How Is This Setup For A Gaming PC?

[Lunarhawk]

As seen in this topic, my current computer is a piece of crap I've had for 6 years that, due to a crappy motherboard, couldn't really be upgraded. And so I've been meaning to get a new one for about a year...this virus or whatever thing that's going on has just encouraged me to finally get one. Originally, as I also mentioned in the other topic, I was going to get it from ibuypower which would've taken a couple weeks. Then I found out through site review sites that ibuypower screws about 60% of the people who use it over. So instead I decided to just get the parts and build it myself (First time I'll be doing this, and I won't have any help other than a guide I can view on this computer while building it on the table in the next room over) and not only that, but since it has 3 day shipping if I order it tomorrow like I'll try to and I really do get 3 day shipping like I want, I'll be able to have it setup by Sunday.

Anyways, onto the computer itself.


Case: NZXT Apollo Black, 1x120mm rear fan, 1x120mm side fan
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16811146025

Power Supply (Case doesn't come with one): NZXT 550watt
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16817116001

Motherboard: ASUS P5N-E SLI LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16813131142

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E6420 2.13GHz (Comes with fan and heat sink)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115016

Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 320gb 7200RPM 16mb cache
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16822148140

Video Card: eVGA Geforce 8800GTS 320mb PCI-E x16
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16814130038

Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster Audigy SE 7.1
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16829102012

CD/DVD Drive: LITE-ON 20X DVD+R DVD Burner with LightScribe
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827106073

RAM: CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16820145034

OS: Windows Vista 32-bit Home Premium for System Builders
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16832116202

Monitor: 19" 5ms Widescreen LCD
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16824254023

Subtotal: $1,324.91
Various Extended Warranties: $104.96
Shipping: $44.60
---
Grand Total: $1,474.47

I'm not getting a better processor fan even though I could mainly because I don't plan to overclock much, if at all; same reasin why I'm not getting a liquid cooling system. I'm planning to just keep my current mouse, keyboard, and speakers because they're all still usable.

Comments? Opinions?

[connnnn]

The e6x series of processors actually comes with a very good stock cooling solution; many sites have been able to overclock them significantly on stock cooling. So for normal use it should be totally fine.

That video card is RIGHT NOW (it will obviously change in the future) in my opinion the best buy in the market. To be honest I didn't even hear about the -20 releases of the processors, it looks like the 6420 is essentially the same price as the 6400 but it has the doubled L2 cache that the 6600 originally had (and was the only weakness in the processor). To be honest that's probably a really great buy, but I'd be very interested to see how far people are OC'ing those on stock cooling... if the 6320/6420 are OC'ing anywhere near as far as the original 63/64's on stock cooling, those could very well be the best buys in the CPU market for now. Personally (having not seen any new benchmarks yet for them) I would prefer to save $20 and go with the 6320, since I wouldn't expect the extra clock speed to give much of a performance jump, but that's also assuming I could overclock it to beyond the 6420's stock specs anyways (and you don't seem to be interested in OC'ing at all so it probably wouldn't fit you as well).

Frankly I haven't been keeping up with RAM in the past few months, and I've never been particularly knowledgable about mobos or LCD monitors (since to this day they still don't match CRT's), so I won't even guess. But I do know that I've played on LCD monitors with 2ms claimed response time (there's a ton of controversy over lack of standards with measuring preformance in LCD monitors and how they are presented to consumers), and still had issues with ghosting and/or texture tearing, so if nothing else it'd be worth trying to check one out at a local retail store if possible to make sure you're cool with that investment. I've known many friends who bought expensive LCD's within the past 6 months and were disappointed with them.

My only issue would be with the power supply. It's not that I see anything wrong with it, but I personally am not familiar with that brand (which isn't uncommon since there's so many new names lately), and I personally like to stick to PSU brands that I'm positive have a good track record, since it's typically the 1st thing to go out in a system. That, and 70% efficiency -- while it is sort of the standard right now -- is good but not great. You might be able to find one with equal or better power support and better efficiency, although I don't know how significant even a 12-15% increase in efficiency would be to the electric bill anyways.

