 

[alexbruce]

Hey,

I would change the graphics card, the 9800GT isn't immense, and will soon show it's age in newer gaming titles...

Try an ATI 4870 , if your budget doesn't stretch then an ATI 4850, I don't know the NVidia equivilants but I think maybe GTX280 and GTX260? Respectively.

The Ram make i've never heard of, could be great, could be rubbish, I would stick with either OCZ or Corsair.

The PSU should be fine but won't allow for adding many more devices, I would like at a 650w to "future proof" yourself sort of, that way if you add another harddrive/graphics card etc you shouldn't have power problems, I like OCZ Power supplies, but people also rate Corsair and PC Power + Cooling as well.

Hope that helps.

Alex.

 

[alexbruce]

Oh yeah and the board, processor and HDD are GREAT choices!!!

 

[Damien123456]

Thanks a lot for answering,
I'm looking for the RAMs and I'm a bit lost, My MotherBoard Specs say it is supporting DDR3-1333/PC3-10600 and I found these RAMs at a better price:

Corsair XMS3 TR3X6G1333C9 6GB DDR3 3X2GB DDR3-1333 CL 9-9-9-24 Core i7 Memory Kit

It's DDR3-1333 but not PC3-10600...
Do you think it's compatible ?

Thanks again for the answer.

I'm looking for the Video Card now

 

[alexbruce]

I'm presuming your american so I looked on newegg which most US users use...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227375

I like OCZ as a company because there returns system is AMAZING, well i've had brilliant experience with it... and that set of ram is a lower latency meaning it'll be faster ram, if only by a millionth of a millisecond ;-)

They look good, I don't think it matters as long as it's DDR3 1333, looking at ASus's page it doesn't mention anything

http://usa.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=179&l3=815&l4=0&model=2746&modelmenu=1

You planning on going SLI/crossfire?

 

[alexbruce]

what about...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102801

 

[Damien123456]

I'm going to go Crossfire i think, but the problem is... I'm Canadian, I was about to order from http://www.directcanada.com/ my parts, I didn't know about newegg.. i'm going to check if they ship to Canada and if the balance worth it.

Thanks a lot for the help again.

 

[Damien123456]

You convinced me about the vid card, I'm going for the Sapphire Radeon Hd 4870 1GB GDDR5

Any suggestion for a PSU 650w ?
I'm taking a look right now


Thanks again !

 

[Jack64]

Here's a link to Newegg Canada: http://www.newegg.ca/

 

[Jack64]

And I would recommend a 750W PSU, should give you plenty of headroom to run pretty much what you want within reason. Perhaps something like this
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139006

 

[Damien123456]

Thanks a lot !

 

[liberona]

For Canadian parts check NCIX.com as well usually better priced then newegg.ca.

 

[alexbruce]

Yeah sorry I don't know why I said 650 really.. wasn't thinking too much...

750w + would be better, more the better really... I mean I use a 1000w PSU and I know that I will never come even come close to using all that... but I don't have to worry for a long time!

If you added 2 ATI 4870's to your rig at some point, you will be soooo happy... will kick ass!!

check the price of a 4890 too, newer chip but not sure if it competes/over performs the 4870, there's a review on the main page of www.tomshardware.com

Let us know how it all goes!!

 

[Helloworld_98]

also ddr3-1333 is pc3-10600.

you'll also need to up the memory multiplier on the i7 to use it since i7 only supports ddr3-1066 a la carte.

 

[Damien123456]

Here's the new build...

ASUS P6T Deluxe V2 X58 ATX LGA1366 DDR3 LGA1366 3PCI-E16 PCI-E4 2PCI CrossFire SLI SATA2 Motherboard

Intel Core I7 920 Quad Core Processor LGA1366 2.66GHZ Bloomfield 8MB LGA1366 4.8GT/S

Corsair TX650W 650W Atx 12V 52A 24PIN Atx Power Supply Active Pfc 120MM Fan (right now I don't plan to add another video card or Hdd soon do you think that 650w will do ?)

Sapphire Radeon Hd 4870 1GB GDDR5 PCI-E 2XDVI-I Hdcp Hdtv Out Video Card

Corsair XMS3 TR3X6G1333C9 6GB DDR3 3X2GB DDR3-1333 CL 9-9-9-24 Core i7 Memory Kit (I'm not sure to understand about the memory multiplier for the I7... What do I need to do if I stick with 1333 ? Or Should I go for 1600 ? Even if I'm not going to o/c it... Since I'm a newb to that )

Western Digital WD1001FALS Caviar Black 1TB SATA2 7200RPM 4.2MS 32MB 3.5IN Dual Proc Hard Drive OEM

Samsung SH-S223F/BEBS 22X Speed Plus Black SATA DVD Writer OEM

Apevia X-PLORER 17IN ATX Tower Case 4X5.25 2X3.5 5X3.5INT 2X80MM Fan Window LCD TEMP. DISP. Black

With Win Vista 64

I took a look at NCI and Newegg but with the shipping I get a better overall price at DirectCanada.

Thanks once again for the answers guys !

 

[Jack64]

Yeah, the 650tx will work fine. The Memory you have will do fine also, you can force the memory to run at 1333 in the bios by selecting the memory profile for XMS, I forced mine to 1600 like that...works fine. But just get your system up and running on stock setting first and do your burn-in at stock settings. After a couple of weeks...then if everything works and is stable you can try oc'ing it, but let it be for now, if you force ocing for the burn-in, could be asking for trouble.

Looks like it will be a very nice build. Take your time check everything at lest twice, then check it again, before you power it on the first time. Read the manuals, follow the instructions and all should be well.

 

[Damien123456]

Alright,
I'm going to place the order by the evening,
Thanks again to everyone for the advices, I Appreciate.