First Attempt at New Gaming Rig ~ Please Advise
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antialias1337
Baseband Member
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coolmaster makes pretty solid well built cases, Comparing an Gigabyte to coolmaster is like day and night. I have an aurora and its big but it feels way cheaper than cool master. And whats funny is the gigabyte was like 140 bucks vs the coolmaster at like 50. Good Choice, I hope the graphics card fits!
Sora
Renowned Budgeting Master
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The 8800GTS will fit in there no problem. The Centurion 5 is an awesome case really...you will always see it recommended.
You realize with an 8800GTS 640 and a 17 inch monitor you will DESTROY games right? haha
You realize with an 8800GTS 640 and a 17 inch monitor you will DESTROY games right? haha
Great! I was hoping to have a good system as I play many MMOs from WOW to Dark Ages of Camelot. It depends on my fancy as to what I play.
It was asked how much this rig cost. The total cost from Newegg.com is $1340.79. With shipping it cosss $1368.92. As I said I have limited budget (don't want to **** the wife off, due to the fact I am buying a new 08 Harley and this gaming rig) and seems like after doing some reading and following up on some suggestions from other people I did pretty good. Now I am holding off on buying it waiting to see how much the cost drops on 22 July for that CPU. I wanted to go with a SATA build also as I ave been under the impression that this setup would be better overall. I'll eventually go with a RAID 5 setup but not sure when I'll do that.
Currently it would do me no good to buy it now as I am deployed and wouldn't get to enjoy it. August is a different story though. I'll be tearing up the gaming community.
It was asked how much this rig cost. The total cost from Newegg.com is $1340.79. With shipping it cosss $1368.92. As I said I have limited budget (don't want to **** the wife off, due to the fact I am buying a new 08 Harley and this gaming rig) and seems like after doing some reading and following up on some suggestions from other people I did pretty good. Now I am holding off on buying it waiting to see how much the cost drops on 22 July for that CPU. I wanted to go with a SATA build also as I ave been under the impression that this setup would be better overall. I'll eventually go with a RAID 5 setup but not sure when I'll do that.
Currently it would do me no good to buy it now as I am deployed and wouldn't get to enjoy it. August is a different story though. I'll be tearing up the gaming community.
veg1992
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my robot nose has detected something.... sniff sniff.. its a perfect build...... wow i'm crying in happyness tear...tear..... this will own games!! but u can't really show off a 8800 gts on a 17 incher i would have gone with a 19 incher, but i like showing off like that... i'm egotistic 
Eventually I will be going with a 19, 20 or 22in widescreen monitor. I have to prioritize things and getting the system and my harley first and foremost. After I get those 2 things I can figure out a way to get my wife to get me that widescreen monitor. Thanks again for the vote of confidence.
Sora
Renowned Budgeting Master
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Your next upgrade I think that the best size for you would be a 20.1inch
I think the 20.1 wide's are really nice since the res isn't too high but they are big enough for me.
The build is just fine right now and you will kick *** on that 17 inch.
I think the 20.1 wide's are really nice since the res isn't too high but they are big enough for me.
The build is just fine right now and you will kick *** on that 17 inch.
Capricorn
In Runtime
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That all looks like a pretty good set of components to me. Every so often, I put together a trial/sample configuration of what I'd buy as a "one back" system. That is, rather than buy the absolute fastest and most expensive components, I pick ones near the top, but just below the point where the price curve jumps up significantly. I did one yesterday (using Newegg as the source) and the CPU and video card you chose match the ones I'd picked. You also matched on the disk drives and DVD-RW drive, but that's more a personal preference rather than just price. I'm hooked on Seagate drives and have been for the last couple years. There's lots of disk drives and DVD-RW drives within a few dollars of those though.
I did have a few thoughts. I'm assuming that you're planning on using the onboard audio, which I think is fine. I've been doing the same with the build I did in January. That said, my prior build used a Creative Audigy card - the one with the external box. My new build didn't have the space for the two card slot configuration of that setup, so I went with the onboard sound. The audio from the onboard sound chip (ADI AD1988B in my case) is just not as good at the old Audigy card's was. (I'm using the same speaker setup.) I guess if I were you, I'd start with the onboard audio and see what you think. That doesn't cost you anything. I know in my case, there's some version of Sound Blaster X-Fi in my future.
I'm guessing since you're buying two disk drives, you're planning on RAID 0 or 1 in the new system (with no other drives). If so, you're going to need to buy or borrow a floppy to install the RAID drivers during your Windows XP install. (If someone's found a way to do this with the drivers on CD, great, but please respond with how.) I only see the option to install 3rd party drivers from floppy during the initial install. You won't need it after the install is complete, so borrowing one from any old system you have is fine. (I'm hoping Vista is a little smarter here.)
I'm sure you're aware the retail version of the Intel E6600 comes with a heatsink and fan. The Arctic Cooling one you're buying is almost certainly better than that, but you don't feel you have to buy a separate one. I'm using the retail fan and heatsink on my current build and my idle temperatures are 36C and fully loaded only goes to 40 or 41C. Compare that to the Athlon 64 it replaced that idled at 49C and went to 53C under load. (I reused my existing case, so the fan setup is the same between the two.) The Core 2 duos run amazingly cool. If you're planning on doing some heavy overclocking, maybe the 3rd party one is a good idea. The reason I chose retail was to get the 3-year (versus 1-year) warranty. I'm almost certain using a 3rd party heatsink & fan does not violate the warranty. Almost. I know the warranty covers the fan and heatsink, but it doesn't say you have to use it.
Again, just some thoughts. I don't see anything wrong with what you have though.
I did have a few thoughts. I'm assuming that you're planning on using the onboard audio, which I think is fine. I've been doing the same with the build I did in January. That said, my prior build used a Creative Audigy card - the one with the external box. My new build didn't have the space for the two card slot configuration of that setup, so I went with the onboard sound. The audio from the onboard sound chip (ADI AD1988B in my case) is just not as good at the old Audigy card's was. (I'm using the same speaker setup.) I guess if I were you, I'd start with the onboard audio and see what you think. That doesn't cost you anything. I know in my case, there's some version of Sound Blaster X-Fi in my future.
I'm guessing since you're buying two disk drives, you're planning on RAID 0 or 1 in the new system (with no other drives). If so, you're going to need to buy or borrow a floppy to install the RAID drivers during your Windows XP install. (If someone's found a way to do this with the drivers on CD, great, but please respond with how.) I only see the option to install 3rd party drivers from floppy during the initial install. You won't need it after the install is complete, so borrowing one from any old system you have is fine. (I'm hoping Vista is a little smarter here.)
I'm sure you're aware the retail version of the Intel E6600 comes with a heatsink and fan. The Arctic Cooling one you're buying is almost certainly better than that, but you don't feel you have to buy a separate one. I'm using the retail fan and heatsink on my current build and my idle temperatures are 36C and fully loaded only goes to 40 or 41C. Compare that to the Athlon 64 it replaced that idled at 49C and went to 53C under load. (I reused my existing case, so the fan setup is the same between the two.) The Core 2 duos run amazingly cool. If you're planning on doing some heavy overclocking, maybe the 3rd party one is a good idea. The reason I chose retail was to get the 3-year (versus 1-year) warranty. I'm almost certain using a 3rd party heatsink & fan does not violate the warranty. Almost. I know the warranty covers the fan and heatsink, but it doesn't say you have to use it.
Again, just some thoughts. I don't see anything wrong with what you have though.
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