First Time Gaming/Multipurpose Rig - Please Lend Advice

[LongWayRound]

Hey Guys -
This is my first build. I've got a $2.5k budget for this baby. I want to make a high end build with some OC capability. I've already had some advice and researched this a bit ... so I think I'm close. Any advice or suggestions to improve this rig with faster/cheaper/more reliable components are requested!

Mobo:
ASUS RAMPAGE FORMULA LGA 775 Intel X48 ATX Intel
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813131284
$289.99

CPU:
Intel Core 2 Duo E8600 Wolfdale 3.33GHz 6MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...-19-115-054-_-Homepage
$274.99

PSU:
Antec TPQ-850 850W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Modular Active PFC
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16817371009
$209.99

Case:
LIAN LI PC-7BYCF Black Aluminum ATX Mid Tower
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16811112184
$109.99

HD1:
Western Digital VelociRaptor WD3000GLFS 300GB 10000 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...36260&Tpk=VelociRaptor
$294.99

HD2:
Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16822136284
$179.99

Ram:
I want something fast, and that I can double up on in a few months.
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820231166
$109.99

GPU:
EVGA 01G-P3-1280-AR GeForce GTX 280 1GB 512-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported (can get another later if I want to and SLI)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814130365
$439.99 (in cart)

Drive:
LITE-ON Black 20X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 20X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA 20X DVD±R DVD
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16827106265
$29.99
Or... do you all think this Samsung is better?
SAMSUNG Black 22X DVD+R 22X DVD-R 16X DVD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA 22X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16827151173

Speakers:
Logitech Z-5500 505 Watts 5.1 Speaker
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16836121120
$302.99

OS:
This is where I need some advice. 32 or 64? I'm not sure where to go on this part. Right now I have the below in my shopping cart but I can change it. Is it worth it for Ultimate?
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-bit English for System Builders 1pk DSP OEI DVD - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16832116488
$99.99

What type of heat sink fan should I get? I know I'll need one for when I try to OC my CPU. I really appreciate all of your help! I also have $200 in gift cards to J&R so I can get something on there for cheap out-of-pocket cost.

 

[Roguestar]

Well you can't SLI with that board, if that's what you want to spend money on.

DVD drives are all much of a muchness.

Get the G.Skill DDR2-1000, it's cheaper and pretty much just as fast.

Get Home Premium x64, you'll be grand.

Get the Xigmatec Rifle cooler, it's cheap and cheerful.

You could drop down from the E8600 to the E8400 and save a whole bunch of cash, seeing as you want to overclock it anyway.

I'd buy one great graphics card now instead of wasting money on a two-card solution down the line (requiring a compatible motherboard, for a start); get a single 4870X2 which will outperform the GTX280 and a cheaper motherboard like the Asus P5Q P45 chipset board.

I'd not buy an Antec PSU at the high end. Get yourself something like the Corsair 750TX.

I think the Velociraptor is a massive waste of cash, especially if you're already getting a great performing drive like the 1TB Caviar Black. But hey, it's your money.

 

[modoheo]

First off, everything's compatible and will give you a very nice, high-performance gaming system once assembled. Having said that, you could definitely save yourself significant money without any loss of performance.

Since you're not crossfiring two GPU's, you could save 150 bucks by going with a mobo like the Asus P5Q Pro, which is still highly overclockable and has all the bells and whistles most people want.

Consider going with the E8400 over the E8600 to save another 100 bucks. The difference in stock speed is small, and the E8400 will usually easily overclock to 3.6 GHz or higher.

You definitely want to get Vista 64 so you can see all your RAM.

Get the Samsung DVD burner - much quieter.

Most people don't feel the VelociRaptor's speed is worth the big extra dollars. You'd notice little dropoff between it and the WD 640 gig and you'd save another 200 bucks.

How big is your monitor? If it's not at least 24'', then you won't be able to game at a high enough resolution to make the GTX280 worth it versus something like the ATI HD4870 (which costs 150 bucks less).

The best aftermarket CPU cooler right now is the Xigmatek HDT-S1283, but you only need it if you're overclocking.

All just food for thought.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

First off, everything is not compatible IF you decide to sli. Intel motherboard chipsets support either 1 Nvidia card, or 1 & or 2 ATI cards. You would need to go ATI if you want two actual physical cards one day down the road.

Your setup looks like a liquid, high-end, overclockers dream. The high bandwidth mem(good for high overclocking) , the cpu (10 multi for high OCing), the vid card (for great gaming), the motherboard (great top shelf/bin chipset), the psu, etc...

It all looks sweet except the case. I'd get something more water-cooling friendly.

