New to Computer Building

[Vitaminx]

Hi, I'm new to this forum and also new to computer building. I think I know enough though that I can successfully build one on my own though. I was just needing some clarification in some areas: Compatibility, stability, and gaming performance are the three big ones. Will are of these parts work well with each other? And also will I have to mess with the voltage of say the memory once everything is installed or will it be good as is? And do all of these parts have a good price to performance ratio? I probably won't be doing SLI either, I figure one video card is enough. And if you are wondering why I chose that motherboard, its because the lifetime warranty from EVGA and the price seems good. And there is always the possibility of running SLI in the future as well. I just wish the E8400 was available on Newegg. My budget is around $1000 - $1350. I'm open to any suggestions.

Here's a list the parts I'm looking into:

Case - COOLER MASTER RC-690-KKN1-GP Black SECC/ ABS ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119137

Hard Drive - Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3500320AS 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148288

Power Supply - PC Power & Cooling S610EPS EPS12V 610W Continuous @ 40°C Power Supply 100 - 240 V UL, cUL, CE, CB, TUV
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817703005

Video Card - EVGA 512-P3-N841-AR GeForce 8800GTS (G92) 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130325

Processor - Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 Conroe 2.66GHz 4M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115029

Memory - Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146565

Motherboard - EVGA 122-CK-NF68-A1 LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813188013

CD/DVD Burner - SAMSUNG Black 20X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 16X DVD+R DL 20X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA 20X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151154

Heatsink with Fan - XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233003

Operating system - Microsoft Windows XP Home With SP2B 1 Pack
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116056

 

[GhostGT]

Looks like a pretty solid build to me. I don't know much about processors but I guess the E6750 will be fine for your applications. As far as compatibility and gaming goes, looks like everything will work out fine.

Graphics card is a great choice.

Memory will suffice.

XP Home is also a safe choice for now, although most go with Vista.

In my opinion this is a great build. I might change the heatsink to something like a Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro or a Zalman 9700 depending on how much you want to pay, but any aftermarket cooler usually outperforms the stock Intel one.

As far as changing memory voltages and what-not, you shouldn't be touching those unless you're planning on overclocking.


Cheers,

Chris

 

[A True Folder]

The only thing I'd probably change would be the board, if you're not going to utilise SLi then a P35 or X38 chipset would be a better buy as the 680i has already been replaced by the 780i and if your SLi ambitions are in "the future" by the time you get around to it the 780i will probably have been replaced anyway.

 

[Äߧý∩†H♠H䎀]

Everything looks pretty good in the build there except the E6750. Its a bit dated I'd suggest going with a E8400 or E8500 if you can find one.

 

[worshipme]

The only thing I'd probably change would be the board, if you're not going to utilise SLi then a P35 or X38 chipset would be a better buy as the 680i has already been replaced by the 780i and if your SLi ambitions are in "the future" by the time you get around to it the 780i will probably have been replaced anyway.

I second that and the 780i is only a 680i with a few tweaks. It only has PCI-E 2.0 support for two of it's three PCI-EX16 slots. I recommend this mobo: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131180 if you want a P35 board or this for X38: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813186134 The X38 board supports both DDR2 and DDR3 RAM. As for the CPU, I definitely wait until you can get a Wolfdale. It will be worth it over the E6750. Everything else looks great.

 

[Vitaminx]

Is there a site which shows the rankings of RAM. I saw one that ranked PSU's, so I'm just curious if there's one for memory as well because I'm not too sure about the crucial I got picked out.

 

[Vitaminx]

I'm gonna go with:

ASUS P5E LGA 775 Intel X38 ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131219

What do you think?

 

[worshipme]

I'm gonna go with:

ASUS P5E LGA 775 Intel X38 ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131219

What do you think?

What about this: http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/memory/display/ddr2-800.html The article compares kits of DDR2 800MHz RAM.

For the motherboard, why don't you go for the Foxconn X38 board I linked to, it supports DDR2 and DDR3 RAM unlike the P5E which only supports DDR2.

 

[Vitaminx]

I wasn't sure at how stable a motherboard is that can support both DDR2 and DDR3 memory. And also isn't Asus a better manufacturer? Or no?

 

[worshipme]

No, not necessarily. Foxconn are a quality brand. ASUS make quality boards and are certainly very popular but that doesn't automatically make them the best.

I wasn't sure at how stable a motherboard is that can support both DDR2 and DDR3 memory.

No problems at all with stability, the mobo has four DDR2 DIMMS so it can support up to 8GB of DDR2 RAM, and it also two DDR3 DIMMs for a maximum of 4GB of DDR3 memory. It can't use DDR2 and DDR3 both at the same time if that's what you mean.