New member, first build, need suggestions

K

KPC84

New Member
Hi everyone, this is my first post on the forum. Hope to be an active member. So I'm going to build my first pc. Right now I'm running a gateway p4 2.0 that I got four years ago when I was a freshman in college. So the goals of this new system will be mostly for entertainment. I will be running it into a HD 37 inch flat screen LCD from Lg and will pretty much become my entertainment center. Priotirites will be HD applications and gaming, along with internet etc. Here is what I had in mind so far, each title will link to description of the product...

Apevia Black X-Cruiser Case ATX Mid-Tower Case with Clear Side, Front USB, Audio and Firewire Ports

ECS nForce 570 SLIT-A v5.1 NVIDIA Socket 775 ATX Motherboard / Audio / PCI Express / S/PDIF / SLI Ready / Gigabit LAN / USB 2.0 / Serial ATA / RAID

Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 2.40GHz / 4MB Cache / 1066MHz FSB / Dual-Core / OEM / Socket 775 / Processor

Corsair TWINX Dual Channel 2048MB PC5400 DDR2 667MHz Memory (2 x 1024MB)

EVGA GeForce 7950 GT KO SuperClocked / 512MB GDDR3 / SLI / PCI Express / Dual DVI / HDTV / Video Card

Ultra / X-Finity / 600-Watt / ATX / Dual 80mm Fan / SATA-Ready / SLI Ready / Blue / Power Supply

Seagate / 320GB / 7200 / 16MB / SATA-300 / OEM / Hard Drive

I also have a dvd burner and dvd rom drive picked out along with a 3.5 floppy. I plan to run in SLI but I will have to wait untill I can pick up the second video card. Trying to keep the cost down for now. So, what suggestions would you have? Remember that HD gaming and entertainment is the goal here. Thanks!
 
In my experience, NewEgg.com is cheaper than TigerDirect.

I also haven't heard good things about Seagate drives...I personally have 3 Western Digital drives.

But otherwise, it should be a pretty decent machine.
 
Off the bat I would purchase a higher quality Motherboard and Case.

If you could post a budget it would make it easier. You must have a good budget considering the gpu and processor, but the mobo and case don't match, and don't underestimate the need for a quality case. Especially for an entertainment center, you don't want to have to crank the volume to hear over the whining humming sound those 80mm fans are going to make on high speed. I would suggest a full tower case with at least 3 120mm fans for cooling. HD gaming and multimedia is demanding so you can expect there to be a decent amount of heat involved.

I would also suggest ATI, although the card you have is excellent I prefer ATI cards for HDR support in games such as Oblivion. But if SLI is your goal they do have crossfire boards with multi GPU applications.

suggestions...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811129154

I have this in black, you will nto be disappointed it is quiter then just one 80 mm fan on my other computer, you will notice by the reviews it is a quality case.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131071

I make this suggestion because if it is a multimedia board it has onboard wifi so you will not be limited in mobility as much or be bothered by cables. It is also SLI and a quality board. If the wifi doesnt interest you they have one cheaper without it, exactly the same.

Also if you want a way to save money you could go with an e6400 the improvement is not very significant but if you think it may be neccessary run with it.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145590

The board above also supports faster RAM, which I would suggest. Corsair is an excellent brand.

These improvements would drastically increase your performance. If it is not within your budget I would at least consider upgrading your board, that is not something you want to skimp on, especially for what you desire to do with it.

Hope I helped.

edit: seagates drives have a 5 year warranty compared to WD's 3 years so....

edit: Make sure the cdr/dvdr's you have are quite also, the excess noise may be annoying during a quite scene in a movie...
 
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ETSA said:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131071

I make this suggestion because if it is a multimedia board it has onboard wifi so you will not be limited in mobility as much or be bothered by cables. It is also SLI and a quality board. If the wifi doesnt interest you they have one cheaper without it, exactly the same.
Click to expand...

Ok so it reports faster ram, and more of it, up to 8gigs of ram at ddr2 800 compared to 4 gigs at ddr 667, however it says ddr2800 oc, meaning do I have to purchase oc'd ram? Secondly it also says that "Immature bios can't run 4GB of memory at 800MHz bad chipset, what a bummer SE OC's better and more stable with out all the glitches what a shame...." So, that obviously presents a problem. If someone could clear this up for me that would be great!
 
