[Muhahahaha]

Hey everyone, I'm working on building a new rig right now and I just wanted some advice to make sure I'm buying good stuff.

Budget: About $1000-$1500

Case: Antec Nine Hundred Plenty of HDD slots and great cooling. It looks nice too.

PSU: PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750W This looks like a good one. It has a 60A +12V rail.

Mobo: GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3R Intel P35 Good board for overclocking at a reasonable price.

CPU: Intel Q6600 w/ G0 stepping on preorder from Tank Guys! Should arrive around August 8th! (sprung for 2 day shipping for ~$10 more

)

Memory: 2x1GB G.SKILL HZ DDR2 800MHz Need some good memory for overclocking!

Video Card: Sapphire Radeon X1950Pro 512MB Here's the Radeon X1950 card that I'm looking at. I don't have an itching need to spend $400-$500 for a next-gen card that I probably won't benefit from, what with college classes and no DX10 games and all.

New 20"-22" Monitor!! : LG 20" 2ms Widescreen LCD Drool... gotta have a nice monitor for some gaming... and maybe some PR0N, LOL.

Thanks for all the help guys! I think I've got it all figured out now. Now I just have to wait for my Q6600 to get here...

Grand Total (including Tax and Shipping): $1,496.62

 

[PhillyOverclocker]

There's not much to look at, but I wish I had the psu (nicer modular than mine) but I can't stand clear cases. Every one I've ever seen in person looks like somebody dumped a vacuum bag full of dust into it. It's ok if you either plan to clean it weekly or never look at it again.

 

[Muhahahaha]

Haha, ic. My full post is done now, see above.

 

[whe3ls]

i say get a quad and you dont really need a physic card and for video i d say a 2900xt( note 2950 havnt came out yet)

 

[Muhahahaha]

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. My current Hard Drives are SATA 1.5Gb/s, and I was wondering what kind of difference SATA II would make? I already have like 660 GB that I use for storage, lol, but I could just buy a single SATA II drive to install stuff on if it would be faster.

 

[whe3ls]

prolly in transferring files and load times

 

[Muhahahaha]

Oh, right. I accidentally put 2950, but you're right, it's 2900.

(fixed)

 

[Nasgul]

I'd suggest a couple of things that are going to be better than those, and one of them is the PSU, you said you don't want to mess around? Well, the Enermax is decent but the absolute best for the money will be the PCP&C Silencer 610W for $8 more, here: http://www.pcpower.com/products/view...hp?show=S61EPS

That PSU is capable of powering two 8800 GTX in SLI along with a Quad-Core system. So, definitely much better.

For MoBo, I like ASUS in general but that board isn't one that I'd get nor recommend, I'd say the GIGABYTE P35 will be better:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128047

For $7 more, you get the option of RAID and also an 6 stage power change, whereas the ASUS only has 3.

 

[Muhahahaha]

A 6 stage power change?

 

[Muhahahaha]

I think I'm gonna go with this one, since it's a little bit cheaper: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128050

The only difference seems to be that instead of a second PCIe x16 slot (which is actually only x4 anyways), it has a third PCIe x1 slot. What even fits in the x1 slots? Oh well... so does this one have that same advantage? If yes, and if I learn what that advantage means, then I'll definitely go for it.

Still looking around at PSUs...

 

[ChocolateRain]

a budget range would help

also, when i was in your shoes a couple months ago, i wanted the clear acrylic case...but after reading alot of reviews about it i decided against it. apparently it scratches/smudges very easily, and the whole case comes to you as a "kit". meaning that you need a nice long afternoon to put every piece of the case together. i ended up with an antec 900 instead and couldn't be happier (i found mine at frys for $90

)

however, if you still want to stick with the acrylic case, id recommend the UV-reactive case, if you get yourself some cool UV-reactive fans and cables, it would look really dazzling

Mobo: are you going to get into overclocking? if so, go for the p5k deluxe, i stretched my budget a little to get it, and after a couple bios updates its NICE. i'm excited to get into OCing my Q6600 when it comes.

If you won't get into overclocking, the mobo you chose is a superb choice

RAM: 2gb Crucial Ballistix (you can easily find these for ~$80 AR) or 2gb G.Skill HZ, you'll find that most people on OCN prefer/recommend these

CPU: id say go for the Q6600...after all, more cores = bigger e-peen

what CPU cooler are you going to get? id go for the Tuniq or a Scythe...heard great things about the Scythe cpu coolers

hope this helps!

 

[Muhahahaha]

Yep, I already pre-ordered a Q6600 with G0 stepping from Tank Guys! I'll update my list.

I will definitely be overclocking, but would there be any difference if I just got the regular p5k rather than the deluxe? I'll take a look around at some other cases as well. The Antec 900 was definitely one of the ones I was looking at.

Oh, and I don't really have a budget per-se... but I was thinking to keep it between $1000 and $1500. In light of that, I've decided to go with one of the Radeon X1950s for now. I'm into gaming, but I don't really have that many games right now, and to tell the truth, I may not have that much time to play anyways once college classes start again.

 

[Ninjers]

Echoing the fact that the PhysX is useless and a waste of money.

 

[Sreenath]

500W enermax

7900gt(x) or 8600gts

 

[Nasgul]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Muhahahaha A 6 stage power change?

The P5K-Deluxe has 8 phase power design, which means

Quote:

The ASUS 8-Phase Power Design provides highly efficient operation to generate less heat (at least 15°C (27°F)) than other conventional power solutions. It reduces input ripple current and output ripple voltage, which keeps CPU and power module from suffering the risk of high power stress. It has the advantages of quick transient response and stability, especially beneficial when CPU requires more current immediately under heavy loading or overclocking mode.

The P5K has 3 and the DS3 has 6.

 

[Muhahahaha]

Oh, cool. Now it's time for me to decide.

EDIT: 100*Pi Posts! lol

 

[mithrandir]

Personally I would choose an x1950xt over the x1950pro.

 

[Muhahahaha]

Well sure, but that's also more expensive, haha.

 

[Muhahahaha]

What about the following PSUs? (even though the second is crazy expensive...)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817256021
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817256022

 

[Nasgul]

You didn't pay attention to the PSU I suggested? The Silencer 610W is far better than those and the 750W is even better.

PC Power & Cooling, take no prisoners.