Building my first RIG, need advice?

leroyspoon · Feb 14, 2007

Looking at building a pc with my budget of $1200.00. Currently I've made a list of the following parts/components. I'd appreciate any advice on each one with compatibility being of concern. THanks in advance:

1. Case: Raidmax/ATX-612WBP 500W BK RT
2. Motherboard: ASUS P5NSLI NF570 SLI 775
3. Video Card: VGA Sapphire 100176L X1950PRO R
4. CPU: Intel/C2D E6400 2.13G 775 2M R
5. Mem: 1GX2/KST DII667 KVR667D2N5K2/2G
6. HardDrive: HD 250G/WD 7K 16M SATA2 WD 2500KS %
7. DVD Burn: SAMSUNG/SH-S182M/BEBN BK %
8. SoundCard: SNDCD Creative/70SB073A00000 RT
9. OS: Windows XP Media
10. Monitor: Viewsonic Q19WB-2 Black 19" 5ms
11. Mouse: Logitech MX518 2-tone 8 buttons 1-wheel
12. Keyboard: Microsoft Comfort Curve USB wired

My plans are to game on this pc, Company of Heroes, AA, etc. Typical Internet gaming and surfing as well. Music and pictures aren't high on the priority but the capability for personnel use is what I'm wanting. If the budget can be cut a little for a part without loss in performance, better for only alittle more, or don't buy it and why(with alternate in mind) I'm welcome to all comments. Realize this is out of my league for building this so I won't notice small details that drive the "pro's" crazy. I just want a system that I can enjoy, upgrade without dropping serious bank and can do myself. If there's a part that will make the difference aswell, let me know.

Thanks,
Leroy Spoon

bruins004 · Feb 14, 2007

I dont know what some of those parts are by their code name.
Could you provide links?

leroyspoon · Feb 14, 2007

Sorry about that.

1. Case: Raidmax/ATX-612WBP 500W BK RT
(RAIDMAX SMILODON ATX-612WBP Black SECC STEEL ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 500W Power Supply - Retail
Item #: N82E16811156062

2. Motherboard: ASUS P5NSLI NF570 SLI 775
ASUS P5NSLI LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 570 SLI Intel Edition ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
Item #: N82E16813131032

3. Video Card: VGA Sapphire 100176L X1950PRO R
SAPPHIRE 100176L Radeon X1950PRO 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Video Card - Retail
Item #: N82E16814102061

4. CPU: Intel/C2D E6400 2.13G 775 2M R
Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 Conroe 2.13GHz LGA 775 Processor Model BX80557E6400 - Retail
Item #: N82E16819115004

5. Mem: 1GX2/KST DII667 KVR667D2N5K2/2G
Kingston 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model KVR667D2N5K2/2G - Retail
Item #: N82E16820134046

6. HardDrive: HD 250G/WD 7K 16M SATA2 WD 2500KS %
Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD2500KS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
Item #: N82E16822144701

7. DVD Burn: SAMSUNG/SH-S182M/BEBN BK %
SAMSUNG 18X DVD±R DVD Burner With 12X DVD-RAM Write, LightScribe Technology Black IDE Model SH-S182M/BEBN - OEM
Item #: N82E16827151136

8. SoundCard: SNDCD Creative/70SB073A00000 RT
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer 70SB073A00000 7.1 Channels PCI Interface Sound Card - Retail
Item #: N82E16829102006

9. OS: Windows XP Media
Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 SP2b w/Upgrade Coupon for Vista - OEM
Item #: N82E16832116171

10. Monitor: Viewsonic Q19WB-2 Black 19" 5ms
ViewSonic Q19WB-2 Black 19" 5ms Widescreen LCD Monitor - Retail
Item #: N82E16824116065

11. Mouse: Logitech MX518 2-tone 8 buttons 1-wheel
Logitech MX518 2-Tone 8 Buttons 1 x Wheel USB + PS/2 Wired Optical Gaming-Grade Mouse - Retail
Item #: N82E16826104178

12. Keyboard: Microsoft Comfort Curve USB wired
Microsoft Comfort Curve Black USB Wired Ergonomics Keyboard 2000 - Retail
Item #: N82E16823109149

Hope thats clearer than before, not sure on the "link" deal but here they are attached underneath. I got this off of NEWEGG. Thanks again,
leroyspoon

pt · Feb 14, 2007

buy a e6300 and overclock it to e6400 speeds

easy money saving

ktr · Feb 14, 2007

pt said:
buy a e6300 and overclock it to e6400 speeds
easy money saving

its just a $20 difference....but you could use the money for an aftermarket cooling.