Don't always listen to reviews. People are hypercritical or never purchased it, you only have to sign up at newegg to write reviews. Normal RAM would be fine. You can also update your bios version easily from there prospective website. Find a balanced review if you want to take one into consideration, ie: actual pros and cons, not just some immature tirad. The brand is also known for being more reliable and of better quality.

cheaper variant of above...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131031

only runs 667 though...
 
Ok, so here is an updated component list. Keep in mind I'm aiming at an entertainment system here with HD gaming as a priority. I'll be running SLI, but I'm going to wait on the second video card till after the rig is built and put some money away...Any more suggestions here?

Apevia Black X-Cruiser Case ATX Mid-Tower Case with Clear Side, Front USB, Audio and Firewire Ports

ASUS P5N32-SLI Premium/WiFi-AP Socket T (LGA 775) NVIDIA nForce 590 SLI ATX Intel Motherboard

Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 2.40GHz / 4MB Cache / 1066MHz FSB / Dual-Core / OEM / Socket 775 / Processor

CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory

EVGA GeForce 7950 GT KO SuperClocked / 512MB GDDR3 / SLI / PCI Express / Dual DVI / HDTV / Video Card

Ultra / X-Finity / 600-Watt / ATX / Dual 80mm Fan / SATA-Ready / SLI Ready / Blue / Power Supply

Seagate / 320GB / 7200 / 16MB / SATA-300 / OEM / Hard Drive

Lite-on SHM-160P6S / 16x8x16x DVD+RW / 16x6x16x DVD-RW / 8x DVD+R DL / 4x DVD-R DL / 48x24x48x CD-RW / Black/Beige Faceplates / Internal / DVD Writer

LG GDR-8164B / Beige / 52x CD-ROM / 16x DVD-ROM Internal Drive

Thanks
 
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A better case would be quite and have better airflow, however, the componets are excellent in this current build!

I wish I had a 37 inch lcd!
 
ETSA said:
Also if you want a way to save money you could go with an e6400 the improvement is not very significant but if you think it may be neccessary run with it.
Click to expand...

Ok, so is the concensus here that the Core 2 Duo E6600 2.40 Ghz isn't that much better than the E6400 at 2.13 Ghz? There is a significant price difference between the two, which points me in the direction of the E6400. The bus speeds are the same at 1066Mhz, however the E6600 has a significant lead in cache size at 4 mb compared to the 2 mb cache size of the E6400. Is this going to make a real difference? I have no experience with overclocking either, so I'm not sure I would go that route. Thanks.
 
Well I don't think there is a huge difference and most will say the same, that is why I went with the e6400. As far as OCing, you would be surprised how simple it is with these Core 2 Duo's. I sure was.
 
Well, if I decide I do want to OC with this cpu, what kind of risks will I be taking? Surely I would need a cooling solution. And is there really a noticable difference when OCing these chips? They are already so damn fast. However, if I did decide to OC, I would do it as soon as I got it. Anyways, what would I need to consider if I did OC the E6400?
 
An aftermarket Heatsink/Fan (i would suggest getting recommendations in the cpu and overclocking forum ) is really the only thing. I would also begin reading about it and checking out some forums/articles on it as well...

Suggested reading...

http://www.computerforum.com/16346-overclocking-101-oc101.html

http://forumz.tomshardware.com/hardware/Core2Duo-Overclocking-Guide-v1-ftopict197995.html

edit: Arctic Silver 5, an excellent thermal compound is also recommended. It's only 6 dollars.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835100007
 
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Here is a quote taken from the other forum you sent me..."**nForce590/570 Intel Edition based motherboard will not work with this guide nor recommended for overclocking** " The motherboard it looks like I am getting is the ASUS P5N32-SLI Premium/WiFi-AP Socket T (LGA 775) NVIDIA nForce 590 SLI ATX Intel Motherboard as per your recomendation, and is part of that intel edition. Is there still a good way to OC this rig? I'm aware that I am way off topic of my origional post and should start a new thread under OCing, however I would like to get this answered. Thanks.
 
It may not be the best OCing board but it supports SLI, If you want an excellent OCing board you may have to compromise on the SLI. You should start a new thread though, I am not sure on that many boards and overclocking.
 
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