Building a new system from the ground up

[Nemisis09]

Thank you very much for all the input and I am going to take a lot of advice forkm here, I am looking into the lower watt power supply and the other motherboard. I think I am also going to go with the 1tb drive. True why spend the money if it is not going to increase productivity all that much. Is there a downside to going water cooled? Yes it will look pretty neat, and it will be a fun project. Also I have heard that the 4870 x2 does run on the hot end so I was going to be getting the block for that as well.

Thanks again

 

[Nemisis09]

I read the forum for the PC build. Very useful, thank you. I am building a new pc and have a list of components. I will be using this mostly for gaming, I will list some components and hopefully someone will let me know if there are any obvious issues I do not either know about or overlooked. Thanks in advance for the help/feedback.

AMD Phenom II x4 940 3.0 Ghz. I am not overclocking anything right away seeing as I have never done it before, might play around with it in the future. What makes AMD Phenom 9850 BLACK EDITION 2.5GHz better for overclocking?

Asus M3A79-T 790 FX deluxe is what I saw recommended on another site so was looking at this mother board. But I see you recommended Foxconn A7DA-S just wondering about significant difference and which one is better.

Memory I saw was OCZ 4Gb (2 X 2Gb) DDR2 Dual channel 1066. There does not seem to be much difference with G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2

Sapphire Radeon 4870 X 2 Graphics Card (may crossfire in the future, but not now.)

In Win Commander Power Supply. Not sure 750w, 850w, or 1.2K. (1.2K will be needed if I go crossfire)

Windows Vista 64 bit

WD Velociraptor 300GB 10000rpm. (Again not sure. The 1Tb you suggest looks nice, but I am thinking more about load times. Still deciding)

Thermaltake Armor + LCS with integrated water cool system. (mainly for the 4870 X 2 I hear they run real hot)

That is pretty much the heart of it. Any feed back would be appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[rohan23]

The processor is great. It performs well in games and overclocks like a champ.

Both of the motherboards are good. It's just a matter of choice.

I would go with the G Skill memory. Just to save a bit of money. But, do go with 1066 RAM.

The 4870x2 is a great card. Look into the GTX 295. It's only a little bit more and will offer you up to 20% more power. Don't quote me on that though. I just heard it somewhere.

You don't need a power supply more than 900W even on Crossfire or SLI. Just make sure it's a quality power supply.

You might as well go with putting 2 hard drives in RAID 0. You will get more space and save a lot of money.

You don't need watercooling unless you're going to be overclocking to extremely high levels. Skip the water cooling and go with a bunch of high performance fans instead. The Armor series cools very well.

 

[tom-knox]

Ditch water cooling and spend money on a well ventilated nicely air cooled system. Go with a high quality branded PSU nearer the 600w mark

 

[JogaBonito1502]

The processor is great. It performs well in games and overclocks like a champ.

Both of the motherboards are good. It's just a matter of choice.

I would go with the G Skill memory. Just to save a bit of money. But, do go with 1066 RAM.

The 4870x2 is a great card. Look into the GTX 295. It's only a little bit more and will offer you up to 20% more power. Don't quote me on that though. I just heard it somewhere.

You don't need a power supply more than 900W even on Crossfire or SLI. Just make sure it's a quality power supply.

You might as well go with putting 2 hard drives in RAID 0. You will get more space and save a lot of money.

You don't need watercooling unless you're going to be overclocking to extremely high levels. Skip the water cooling and go with a bunch of high performance fans instead. The Armor series cools very well.

Great advice here and I'll develop a little further if you don't mind.

Whether you go OCZ or G. Skill doesn't really matter. They're both great RAM brands. Please make sure you use at least 1066MHz RAM though because the PII can handle those speeds just fine.

What resolution will your monitor be running? You may not even need something as powerful as a HD4870X2.

As far as a power supply, I would look for an Antec, PC Power & Cooling, Corsair, or a FSP unit. These are probably the best PSU brands around. 700W should be enough.