Chewy · Feb 14, 2007

I think you should get some ddr-800 ram, not sure on the price diference but here are a couple.

- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820227139
Ocz plat. 175usd after rebate (ocz works good in my rig)

- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820609026
super talent... it has nice reviews! but dont run it at 2.2v anyone know if this ram is good? I forget, heard of it b4.
someone hit 1000mhz with 5-5-5-15 @1.95v (lucky sticks?) but its spec`d for 4-4-3-8 800mhz

-this is what you want if you can wait for the rebate.. tigger69 uses this brand ram in his rig and hit 3.9ghz on his e6300.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820220144

About the psu, you should not use the one that comes with the case.. maybe get a case without a psu and by a decent brand psu to protect your "investment" (if I can call it that).

read the first paragraph of this link http://www.overclockers.com.au/wiki/Power_Supply_Unit

Guttboy · Feb 14, 2007

Will you be Overclocking? Do you even want to Overclock?

SlipSlice · Feb 14, 2007

Either way he goes..that is going to be a badass computer man.. hope u get it running right. And enjoy it! Which im sure you will.

leroyspoon · Feb 15, 2007

Advice

Thanks for the info guy's.

DDR2 800 ram: I'll recheck the price.

Overclocking: Not yet I think. (those performance #'s ????)

One thing I've seen and heard is no Case comes with a reliable PSU. Why? I know it's a cost difference but it doesn't make since.

Would I need a CPU cooling fan with the three fans this case somes with?

leroyspoon

anticlutch · Feb 15, 2007

If you can, stay away from the P5NSLI board... I have it right now and it'll only let me overclock to 2.4 ghz (from a stock of 2.13 with an E6400), or in other words, a FSB of only 300... as soon as you try 301 fsb, the board locks up and you have to manually reset the cmos (the auto recovery doesn't seem to work for me in this situation).

Power supplies that come bundled with a case are weak simply because the quality is inferior. Simply put, you get what you pay for.

The stock CPU heatsink can be loud and/or inefficient compared to aftermarket coolers. If you have some extra cash, or if you would like to prolong the life of your processor, I'd recommend getting an aftermarket cooler from either Zalman, Scythe, or Arctic Cooling (particularly the 9500led-cu from Zalman, Scythe Infinity, or the Arctic Cooling freezer 7 pro). Also keep in mind: even if you decide to keep the stock heatsink, buy Arctic Silver 5 (a thermal paste) because it is one of the finest products ever made; the stock heatsink's thermal pad has paraffin in it which might affect performance later on. So basically, if you decide to stay with the stock heatsink, scrape off the crap that came with it and put on some AS5... if you decide to buy an aftermarket cooler, don't use the paste that comes with it- use AS5.

edit: I forgot to add but using a coffee filter with high purity alcohol (90% or higher) is recommended to get the thermal pad off... try not to use tissues as they tend to be a bit linty.

freaksavior · Feb 15, 2007

I know you said you're not going to overclock but like anticlutch said his board doesn't let him clock high. my dad has a gigabyte DS3 965P and i hit 3.4 on his E6400 temp @ 28C so good overclocking board

thats also my opinion

leroyspoon · Feb 15, 2007

Thanks for the advice on the board, I was wanting one with dual PCIX16 capability. Can anyone recommend a good motherboard with those same specs? I'll have to look into the CPU fan, thanks for the advice.

anticlutch · Feb 15, 2007

Is there a price cap for the motherboard?

leroyspoon · Feb 15, 2007

Guy's you'll have to dumb it down for me on the lingo... I know nothing of overclocking, and the board you just recommended... ? Trying to learn as I go on this too.

leroyspoon · Feb 15, 2007

If there's main comonents that I can spend more on for the better of the system then good, I'll just have to pull back on other stuff. So in my mind, the case(w/PSU), mthrbrd, ram,video, and CPU are the $$$ components. Anything else I'll make do with until I can upgrade.

What do ya'll think?

Chewy · Feb 15, 2007

well I recomemd the ddr800, it proforms better from a review I read of c2d.
When you get the swing of overclocking (its easy anyway), you could get a aftermarket cpu cooler than.. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835186134 this one works excelent for people and is only... has raised in price from $23 to $80.. lol wtf.

Here are some duel pci-e boards
- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813128323 DQ-6
- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131028 P5B Deluxe/WiFi-AP
- you could get a NVIDIA nForce 680i board, but I think they prefer Nividia cards.

Some good single pci-e boards
- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813128012 ds-3 great overclocking board hits over 450fsb easily (someone told me they read it would not).
- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131045 acording to reviews, this one had some problems with the sound chip..

