Critique my first system

[Adumb]

I'm building a new system for gaming/college work, and I would like to get some feedback before I hit the order button. I had originally wanted to overclock a Pentium D 805, but then decided to up to a Pentium D 930, and after talking to a cousin of mine, decided to splurge on an E6300. Eventually I would like to watercool, but the system will probably be running on air for a few months until I accumulate some more money. Anyways, here's what I'm looking at:

Case: Coolermaster Stacker T-01 (http://www.svc.com/stc-t01-ubk.html)

Motherboard: Asus P5N-E SLI 650i (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16813131142)

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16819115005)

RAM:***see bottom of thread***

HDD: Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 - 250gb (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16822148142)

Video Card: BFG nVidia 7900GS 256mb (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16822148142)

Power Supply: OCZ Gamestream 700W (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2235424&Sku=O261-2005)
or Ultra X2 550W (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1273350&Sku=ULT31851)
Not sure about this, please recommend.

DVD: Lite On 20x DVD-/+RW (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827106050&Local=y)

OS: Windows Media Center 2005 OEM (With Vista Upgrade Coupon) (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16832116171)

Other stuff:
Arctic Silver 5
Anti Static Wristband

All in all, it comes to about $1150 shipped. I had originally hoped to get it under a thousand, but I'd rather spend a little more for better components.

I wasn't completely sure about my choice of RAM, I read somewhere that 4-4-4-12 RAM worked good with the 650i, so that is why I chose it. Also, I was wondering if 2gb would give me much of a performance boost over 1gb. I will probably be playing games like Oblivion, FEAR, Battlefield 2142, Spore and such. 2gb is a heck of a lot more expensive than 1gb, and I was wondering if I should save some money here, or get more performance right off the bat.

Also, would it be worth waiting on the CPU until the E4300s come out?

If you have any reccomendations, please let me know. I'd like to get everything ordered soon so I can get it put togethor before I go back to college.

[tiro_uspsss]

DEFINITELY get the 2Gb ram...

[Adumb]

Everything ordered and en route. :D

[Celcius]

Congrats:toast:
Which power-supply did you end up getting? (please tell me you got the ocz)

[Adumb]

Yup, I got the OCZ. I decided that the extra 150W would be more important in the long run than my 25 bucks.

[tcG]

Terrible RAM.

Good luck getting past 3GHz.

Could have gotten an E6400 for the 8 multi and some of these (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820144028) monsters (DDR2 1100+) and you could have had a theoretical OC of over 3.6GHz... but you're stuck with 3GHz because you jumped the gun and got garbage RAM, and a bad PSU (better things can be had for $100).

[Adumb]

What would you have recommended for a power supply? I'll admit I probably screwed up on the RAM, that was the component I researched the least. :slap:

*edit
I did end up switching to the E6400 btw.

[TimoneX]

Sounds like a nice setup. Let us know what that puppy will do.

Ugh...I gotta update my sig...that musta been 6 builds ago. :)

[R @ P T O R]

good system.... but... for power supply i recommend Enermax or Tagan, for memory i recommend Team Gruop Xtreem DDR2 667 PC5300 (EASY OVERCLOK UP AND OVER 1000Mhz) 2GB kit cas 3-3-3-8 or
TEAM GROUP XTREEM DDR2 800 PC6400 2GB Kit cas 4-4-4-10.. these two are better of your Corsair XMS2 ;)

[tcG]

What would you have recommended for a power supply? I'll admit I probably screwed up on the RAM, that was the component I researched the least. :slap:

*edit
I did end up switching to the E6400 btw.

Good choice on the E6400. :D

Here is the OCZ 700W review with which I base my comment off...

http://www.jonnyguru.com/review_details.php?id=35&page_num=3

Not terrible, but it has a ripple issue and like I said, better can be had for $100, namely the SILVERSTONE ST50EF-Plus ATX 12V 2.2 500W (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817256008).

Review (http://jonnyguru.com/review_details.php?id=23)

[tcG]

good system.... but... for power supply i recommend Enermax or Tagan, for memory i recommend Team Gruop Xtreem DDR2 667 PC5300 (EASY OVERCLOK UP AND OVER 1000Mhz) 2GB kit cas 3-3-3-8 or
TEAM GROUP XTREEM DDR2 800 PC6400 2GB Kit cas 4-4-4-10.. these two are better of your Corsair XMS2 ;)

Why drop all those bones for some Team Xtreem when you can spend $220 on GeiL for a pair of 1GB sticks that will do around DDR2 1000, which is MORE THAN ENOUGH for an E6400's 8X multiplier?

[R @ P T O R]

ok... but you can see this result (http://news.tecnocomputer.it/forums/showthread.php?t=9658)

[tcG]

ok... but you can see this result (http://news.tecnocomputer.it/forums/showthread.php?t=9658)

It's great RAM at a great price, I get the idea.

My point is that you don't need anything above DDR2 900 (450 x 8 = 3600MHz) for the E6400's 8 multiplier to get good clocks out of it.

[Adumb]

Ok, I looked into the RAM I got a little more, and I agree with you guys, its crap. So, I canceled my order and I'm looking at some different ram now. I'll post what I find in a little bit.

[Adumb]

Ok, I like the numbers on the GieL (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820144028) ram, but people on the egg are bashing it reall bad. Not sure if they just don't know what they're doing, or if newegg just got a bad shipment.

Tried looking up the Team Extreem, but couldn't find them anywhere.

Also found some G.Skill (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820231087) that seem to go up to 900 pretty easy for a good price.

For the sake of comparison I'll throw an OCZ (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820227139) out here too. Has good latency, but people haven't been getting it to work very well.

Anyways, I'd like to get this ordered before tommorow, so I'm thinking about going with the G.Skill. Please tell me what you think.

[tcG]

I'd take this (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820231098) over the PK.

[TimoneX]

These are nice too for the $$$.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=20-150-054

[tcG]

I would get either of the GSkills that have been posted.

PK -or- NQ

[jimmyz]

It's great RAM at a great price, I get the idea.

My point is that you don't need anything above DDR2 900 (450 x 8 = 3600MHz) for the E6400's 8 multiplier to get good clocks out of it.



his board allows asynch overclocking. he can max out his ram and cpu seperately they don't need to be linked to each other.so he could max hi cpu no matter what ram he choses.

[tcG]

his board allows asynch overclocking. he can max out his ram and cpu seperately they don't need to be linked to each other.so he could max hi cpu no matter what ram he choses.

I know... do you think the performance difference between DDR2 1000 and DDR2 1100 is worth the extra $60?

I don't.

[T07N]

Kill IDE by buying SATA optical. Same price almost: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827106040

[Adumb]

Thanks for all the advice everyone.

I've decided to go with the G.Skill PKs. The NQ was out of stock, and the Firesticks had a CAS of 5, which the 650i doesn't really like I guess.

The OCZ power supply freaks me out with that ripple at full load. (In my defense, I tried looking it up at jonnyguru before I ordered, but I must have missed it somehow...) Tiger Direct doesn't seem to have an online cancel feature though (+1 for Newegg), so I might be stuck with it. Hopefully I can call them before they ship it. I'd go with the Silverstone (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817256008) since the shipping would be way cheaper, but would a 500W power supply be able to run a water cooling setup and everything else too?

And finally, I wanted to get the SATA dvd drive, but newegg is all out of them, and nowhere else I looked had them either. :(