Updated April part list - Please pick it apart, planning on ordering soon.

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xonto

New Member
XP/Vista combo gaming rig:

MOBO: ASUS P5N32-E SLI Plus LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard - $187 This is the motherboard I picked out a while ago, but I have not looked much into motherboards for a few months, is there a better choice? My only other thought was the EVGA 122-CK-NF68-T1 LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard-
 at $205. If I decide to go for faster RAM, obviously I'll want a board like this as opposed to the other.

CPU: E6600 What's there to say? 235 for this processor = best bang for your buck.

RAM:
G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - $300 for 4GB
I was thinking about maybe getting something like the CORSAIR Dominator RAM at 1066 but I am not sure if it is worth the price (285 for 2GB, almost double the other RAM). Can any of you give me some advise on the RAM?

VIDEO CARD: EVGA 320-P2-N811-AR GeForce 8800GTS 320MB 320-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Video Card - $300. It's either this or it's beefier brother, the EVGA 640-P2-N821-AR GeForce 8800GTS 640MB 320-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Video Card at $390. My question is whether or not it is worth the extra $90? Also, I noticed that the 640MB version had a twin that was $20 cheaper. What's the deal?

PSU: OCZ GameXStream OCZ700GXSSLI ATX12V 700W Power Supply 100 - $150. I hear it is a solid PSU but I am willing to entertain ideas for a cheaper one that will still meet my power needs.

CASE: Antec Performance One P180B Black - $99 (locally) From what I hear it is a solid case with good airflow and heat conductivity. Though it is a mid tower, it still seems roomy enough that I could add watercooling later if I wanted to. Still, this is another area that I am still wiling to take suggestions on, especially because I have never done watercooling and I want to make sure I will be able to if I decide to, maybe once summer hits.

OPTICAL DRIVE: LiteOn SHM-165H6S - Not much to say on this one. $30.99, got some bells and whistles like lightscribe if I want them, otherwise just a standard drive for all my optical needs.

HD:
Western Digital Raptor WD360ADFD 36GB 10,000 RPM 16MB Cache Serial ATA150 Hard Drive $99 - OS drive.
Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 ST3400833AS 400GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - 99$ - Storage

Looking for suggestions for a 22" to 24" inch Monitor

Any suggestions and thoughts would be helpful. I am looking to get this done for around $2000. Right now, the RAM is one of my biggest questions because the cost between the different RAM choices is so great. Anyway, even with 4GB of the most expensive RAM, I am still probably looking at about $2100 after a monitor, depending on the deal. What do you all think?
 
Looks like an extremely solid build.

For a motherboard, if you plan on doing a lot of overclocking, the DS3 (by Gigabyte) is superb for it. However, I here the eVGA is good too.

For the RAM, the price difference is because the G.SKILL memory is DDR2 800, the Corsair DDR2 1066. There is a big speed difference there, but it's not really something that you should spend the extra money on if you're worried about going over budget. Also, the Asus motherboard above will not support the Corsair memory's speeds (it will downclock it, so really it's just wasting money).

The 640mb 8800GTS does deliver extremely noticeable improvements over it's lower-memory brother...I'd say get the 640mb. About the price difference between the two 640mb GTS's, it's just how things are priced...the eVGA one you're paying a few extra for the brand.

PSU is good and solid.

That case is also excellent, and should have enough room for water cooling.

For an optical drive, you may want to think about getting a SATA drive, versus IDE. They're only about $6 more.

For a monitor, I strongly recommend this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824112009

With a 2000:1 contrast ratio at only $250, it's not even a competition.
 
Have any specific suggestions for the PSU?

Also, computermaineack, you say that the RAM speed difference is big but I shouldn't worry about it because of the budget. Well, do you have any idea exactly how big of a difference it is? This is a machine that I am not going to want to be upgrading for quite a while, aside from possible picking up another 8800 GTS for SLI once Vista SLI support gets a bit better (and if I ever need 2). If 1066 RAM is something I am going to want within a year, then I could go over a bit to have it now. Probably just get that 2GB dual channel deal and then pick up one more stick of it for 3 total instead of 4. If 800 with pretty good timings is going to be good for a while, then I might as well save a few bucks.
 
Actually, I haven't heard that you would overclock your rig, so for the RAM you would not notice any difference between DDR2-667, 800 and 1066. Now if you plan to overclock, well its different, if its very mild o/c then 667 is good otherwise go for 800; 1066 (I assume) would be for someone who wants to o/c a lot. As for how much RAM, keep in mind you can always get some more, but 2gb should be plenty for you, unless you run applications which require a lot of RAM such as video editing (I think ?) and such.

Also, for the mobo, you may want to consider the Asus P5B is a cheaper alternative and its very recommended around here.

Besides that, I would also go with Corsair PSU, either 520HX or the 620HX.
 
xonto said:
Also, computermaineack, you say that the RAM speed difference is big but I shouldn't worry about it because of the budget. Well, do you have any idea exactly how big of a difference it is? This is a machine that I am not going to want to be upgrading for quite a while, aside from possible picking up another 8800 GTS for SLI once Vista SLI support gets a bit better (and if I ever need 2). If 1066 RAM is something I am going to want within a year, then I could go over a bit to have it now. Probably just get that 2GB dual channel deal and then pick up one more stick of it for 3 total instead of 4. If 800 with pretty good timings is going to be good for a while, then I might as well save a few bucks.
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Think of it like this...before DDR2, DDR-400 was pretty much the standard. Sure, higher timings were available but it cost alot more and really wasn't necessary. Same thing with DDR2...DDR2-800 is pretty much the standard (although DDR2-667 is also somewhat of a standard), and is fine unless you really care about minuscule differences and benchmark scores.
 
Okay, so I have 2 main questions.

1. Why is the HX620 a better choice for a PSU over the one I picked?

2. Why do you say the 1066 RAM will mainly be better for overclocking? How is it that there will not be much of a difference when it is not overclocked, but will be when it is?

Once I sort out the RAM and PSU issues, I will make the order. FYI, I decided to go with the 680i.
 
I don't think the PSU ceewi recommended is necessarily better, but will handle your computer and will save money.

What we mean by 1066 will be better for OC'ing alot is that it won't OC much better, but because you're starting out at a faster speed, you'll be able to OC it higher, which will help you along if you're OC'ing your processor and graphics card alot. However, 4gb of DDR2-800 RAM will deliver extremely noticeable performance gains over 2gb of DDR2-1066. More memory is almost always better than speed.
 
The Corsair is OEM'd by Seasonic and rated to 50 Celsius! It's also known to be rock solid and have a lot of power on the 12v rails which is important when considering SLi'd 8800's.
 
GCR said:
The Corsair is OEM'd by Seasonic and rated to 50 Celsius! It's also known to be rock solid and have a lot of power on the 12v rails which is important when considering SLi'd 8800's.
Click to expand...

The OCZ PSU he linked above has one more +12V rail with 18A on all four (the Corsair has 3 +12V's with 18A on each).
 
xonto said:
1. Why is the HX620 a better choice for a PSU over the one I picked?
Click to expand...
Overall, higher build quality, much better ripple results (GameXStream is known to go well outside ATX spec at high loads). It's also modular, little more efficient, and the rail distribution is better (Corsair is essentially single rail).
 
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