good parts for gaming pc?

[CorporalClegg]

great! thanks for the help. Just a couple more things.
1: would it be a good idea to overclock the processor?
2: do I need a heat sink?

 

[b1gapl]

It's always a good idea to overclock the processor. Why wouldn't you want free performance...

The processor is retail, and already comes with a heatsink, but I'd suggest you get an aftermarket cooler, if you're planning on overclocking.

I would suggest Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro.

 

[phucng_10]

Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro all the way if you're running an AMD and wanting an aftermarket HSF to overclock.

 

[psp_crazy1]

yes what phucng said, artic cooling is only 35 bucks and is amazing at cooling

 

[veg1992]

why get a Windsor when u can get a cheaper Brisbane which consumes less power and more overclockable

 

[Nagasama]

yeah we forgot to tell you that it needs to be a brisbane. it will run much cooler and clock way higher (i have it and the evga mobo you listed), like v-dogg says.
my zalmann 9500 cools very well, it costs a little more than the arctic cooling. probably not worth the price increase, though.
as far as the audio card, as b1g says, you dont really need it. although, i bought an audigy zs2 (the cheap one, like 30 bucks), and it really makes a difference in my games i think. plus it comes with a cool little EQ that is great when you are burning cds.
good luck! your build looks great otherwise!

 

[CorporalClegg]

hmmm.......so i'll get the Brisbane and the cooler but I'm wondering if the athlon 64 x2 3600+ processor will be good enough. Isn't it kind of low-end compared to the rest of the stuff I'm getting?

 

[b1gapl]

Yes...but you can upgrade to the Phenoms that will release soon.

 

[macdawg]

might as well spend another $50 and get an e6320 and p35 motherboard, worth it when you consider the price/performance.

Newegg.com - Intel Core 2 Duo E6320 Conroe 1.86GHz 4M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor - Retail

Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail

you could keep all the other components and switch these 2 parts out.

Not trying to be rude and bash your recommendations but why get a $150 mobo and a $60 processor?

Sure you could overclock it, but good AM2 motherboards can be had for under $80, with that money he could just get a processor and not overclock it until he felt his system was on its last legs anyways and really needed the performance.

I've read of many proud OC'ers suddenly have USB ports stop working, weird windows errors, ruin memory, power & heat problems, read a microsoft article where a they found a ridiculous amount of overclocked users sent 'error reports' from crashes (we've all seen them where a program crashes and you can click to send or not send an error report, OC'ing increases these crashes). For instance if he wants a super stable computer for 3 years I wouldn't recommend getting a 3600 and puting it at 2.6 ghz when he could already do have that for the same price.

I'm not anti OC'ing and OC'd my old athlon XP system, but OC'ing 3600's is for $500 budget builds, not for a system with an 8800 gpu.

If you go AM2 might as well go with this mobo & cpu for my reasons stated above and I believe its actually cheaper and save you the OC'ing hassle until you learn more about it as these components are must faster stock and can be OC'd as well.

Newegg.com - BIOSTAR TFORCE 550 Socket AM2 NVIDIA nForce 550 MCP ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail

Newegg.com - AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ Brisbane 2.6GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM2 Processor - Retail

 

[Invisible]

There is no reason to get 5600+ when you can get E6550 for around the same price..... Not only E6550 performs better at stock speeds, but it can also overclock way much better.........


Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GA-P35-S3L LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
Newegg.com - Intel Core 2 Duo E6550 Conroe 2.33GHz 4M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor - Retail


Edit: And the Gigabyte motherboard supports the upcoming intel 45nm processors, so you can upgrade to those when they come out....

i second this