Hello all,
I'd like some feedback on my proposed system build (Build_v4) , as there are certainly more knowledgeable people than me out there on a lot of this. I plan on buying everything around Thankgiving/Black Friday (hopefully when I can get stuff a little cheaper). I'm going to be running WinXP until Vista comes out, with partitions for gaming, media storage, and potentially Linux. I should mention that I have (2) 250gb WD SATA HDDs already that will also go in this PC.
All of the components listed are not set in stone. Particularly, I'm vascillating on the graphics card, HDTV tuner, and memory. This is my fourth go at this system build.
I plan on doing some minor overclocking to get the e6700 to around the e6800 speed.
Assuming the R600 or G-80 is out before Thankgiving, I will get one of those (for the DX10 support). I don't know if the NVIDIA unified shader approach is the way to go. Perhaps this should go to the Video Forum.
I don't plan on going SLI - I just can't see the performance/cost benefit over a single-card solution.
I plan on running 1900x1200 on this Dell monitor, with 1080i input (or 1080p if the 360 gets that software upgrade) likely on the component in:
Dell 24"
It'd be nice to find an HDMI-input 24" monitor in the same price range, along with an HDMI-output card, but I haven't had much success with either. The current HDMI output cards have gotten pretty poor reviews.
Some may balk at the 850W power supply. It won't all be needed for this system, but I want it to last through two build generations. From what I've read, though, the G-80 alone will consume ~300W. I looked at the fan on that power supply. It's a Delta fan, which isn't the quietest of fans. I'll probably replace it with a better one.
I'm not sure if the 4-4-4-5 timings on the g.skill warrant the extra couple hundred over some of the 5-5-5-12ish OCZs out there...probably not.
As far as the HDTV tuner, I still haven't found one I'm happy with. I'd like one with with hardware encoding, an ATSC and NTSC input (though I only want to have the ability to record one at a time). I was looking at cards with ATI's tv-wonder 650 in them, but I've heard bad things about these. Not sure what else is out there.
Again, this is probably better suited for another forum, but I'd appreciate any input.
Also, this may be completely ignorant of me, but do battery backups have built in surge protection? I'd like to get about 3000 joules protection (my current surge protector), but no battery backups mention anything about protection. My thoughts are that the backups have built-in protection when they do AC-DC conversion, but I don't know that for certain. Feedback on my choice of a backup would be helpful.
Thanks for your advice on this build. It's my first high-end computer (my last build was back in the 90s...). Currently, I'm on a 1.7GHz laptop with its 15" screen. This will be a big step up for me.
I'd like some feedback on my proposed system build (Build_v4) , as there are certainly more knowledgeable people than me out there on a lot of this. I plan on buying everything around Thankgiving/Black Friday (hopefully when I can get stuff a little cheaper). I'm going to be running WinXP until Vista comes out, with partitions for gaming, media storage, and potentially Linux. I should mention that I have (2) 250gb WD SATA HDDs already that will also go in this PC.
All of the components listed are not set in stone. Particularly, I'm vascillating on the graphics card, HDTV tuner, and memory. This is my fourth go at this system build.
I plan on doing some minor overclocking to get the e6700 to around the e6800 speed.
Assuming the R600 or G-80 is out before Thankgiving, I will get one of those (for the DX10 support). I don't know if the NVIDIA unified shader approach is the way to go. Perhaps this should go to the Video Forum.
I don't plan on going SLI - I just can't see the performance/cost benefit over a single-card solution.
I plan on running 1900x1200 on this Dell monitor, with 1080i input (or 1080p if the 360 gets that software upgrade) likely on the component in:
Dell 24"
It'd be nice to find an HDMI-input 24" monitor in the same price range, along with an HDMI-output card, but I haven't had much success with either. The current HDMI output cards have gotten pretty poor reviews.
Some may balk at the 850W power supply. It won't all be needed for this system, but I want it to last through two build generations. From what I've read, though, the G-80 alone will consume ~300W. I looked at the fan on that power supply. It's a Delta fan, which isn't the quietest of fans. I'll probably replace it with a better one.
I'm not sure if the 4-4-4-5 timings on the g.skill warrant the extra couple hundred over some of the 5-5-5-12ish OCZs out there...probably not.
As far as the HDTV tuner, I still haven't found one I'm happy with. I'd like one with with hardware encoding, an ATSC and NTSC input (though I only want to have the ability to record one at a time). I was looking at cards with ATI's tv-wonder 650 in them, but I've heard bad things about these. Not sure what else is out there.
Again, this is probably better suited for another forum, but I'd appreciate any input.
Also, this may be completely ignorant of me, but do battery backups have built in surge protection? I'd like to get about 3000 joules protection (my current surge protector), but no battery backups mention anything about protection. My thoughts are that the backups have built-in protection when they do AC-DC conversion, but I don't know that for certain. Feedback on my choice of a backup would be helpful.
Thanks for your advice on this build. It's my first high-end computer (my last build was back in the 90s...). Currently, I'm on a 1.7GHz laptop with its 15" screen. This will be a big step up for me.