And now that I found the button I wasn't seeing, it does appear that it has dual 12v rails that push 20 and 18 amps, so it should leave the door open for future upgrading of cpu and/or vid card, which would need more power.

[Lunarhawk]

I was only getting that brand of power supply because it's the same as the case so I figured it would just be an easier setup. I may upgrade it to the 600W though, not sure how much of a difference that will make. Suggestions on a good one for relatively the same price will be welcome.

I'm fine even if the LCD has those problems, you don't realize how bad of a PC I have right now. Even if it had horrible ghosting and texture tearing it would still be better than what I have now, and that's good enough. Plus that screen has a lot of good reviews. The only issue I may have with it is space on my desk for it - I also have my 360 (Standing) and a 19" non-widescreen LCD monitor on it for that. My current monitor for the computer though is a 17" CRT though and I feel that's just not enough for the rest of the new computer.

[Felix12g]

I'd advise going with a Thermaltake 650w power supply, they make very good hardware. If you're looking to go with SLI I'd even suggest grabbing a 700w. It looks like you're building a top of the line computer so a couple more optional things.
First I'd go with the best dual core you can handle financially. There's nothing really wrong with the one you've got but 6 months down the road you might kick yourself for that extra boost.
Second you might want to check out a raptor drive. They cost more than normal SATA drives but their speed is worth it. I picked up a 74 gig that I use to throw my OS and some other programs that can eat up CPU like photoshop, audition and 3DS Max, most games and other things that eat up storage I leave on the secondary drive.
Third the motherboard. I don't know how prone you are to try overclocking but the 680i has alot of potential to keep your hardware viable as a gaming platform farther down the road. I picked up one from EVGA and it works beautifully.

Good luck with Vista. You might want to keep your old OS install sitting around just in case. Some people like it, others hate it. You're going to have the hardware to run it, so like I said, good luck.

[Lunarhawk]

Right now this is already costing more than I planned, so this is the best dual core I can afford at the moment. You might be right that 6 months down the road I'll want a better one, and then I may be able to afford to upgrade.

I already have a 250gb EHD to put other stuff like downloaded TV shows on, though admittedly there's only 20gb or so free on it. Game wise I don't play many computer games, more of a console man myself, just getting this high endish or so thing for the few I do - so I'm not worried about running out of memory for them.

The motherboard on the other hand, now that I read some more of the reviews for it, seems to have problems I probably wouldn't be able to fix myself because I'm not that great with computers; I'll look around for one around the same price...680i is 70 bucks more which I really can't afford right now, plus I don't plan to overclock much if at all.

As for Vista, I figure in a year or two all the games that will be coming out will need divx 10 so I might as well get it now.

And lastly for the power supply, getting just a 650W one from thermal take would double the cost of it...but you maybe right in that I shold look into getting at least a 600W. I may not though, this one actually seems pretty nice with the amount of connectors and such, PFC, etc. Plus reading the few reviews for it, others are saying it powers PCs that look better than mine without problems.

[Lunarhawk]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813130081


This one seems good and the on board audio seems to be better than the last one as well, so I don't think I'd need the sound card either; so in the end it'd be cheaper. Plus overall it looks better than the previous choice I made except that it's FSB is 1066/800MHz compared to the other one's 1333/1066MHz. I think that's slower, so any idea how much it would affect it?

[Felix12g]

If you don't do a whole lot to max out the computer I doubt you'll notice a difference between the two bus speeds. Slower bus speeds limit how much data can cross but I don't think you'll hit a bottleneck anytime soon.

