Thoughts on a new setup

[jkasten]

My friend want to spend about $2000 on a new setup and wants me to start building it for him in 2 months. I've built 4 systems before this and I feel that I have a good understanding of doing this but I would like to know what others think of this setup and recommend things that could be better or things that might be a problem because I've had some odd ones in the past.

[B]Problems I've had[/b]
I've had odd problems like when I built a pc for one of my other friends and did not know that the antech neo 550 he psu has problems with Asus boards and because of it it would sometimes would turn on then turn off again right away and it messed up his video card and had to RMA both. That problem wasted a lot of time and had to pay to ship it back. Also mess up really bad on his water cooling system and mixed a copper water block with a aluminum which clogged aluminum water block with corrosion and the copper block with rust sludge.

Also with my pc I just built 8 months ago I got the Biostar 965pt mobo because I saw it was a very good overclocker for the price but even tho i did a lot of reading on it i still missed how picky it is with ram and overclocking so I had to wait 3 months for a bios update to fix the OCing problem so I could get my cpu to overclock more then 15%. (it running at 69% OCed now )


Ok so here is the list:

The Rig
Case:XCLIO 6030PLUS-SL Silver 0.6 mm SECC/ ABS Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail $67.99
MOBO: GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3R $129.99
Video Card:PNY GeForce 8800GTX 768MB $529.99
PSU:OCZ600SXS $84.99
CPU:Core 2 Duo e4400 Retail $139.00
Ram: CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR2 1066MHZ $129.00
HDD:ST3500630AS 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB 3.0Gb/s OEM $119.99
Disc Drive: LG Sata DVD-BURNER $30.99
CPU HeatSink:Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme $64.99


The rest of the setup
Keyboard: Saitek PZ30AUR $39.99
Display:SAMSUNG 204B-SV Silver-Black 20.1" 5ms MaxRes: 1600x1200 $279.99
Mouse: Logitech G5 2-Tone Retail $45.99
Speakers: Logitech X-230 32 watts RMS 2.1 $30.99

$1,763.89 - $70(rebates) = $1693.89 Total (thats with shipping)

My friend will be using this system mostly for gaming. I'm not putting much into the sound because he doesn't care about it to much and does not have a very good way to setup sround sound. With this system I plan on doing very heavy overclocking on the cpu 70%+ and low to mid overclocking on the video card 10%+ (what ever can be done on stocking cooling and maybe doing some pencil moding).

Overclocking
I found a very good review on the mobo and it should be able to meet the 70%+ overclock on the cpu i'm looking for. http://www.vr-zone.com/index.php?i=4966
On the heatsink I found a great review on the Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme here on anandtech and it show it keeping there cpu the coolest but it is very large and it looks like I will be buying a fan to attach to it. http://www.anandtech.com/casec...howdoc.aspx?i=2943&p=4
It looks like it should be able to meet that overclock of 70%. What do you think about it?

Thanks for you time. Like to see what you guys think of it.

 

[Googer]

Ugly case and the G5 now comes with two side buttons instead of the single side button that you purchased. Other than that, you should have waited until July 24th, 2007 and Intel was going to make drastic price cuts. For the price you paid, you could have gotten a faster Quad Core CPU or an E6600. Patience pays my friend

I have the Logitech X530. They are the same speakers as the X230 but you get five instead of two. They are crap and have very poor range and frequency response. Should have gotten a nice pair of Sennheiser headphones instead.


Also high end ram does not provide any tangible improvements to performance. Your $50-60 extra you spent to acquire the ram and the $65 for the heatsink should have been put towards the next faster model of processor that cost $250.


Currently the best bang for the buck is the Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD7500AAKS 750GB for $209. It has about 95% of the 150GB Raptors speed with 5x the capacity.

