Suggestions on this Newegg build?

[ITDEFX]

Patriot eXtreme Performance 4GB(2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail 214.99 AR
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820220227

Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 Conroe 2.66GHz 4M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor - Retail 317.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115002

Intel BOXDP35DPM LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail 109.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813121314

case??

What I need in a case is something that has superior cooling to the system and hard drives! Something that has noise suppression/noise reduction padding (i've seen it, it exists!!!)..nothing too fancy..like no see through glass with neo lights :(

DVD burner (don't care which)??

a Soundcard other then onboard ??

EVGA 640-P2-N821-AR GeForce 8800GTS 640MB 320-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Video Card - Retail 349.99 AR
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130071

an SATA hard drive (NOT WD!!!!!) with a min of 300-500 gb of space.

primary goals are

dual boot Vista Home Premium/XP Pro

Vista HP for gaming and internet
XP Pro for photoshop, after effects, premiere and dvd authoring. [NO GAMING!]



I don't know if I want to overclock the cpu...

old system was a P4-3ghz with 2 gigs of ram.

[SOSTrooper]

Antec P182 is an excellent cooling case, cools all 6 hard drives, the power supply, and extracts warm air out to the back and top of the case. I have this case, it's very good and well built. It also has the anti-vibration paddings on the hard drive cages and power supply slot. Check it out.

[ITDEFX]

Antec P182 is an excellent cooling case, cools all 6 hard drives, the power supply, and extracts warm air out to the back and top of the case. I have this case, it's very good and well built. It also has the anti-vibration paddings on the hard drive cages and power supply slot. Check it out.


the problems I am seeing with that one and what people are saying is that it's extremely cramped inside.

[SOSTrooper]

the problems I am seeing with that one and what people are saying is that it's extremely cramped inside.

I have the case, and I can tell you it's not cramped at all. I took these pictures when I assembled one of my PCs using the case:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v225/sostrooper/stuff/P180-01.jpg

Power supply cables are routed to the back of the case, to reduce crampness that many mid tower cases experience. That's also one of the good things about this case, the cable management is really good.



DVD burner (don't care which)??

a Soundcard other then onboard ??

an SATA hard drive (NOT WD!!!!!) with a min of 300-500 gb of space.


Samsung SATA 18X DL DVD Burner (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151141)

I'm not very good with sound cards, maybe Sound Blaster X-Fi? Someone else might have better recommendations.

Anything Seagate is great, they have 5 yr warranty.

[ITDEFX]

I have the case, and I can tell you it's not cramped at all. I took these pictures when I assembled one of my PCs using the case:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v225/sostrooper/stuff/P180-01.jpg

Power supply cables are routed to the back of the case, to reduce crampness that many mid tower cases experience. That's also one of the good things about this case, the cable management is really good.






Samsung SATA 18X DL DVD Burner (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151141)

I'm not very good with sound cards, maybe Sound Blaster X-Fi? Someone else might have better recommendations.

Anything Seagate is great, they have 5 yr warranty.

holy shit, that's a well organized inners. Airflow looks excellent. And how quite is that case anyways? I do plan to get the 8800 gt

I do have the xi-fi card currently installed on my system... I could port that over.
This system still has some life left into it, I wish I can keep two systems up and running but i really do NOT have the room, plus I would have to buy another monitor :(

[SOSTrooper]

The case is quiet, because it uses 120mm fans, they dont need to spin as fast and still be able to move a lot of airflow, so they're quiet. All the fans have speed adjustment, so you can adjust them to your liking.

[ITDEFX]

how about THIS MONSTER

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811156073

that side fan will either provide ENOUGH cool air, or suck my head in when I fire it up :P

[ITDEFX]

so does anyone have any other thoughts on the video card, processor,motherboard or memory? Is it still too much? I am projecting about 1200 for this :| ouch

[Roufuss]

If you get a 6600 and just OC it you'll save a good $100 or so right there.

It's really not that hard to do, it's probably the easiest thing you'll ever do on the computer - an overclock from a 6600 to a 6700, you won't even notice any strain on the processor whatsoever. Basacially paying Intel to clock it for you.

People could save a lot of cash on CPU's if they got over the fear of OC'ing - it's so incredibly easy on the C2D's. My 6400 is at 2.8 ghz (might even be higher, don't remember) and I don't have an increase in temps at all.

[Vinny]

This case will keep everything cool... but make a lot of noise.:)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129021

I'm going to go ahead and say 4GB of memory is overkill. I recently made a thread about it and one CAG who had 4GB agreed it's overkill for Vista. I'd say get 2GB now and if it's that bad, get 2 GB more later.

Everything else look great. For the HD, I'd go with Seagate 7200.10 drives. I'd go with 2 two though, a smaller one for the main OS/program files and then a second larger one for music, video, and other data files. That way, if you ever need to reformat/reinstall, you don't have to back up all those files.

The video card looks good. I heard EVGA lets you OC a bit without killing your lifetime warranty.

