Building a new rig; need some advice!

[carmike692000]

Ok, so I'm tired of putting up with my finicky old store-bought desktop, so I've been putting together (on NewEgg's wish list) a new computer. I haven't been in the computer world for quite a while and never really understood all the nitty-gritty, so a friend (member kingcars) has been guiding me through it.

I'm not a gamer, so extreme performance is not at all an emphasis. However, I do like bragging rights, and I'll probably start playing a few games once I have a capable computer, so I've allowed my habit of splurging to manifest itself in quite a few places.

Basically, this is what I've got so far:

My Wish List (https://secure.newegg.com/NewVersion/WishList/MySavedWishDetail.asp?ID=6289152)
COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 case
OCZ GameXStream 700W PSU
ASUS P5K-E/WIFI-AP
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
PNY VCG7900SXPB GeForce 7900GS
Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800
Rosewill RCR-103 USB 2.0 Card Reader
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 250GB 7200RPM SATA HD (x2)
ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro
SAMSUNG 216BW Black-Silver 21.6" 5ms DVI Widescreen LCD Monitor
Logitech G5
roxio Easy CD And DVD Burning


However, I do have a few questions about this setup.

MOBO
It's definitely between these three MOBO's:
ASUS P5K-E/WIFI-AP (http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16813131196)
GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3R (http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16813128050)
DFI BLOOD IRON P35-T2RL (GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3R)

I was originally dead set on the DFI board, as I know DFI is a great name, I like the looks of the board, and the BIOS seems to be chock full of settings. I read a lot of complaints about inadequate cooling of the NB; no problem, buy a HS/F for it. Then I found that long thread about it on this forum and read a few problems about squeaking, vdroop, and it not really being able to support a quad core. So I think I'll pass on the DFI.

Now it's between the GIG and the ASUS. I'm really leaning towards the ASUS because I need more than 4 rear USB ports, the ASUS looks like it has better cooling for the NB and SB, and I love the idea of having built-in wireless so I don't have to take up a PCI slot with my wireless card. What do y'all think? I'm not dead set on the ASUS. If the GIG MOBO is really hands down the better board, I can go with it.


Optical Drive
At this point in time I just want a cheap DVD+RW drive. I don't want it to be so cheap it's junk, but the cheaper the better, as long as it's SATA. As you can see, I've already splurged on a few items and gone over my $800 mark just a little. :p

I also picked out a program by roxio for DVD/CD burning. Is it any good? Something else I should look at?


HD
I have two Seagage 250GB HD's picked out, but I'm really thinking I'm going to move up to two Seagate 320GB HD's. Just for clarification, I'm not going to be running them in RAID. Just one for OS's and software, the other for music, pictures, videos, etc. However, there are three different Seagate 320GB HD's to choose from, and I'm totally confused as to which one I should get.

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3320620AS (Perpendicular Recording Technology) 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM (http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16822148140)
Seagate SV35.2 ST3320620SV 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM (http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16822148245)
Seagate Barracuda ES ST3320620NS 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM (http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16822148215)



If you're still with me...thanks for reading all this! I'd really really appreciate any info you might have for me. If you see something among the parts I've 'settled' on, go ahead and speak up! I'm just a n00b! Keep me from starting a horrible build!

Thanks!!

[M4D_H4773R]

If you're not going for the DFI, I like the ASUS better than the Gigabyte.
For your HDD the Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3320620AS is the best one because of the Perpendicular Recording Technology. I have one of those and they are fast. Not as quite as a Western Digital drive but I seem to have better luck with Seagate.

[mcflurry4321]

The DS3R is an EXCELLENT board...I actually recommend it over your other choices.

[carmike692000]

If you're not going for the DFI, I like the ASUS better than the Gigabyte.
For your HDD the Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3320620AS is the best one because of the Perpendicular Recording Technology. I have one of those and they are fast. Not as quite as a Western Digital drive but I seem to have better luck with Seagate.
Awesome! The cheapest one is the one to go with! I like that! Just how loud are those HD's? I'll have my case in my desk, so I would assume it won't bother me at all.

Would you still recommend I go with the DFI?

[carmike692000]

The DS3R is an EXCELLENT board...I actually recommend it over your other choices.
Purely out of curiousity and for educational benefit, why would you put the GIG over the other two?