For power I've known some people with similar setups that have had problems because of a lack of wattage. Don't just let all the connections do the talking. If you do toss a second card in that computer in the future you'll pretty much have to buy another power supply to go with it. For now a 600 will probably work for you but you run the risk of all the cash for that going down the drain at upgrade time. But like I say, it'll work for that setup, you can worry about upgrades after that one's built. Make sure to check alot of reviews on the hardware, not just the comments on newegg. I can vouch for the quality of thermaltake (Though they are a little more expensive), they're known for it, but getting a cheap power supply can come back to bite you.

[Lunarhawk]

So the motherboard I posted in my previous post will work with the rest of this?

And yeah, I'll check other review sites for that brand of stuff...but I don't expect to be upgrading anytime soon, or really playing any games that will require it to have 2 graphic cards on my computer, just having one of the 8800s should be good enough for a couple years I hope. I just can't really afford a higher wattage of power right now from a good brand, but you're right that I'll probably have to upgrade it as well next time I upgrade probably anything in this setup, but as I said, that won't be for at least probably 1.5-2yrs.

Review Results: Most of the reviews I found were for the 650W version, apparently that was their first PSU last september, and they were all pretty high in results. I was only able to find one review for the 550W version, here, and it gave it a 9/10. I'm pretty confident that it should work.


Also, I plan to order the parts for this computer later today so any last minute comments will be welcome. My only regret for the thing is that there are a lot of drive bays in the case, 5x5.25" and 2x3.5", and it looks like I'll only be using one or two of them, but that leaves room to add in other stuff later when I have the money; I can't really afford anything that looks good and has good functionality. I may add in a $20-30 Floppy Disk Drive/Multimedia card reader to go in one of them when I order, I'll see then.

[OmegaGryphon]

My PC is starting to get dated, but the one thing I will switch over when I build new is my PSU a 650 watt coolermaster. That thing has shown me so far to be awesome.

[Lunarhawk]

Well the thing's ordered
Total cost was $1,455.79 but one of the things in it has a 40 buck rebate.

[connnnn]

Not bad considering you're going ground-up and including a decent monitor/case, etc. I went ground-up on this system for around $1200 over 4 years ago and ended up with more mid-grade stuff than you got (in other words your components are a little more high-end in the market relatively speaking than mine were at the time). And mine will still be fine until Unreal 3 engine games start rolling out. So you should be good for at least a few generations of game engines.

Now we just have to hope none of the console-only folks see this thread and think "omgz so I have to pay $1500 to play PC games? screw that my xbox was only $500!" :P , it's enough to explain that once a week on the other forum.

[Lunarhawk]

Well I've been console only myself due to this low quality computer for a good while; I just want something good that can handle *Censored Word**Censored Word**Censored Word**Censored Word* like Spore when it comes out. If it ever does.

[Corbs]

At the moment, Lightscribe isn't worth the extra 5 bucks. There are unfortunately too few labels to choose from and the DVDs cost way too much.

Although, I have to admit, it is an interesting technology. Be warned, unless you get an image made for lightscribe, you'll see that the results are somewhat disappointing.

[Lunarhawk]

Well guys, I got as far as I could when the parts came...I got all the stuff hooked to the mobo right I think, and most of the stuff hooked to the PSU right (I think; this thing has a ton of cables meaning lots of extras, plus bad labeling on what's what...) but then I got to the case -> Mobo cables and...well, I'm just god damn lost =/ I think I'll have to either call someone like geek squad to come finish it if they do stuff like this; either that or take it in to a computer shop that does this stuff (I know one but even for simple stuff like this that would only take an hour tops for someone who knows what they're doing it usually takes them a couple days)

[Lunarhawk]

Actually, scratch that. I think I've actually figured it out, but I've emailed the guys who made the case to check. Gonna wait for a response from their service/support before going any further (Which would be, if I get the "yes" I'm hoping for, installing the OS and being pretty much done). I just want to check with these guys to make sure it doesn't explode when I push the power button.

[Corbs]

It can't go wrong honestly. Just make sure you didn't plug, for example, the fan in both the power supply and the motherboard and you should be ok. (double alimentation is a no no ).

And dual channel are usually on the same color (distant one from another).