 

[stogez]

Cut the RAM down to DDR2-800 and get atleast the E6320 or something.
I'm not a big fan of OCZ PSUs. I'd go for an Enermax, PCP&C instead.
Fry's has 500GB OEM drives for $99 shipped. The WD that Googer pointed out is a very nice drive but will cost you double.
Get a 22"+ monitor to put that GTX to good use

 

[Googer]

Originally posted by: stogez
Cut the RAM down to DDR2-800 and get atleast the E6320 or something.
I'm not a big fan of OCZ PSUs. I'd go for an Enermax, PCP&C instead.
Fry's has 500GB OEM drives for $99 shipped. The WD that Googer pointed out is a very nice drive but will cost you double.
Get a 22"+ monitor to put that GTX to good use

Check the hot deals for better prices on RAM. I highly recommend you go with POC (Plain old Crucial) DDR2 800. Seasonic S12 Energy Plus will save you lots of money on your power bills.


Enenrgy Plus PSUs

650
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16817151028

550
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16817151027

 

[Googer]

I also think you are spending way too much on a Plain Jane keyboard. If you want to get fancy with keyboards, I can understand, but I see nothing special in that Saitek (except that Saitek is a decent company with good chess computers). I type on an old IBM keyboard from 1988 and would never replace it with anything (except an Avant Stellar).


For $9 this keyboard provides better value than the Saitek.

 

[mnikkel55]

Originally posted by: Googer
you should have waited until July 24th, 2007 and Intel was going to make drastic price cuts. For the price you paid, you could have gotten a faster Quad Core CPU or an E6600.

He may have saved a little but not that much. The E4400 probably won't fall more than $20, and there's no way that he could get a quad for $139. Check your own link, the Q6600 is going to be priced at $266, nearly double what he paid for his CPU. If he was going to stay in his price range, the best he could probably do after Jul 22nd is an E6320. Certainly not anything he needs to lose sleep over.

 

[coolpurplefan]

http://forums.anandtech.com/me...=2064375&enterthread=y

These are the PSUs I recommend.

 

[jkasten]

Originally posted by: Googer
Ugly case and the G5 now comes with two side buttons instead of the single side button that you purchased. Other than that, you should have waited until July 24th, 2007 and Intel was going to make drastic price cuts. For the price you paid, you could have gotten a faster Quad Core CPU or an E6600. Patience pays my friend

I have the Logitech X530. They are the same speakers as the X230 but you get five instead of two. They are crap and have very poor range and frequency response. Should have gotten a nice pair of Sennheiser headphones instead.


Also high end ram does not provide any tangible improvements to performance. Your $50-60 extra you spent to acquire the ram and the $65 for the heatsink should have been put towards the next faster model of processor that cost $250.


Currently the best bang for the buck is the Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD7500AAKS 750GB for $209. It has about 95% of the 150GB Raptors speed with 5x the capacity.

Ya, the case is not the coolest looking but its whats inside that counts and a 360mm fan on the inside of the case to make it cooler. Thanks for catching me on the mouse didn't see that was only the single button. I haven't bought any of this yet that will happened in about 2 months from now. I forgot about the price drop coming up and didn't think the quad core would go that low so I might want to get one of those Q6600 for him. I mostly wanted to get the ram for overclocking head more but with a 10x multiplier the 1066 would be way over what the cpu could really reach. For the Q6600 I think want it because it has a 9x multiplier and I don't want the ram to be the limiting facter of overclocking. I don't think he is going to need 750gb of space and the speed is very nice for the HDD but its a lot more then the 500gb i'm looking at.

Originally posted by: Googer
I also think you are spending way too much on a Plain Jane keyboard. If you want to get fancy with keyboards, I can understand, but I see nothing special in that Saitek (except that Saitek is a decent company with good chess computers). I type on an old IBM keyboard from 1988 and would never replace it with anything (except an Avant Stellar).


For $9 this keyboard provides better value than the Saitek.

My friend wanted a good gaming keyboard to go with the nice mouse and wanted a backlight on the keys so he can see it better in the dark for those lan partys.

coolpurplefan nice list of psu will have to give a quick look at all of them. Say lets say I used a Q6600 and overclock it to around 50% and have everything else the same how much 12v Amps should I be looking at to run this rig. Think around 40amps would do?

