Opinions on Custom-Built System

[kladal]

Hi,
Last week, for the first time, I built my own computer from components largely purchased through Newegg. The primary purpose of this computer is for gaming. I wanted to post my specs to see what everyone thought:
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Tower NZXT Apollo Black SECC Steel
Power Supply Rosewill RP600V2-S-SL-S 600W
Motherboard EVGA 123-YW-E175-A1 LGA775 NVIDIA nForce 750i
CPU Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 Yorkfield 2.83GHz
RAM CORSAIR 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 Dual Channel
Video Card EVGA GeForce GTX 285 1GB 512-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16
Hard Drive Western Digital Caviar GP WD5000CSRTL 500GB 7200 RPM
Optical 1 HP Black DVD Burner LightScribe
Optical 2 Lite-On DH-401S 4x Blu-Ray BD-ROM SATA
Monitor ASUS VH222H Black 21.5" Widescreen 16:9 Full HD 1080P LCD
Keyboard Microsoft Comfort Curve Keyboard 2000
OS Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-bit
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I included the monitor and keyboard for pricing: everything here cost me $1,335.00. Any thoughts? I have NO current plans for overclocking.

Thank you,
Kenny

 

[WR2]

Looks to be a pretty good system at a decent price.

 

[kladal]

Thanks, WR2. Is 1335 reasonable?

 

[xthekidx]

Its ok, but you should have asked before you bought that stuff.

The PSU you bought is garbage and should be replaced, return it if you can and buy a different one. Antec, Corsair, OCZ, Seasonic, PC Power& Cooling, Enermax in the 600-650w range.

You chose the most unstable chipset to base your build upon. The only thing that the 7 series MB have going for them is that they support SLI for LGA 775, but you picked a PSU that can't support SLI, so you wasted your money on an unstable motherboard, when cheaper ones were available that would be much higher quality. You should have gotten the GA-EP45-UD3R

DDR2-1066 ram gives no benefit to LGA 775, DDR2 800 with low timings is the best option, so hopefully you didn't pay too much for it.

Two optical drives? Why?

The HDD you picked is sloooow. WD6401AALS FTW.

No cooler either...but I guess that is ok since the 750i's OC like crap so you probably shouldn't try it and risk killing your MB. If you build your own system though, you should be planning to OC since it gives a big performance boost for the cost of a little time and a CPU cooler.

So other than those issues, your build looks good.

 

[kladal]

Its ok, but you should have asked before you bought that stuff.

The PSU you bought is garbage and should be replaced, return it if you can and buy a different one. Antec, Corsair, OCZ, Seasonic, PC Power& Cooling, Enermax in the 600-650w range.

You chose the most unstable chipset to base your build upon. The only thing that the 7 series MB have going for them is that they support SLI for LGA 775, but you picked a PSU that can't support SLI, so you wasted your money on an unstable motherboard, when cheaper ones were available that would be much higher quality. You should have gotten the GA-EP45-UD3R

DDR2-1066 ram gives no benefit to LGA 775, DDR2 800 with low timings is the best option, so hopefully you didn't pay too much for it.

Two optical drives? Why?

The HDD you picked is sloooow. WD6401AALS FTW.

No cooler either...but I guess that is ok since the 750i's OC like crap so you probably shouldn't try it and risk killing your MB. If you build your own system though, you should be planning to OC since it gives a big performance boost for the cost of a little time and a CPU cooler.

So other than those issues, your build looks good.

Hey, xthekidx:

Thanks for your input. I'm sure you can tell that I'm fairly new to this. Firstly, let me just say that the reason why I purchased most of these items was based on my loose gaming requirements followed by the research in forums and in user reviews (I always went with a high amount of user reviews that owned product for quite some time). Now the individual components:

1. The Rosewill PSU had remarkably good reviews - is this brand not quality? It is a Newegg house brand and they stand by their products so I figured it is a good purchase.
2. Correct, I did choose a PSU that does NOT support SLI. I was thinking that would be too much of an investment right now and I could upgrade the PSU and acquire another video card in the future.
a. Also, I want to use the EVGA "step-up" program which, again, would make this power supply useless. I would most certainly have to increase to 700W (I would go w/ OCZ or Corsair). I would upgrade to the GTX 295.
3. How do you know this MOBO is unreliable? My research through forums and user reviews indicates wonderful OC abilities. Please explain.
4. I only paid $39 for my 4GB corsair RAM. Why does DDR2-1066 give no benefit to LGA 775? By the way, I did have to manually input my timing and MHZ into BIOS---the system only recognized 800.
5. I bought two optical drives only so I can do a direct cd-to-cd copy (I understand you can bypass with with progs like MagicDisc). Since the DVD-RW was only $24, I didn't mind a second purchase.
6. How is my HDD different from the one you chose?
7. What type of cooler would you recommend? Do you mean an upgrade chipset fan/heatsink like the popular shotgun-style xigmatek??

I would very much appreciate any input.

Thanks again,
Kenny

 

[xthekidx]

1. Rosewill PSU's have a reputation for being bad low quality PSU's. I don't trust my systems to anything but a reliable brand that has been reviewed by a competent tester, most users don't have the proper equipment to test a PSU properly, so user reviews shouldn't weight that heavily in your decision.
3. All the 7 Series MB are that way, Nvidia Chipsets are just no good these days, they always seem to have issues. Maybe the one you found is an exception to the rule, but I doubt it.
4. The memory controller for the LGA 775 is on the mainboard, not integrated into the CPU like on the i7's or AMD chips. The memory controller for LGA 775 can't really handle much more than 800mhz, so there isn't really any point in getting it unless you need it to support the OC you are aiming for.
6. Its the Caviar Green version, its meant to be economical, and it sacrifices performance to be so.
7. This kind of cooler: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233029&Tpk=s1283v