[zanzabar]

why are u getting a 7900gs that wont get u far, and for the psu the pcpower and cooling 750W is much better for the money than the lower tier ocz gamex


also for software nero is better than the rxio and most burners come with nero oem

[carmike692000]

I'm getting the 7900GS for now because 1) I need to save money somewhere, 2) I'm not a big gamer at the moment, nor will I turn one overnight, and 3), I'll probably upgrade that within a year.

I'll look into that PSU later, but I've heard good things about the OCZ and don't wanna add any more unnecessary money.

Thanks for the tip on Nero.

[zanzabar]

look at this card if ur not going to be gaming then dont buy nv for general use u would want an ati card since they have way better video playback and the 2600xt uses very little power and the one with ddr4 uses less power than the ddr3 and less heat + its $130 and will beat the 7900gs by a wide margin in power consumption and video playback with moderate gaming and hdmi


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161097
HIS Hightech H260XT256G4DDN-R Radeon HD 2600XT 256MB 128-bit GDDR4 PCI Express x16 CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail


also this card will make a good media card as a secondary card if u get a 2x pci-e16x mb and say that u decide that u want to game, u can drop this into the 2nd slot and drop in an nvidia card in the primary slot and have a great gaming setup and a solid card for video play back that wont give u ghosting or fragments, or im sure that it will be good for general use in another computer


i forgot its the only card under $300 that can play hd/blue ray/dvd video at 1080P full quality over hdmi or duel lnk dvi without ghosting and artifacts (the lower 2400 adn 2600pro can too but those dont have the bandwidth to get 100fps video for the new 100hz monitors and tvs next year)

[adamsleath]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827129015&ATT=27-129-015&CMP=OTC-pr1c3grabb3r&cm_mmc=OTC-pr1c3grabb3r-_-CD/DVD+Burners+(RW+Drives)-_-Pioneer-_-27129015
lol...totally wrong for your budget build but anywho...res problems.


http://computers.pricegrabber.com/dvd-rom-dvd-writers/p/7/form_keyword=sata+dvd/rd=1
other dvd burners SATA

[terrybogard]

why are u getting a 7900gs that wont get u far, and for the psu the pcpower and cooling 750W is much better for the money than the lower tier ocz gamex


How far are you talking? because the 7900GS or the X1950pro are the best cards under the $200.00 range. Not to mention with the new cards coming out in the coming months, I have to say I'm surprised at his decision cause it's right in line with why I got a 7900GS.

here's what Tom had to say about the cards: http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/10/01/the_best_gaming_graphics_cards_for_the_money/page2.html

I'm getting the 7900GS for now because 1) I need to save money somewhere, 2) I'm not a big gamer at the moment, nor will I turn one overnight, and 3), I'll probably upgrade that within a year.

I'll look into that PSU later, but I've heard good things about the OCZ and don't wanna add any more unnecessary money.

Thanks for the tip on Nero.

OCZ is a great company and a Top tier PSU at that, the only other PSU I could say is the Corsair line of PSU's. Only thing I would look for in the future is better cooling if you ever want to get a few more MHz out of those cores, but even the stock does fine for basic OC'ing.

I say enjoy the system overall. I know I love mine. :up:

[zanzabar]

they didnt mention the 7900gs on toms as good its slower than the 1950 gt

[terrybogard]

The chart from the article is listed here: http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/10/01/the_best_gaming_graphics_cards_for_the_money/page6.html#conclusion

Compares the cards in terms of performance. He could go with the 1950GT/Pro or the 7900GS. The performance between each card won't make a groundbreaking difference and with both Nvidia company cards coming with small MIR but still rebates at that it's not a bad choice. Any of the 3 options the forum user chooses will put him in a position he just can't go wrong with.

-Terry

[carmike692000]

Thanks a bunch for all the input, folks. I'm pretty sure I'm still going to go with the 7900GS, but I don't know much about graphics cards, so I'll with hold a final decision for now.


But, now I'm totally confused about HD's. I'm planning on dual booting with XP Pro and some form of Vista. So, I've been thinking separate partitions on the first HD for the OS's for easier reformatting and such. But what about all my programs? I've heard that if I'm dual booting, I'll have to install each program twice, once from within each OS. However, I've also read that I don't have to do that. What's the deal?

Also, if I dual boot with both OS's on the same HD and end up installing all my software on the same HD and leaving the second HD for storage, how much space should I have on the first HD for the two OS's and how many ever installations I have to do of my programs?