The Velociraptor is really a waste of money. Raid 0 is not worth the risk IMO. If you have to choose between one or the other go with the Velociraptor. However, 1 7200RPM should do fine. If you want you can run a RAID1 array which is much more useful than a RAID0. PM me if you want to know the different types of HDD arrays.

Again, watercooling is an unnecessary luxury. If you want you system to look cool and what not you can get it. As far as performance goes, it may be worse than some air HSFs out there. If you're going with air and you plan on OC'ing, take a look at the Thermaltake Ultra series.

 

[worshipme]

In Win Commander Power Supply. Not sure 750w, 850w, or 1.2K. (1.2K will be needed if I go crossfire)

You won't need anyway near 1.2k even if you go CF, and even less so as you said you were looking at the non overclockers builds, I'm assuming you don't overclock. 750W is perfectly sufficient IMO, even if you are an OC'er.
The higher end In Win line looks pretty good, go with them if you want. They look like CWTs, which is what Corsair VXs, Thermaltake Toughpowers and Xigmateks are.

Asus M3A79-T 790 FX deluxe is what I saw recommended on another site so was looking at this mother board. But I see you recommended Foxconn A7DA-S just wondering about significant difference and which one is better.

A 790FX board is unnecessary IMO, the 790GX is identical apart from the reduced number of PCI-E lanes (but you won't ever need to run 4-way CF)

Thermaltake Armor + LCS with integrated water cool system. (mainly for the 4870 X 2 I hear they run real hot)

That water cooling would be pretty cheap and would be outperformed by a lot of high end air setups. I suggest you just stick with air cooling siif you're not overclocking. Go with a cooler such as the Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme or the Xigmatek HDT-S1283 if you are.

What makes AMD Phenom 9850 BLACK EDITION 2.5GHz better for overclocking?

I take it you mean the 940? Black Edition = Unlocked multiplier. Gives you a lot more freedom and you can achieve higher clocks.

WD Velociraptor 300GB 10000rpm. (Again not sure. The 1Tb you suggest looks nice, but I am thinking more about load times. Still deciding)

Is shaving a couple of seconds of load time really worth this much to you? It's you money, but I would take a 1TB 7200RPM drive over a Raptor any day.

 

[Nemisis09]

Just wanted to post an update. I am finalizing my system with The AMD Phenom II x4 940 Black Box, the Foxconn board, the OZC 4Gb (2 x 2gB) 1066, The Saphire 4870 x2, Corsiar 750W Power Supply, Windows Vista 64 bit, Samsung Spinpoint F1 1 Tb, In the Armor LCS case, it was on sale and comes with the embedd4ed water cooling system. The only reason I am considering the liquid cool is 1. the video card, 2. it will cut down on some of the fan I need, thus reducing some noise, probly not enough to really worry about though, and 3. The look of it. Is there any disadvantage to liuid cooling that I should be worried about?

Plus I want to thank everyone for your responses. It was a great help in making my final decisions.

Now all I can do is sit back and wait for my stuff to arrive.

 

[dude_56013]

there any disadvantage to liuid cooling that I should be worried about?

Yeah...it failing. I never have, nor will, use liquid cooling. Those die hard OC'ers out there looking for those few extra Mhz can have it. I'll stick with a good HSF, thank you. Plus, you mentioned you aren't even going to overclock...it'd be kind of pointless.

 

[worshipme]

Plus, you mentioned you aren't even going to overclock...it'd be kind of pointless.

+1. WTF? You aren't even overclocking and you're going with liquid cooling? And even if you were OC'ing, it'd only be worth it if you really know what you're doing and you can get the absolute max out of the system. And the people who do that aren't going to be buying a crappy TT water cooling kit that's including with a case and is probably outperformed by high end air coolers.

Other than that, your build looks pretty good.

 

[dude_56013]

Well said, worship. I know next to nothing about using/setting up water cooling but I know enough to know that usually it only beats quality air cooling if it's a high-end water cooling system.