Building my first RIG, need advice?

[leroyspoon]

Looking at building a pc with my budget of $1200.00. Currently I've made a list of the following parts/components. I'd appreciate any advice on each one with compatibility being of concern. THanks in advance:

1. Case: Raidmax/ATX-612WBP 500W BK RT
2. Motherboard: ASUS P5NSLI NF570 SLI 775
3. Video Card: VGA Sapphire 100176L X1950PRO R
4. CPU: Intel/C2D E6400 2.13G 775 2M R
5. Mem: 1GX2/KST DII667 KVR667D2N5K2/2G
6. HardDrive: HD 250G/WD 7K 16M SATA2 WD 2500KS %
7. DVD Burn: SAMSUNG/SH-S182M/BEBN BK %
8. SoundCard: SNDCD Creative/70SB073A00000 RT
9. OS: Windows XP Media
10. Monitor: Viewsonic Q19WB-2 Black 19" 5ms
11. Mouse: Logitech MX518 2-tone 8 buttons 1-wheel
12. Keyboard: Microsoft Comfort Curve USB wired

My plans are to game on this pc, Company of Heroes, AA, etc. Typical Internet gaming and surfing as well. Music and pictures aren't high on the priority but the capability for personnel use is what I'm wanting. If the budget can be cut a little for a part without loss in performance, better for only alittle more, or don't buy it and why(with alternate in mind) I'm welcome to all comments. Realize this is out of my league for building this so I won't notice small details that drive the "pro's" crazy. I just want a system that I can enjoy, upgrade without dropping serious bank and can do myself. If there's a part that will make the difference aswell, let me know.

Thanks,
Leroy Spoon

[bruins004]

I dont know what some of those parts are by their code name.
Could you provide links?

[leroyspoon]

Sorry about that.

1. Case: Raidmax/ATX-612WBP 500W BK RT
(RAIDMAX SMILODON ATX-612WBP Black SECC STEEL ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 500W Power Supply - Retail
Item #: N82E16811156062

2. Motherboard: ASUS P5NSLI NF570 SLI 775
ASUS P5NSLI LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 570 SLI Intel Edition ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
Item #: N82E16813131032

3. Video Card: VGA Sapphire 100176L X1950PRO R
SAPPHIRE 100176L Radeon X1950PRO 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Video Card - Retail
Item #: N82E16814102061

4. CPU: Intel/C2D E6400 2.13G 775 2M R
Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 Conroe 2.13GHz LGA 775 Processor Model BX80557E6400 - Retail
Item #: N82E16819115004

5. Mem: 1GX2/KST DII667 KVR667D2N5K2/2G
Kingston 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model KVR667D2N5K2/2G - Retail
Item #: N82E16820134046

6. HardDrive: HD 250G/WD 7K 16M SATA2 WD 2500KS %
Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD2500KS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
Item #: N82E16822144701

7. DVD Burn: SAMSUNG/SH-S182M/BEBN BK %
SAMSUNG 18X DVD±R DVD Burner With 12X DVD-RAM Write, LightScribe Technology Black IDE Model SH-S182M/BEBN - OEM
Item #: N82E16827151136

8. SoundCard: SNDCD Creative/70SB073A00000 RT
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer 70SB073A00000 7.1 Channels PCI Interface Sound Card - Retail
Item #: N82E16829102006

9. OS: Windows XP Media
Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 SP2b w/Upgrade Coupon for Vista - OEM
Item #: N82E16832116171

10. Monitor: Viewsonic Q19WB-2 Black 19" 5ms
ViewSonic Q19WB-2 Black 19" 5ms Widescreen LCD Monitor - Retail
Item #: N82E16824116065

11. Mouse: Logitech MX518 2-tone 8 buttons 1-wheel
Logitech MX518 2-Tone 8 Buttons 1 x Wheel USB + PS/2 Wired Optical Gaming-Grade Mouse - Retail
Item #: N82E16826104178

12. Keyboard: Microsoft Comfort Curve USB wired
Microsoft Comfort Curve Black USB Wired Ergonomics Keyboard 2000 - Retail
Item #: N82E16823109149


Hope thats clearer than before, not sure on the "link" deal but here they are attached underneath. I got this off of NEWEGG. Thanks again,
leroyspoon

[pt]

buy a e6300 and overclock it to e6400 speeds
easy money saving

[ktr]

Originally Posted by pt

buy a e6300 and overclock it to e6400 speeds
easy money saving

its just a $20 difference....but you could use the money for an aftermarket cooling.