For the sound card, I'd get a Creative X-Fi XtremeMusic or XtremeGamer (more expensive and supposedly better for everything).

And XP would actually be better for gaming... most all tests done thus far have shown that Vista performs poorer than XP in games. I could be wrong though... maybe driver updates and stuff have fixed those issues.

[Roufuss]

Yea Vinny, you're right, XP is a lot better for gaming right now - DX 10 isn't optimized at all and results in much lower frame rates over the same things running at DX 9 on XP. Company of Heroes is one where people reported the drastic dip in framerate's wasn't worth the barely noticible graphical changes.

I had to get an OS so I bought Vista just to be futureproof, but going back, probably would go for XP and wait a little bit on Vista - especially if you have any old games, be prepared for some fun compatibility issues, or strange occurances that need to be fixed. Hell, not even brand new games are secure in Vista, I'm not sure if Stalker is yet stable in it.

Don't get me wrong, Vista is pretty awesome, but is it ready for hardcore gaming? Not even close. The Vista drivers are nowhere near the quality of the XP drivers - getting there, but not even close.

Vista as an OS, definitely awesome, Vista as a gaming platform? Kind of iffy. Here are some of the prob's I had with it -

Battlefield 2142 - Wouldn't find any servers, but it was an easy fix
Battle for Middle Earth 2 (and the expansion) - Vista didn't install the settings.ini file needed to even start the game, had to find one on the net
Simcity 2000 - Wouldn't even install
Dark Messiah of Might and Magic - Crashes every single time I exit the game

This is just what I personally encountered, and keep in mind, these games ran and installed perfectly on XP... I know people have had problems with Baldur's Gate and Fallout, but I've personally not encountered problems with them. Same with Stalker and Simcity 4. Apparently it also has problems with Supreme Commander but I think GPG fixed that issue.

[ITDEFX]

If you get a 6600 and just OC it you'll save a good $100 or so right there.

It's really not that hard to do, it's probably the easiest thing you'll ever do on the computer - an overclock from a 6600 to a 6700, you won't even notice any strain on the processor whatsoever. Basacially paying Intel to clock it for you.

People could save a lot of cash on CPU's if they got over the fear of OC'ing - it's so incredibly easy on the C2D's. My 6400 is at 2.8 ghz (might even be higher, don't remember) and I don't have an increase in temps at all.

yes I have heard about OC's the C2D is easy...however... I haven't read any mentions of water cooling it to keep it cool as it OCs.. are you currently Watercooling your system?

[Roufuss]

yes I have heard about OC's the C2D is easy...however... I haven't read any mentions of water cooling it to keep it cool as it OCs.. are you currently Watercooling your system?

Nope. You only need to watercool if you are going for an extreme overclock. I got an aftermarket CPU cooler (to be honest, don't even remember the brand, got it at CompUSA of all things) just for the hell of it and my system stays as cool as it can get in a hot Florida room with a broken AC (but just in this room, glad I'm moving lol). I used to monitor the temps religously.

The water cooling is never essential unless you want to go up to 3.4 ghz and beyond, and hell, you don't even need an aftermarket CPU cooler if you just want to OC a 6600 to the speeds of a 6700. My temps never went up from 6400 - 6700 but I got a fan anyways since, when I move, I want to start clocking it higher, since I will need to reapply my AS 5 since the ride in the car will shake everything up.

[ITDEFX]

Nope. You only need to watercool if you are going for an extreme overclock. I got an aftermarket CPU cooler (to be honest, don't even remember the brand, got it at CompUSA of all things) just for the hell of it and my system stays as cool as it can get in a hot Florida room with a broken AC (but just in this room, glad I'm moving lol). I used to monitor the temps religously.

The water cooling is never essential unless you want to go up to 3.4 ghz and beyond, and hell, you don't even need an aftermarket CPU cooler if you just want to OC a 6600 to the speeds of a 6700. My temps never went up from 6400 - 6700 but I got a fan anyways since, when I move, I want to start clocking it higher, since I will need to reapply my AS 5 since the ride in the car will shake everything up.


oh I see then, I guess I will get the 6600(over clock it), 2 gigs of ram (since my current 2 gigs of ddr2 3200 400's are too slow), the xi fi music card (again :P). the SG hd, the 8800 GTS 640mb card by evga, the case and Motherboard (still good right?)..

[Vinny]

For the mobo, I'd go with this.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128042

It seems like it's a bit more solid than the Intel one, it's got a better northbridge and has pretty much all of the same features besides the lack of Firewire and it has 2 fewer USB ports.

Check the comparison.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Productcompare.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010200280%201387927158&bop=And&CompareItemList=N82E16813128042%2CN82E16813121314

[ITDEFX]

For the mobo, I'd go with this.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128042

It seems like it's a bit more solid than the Intel one, it's got a better northbridge and has pretty much all of the same features besides the lack of Firewire and it has 2 fewer USB ports.