Any clarification on this would be GREATLY appreciated!

[carmike692000]

Any info on dual booting?

[zanzabar]

for doing xp and vista i would go for a large drive with storage and one os then a smaller cheap drive with the other os and its apps, and select what drive to boot on with the bios, or post boot selector (also get xp pro and vista be or ulti dont get vista or xp home)


and plz dont get the 7900gs at least get a 7950gt the nvidia cards arnt that good for the last 5 generations (excluding this one with the g80) and if u exclude sm3 computability the x800pro or an x1650xt are both faster and sub $100

[carmike692000]

for doing xp and vista i would go for a large drive with storage and one os then a smaller cheap drive with the other os and its apps, and select what drive to boot on with the bios, or post boot selector (also get xp pro and vista be or ulti dont get vista or xp home)


and plz dont get the 7900gs at least get a 7950gt the nvidia cards arnt that good for the last 5 generations (excluding this one with the g80) and if u exclude sm3 computability the x800pro or an x1650xt are both faster and sub $100
THanks for the input. I hadn't thought about doing it that way.






Ok, now I'm totally confused about CPU's. For the Q6600, aren't the ones with the G0 stepping much more desirable than the ones with B3 stepping? I'm not exactly sure what all that means or why, but I've read the G0 are much easier to OC.

Anybody heard of ClubIT.com? They're selling Q6600, sorted as G0's and B3's. But the B3's are selling for $15 more than the G0's! Why is that??

Q6600's on ClubIT (http://www.clubit.com/product_browse.cfm?cat=CPU%2FProcessors&scat1=Intel%20Desktop&scat2=Socket%20775%20Core%202%20Quad)

[zanzabar]

u want the g0, the b3 si an older stepping and they dont oc well and run much hotter

intel dosnt actually use a quad core it uses 2 duel cores stacked next to each other, so for all intesive puposes picture 2 core 2 dues next to each other adn one of them the b3 runs as a duel core at 55c while the g0 runs at 45 so if u have 2 of them next to each other u dont have more space to dissipate heat so it amplified so a wuad b3 might be hitting 65-70 while the go hits 52c (those are estimants used for my example not completely realistic but it shows the point)


so just get the g0



and u might want to get this mb

ASUS P5E LGA775 Intel X38 ATX Intel Motherboard Retail
http://www.clubit.com/product_detail.cfm?itemno=CA4802839

having pci-e2 is well worth the extra $50-70

[carmike692000]

Ok, thanks for the explanation. As I understand it, if you order a Q6600 from NewEgg, it's a total guess as to which you'll get. Is that right?

So, that really makes me wanna order from ClubIT. Anybody have any experience with them?

[zanzabar]

ive never heard of problems and they are somewhat cheaper than newegg on cpu/mb like the p5e is $275 on newegg and $240 from them

[carmike692000]

Well, I ordered everything last night! I was looking through some of my items and noticed some of the MIR's expired 10/14, so then I had to go into crunch time to make sure I chose what I wanted and put in the order.

Wish List (http://secure.newegg.com/NewVersion/wishlist/PublicWishDetail.asp?WishListNumber=6289152)

I ordered everything on that wish list, and then went over to www.clubit.com to order my G0 Q6600.

I'm sooo stoked! I can't wait 'til it gets here and I can start playing some games!

I was uber bored Saturday, so I downloaded Americas Army and played it some...I went down to low 14's for FPS. *sigh* It'll be awesome to have a powerful computer!

It's more money than I was originally wanting to put into it, but I think I'll be happy with it. After MIR's it should come out to right about $1280.


Thanks to everybody for your advice! I appreciate it!

[carmike692000]

Got all my parts in today except for my CPU; I'm soo stoked!!

But now I've got a question. How can I flash the BIOS on my GIGA MOBO? It's a P35 DS3R. I don't have a floppy drive and don't wanna do it through the OS...what else can I do? Will it let me do it with a flash drive?

[carmike692000]

Info please!!! :)

[zanzabar]

u need the floppy dload the installer and bios from gigabyte and boot from the floppy

[carmike692000]

Woohoooo! Got it all together tonight, and I've been playing on it for the last few hours. This is soooo much better than I ever could have imagined! I've bought my last retail computer, for sure!!!

I was MORE than ecstatic to write my new signature! :D:D

[adamsleath]

:clap::up:;):)