[Chewy]

I think you should get some ddr-800 ram, not sure on the price diference but here are a couple.

- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820227139
Ocz plat. 175usd after rebate (ocz works good in my rig)

- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820609026
super talent... it has nice reviews! but dont run it at 2.2v anyone know if this ram is good? I forget, heard of it b4.
someone hit 1000mhz with 5-5-5-15 @1.95v (lucky sticks?) but its spec`d for 4-4-3-8 800mhz

-this is what you want if you can wait for the rebate.. tigger69 uses this brand ram in his rig and hit 3.9ghz on his e6300.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820220144


About the psu, you should not use the one that comes with the case.. maybe get a case without a psu and by a decent brand psu to protect your "investment" (if I can call it that).

read the first paragraph of this link http://www.overclockers.com.au/wiki/Power_Supply_Unit

[Guttboy]

Will you be Overclocking? Do you even want to Overclock?

[SlipSlice]

Either way he goes..that is going to be a badass computer man.. hope u get it running right. And enjoy it! Which im sure you will.

[leroyspoon]

Thanks for the info guy's.

DDR2 800 ram: I'll recheck the price.

Overclocking: Not yet I think. (those performance #'s ????)

One thing I've seen and heard is no Case comes with a reliable PSU. Why? I know it's a cost difference but it doesn't make since.

Would I need a CPU cooling fan with the three fans this case somes with?

leroyspoon

[anticlutch]

If you can, stay away from the P5NSLI board... I have it right now and it'll only let me overclock to 2.4 ghz (from a stock of 2.13 with an E6400), or in other words, a FSB of only 300... as soon as you try 301 fsb, the board locks up and you have to manually reset the cmos (the auto recovery doesn't seem to work for me in this situation).

Power supplies that come bundled with a case are weak simply because the quality is inferior. Simply put, you get what you pay for.

The stock CPU heatsink can be loud and/or inefficient compared to aftermarket coolers. If you have some extra cash, or if you would like to prolong the life of your processor, I'd recommend getting an aftermarket cooler from either Zalman, Scythe, or Arctic Cooling (particularly the 9500led-cu from Zalman, Scythe Infinity, or the Arctic Cooling freezer 7 pro). Also keep in mind: even if you decide to keep the stock heatsink, buy Arctic Silver 5 (a thermal paste) because it is one of the finest products ever made; the stock heatsink's thermal pad has paraffin in it which might affect performance later on. So basically, if you decide to stay with the stock heatsink, scrape off the crap that came with it and put on some AS5... if you decide to buy an aftermarket cooler, don't use the paste that comes with it- use AS5.

edit: I forgot to add but using a coffee filter with high purity alcohol (90% or higher) is recommended to get the thermal pad off... try not to use tissues as they tend to be a bit linty.

[freaksavior]

I know you said you're not going to overclock but like anticlutch said his board doesn't let him clock high. my dad has a gigabyte DS3 965P and i hit 3.4 on his E6400 temp @ 28C so good overclocking board thats also my opinion

[leroyspoon]

Thanks for the advice on the board, I was wanting one with dual PCIX16 capability. Can anyone recommend a good motherboard with those same specs? I'll have to look into the CPU fan, thanks for the advice.

[anticlutch]

Is there a price cap for the motherboard?

[leroyspoon]

Guy's you'll have to dumb it down for me on the lingo... I know nothing of overclocking, and the board you just recommended... ? Trying to learn as I go on this too.

[leroyspoon]

If there's main comonents that I can spend more on for the better of the system then good, I'll just have to pull back on other stuff. So in my mind, the case(w/PSU), mthrbrd, ram,video, and CPU are the $$$ components. Anything else I'll make do with until I can upgrade.

What do ya'll think?

[Chewy]

well I recomemd the ddr800, it proforms better from a review I read of c2d.
When you get the swing of overclocking (its easy anyway), you could get a aftermarket cpu cooler than.. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835186134 this one works excelent for people and is only... has raised in price from $23 to $80.. lol wtf.