I dont think your going to need to overclock, unless decrypt/convert videos or file.. I convert movies for Ipod so overclocking speeds that up alot.

leroyspoon · Feb 15, 2007

Thanks Chewy

I'll search those boards up at NEWEGG. The ram sounds like a good move as well.

Any comments on the video card?

Chewy · Feb 15, 2007

The video card is good from what people say here, so I beleive it is very good especially if your on a budget. 2 1950pros proform the same if not better than a 1950xtx and is the same price.

About the psu, maybe you can find a case without a psu.. or if you like the case you had picked just replace the psu with an antec Neo HE 500 $90 or an OCZ GameXStream.

niko084 said:
Heh forgot to mention there, the Neo HE 500 is actually a good psu for a single 1900 series including the x1950xt, as long as it was the revsion after A3.. You very well could have had a revision before that which I think shared the pci-e rail with the processor or something else... Which with a hot amd chip and over clocked, would have been pretty bad.. Very well could have been your issue.

leroyspoon · Feb 15, 2007

Chewy,

Looked up those mthrbrds, their both DDR2 800 standard, to put 2gb of ram in the system it will put me over the $ i want to allow. If I go with 1 gb how will that compare to the 667 5300 performance at 2 gb?

Chewy · Feb 15, 2007

well you could get 1 gig of ddr2 800 for now and another gig later, some newer games may use more than 1 gig "at max settings" and 2 gigs give you more freedom to do other things in the backround that use up ram like converting files (playing music does not use much ram).
going this route the max system memory you could have would be 2 gigs, but that should cover you well... I doubt I`ll ever want to add ram to my system, even with vista...

Edit: maybe check with someone else on that though... if they think future gaming will use 4 gigs of ram with vista.. if so you could always sell your 4 sticks (or 2 sticks) of ddr800 512mb ram to upgrade.

Edit2 : I figure just about everyone will get into overclocking someday when thier system starts falling behind newer hardware.

Guttboy · Feb 16, 2007

Leroy,

Looks like you are getting some good information here.....Folks...remember he does not know much about OC'ing and is brand new to building computers so start him off with the basics.

As far as bucks go....If you want to save money you can go with a cheaper case. I know I will get flamed here but there are good cases for relatively cheap bucks out there. I personally want a little "Bling" with my next case/computer but if you are hard pressed for the dough try that out.

Guys....perhaps as a benchmark you could explain how Leroy's computer would compare to the one in my signature? He and I share an office together and he should probably get some "unbiased" opinions aside from my thoughts. He has seen my computer in action and this would give him a baseline to make his opinions on.....(dont ask him what he is using now....LOL)......

Good Luck Leroy! I am anxious to hear what the folks come up with!

Chewy · Feb 17, 2007

I`m not leet in the computer world at all, just learned some things mainly from this site and reviewing about my computer that I bought... I`m guessing At stock your guys processor will be about the same, I think his hard drive will load games faster (not sure on the specs of caviar Hd). He will have ALOT of overclocking potential with decent ddr2-800 ram and one of the boards I mentioned.

Overclocking is simple, once you know the ins and outs of your mohterboards bios, how to change ram timmings elc. you can get a better overclock.

joinmeindeath417 · Feb 17, 2007

if your board is SLI compatible i'd definitly go with something like an Nvidia 7900gt so in the future you can double it up

cause well...thats why the board is SLI no?

niko084 · Feb 17, 2007

That psu is going to be an issue.. I can just taste it...

Save the money get an e6300, get a better case/psu combo, or buy a different psu.

Also if you aren't going to use the media stuff on windows media, I wouldn't bother buying it.
You may as well just get PRO OEM its a bit cheaper and less fat.

Chewy · Feb 18, 2007

I "think", hes going to get a aftermarket psu. The e6300 is only $20 cheaper, but that could help him towards a better psu.
Good deal on the windows oem PRO, I had media center edition and I would rather use other media players than what it offers, simplier ones with no fuss.

