Opinions on new build

[SomeOldGuy]

After a looooong time since my last one, I'm finally going to bite the bullet and build my new box since my current 5+ year old one is showing signs of wear (power supply is running more than a bit hot, and gaming has long passed the p4 2.5ghz 9800pro by).

Below is what I'm considering, and I'm looking for any suggestions/criticisms on specific choices. I am keeping my Evoluent mouse (which I love), and I will be using my new Samsung 2443BWX 24" LCD (+ possibly my old Samsung 19" 930B for dual monitors). I will also (for now) be running XP Pro. I may dual boot w/Vista at some stage.

I was trying to hold out for a Nehalem, but that looks like it won't be out until at least the 4th quarter, and I need it now. So what I did was get a "lesser" CPU/Mobo w/DDR2 memory, with the idea that I will upgrade in late 2009/2010 to whatever energy efficient + fast CPU/Mobo/Memory combo that makes sense then.

Here is the current list:


1 Logitech 920-000325 Black USB Wired Ergonomics Wave Keyboard

1 Thermaltake Xaser VI VG4000SWA Silver / Black Aluminum ATX Full Tower


1 SAMSUNG 22X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe Black SATA Model SH-S223Q/BEBN

1 Logitech G51 155 watts RMS 5.1 Surround Sound Speakers

1 Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer 7.1 Channels PCI Interface Sound Card

1 VisionTek 900244 Radeon HD 4870 512MB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP
Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card

1 CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply

1 Thermaltake CL-P0310 120mm CPU Cooling Fan

1 Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound

1 Western Digital VelociRaptor WD3000GLFS 300GB 10000 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

1 Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3750330AS 750GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

1 Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 Wolfdale 3.16GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Model BX80570E8500

1 GIGABYTE GA-X48-DS4 LGA 775 Intel X48 ATX Intel Motherboard

1 CORSAIR DOMINATOR 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500)
Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TWIN2X4096-8500C5DF

Thoughts?

[Innoc]

It looks great. You went a bit farther on some things than I did when I built in January. The only thing I would give some thought to is whether the 10" cables will be long enough to provide adequate strain relief for the optical drive. 10" may be pretty close to the limit. OKGEAR makes some longer cables that should do the trick for you.

As far as the normal ATi vs Nvidia thing goes...I think it depends on which week you're looking at the card. In the 250.00 range though I suspect you'll be happy. Not bleeding or trailing edge but somewhere in between and out long enough to have a track record.

[SomeOldGuy]

hehe... I got the cable link from one you posted before!

As for the Nvidia vs. ATI goes... I'm not a fanboy of either. What I really liked about the 4870 is the speed/price ratio at this time. I considered the Nvidia 260 as well, but I like the upside of the ATI better... at least for now. I didn't want to go overboard and get the Nvidia 280 or the 4870 X2, nor did I want to go crossfire at this stage. This is a nice medium/near high-end option from all that I've read. The kicker is the $250 price vs $400+ for the next level.

EDIT: Okay, going with these:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16812123262

[Mooga]

Any reason you chose the E8500 (dual core) rather then the Q6600 (quad core)? They are the same price on newegg.

Some gamers prefer dual because it's currently more widely supported in games.

[SomeOldGuy]

I considered it, but for now I was going for the 45nm (less heat/power efficiency) than for the number of cores.

This will be on pretty much 24x7x365 work (80%)/play (20%) box, so I need it to be as quiet/low heat/low power usage as possible.

Those percentages I would like to be reversed too... but today ain't that day.

Given that this was the lesser price option of 45nm quad's vs. dual, most of the tech sites love the E8500 as a great price/performance sweet spot, and few if any games/programs I run actually are multi-threaded at this moment, my thoughts are that this will be more than sufficient for the time being.

I will revisit the cpu/mobo/memory early-mid-late next year after Nehalem's are out for mainstream usage. From all that I've read, these will be in the 8-Core range, memory controller on board (a la AMD), and uber efficient. Of course, that remains to be seen.

[mervaka]

buy a motherboard that isnt compatible with your processor! ahahaha

[SomeOldGuy]

Originally Posted by mervaka

buy a motherboard that isnt compatible with your processor! ahahaha

OUCH!!!!!!!

[mervaka]

dont worry, its all sorted now the many, many bios upgrades of the motherboard i bought afterwards have evened out into a very reliable platform. i only get this glitch once in every 50 odd boots where the whole system periodically freezes for a split second every 0.8s or so. its really fucking annoying, but then its not worth finding the root cause if the remedy is rebooting it again every once in a while.. i dont regret buying the conroe for a second.

[Acid Reflux]

Just a suggestion:

Sony PS3, SSD HDD upgrade, keep your mouse and keyboard (if USB), install Fedora, and keep your exsisting rig to play (FF). The bang for buck is hard to beat assuming you are looking for an ultimate gaming machine.