New PC Build thread #400532
 

https://secure.newegg.com/NewVersion...Summer+2007+PC

Almost 5 years since my last PC (a P4 2.6) and I'm in need of a gaming machine. I'm pretty confident in what I want. Not sure yet on a case, but the big questions I have:

Is the GTX really worth the money to top the GTS? My motherboard selection is picked out to support it and perhaps another one at Christmas.

Which case? I want room for adding crap, possibly a true cooling system (liquid, etc.)

Can anyone really persuade me not to get that P5 motherboard? I tried to set my budget to $1500 without a monitor. I'm dead set on the keyboard and mouse though.

The SATA hard drive and DVD aren't a big deal though. Thoughts, comments, and other ideas are appreciated!

Not much I can say, because it's all good stuff. The only difference I would make would be brands. I like other brands, but there isn't anything wrong with anything you selected.

GTS or GTX? I'd go GTX if you have the cash. It's supposedly better than 2 7950s in SLi, but that may or may not be saying much. However, if you don't plan on upgrading for a while, the extra $150 dollars for the GTX will probably be worth it.

Didn't see a power supply on that list. The Corsair 620W seems to be a favorite around here.

PS: If you've got money to blow on water cooling (lol) then you've got money to blow on better parts.

Well yeah, a PSU is another problem. newegg has zero case/PSU combos that I care for, but I'm a peripheral whore, so a bigger PSU is on my mind. Specifically if I'll end up with two 8800GTX's soon enough. A cooling system is for later on in the year. I've got some fans for now that I'll just pray work well (I hear the 8800 runs hotter than hell itself).

What about the brands? If you mean AMD over Intel, no thanks. Memory I prefer Kingston and Corsair typically and I've found WD hard drives to last longer and have more good sectors than the other ones. I'd like to hold out for a perpendicular, but oh well. Just need something for the OS and some games. I'll be using IDE and such for media storage on my current PC. Feel free to be more specific about the "brands" you've got in mind. As far as cases and PSUs go, I really don't have eough experience because for customers of mine I just go cheap on those as they're for home intarweb and excel use or whatever.

Get that shit. It boasts a very high efficiency, and at load, is inaudible.

Although I didn't want to spend that kind of money on a PSU, much less for caring about it being quiet (I'm used to a loud PC), I assume you mean this one that is $40 off?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139002

lol @ AMD. Get a Core2.

I prefer Corsair over Kingston. I read a bunch of the Newegg/NCIX forums from time to time, and by the number of complaints and benchmarks, Corsair just seems to put out a better product. After a couple bad incidents, I wouldn't go OCZ again. :/

Don't go SLi unless you're rich. Within a year it'll be obsolete for half the price. Especially now when the 8800 Ultra is just around the corner and 6 months closer to the 9xxx series.

I don't specifically care about hard drives. Since I hate loud hardware, I went Samsung. Could care less about hardware failure, since I have a separate file server. Perpendicular is supposed to be a little bit faster, I've heard.

I think that PSU is a pretty decent deal. You could go Enermax too. I'm through with shit PSUs. Antec's latest is all garbage, as a few tests have shown.

Case... it depends a lot on personal preference. I don't need a "ZOMG IMMA LEET COMPUTER PLAYER BOI" with a windowed case and faggoty LED fans/lights. The one I'm using now is an Antec Solo/P150. Silent, sleek, not gigantic.

My case goes under the desk. I know a few things I want:

No freaking retarded door on the front. I'll have a few disk drives and I plan to use them. I really like the 8800GTX, but I can't spend another 500+ on a video card. I will later on this year (or grandma will!) and I don't see a new hardware type to replace SLi. Not for a while. Most people hardly use it and I'm pretty sure that I'll have the second card. This is all based on my motherboard choice and that this ASUS really can let me upgrade in a few years to something great!

Yep, that's the one. Don't forget, the PSU is what's powering your entire system. Don't cheap out on it, or you could risk losing some expensive hardware. There are also many more important factors to consider when choosing a PSU, such as efficiency, voltage/rail, fan type/speed, etc. I suggest checking out this thread.

Well, I'm not sure if everyone is a fan of that mouse and keyboard but they'll do fine. I personally like having a mouse with a few buttons on the left side for going forward and back. And ergonomic keyboard I'm so-so with. But hey they'll work just fine.

The rest of your setup looks excellent. Just be sure! Be sure! Be sure to get the correct PSU to power your GTX b/c it takes two of those special plugs just for video cards these days. Make sure you can power everything inside. And yeah go with the GTX. I have one and it works great! Highly recommended.

By the way, are you going to put XP Pro or Vista Ultimate on it? Just curious. I'm running Vista Ultimate on mine.

