Is there anything I should be doing differently with this build?

[cydewaze]

It's been a long time since my last build, and now that I've bought the wife a new laptop, I have an excuse to build myself something more up-to-date.

My needs are simple. I don't play any modern games. Just the odd game of Red Alert 2. I surf the web, watch Youtube vids, listen to music, rip CDs, use some office apps, and write a bit of code. My current machine dual boots between my primary OS (Ubuntu Linux) and (don't laugh) Windows 2000. The only thing I use the Win2k boot for is to play RA2, and to run a ColdFusion server to test apps that I write for work. About the most graphically-intensive thing I probably run is Compiz Fusion, which is a desktop manager for Linux (the virtual desktops on the silly spinning cube).

In fact the main reason for this new build (other than the fact that I want to build a new machine) is that I'm finding it more and more tedious to boot between OSs, especially considering how long (4-5 minutes) my Win2k drive (a fresh install) takes to boot. I also don't want to play the game of having to hunt down drivers for my ancient hardware. Plus, I wouldn't mind upgrading my Windows drive to Win7 someday.

Considering my rather modest needs, I'm thinking that the following would be more than sufficient, and probably last me the 3-4 years that my current setup has:

Board:
ASUS P5Q Pro

CPU:
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 (probably overkill - an E7xxx would probably do just as well)

Memory:
Mushkin 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel
(the board wants DDR2 1200 memory. Will this 800 bottleneck it?)

Video:
XFX PVT96OZDFU GeForce 9600 GSO 1GB 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express 2.0 x16
(I stick to the NVidia cards due to their excellent Linux support)

Hard Drive:
Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb

The on-board LAN and sound will be fine for me. I haven't chosen the power supply yet. Need to do a bit more research on that. I originally thought I might want to build around one of those slim "low profile" cases, but I'm worried about cooking something. Also, since I run dual monitors, I'm worried about having to use a split video cable (not to mention that it would be a waste of my rather snazzy Cooler Master case).

I'm sure some people will harp on me for not going i7 or something, but I honestly don't think I need it. But if there's some glaring error that I'm making, or if someone has an alternate recommendation, I'm all ears.

Thanks for reading, and sorry for the rather verbose post.

 

[Guest]

hello. you didn't mention how much you wanted to spend. first off, get red alert 3. ra2 was the only computer game i really ever played and ra3 is the only game i've really played lately.
if you're willing to spend a little more, i'd probably go for something like the q8400 cpu. this will be better for "future proofing" for those 3-4 years. i also assume you aren't overclocking. if you are going to run dual monitors you might also upgrade to the gts 250 gpu. it'll cost about 30 bucks more and it's worth it.
as for a psu, i'd get something like a corsaid 650tx, i have it and it's great. i also have the p5q pro and i have no problems with it. you should look at an antec 300 or 900 case depending on your budget and preference. obviously, more money gets you more!

 

[cydewaze]

Thanks for the reply. Spending another $200-$300 is fine. I don't really have a budget. I just know I don't need anything super high-end.

Good advice on the CPU and GPU. I'll look into those.

My case is a Cooler Master Centurion (this one) which I really like a lot.

I might check out RA3. A while back they came out with a new C&C game that was horrible, and as a result, everyone in my RA2 group shunned it and went back to RA2. RA3 might be fun for solo play though.

 

[cydewaze]

Hmmm, this GTS 250 looks nice, and there are even Linux drivers.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150356

 

[cydewaze]

Ok, I've decided to go with DDR2 1066 mem rather than the 800 I pasted. Still not sure about that GTS 250 card, as most of the reviews say that it takes up multiple slots. I'll have to research that a bit more.

 

[cydewaze]

Placed the order for everything today. I can't wait!

 

[cydewaze]

Gotta love the UPS man!