 

[MarcVenice]

I'd get this ram instead: http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820231145 Only slightly slower, but still more then fast enough to OC that e8600 to hell and back. Btw, the e8500's are also gauranteed e0's if I'm not mistaken, so you can easily save yourself some money there, I bet a e8500 and a e8600 will OC to the same level anyways.

As modoheo suggested, you might want to go with a cheaper card. If your resolution is 1920*1280, you could go with a single HD4870, then if you think you need more gpu power you can always add a second one. That only requires a p5q pro, which can be had for far less then the asus rampage.

PSU, the antec tpq 850w could be had for $140 not 2 days ago, price went up big time. It can still be had for $150 free shipping at buy.com.

HDD wise I'd go for something like this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16822152100 you get 75% of the storage, for almost 60% of the price. You could almost buy TWO of those, for the price of a single 1tb HDD. The Velociraptor is only worth it if you will be using it as a scratch disk for photoshop or videoencoding... Otherwise those high density platters will serve you just fine.

 

[DSF]

Lots of great advice here from the usual suspects, so I'll just say that I agree with what's been said.

 

[betasub]

Your setup looks like a liquid, high-end, overclockers dream.

That would be a wet dream, then.

 

[Waylay00]

That motherboard is good, but do you REALLY need it? I know it's your first build, and it's a common temptation to lean towards spending more than you should (I was the same with my first build). As another has said, the P5Q Pro is an excellent board and will give you most of the performance of the Rampage without the extra $120 cost.

 

[jae]

What games will you be playing..? What exactly will you be doing on this besides gaming?? With an 2.5k budget why settle for a e8x00 cpu, might as well get a quad-core to futureproof that rig. The hard drives you picked arent really worth the money. But I wont make any more suggestions until you reply, as it matters.

 

[LongWayRound]

Okay gents... here is my revised build. I'll be playing all the sickest games on the sickest resolutions on my 24" LG Wide Screen that I just picked up. Let me know what you guru's think!

LIAN LI PC-7BYCF Black Aluminum ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811112184

ASUS P5Q Pro LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131299

SAPPHIRE 100251SR Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB 512-bit (256-bit x 2) GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102768

Hauppauge WinTV-HVR 1800 MCE Kit 1128 PCI-Express x1 Interface - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16815116015

Antec TPQ-850 850W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817371009

Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 Wolfdale 3.16GHz 6MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115036

OCZ Vista Upgrade 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820227195

Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136284

SAMSUNG Black 22X DVD+R 22X DVD-R 16X DVD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA 22X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827151173

Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-bit English for System Builders 1pk DSP OEI DVD - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16832116488

Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835100007

ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro 92mm CPU Cooler - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835186134

This all totals $1,694 in my newegg.com cart with all discounts and a code for the CPU. I'm happy with these parts, willing to spend a bit more but I'm happy around $1,700 (I still have to get those Lotigech 5.1 speakers... my 5.1 Knipsch finally died Are all these parts compatible? Is the PSU to large? I though with the 2bg vid card it'd be nice. I'll probably by another 4gb of ram in about 6 months, same speed. I plan to 'dabble' in overclocking. I don't want to burn the cards up, just get a bit more performance out of them. That's why I picked that 'average' fan.

 

[Roguestar]

CPU -> E8400
PSU -> Corsair 750TX

Otherwise seems a lot better now.

 

[LongWayRound]

Why the E8400? Because it's cheaper? It's about the same price I think $20 more for the .16 bump

So a 750w is fine, even with that mother GPU? What if I overclock the ram, gpu, cpu etc., will I need an 850w then?

 

[sonnygdude]

I'm running 2HDD's, 8GB of RAM, and a single HD4870 on 520 watts with no issues whatsoever, so hopefully you should be OK at 750

 

[Denithor]

The 750W from Corsair is stronger than the 850W from Antec.

EDIT: And go with the DDR2-1000 memory MarcVenice suggested above, it will give you more OC room than the DDR2-800 kit you've picked out. (94% of DDR2-1066 performance at 68% of the cost--much better ratio!)

 

[modoheo]

Great looking system at this point. Like others said, the PSU you chose WAS a great deal until recently, when newegg jacked the price by about 60 bucks.

This one is excellent quality and a screaming bargain at the price:
SILVERSTONE ST85ZF 850W ATX 12V 2.2 & EPS12V SLI Certified CrossFire Ready Active PFC SLI Certified Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16817256007

 

[MarcVenice]

Denithor, what makes you think the 750w from corsair is stronger then the antec 850w tpq ? The antec has 64a on the 12v rails, rated at 50c continous. The corsair has 60a on the 12v rail, also rated at 50c continous. I'd even dare say the antec will have less ripple then the corsair. Not that it matters, both are excellent units.

$210 is way to much for the antec tpq 850w though, like I said, $150 at buy.com, free shipping: http://www.buy.com/prod/antec-...loc/101/204697807.html