System Build Opinions/Thoughts/Advice

2010-06-24 10:01:19

#1

west-phoenix-az: Guns don't kill people. . . joe bidens advice does; +632|6586

Thinking about doing my first full build.
I don't know much about this stuff.
Will use for some games, but unlikely at this time. Mostly CAD, photo, audio and video editing, surfing the web and documents.
I'd probably keep it for 5+ years.

Here is what I already have that I'd like to use if possible:
1 SAMSUNG 22X DVD±R DVD Burner Black EIDE/ATAPI Model SH-S222A - OEM
Item #: N82E16827151175

1 EVGA 320-P2-N811-AR GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB 320-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
Item #: N82E16814130082

1 MSI TurboStream 450W 450W ATX12V SLI Certified CrossFire Ready Power Supply
Item #: N82E16817701001

1 External Card Reader

Here is what I've thought of purchasing:
Qty. Product Description
1 Western Digital Caviar Black 640GB 3.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
Item #:N82E16822136319
$74.99

1 G.SKILL 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Triple Channel Kit Desktop Memory
Item #:N82E16820231223
$149.99

1 Sony Optiarc CD/DVD Burner Black SATA Model AD-7260S-0B
Item #:N82E16827118039
$19.99

1 Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64-bit 1-Pack for System Builders
Item #:N82E16832116758
$139.99

1 ASUS P7P55 WS SuperComputer with NF200 ATX Intel Motherboard
Item #:N82E16813131594
$199.99

1 Antec Three Hundred Black Computer Case
Item #:N82E16811129042
$49.95

1 CORSAIR CWCH50-1 120mm High Performance CPU Cooler
Item #:N82E16835181010
$79.99

1 Intel Core i5-750 2.66GHz LGA 1156 95W Quad-Core Processor
Item #:N82E16819115215
$199.99

Grand Total: $914.88

QUESTIONS, CONCERNS, OPINIONS?
Are all these items compatible?
Is the PSU enough?
Will the motherboard fit the case (output configuration looks different)?
Am I wasting money somewhere?
Should I go with a cheaper CPU cooler?
Do I need any extra cabinet fans?
Junk parts?
Missing anything?

Last edited by west-phoenix-az (2010-06-24 10:04:14)

https://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p123/west-phoenix-az/BF2S/bf2s_sig_9mmbrass.jpg

2010-06-24 10:04:31

#2

SonderKommando: Eat, Lift, Grow, Repeat....; +564|6857|The darkside of Denver

Yes everything is compatible. But, your video card is getting old. Both the MB and case are ATX (thats teh size factor) so yea, new vid card is only thing I would change. Maybe a little better PSU for scalability.

2010-06-24 10:08:26

#3

presidentsheep: Back to the Fuhrer; +208|6158|Places 'n such

CPU coolings a bit overkill?
edit: save some money on the cpu cooler and get a nice corsair PSU

also why the extra dvd drive?

Last edited by presidentsheep (2010-06-24 10:12:15)

I'd type my pc specs out all fancy again but teh mods would remove it. Again.

2010-06-24 10:11:40

#4

west-phoenix-az: Guns don't kill people. . . joe bidens advice does; +632|6586

presidentsheep wrote:
CPU coolings a bit overkill?

Does the processor or motherboard come with a fan, is it enough?
Should I just stick with the fan it comes with?
What cooler should I get instead?

Last edited by west-phoenix-az (2010-06-24 10:14:43)

2010-06-24 10:15:41

#5

presidentsheep: Back to the Fuhrer; +208|6158|Places 'n such

west-phoenix-az wrote:
presidentsheep wrote:
CPU coolings a bit overkill?
It appears the processor comes with a small fan, is it enough?
Should I just stick with the fan it comes with?

nooooooooooooooooooooooooo.
Go with something nice like a mugen II or thors hammer, cant remember if either are compatable with the i5

I'd type my pc specs out all fancy again but teh mods would remove it. Again.

2010-06-24 10:16:51

#6

presidentsheep: Back to the Fuhrer; +208|6158|Places 'n such

or this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a … 6835103046

I'd type my pc specs out all fancy again but teh mods would remove it. Again.

2010-06-24 10:22:21

#7

presidentsheep: Back to the Fuhrer; +208|6158|Places 'n such

Also the samsung f3 is bigger and cheaper than the seagate:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a … -_-Product
as far as i know its a very very good HDD

I'd type my pc specs out all fancy again but teh mods would remove it. Again.

2010-06-24 11:04:50

#8

CammRobb: Banned; +1,510|6327|Carnoustie MASSIF

Get a better PSU, you're gonna need it.

2010-06-24 11:11:06

#9

presidentsheep: Back to the Fuhrer; +208|6158|Places 'n such

The DVD drive you're using is IDE and the mobo doesnt have an IDE connector

I'd type my pc specs out all fancy again but teh mods would remove it. Again.

2010-06-24 11:51:01

#10

west-phoenix-az: Guns don't kill people. . . joe bidens advice does; +632|6586

presidentsheep wrote:
The DVD drive you're using is IDE and the mobo doesnt have an IDE connector

Nice. The old dvd drive is IDE and the new one I have on the list doesn't include the SATA cable.

