Getting ready for first build. LOTS!! of Questions.

W

webwierdo

New Member
I would use my computer for watching movies, surfing the web. I don't plan on any sort of heavy video editing or rendering. I will be playing games and would like it to look great but don't care about maxing out all settings. Still on the higher end of average though. I would also like the ability to add more ram and another video card in crossfire if I get more money later on.

MoBo: ASRock P55 Pro LGA 1156
CPU: Intel Core i5-750 Lynnfield 2.66GHz
CPU Fan: COOLER MASTER RR-H101-22FK-RI 80mm
PSU: CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX 650W ATX12V
Case: COOLER MASTER Centurion 590 RC-590-KKN1-GP Black SECC
Video: SAPPHIRE 100283L Radeon HD 5770 (Juniper XT) 1GB 128-bit
Ram: CORSAIR XMS3 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600
Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5"
DVD: Sony Optiarc DVD Burner with LightScribe Black SATA
OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade
Media: Rosewill RCR-IC001 40-in-1 USB 2.0 3.5" Internal Card Reader w/ USB port
Monitor: SAMSUNG Toc T220HD Rose Black 22" 5ms HDMI Widescreen HDTV Monitor

And now for the torrent of questions.

1. I don't plan on overclocking so are there any components in there designed for OC that I could get a non-OC part for cheaper?

2. Do I need more fans? Do I even need to replace the stock fan with the one listed in the parts list.

3. Are all the parts compatible?

4.Is one part drastically ahead or behind any of the others. In other words am I creating any obvious bottlenecks or wasting any potential.

5.Are there any pieces I am missing.

6.When all these arrives, will I be able to put it together right then? I have a computer tool kit, but what about cords, screws, other random parts most people have on hand?

7.Is it "future minded"? By that I mean are there any parts that are okay in performance but behind on tech levels. Once I upgraded my video card to a better performer but later found out I went backwards in pixel shader tech.

8.Are there any pieces that I could get better for relatively the same price?

9.Will the Windows upgrade allow me to go from XP to 7 or is it only for Vista?

10. Is the power supply big enough including the possibility of another card and more ram? Is it the right kind of power supply?

11. Are there any other questions I should be asking or other general tips? I'm pretty nervous about messing this up, but I feel like I've done the research.

Please be as detailed as possible in your replies and try to answer all questions if possible. I realize you guys get these questions all day, and I bet it gets annoying so I thank you all greatly for your ideas and comments.
 
1. As far as I can tell, you wouldn't save much, if at all, if you went for more generic, 'non-OC' parts

2. You shouldn't need more fans, but I would recommend a few. Also, you might want to choose to have a positive or negative pressure setup, a good guide is http://www.xoxide.com/computer-cooling.html When it comes to your CPU cooler, you should splurge a little bit and buy a higher-end cooler. With the one you chose, you won't see much difference over the stock cooler.

3. You are good in this department.

4. Again, most of your computer seems to be on par with the rest.

5. Aside from a few aforementioned fans (not necessary), no.

6. As long as you have a Phillips head screwdriver, you shouldn't have any issues with the setup.

7. In line with #4, your build looks to be up to date.

8. If you went with more generic brands for your video card, RAM, and PSU, but skimping on price usually means skimping on quality, which is never a good thing.

9. From what I've seen, Windows upgrade will jump you from XP to 7, but it seems you need to back everything up on an external source first. Also, you need to have XP installed (which is obvious, but time consuming).

10. More RAM typically doesn't put strain on the PSU, but a second video card may be pushing it. Sapphire says that a 600+ watt PSU should cut it, but in my opinion it'd be cutting it close. As long as you don't slap on a crazy amount of hard drives and DVD burners, you should be okay.

11. You seem to have a pretty solid build setup. One piece of advice, though, would be to buy two of the same hard drives and run them in RAID 1. With this, both hard drives are recognized by the computer as a single unit, and everything written to or read from one disk is mirrored on the other. If, for example, you have a single hard drive and it fails, you loose all the information on the drive and either have to live without, or pay stupid amounts of money to have a professional recovery service done. On the other hand, if you have two drives in RAID 1 and one fails, you still have all your information backed up on the second one. In my experience, it doesn't hinder performance and I seem to have a hard drive curse, so it has been a lifesaver on many occasions.
 
Q9 is about the only one I can answer, so I will...

From experience, you have to completely clean install 7 if you're currently on XP. The upgrade is from Vista.

This is unless you have some upgrade disc I haven't heard of....
 
It looks fine to me
Mobo - If you are not overclock, Asrock would be fine for you.
PSU - 650W is just enough to run dual 5770. I would recommend you get 750W to allow slightly more room
 
I dont like saphire at all, when I had a problem with their card their manual says to go to AMD for support. AMD says they do not support Saphire. I found Saphires web link, no phone support, only e-mail and they are in China. That was enough for me.

I know that I have called ASUS and Diamond in the USA for support. Others like XFX due to a reported lifetime warranty.

The reason i told you to replace the front fan is because it will glow blue... You said you don't want that. Any black 120mm will do.
 
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Can the Asus P7P55D LE do cross fire? To be honest I don't know the diff between a PCI and a PCIe. It says it has one of each. I thought I needed 2 PCIe. Also what does it mean when it says "1 x PCI Express 2.0 x16 slot (at x4 mode, 2.5GT/s)" specifically the part in ().

Someone said the stock cpu fan was about the same as what I was trying to buy so I upgraded

Thermaltake Silent 1156 CLP0552 92mm CPU

Also just in case I threw in two of these.

Scythe DFS123812-3000 "ULTRA KAZE" 120

The two 120mm seem to be pretty powerful, at the cost of loud, so is the cpu fan overkill at that point.
 
Yes it will, "2 PCIe X16 slots support CrossFireX*"

However, I would recomend 1 stronger card than two in CF. You can run into more software problems with CF.
 
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