I like what I see so far. Like Render my only beef with the list is your choice of brand names. I just OC'ed my 2GB of DDR2-800 corsair ram (bought it the other week) and it didn't jump at all. Not much of a OC actually I just went from 5-5-5-12 to 4-4-4-11 (@2.8GHz using a E6400.) I can probably go much further but I want my system to run below 43C under load.
So yeah, I think dropping a couple extra bucks for what I think is better ram is well worth it. Even if you're not OC'ing your computer!

Aside from your power supply choice it might do you some good to consider getting two optical drives instead of one. I always find myself using one for reading stuff and the other for writing. I should also mention it's good to get a drive that is good at read stuff and one that's good at writing, if any of that matters to you.


Anyway, good luck on your build!

You should keep this in mind, that the 8800 cards have dual-slot coolers. They will fill two of those slot covers at the back of your case. Not to mention, that you will be left very little room both case-wise and motherboard-wise for and PCI cards you will want to use. A Crossfire/SLi setup on my board leaves 1 PCI slot open while the two cards are either touching themselves, or one is at the bottom of my case touching it there. :/

(and be prepared to have your case sound like a wind tunnel)


Yeah, I was gonna bitch about the keyboard and mouse, too. I'd go for the MX518 with front/back buttons or the G5 Laser with only the back button. They are essential for any FPS gamer. The newer games already have a zillion keys to push to do shit.

Vista. God. I think everyone who uses Vista needs to take a look at VLITE. Strips down a copy of your Vista disc and can reduce memory/HDD usage by one fuckton. (actual measurement) I'm gonna install Vista one of these days and test it out.

What functionality does Vlite gut? I want my awesome searching, tagging, and aero glass. I'd need to know full well what would be missing before I try this out. I want to clean my entire system one of these days and I'm sure reinstalling Vista and everything wouldn't be a bad idea. I'd love to hear your experience with Vlite.

It's totally custom. You decide on what features to cut.

::looks for torrent::

Yeah, well I mean does it describe what each of those features does?

For example, I looked on those forums already and some dude axed Windows Mail and because of that all his user permissions for Vista got trashed. ~~~~

I don't want any of that crap happening to me. No way. I need to know exactly what I can and cannot get rid of for my ideal Vista setup.

Also, http://www.autopatcher.com/ looks pretty sweet. =)

nLite was good about giving descriptions on what things did and how they affected other things. I'd hope vLite did the same.

Not really a surprise that there are some bugged elements to the program. In fact, I helped beta test the original nLite for Windows XP. It really just boils down to how Microsoft and their shitty way of coding things, integrate a lot of the internals with each other. Like that Windows Mail issue and folder permissions(?) The program is constantly under development, so it'll get better. In the meantime, if you really depend on Vista that much, you might not wanna screw around with it.

Autopatcher is a great program, however, I'm fairly certain it won't work with either nLite or vLite. It's unaware that certain modules from the OS have been removed and tries to install them anyway. Not pretty. There was a thread around here somewhere that detailed how to install and get Vista updates through Microsoft. I'll look later.

Well I have a laptop that has a legit copy of Home Premium. And since it's a downgrade of XP, I'd be getting Ultimate so that I can take advantage of DX10. I really do hate the OS and I'd prefer not to get it at least until after SP1, but ehh.

And another question that I was pondering....should I just play it safe and get a "SLi Ready" case that won't have that issue? My problem is that new motherboards don't have many PCI slots and I'd most likely be using one for my USB card. Otherwise I'm connecting one hub into another into the front of the case....etc.

The thing is, my current Keybaord is the Microsoft Natural MultiMedia keyboard, and so the ergonomic style is what I'm used to. I'm actually not a fan of the mouses with 798475987 buttons on the sides.

Thanks everyone for the help thus far.

Heh, my mouse only has a back and forward button on the left side. I honestly really miss it when I use a mouse that doesn't have them.

Thanks Render, I'll be sure to keep an eye out on Vlite and do tell how it works out for you. It interests me greatly.

Yeah I have a weird way of being able to game with a mouse. I actually prefer wired mice, but the buttons just seem to get in the way for me. I'm more of a keyboard shortcut guy when it comes to things like browsing the web!

EDIT: Since the PSU is on sale, it has the needed power cables, and boasts dual-GPU ready, it seems to be a perfect fit for me! Thanks, I guess I'll snag that one today!

Sounds good. Do show us what case and PSU you're thinking of. Also, have fun fitting the GTX in. I had heaps of it when putting it into my case that also has like 4 harddrives that try to block it. I had to move it down to the second PCI-Express slot because harddrives were like DO NOT WANT. HUGE GRAPHICS CARD IS HUUUUEG! ='D

Here's the PSU:

http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16817139002

I'm gonna look up a few of these cases. Basically if it fits the hardware I need, I'll be getting the cheapest one among them (as long as its sturdy). Gonna go to work in a few minutes for a few hours, then back I go to computer stuff!