Qty. Product Description

1 LITE-ON 24X DVD Writer Black SATA Model iHAS-324-98
Item #:N82E16827106334
$23.99

1 HP 24X Multiformat DVD Writer Black SATA Model 1260i
Item #:N82E16827140042
$28.99

I'd like 2 drives so I can copy discs. Plus some drives like certain recordable discs better than others, so I prefer 2 different drives.

2010-06-24 12:13:41

#11

Bevo: Nah; +718|6718|Austin, Texas

Seems like an expensive mobo for that build... why not get a sata3 capable mobo and a sata3 hdd?

also +1 for new gpu

2010-06-24 15:01:24

#12

SonderKommando: Eat, Lift, Grow, Repeat....; +564|6857|The darkside of Denver

That cpu cooler is dank as fuck, Ive wanted one for awhile.

2010-06-24 20:49:04

#13

TopHat01: Limitless; +117|6102|CA

I'd suggest an HD 5770 for the GPU, and consider a WD VelociRaptor for your primary drive, as it will be noticeably faster from a 7200RPM drive.

EDIT: The best advice anyone can give is make sure to do your research. Check several different reputable tech websites for benchmarks of the components you're interested, and also look for any problems they might have so you'll be ready to deal with it. Make sure everything you buy is relevant to what you need your PC for. (EG no use in an expensive after-market CPU cooler if you're not going to heavily overclock your system)

Last edited by TopHat01 (2010-06-24 20:51:36)

Check out my YouTube channel

2010-06-25 03:25:35

#14

max: Vela Incident; +1,652|6764|NYC / Hamburg

Get rid of the IDE DVD drive. A new SATA DVD drive is pretty cheap

The GPU is a little old, but if you're not planning on gaming a lot it'll be fine. You may want to consider buying a new mid-end card for lower power consumption and less noise though.

PSU is a little weak and it's MSI which isn't known for quality. But I guess it'll work.

WD blacks are good drives. I have a hard time recommending Samsung after yet another one died on me

If you're going i5, you need dual channel ram. Tripple channel is only for LGA 1366 i7s.

Can't go wrong with a $200 burner

Mobo is overkill. Get something like this instead. Even has an IDE port if you want to reuse your DVD drive. As for SATA-600 and USB 3.0, I don't see a point. Mechanical HDDs are nowhere near using all the bandwidth of SATA-300. There are no useful USB 3.0 devices out there. Down the road, you can add a USB 3.0 controller card. Much cheaper option.

Antec 300 is a solid case. I did a couple of builds with it.

CPU cooler is awesome. A cheaper option would be fine too. Every cooler seems to be out of stock @ newegg though Personally I like to go overkill on the CPU cooler, it keeps the noise levels down.

CPU is a great.

You may want to price out an AMD Phenom II x6 build too. While they lag in clock for clock performance, those 6 cores are great for CAD, audio, photo and video editing.

https://images.anandtech.com/graphs/amdphenomiix6_042610231918/22621.png

Stay away from Velociraptors they aren't all that much faster than modern regular 7200RPM drives. You may want to consider an SSD though.

Since this is not a high performance build, I'd concentrate on bringing the noise levels down. You have to decide how important that is to you.

_{once upon a midnight dreary, while i pron surfed, weak and weary, over many a strange and spurious site of ' hot xxx galore'. While i clicked my fav'rite bookmark, suddenly there came a warning, and my heart was filled with mourning, mourning for my dear amour, " 'Tis not possible!", i muttered, " give me back my free hardcore!"..... quoth the server, 404.}

2010-06-25 04:33:44

#15

Lai: Member; +186|6348

That CPU cooler is indeed a bit overkill, but you will want to get a decent aftermarket CPU cooler. They are around here for €16 (especially AM3), that would be maybe $20.

Your GPU is old, but if you can get another 8800GTS cheaply, you can put them in SLI and thus might get a pretty cheap yet pretty decent upgrade while reusing your old GPU. Your PSU is Crossfire ready, you might need one that is SLI ready, but you want to get a decent PSU anyway. As Max said, MSI isn't exactly known for quality PSU's and considering yours would be second-use already. Saving on PSU is taking a huge risk as your PSU is the part that can most easily take down the rest of your gear when it dies. You don't want your new mobo fried by an old PSU.

I also agree with Max that you should look into the Phenom II X6 build. Not only are they better suited for what you will be using them, they are also significantly cheaper. Imo Intel has always been extremely poor price-quality(-service) wise. The Core i3's are ok as they come pretty cheaply and do well especially in laptops, but the Core i5 and beyond are severely overpriced compared to AMD CPU's. Intel had a significant edge over AMD when AMD was still running the Athlon FX's and Intel was already shipping quad cores, but not anymore. Yes Intel's top line is still faster, but relative to the difference in price that advantage is rather dissapointing.

Triple Channel RAM, apart from not working with Core i5's, also yield another disadvantage: most mobo's have two pair of memory slots. If you plug 6Gb of Triple Channel in them, you won't ever be able to upgrade without replacing all your memory, whereas if you put 4Gb of Dual Channel in it, you can upgrade to 8Gb anytime simply by plugging in some extra sticks.

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presidentsheep wrote:

west-phoenix-az wrote:

presidentsheep wrote:

presidentsheep wrote:

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