Processor	AMD Turion 64 X2 Mobile TL-60 (Trinidad)
Motherboard	ASUS F3Ka (ATI RS690M)
Cooling	stock
Memory	Nanya 2x1GB ddr2 667@5-5-5-15-2T
Video Card(s)	ATI Mobility Radeon HD2600 512MB DDR2@ 580mhz/486mhz
Storage	160GB on laptop+250GB external
Display(s)	ASUS 15.4
Case	Asus Laptop F3Ka chassis
Audio Device(s)	on-board
Power Supply	1:30minutes battery
Software	"genui xp", 'cause i hated vista

Processor	Q6600 G0 @ 3.2Ghz
Motherboard	Asus p5k-Premium/Black Pearl
Cooling	Luna Block, 240mm rad
Memory	Patriot Extreme PC2-6400 2x2GB
Video Card(s)	Saphire 5850 1GB
Storage	60GB SSD + 2x500GB/1TB/2TB
Display(s)	Samsung 226BW and 50" Panasonic S2
Case	Silverstone TJ-09
Audio Device(s)	X-fi Prelude
Power Supply	Enermax Galaxy Dxx 850watt
Software	Windows7 32Bit
Benchmark Scores	Super Pi 1M 14.333

System Name	First Build 2009
Processor	Intel E8400 (E0) 3.0GHz
Motherboard	Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P
Cooling	Xigmatek HDT S1283 (120mm)
Memory	G.Skill 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500)
Video Card(s)	EVGA GTX260
Storage	WD Caviar Black 1TB 7200rpm 32MB SATA
Display(s)	LG W2600H-PF 25.5" (1920x1200)
Case	Cooler Master CM690
Audio Device(s)	Creative Labs X-Fi Xtreme Gamer
Power Supply	Corsair 750TX
Software	Windows Vista Ultimate 64bit

Processor	AMD ATHLON 64 SAN DIEGO 3700@2.42GHZ
Motherboard	ASUS A8N5X
Cooling	1X80MM CASE FAN, 1X80MM CPU FAN, 2X120MM FANS(ONE TAKING AIR OUT..OTHER FOR HARDDRIVE
Memory	1.5 GIG, DDR400 CORSAIR
Video Card(s)	eVGA 7900GS KO
Storage	160GIG WESTERN DIGITAL 7200RPM
Display(s)	Acer 22' Widescreen
Case	ROSEWILL CASE 5600 SERIES..2 BLUE LED CASE FANS
Audio Device(s)	SOUND BLASTER LIVE 24 BIT!
Power Supply	SPARKLE 400 WATT
Software	WINDOWS XP HOME EDITION..its gr8/LOTS OF GAMES

Processor	Intel C2D E6420 (3.2 gHz @ 1.365v)
Motherboard	Gigabyte 965P-DS3
Cooling	Zalman CNPS9500 LED
Memory	4 x 512mb Corsair XMS2 DDR2 667
Video Card(s)	Visiontek HD 4870 512mb
Storage	200gb Maxtor SATA, 400gb WD SATA
Audio Device(s)	Audigy 2 ZS
Software	Windows XP Pro SP2

Building my first RIG, need advice?

leroyspoon

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bruins004

leroyspoon

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pt

not a suicide-bomber

ktr

Chewy

Guttboy

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SlipSlice

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leroyspoon

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anticlutch

freaksavior

To infinity ... and beyond!

leroyspoon

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anticlutch

leroyspoon

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leroyspoon

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Chewy

leroyspoon

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Chewy

leroyspoon

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Guttboy

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joinmeindeath417

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niko084

Chewy

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Processor	Xeon 2659 v3 / Xeon 2683 v4 / ARM A14
Motherboard	Asus X99-E-10G WS / ASRock x99 usb 3.1 / Apple
Cooling	NZXT Kraken / Noctua NH-L12 / Apple
Memory	16Gb DDR4 / 32Gb DDR4 / 16GB HBLM
Video Card(s)	Powercooler ATI vega 64 / GT 7300 / ARM
Storage	Samsung 970 512 Evo NVMe / A lot. / 256 + 512 External TB3
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Mouse	g502 proteus core / Headless / g502 proteus core
Keyboard	Corsair K95 Cherry Blue / Headless / K65 Cherry Red
Software	Windows 10 / ESXI / Big Sur 11.2.2

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Processor	AMD Phenom II x4 955 3.8ghz AIR
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Cooling	3 fans of MADNESS
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Video Card(s)	ATI 4890 1GB GDDR5 memory
Storage	500gb SATAII
Display(s)	23" 1080p Acer H233Hbmid
Case	Antec Three Hundred
Audio Device(s)	Onboard
Power Supply	OCZ StealthXStream / 600W / Active PFC
Software	Windows 7 Professional 64bit

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Processor	i9 14900k
Motherboard	Asrock Z790 Nova
Cooling	Corsair H150i Elite
Memory	64GB Corsair Dominator DDR5-6400 @ 6600
Video Card(s)	EVGA RTX 3090 Ultra FTW3
Storage	4TB WD 850x NVME, 4TB WD Black, 10TB Seagate Barracuda Pro
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Power Supply	Corsair RM1000i
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Keyboard	Corsair K95 Platinum
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