Here are some duel pci-e boards
- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128323 DQ-6
- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131028 P5B Deluxe/WiFi-AP
- you could get a NVIDIA nForce 680i board, but I think they prefer Nividia cards.

Some good single pci-e boards
- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128012 ds-3 great overclocking board hits over 450fsb easily (someone told me they read it would not).
- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131045 acording to reviews, this one had some problems with the sound chip..

I dont think your going to need to overclock, unless decrypt/convert videos or file.. I convert movies for Ipod so overclocking speeds that up alot.

[leroyspoon]

Thanks Chewy

I'll search those boards up at NEWEGG. The ram sounds like a good move as well.

Any comments on the video card?

[Chewy]

The video card is good from what people say here, so I beleive it is very good especially if your on a budget. 2 1950pros proform the same if not better than a 1950xtx and is the same price.

About the psu, maybe you can find a case without a psu.. or if you like the case you had picked just replace the psu with an antec Neo HE 500 $90 or an OCZ GameXStream.

Originally Posted by niko084

Heh forgot to mention there, the Neo HE 500 is actually a good psu for a single 1900 series including the x1950xt, as long as it was the revsion after A3.. You very well could have had a revision before that which I think shared the pci-e rail with the processor or something else... Which with a hot amd chip and over clocked, would have been pretty bad.. Very well could have been your issue.

[leroyspoon]

Chewy,

Looked up those mthrbrds, their both DDR2 800 standard, to put 2gb of ram in the system it will put me over the $ i want to allow. If I go with 1 gb how will that compare to the 667 5300 performance at 2 gb?

[Chewy]

well you could get 1 gig of ddr2 800 for now and another gig later, some newer games may use more than 1 gig "at max settings" and 2 gigs give you more freedom to do other things in the backround that use up ram like converting files (playing music does not use much ram).
going this route the max system memory you could have would be 2 gigs, but that should cover you well... I doubt I`ll ever want to add ram to my system, even with vista...

Edit: maybe check with someone else on that though... if they think future gaming will use 4 gigs of ram with vista.. if so you could always sell your 4 sticks (or 2 sticks) of ddr800 512mb ram to upgrade.

Edit2 : I figure just about everyone will get into overclocking someday when thier system starts falling behind newer hardware.

[Guttboy]

Leroy,

Looks like you are getting some good information here.....Folks...remember he does not know much about OC'ing and is brand new to building computers so start him off with the basics.

As far as bucks go....If you want to save money you can go with a cheaper case. I know I will get flamed here but there are good cases for relatively cheap bucks out there. I personally want a little "Bling" with my next case/computer but if you are hard pressed for the dough try that out.

Guys....perhaps as a benchmark you could explain how Leroy's computer would compare to the one in my signature? He and I share an office together and he should probably get some "unbiased" opinions aside from my thoughts. He has seen my computer in action and this would give him a baseline to make his opinions on.....(dont ask him what he is using now....LOL)......

Good Luck Leroy! I am anxious to hear what the folks come up with!

[Chewy]

I`m not leet in the computer world at all, just learned some things mainly from this site and reviewing about my computer that I bought... I`m guessing At stock your guys processor will be about the same, I think his hard drive will load games faster (not sure on the specs of caviar Hd). He will have ALOT of overclocking potential with decent ddr2-800 ram and one of the boards I mentioned.

Overclocking is simple, once you know the ins and outs of your mohterboards bios, how to change ram timmings elc. you can get a better overclock.

[joinmeindeath417]

if your board is SLI compatible i'd definitly go with something like an Nvidia 7900gt so in the future you can double it up cause well...thats why the board is SLI no?

[niko084]

That psu is going to be an issue.. I can just taste it...

Save the money get an e6300, get a better case/psu combo, or buy a different psu.

Also if you aren't going to use the media stuff on windows media, I wouldn't bother buying it.
You may as well just get PRO OEM its a bit cheaper and less fat.

[Chewy]

I "think", hes going to get a aftermarket psu. The e6300 is only $20 cheaper, but that could help him towards a better psu.
Good deal on the windows oem PRO, I had media center edition and I would rather use other media players than what it offers, simplier ones with no fuss.