Check the comparison.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Productcompare.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010200280%201387927158&bop=And&CompareItemList=N82E16813128042%2CN82E16813121314


hmm that one seems a bit more pricer... i loose the firewire port , which I need, but I do have a fire wire card. However this mb seems to be good for overclocking vs the intel one.

the more usb the better so I cant loose that many usbs...any other ideas for the mb? I don't need an SLI MB..

[Kunikos]

Re: Case Choice

I have been fighting with this particular element of a build for my next system for a while now. The problem with the Antec P18x line is that their drive cages are too close to the PCI Express area, such that you cannot use a long PCIe video card such as an 8800GTX. You may be able to fit an 8800GTS but you will have trouble putting a hard drive in that spot since you may have to fit the PCIe power connector through the drive cage to get it into the end of the video card.

I am looking for a case that looks very clean (ie no windows, no BS lights) and is well-designed (large to work in inside, tooless, mobo tray, etc), is made out of aluminum so it doesn't weigh a ton, but doesn't cost a fortune. I can find a few cases that fit the first two requirements, but it's a "choose any two" type of deal. There are a few Lian Li and Silverstone server cases that fit the first two, but they are in the $250-300 range. The CM Stacker 323 (a revised 320) looks like an ace for design but it looks stupid and is so big that some cables will just not reach.

CM Stacker: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16811119121

Re: Core 2 Duos

Hold off on buying a processor if you can until next month as the Core 2 Quad Q6600 is dropping to about $300 on websites (I hear $250 but I'm thinking that is without vendor mark-up).

Re: Video card - 8800GTS

Try the 320MB one, as you will save money and unless you have a very big monitor or dual monitors (setup for gaming) then you will be fine with the less RAM. The speed difference is marginal. However, if your desktop res is TEH HUGE then you may want to have the 8800GTX instead.

Re: Sound card

The cheap X-Fi Extreme Gamer. You can get Alchemy to get 3D sound in Vista and it works even better in XP with EAX HD.

Re: DVD drive

Get an SATA Lite-On. They're cheap and have lots of hacked firmwares and whatnot, and seem to work pretty well. Mine isn't that noisy either.

Re: Motherboard

Consider an nForce or P965 board, since they are more mature: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16813130081
The 650i boards have more features on them as well for less price.

Re: Memory

G-Skill seems like a better value: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16820231122

Hard Drive

New WD SATA 750GB is a monster in both size and speed: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16822136131

[ITDEFX]

Re: Case Choice

I have been fighting with this particular element of a build for my next system for a while now. The problem with the Antec P18x line is that their drive cages are too close to the PCI Express area, such that you cannot use a long PCIe video card such as an 8800GTX. You may be able to fit an 8800GTS but you will have trouble putting a hard drive in that spot since you may have to fit the PCIe power connector through the drive cage to get it into the end of the video card.

I am looking for a case that looks very clean (ie no windows, no BS lights) and is well-designed (large to work in inside, tooless, mobo tray, etc), is made out of aluminum so it doesn't weigh a ton, but doesn't cost a fortune. I can find a few cases that fit the first two requirements, but it's a "choose any two" type of deal. There are a few Lian Li and Silverstone server cases that fit the first two, but they are in the $250-300 range. The CM Stacker 323 (a revised 320) looks like an ace for design but it looks stupid and is so big that some cables will just not reach.

CM Stacker: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16811119121

Re: Core 2 Duos

Hold off on buying a processor if you can until next month as the Core 2 Quad Q6600 is dropping to about $300 on websites (I hear $250 but I'm thinking that is without vendor mark-up).

Re: Video card - 8800GTS

Try the 320MB one, as you will save money and unless you have a very big monitor or dual monitors (setup for gaming) then you will be fine with the less RAM. The speed difference is marginal. However, if your desktop res is TEH HUGE then you may want to have the 8800GTX instead.

Re: Sound card

The cheap X-Fi Extreme Gamer. You can get Alchemy to get 3D sound in Vista and it works even better in XP with EAX HD.

Re: DVD drive

Get an SATA Lite-On. They're cheap and have lots of hacked firmwares and whatnot, and seem to work pretty well. Mine isn't that noisy either.

Re: Motherboard

Consider an nForce or P965 board, since they are more mature: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16813130081
The 650i boards have more features on them as well for less price.

Re: Memory

G-Skill seems like a better value: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16820231122

Hard Drive

New WD SATA 750GB is a monster in both size and speed: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16822136131

wow I love your suggestions... except that WD drive.. sorry after the feasco with them in 2000 (where i lost 3 new drives in less then 2 months), I will never buy from them again... maxtor or segate for me :)

I want something that is really fast for Adobe products such as After Effects, Encore , and so on yet still be good enough to get over 30FPS in any game. I have the gateway 22 inch wide screen monitor which will be ported over to the new system. Yes I heard that too about the processor price drop in July. Am I future proofing myself by going quad core or by the time quads are properly utilized by any program or game, there will be 20x core chips out there? I made that mistake when I bought my Evga 6800gt , paying 400 bucks then realizing that I paid too much for a card that I could have gotten better performance for cheaper prices. :(