EDIT: No time. :(

Basically I'd prefer a mid case, full if necessary. There are still a ton to choose from. I'm gonna call up a local guy and see if he can point me in the right direction.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...819209&name=No

The Cooler Master Centurion 5 case is, by far, the easiest case I've ever worked with. I think its the first time I didn't get a single cut on my hands building a computer, plus, it looks fairly sleek. Nothing fancy, just a sturdy, easy to use case.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811119068

That PSU is plenty good. Mine is far weaker and powers the GTX, 4 harddrives, 2 dvd drives, an AMD Athlon 4200+, and 2 GB. With all that I've got a 5 out of 5 rating on the Vista Experience Index.

As long as the case you get has a few usb ports in the front, looks nice enough, and can house everything you want anything should be fine. I'd keep an eye out how they store harddrives though. I honestly like something along the lines of this pic in how it arranges harddrives down at just the bottom section that faces you: http://images10.newegg.com/NeweggIma...146-028-11.jpg from http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811146028

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...209+1054808287

These Apevia look like they're pretty decent, as far as the inside goes. I'm not a fan of having a door on the front, but meh. Next week I'll probably get the rest of the free shipping items.

Those cases look right terrible. Nothing screams "cheesy" more than those do.

This is the case that I'm using. Unfortunately, it comes with a 430W power supply that could end up being useless. A black version is available without a PSU. It's a fantastic case with the noise control, easy installaition and fan placement. The only down-side is that it could be slightly longer. Cards like the 1900XT or 8800GTX nearly touch hard drives in their space. Simply moving the drive to another of the 3 spots remedies that. Solid, heavy case that looks like it belongs in your home, not on Star Trek.

I ended up getting this case. Today I also got the hard drive, power supply, and RAM. I switched to the Corsair and it was on sale with a big mail-in rebate. Here's to hoping that my tax refund comes back real soon and/or my mother paying me back money she owes me so I can get the other parts. The reason I got these is because they were all free shipping items, so I'll get the rest of them later! :p

You could always do two 8800GTS' in SLI. :rolleyes:

Oh, and that AMD 3600+ Brisabane isn't looking so bad right now. Overclock it to 2.8 Ghz and it's a smoking CPU, for only $65.

It's not going to match the Core2Duo at 2.4 before overclocked.....

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811129154

My friend's case--an Antec P180. The sound-deadening panels actually do what their description sounds like. He's running 2 88GTX's in SLi and I can't hear them. The ONLY problem with the case is the vent cover on top for the exaust fan comes off too easily.

Yeah, but its $150 less. Spend that on graphics and get better gaming performance.

But if you have the money for both, why not do Core 2?

Did you actually click? I'm getting the best video card possible AND the Core2Duo. There's no way I'm downgrading my current processor. You obviously don't quite understand how these things work.

Yeah, I read it.

I just added that bit about the 3600+ for a little discussion. I know you already bought it. Sorry for busting in on your thread. :erm:

AMD isn't even an option unless you're piss-poor. They've only started to touch the lower-end Core2s with the 5000+, but that CPU architecture is going to hit a brick wall soon.

And on top of that, the motherboard can support quad-core for when I get rich or whore myself out to a million fat chicks.

Also Acer, regarding your message(s) you left:

3 slots up front will be fine. My case will be on a shelf, sorta, and just under my desk top, so it's not a problem with air flow.

I'm piss poor, btw.

Since the E4300 is now around $115 after the price cuts today, I would consider it over the 3600+.

That's good to hear. I've had my eye on this case for quite some time; I might go ahead and get it to see if it can quiet down my current system enough I can skip an upgrade for awhile...

It being Antec is good enough for me. I'd suggest that or the 900 that was on their front page for a while. I've got the 900 and I love it.

That does look nice, but with all the venting I'm thinking it's got to be louder than the 180b because when there's nothing but air separating noise it's going to escape easily. I'm using my next rig for synths/audio and am definitely looking for something quiet.

With the fans on the default low (sporting CPU temps in the 40C range), this thing is absolutely SILENT. You can hear it a bit if all 4 fans are on medium. And you can compare it to my old machine on high fan speed. This thing is well ventilated and cool and quiet. My only concern is pets. Lots of space to get crap in there, lots of dust and hair and bleh. But if you're looking for a stylish, well-ventilated machine, this is awesome. A friend has an Antec and I give Antec my official "Fucking Awesome" stamp of approval.