Thanks for the help so far

 

[Googer]

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: jkasten
<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: Googer
Ugly case and the G5 now comes with two side buttons instead of the single side button that you purchased. Other than that, you should have waited until July 24th, 2007 and Intel was going to make drastic price cuts. For the price you paid, you could have gotten a faster Quad Core CPU or an E6600. Patience pays my friend

I have the Logitech X530. They are the same speakers as the X230 but you get five instead of two. They are crap and have very poor range and frequency response. Should have gotten a nice pair of Sennheiser headphones instead.


Also high end ram does not provide any tangible improvements to performance. Your $50-60 extra you spent to acquire the ram and the $65 for the heatsink should have been put towards the next faster model of processor that cost $250.


Currently the best bang for the buck is the Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD7500AAKS 750GB for $209. It has about 95% of the 150GB Raptors speed with 5x the capacity.</end quote></div>

Ya, the case is not the coolest looking but its whats inside that counts and a 360mm fan on the inside of the case to make it cooler. Thanks for catching me on the mouse didn't see that was only the single button. I haven't bought any of this yet that will happened in about 2 months from now. I forgot about the price drop coming up and didn't think the quad core would go that low so I might want to get one of those Q6600 for him. I mostly wanted to get the ram for overclocking head more but with a 10x multiplier the 1066 would be way over what the cpu could really reach. For the Q6600 I think want it because it has a 9x multiplier and I don't want the ram to be the limiting facter of overclocking. I don't think he is going to need 750gb of space and the speed is very nice for the HDD but its a lot more then the 500gb i'm looking at.




<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: Googer
I also think you are spending way too much on a Plain Jane keyboard. If you want to get fancy with keyboards, I can understand, but I see nothing special in that Saitek (except that Saitek is a decent company with good chess computers). I type on an old IBM keyboard from 1988 and would never replace it with anything (except an Avant Stellar).


For $9 this keyboard provides better value than the Saitek.</end quote></div>


My friend wanted a good gaming keyboard to go with the nice mouse and wanted a backlight on the keys so he can see it better in the dark for those lan partys.

coolpurplefan nice list of psu will have to give a quick look at all of them. Say lets say I used a Q6600 and overclock it to around 50% and have everything else the same how much 12v Amps should I be looking at to run this rig. Think around 40amps would do?

Thanks for the help so far </end quote></div>


You missed the point about the CPU price cuts. Currently the Q6600 (quad core 2.4GHz 2MB/core) costs north of $500 and the E6600 (2.4GHz 2MB/Core) costs 225-ish but after the price cuts the Q6600 will cost 225-250-ish or the current price of the E6600. My point is that it's highly likely the E6600 will in one month cost half of what it is today (about $130). So what would that do to the E4400? It'll probably drop the price far south of $80.

I play games on my vintage IBM keyboard too. Personally I like the precision tactical feedback you get from older mechanical keyboards that cannot be found in newer production units. And I see no difference between most "gaming keyboards" and standard or vintage keyboards except the Logitech G-series with programmable macros.

I doubt he will need 500GB, heck 250GB should be plenty. But both those drives will not be able to match the speed the 750GB drive offers. Performance is the reason why I recommend that drive. Read the review.

Take it from someone with lots of experience: If you are assembling this for a friend, you do not want to compromise the reliability by overclocking it. I am perfectly capable of assembling a good machine; but when people I know ask me about a new machine, I always tell them to call dell. I do not want 3am calls from them telling me their mouse is making the monitor turn off an on or that their desktop icons were magically rearranged by a strange computer virus (which it wasn't). Trust me, let Dell handle those calls, your friendship will be better off.

 

[Roguestar]

Pff, what kind of gamer has to look at his keyboard while typing? The one who stops paying attention for a split second and gets shot in the head, that's what.

 

[Googer]

ZipZoomFly has a better deal on the 750GB Western Digital SATA drive: It's Retail BOX (vs $209 OEM @newegg) for $207 (shipped). With retail box you get a full warranty (i have had to use), software, cables, and free technical support. (possibly more)

http://zipzoomfly.com/jsp/Prod...p?ProductCode=10005580