Building a high-end PC

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vago20093

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Well its been well over 5 months now that ive been saving and i finally have enough to build a high-end machine. The thing is this will be the first PC i have ever built. So im going to need some suggestions, if the hardware that i have chosen is good or not, so please read on for my specs.

Case: Thermaltake Armor series, very nice case and its big, when i saw it in person it was even bigger then i thought. Has 3 fans: 2x120mm and one 90mm.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811133154

HD: Western Digital Raptor 150GB 3.5" Serial ATA150, well all i know about this is 10k rpm is good to have so is the 16mb cache, but i have no cluse what that means, does it mean the retrival rating of files and how fast things are put onto the HD? Also this is one pricey HD and for the same price i could get 500gb @ 7200, so is the WD HD worth it?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822136012

RAM: CORSAIR XMS 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Unbuffered DDR 400 (PC 3200) Dual Channel Kit System Memory, ok i dont know much about ram expet that the speed has to match the mobo and the functions it preforms other then that, meh. Any suggestions would be nice.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145575

Mobo: DFI LANPARTY nF4 SLI-DR Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard, same problem as the ram all i know is the motherboards function, but as far as brand names go this is the best i think. Again suggestions greatly appreciated.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813136151

Psu: Antec TRUEPOWERII TPII-550 ATX12V 550W, umm it gives power the comp? Please any suggestion :p
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817103931

Cpu: Ok this is my biggest problem, right now i have my eye on the very sexy FX-60, but its quite price, but its a dual core and its freaking fast. Another "but" is that its the same speed as the fx-57, and the fx-57 is $200 less but its not dual core. My dilemma is, yes the fx-60 is sexy but if its more over kill then anything else, should i just get the fx-57. I do have the money for it, but who doesnt want to save $200. And i know its dependent on what ill be doing, so heres a list of some of the things: harcore gaming, video editing, very minimal music editing, some art and 3d art, and the other regular stuff. You guys can ignore everything else but this is the most important thing.

GPU:eVGA 512-P2-N570-AX Geforce 7900GTX 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16, im not going to get the Superclocked version becuase form what ive read its very buggy.

Monitor: I think ill just be using my 42" plasma, the native res i think is 1600x1400 or 1200 im not sure about the last part. I have put a PC onto the tv with a DVI connector and it looks awesome, so i should be fine here.

Sound: I have a 5.1 sound system that works just fine. Im not a sound freak :p

OS: I am getting windows xp, but i dont know if i should get the pro or home edition.

Additional things id like to get but if they are not needed please tell me: fan controls, a heat sink for OC, a heatsink for my GPU, temp guage. If you guys know of any other hardware ill need please post it.

So in conclusion thank you for reading through my long *** post, and thank for any suggestions and advice. Ill be posting my comps pics by then end of the next month, still need 2 more paychecks >_>
 
wow, hella resolution on your plasma! what kind is it? i'm looking for one right now, but it all i've found is around 1024x768.

as far as the processor goes, i was looking at the fx60 too. the guys around here all praise over clocking the opteron 165, im pretty sure thats what i'm going to do. considering you'll save ~$700 and get about the same performance, its a pretty smart move.
 
OK IÂ’ll be honest I'm about as knowledgeable as you are. But I have learned some things over the years.

Case: That case is HUGE< you're right, if you need to space, or wire management, more power to you.

HD: It is my opinion that it's not a HUGE difference for the speed. It's better, don't get me wrong; but is it really worth it? 500G is more space than you will ever need, but you never hear someone say "I just have to much space, I don't know what to put there" there is always something to put there.

Mobo: You're going with a 939 socket, I hear that's good. NVIDIA SLI has allot of good ratings.

PSU: Not only does the PSU give power to the "computer" it plugs into virtually every component on your PC. I didn't look to see if that is modular but a modular PSU is nice (may not perform as well I hear) all the cables are removable meaning if you aren't using it, it doesn't have to hang out. Nice touch since you will have a side window and cable management helps the look of your PC.


CPU: I have been researching this recently, and don't take me to my word, but as I see it, Dual Core is if you will be running more than one application at once. 90 percent of the applications out there wont be able to take advantage of dual core if it's the sole application running. I have a Pentium D, and it's great when IÂ’m running multiple apps, but otherwise, doesn't increase my performance much.

OS: I would go with professional, simply because it's better with more stuff you might need. No other reasons.

Hope that helped some. Good luck!

-cD
 
I will go at this in no order so will be all over the place. :/

The raptors are over exagerated. Go with the bigger drive. http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=2577

I don't like XMS ram, just has a 'thing' about it... I would go for OCZ personally, well priced - good timmings. 2gb is perfect right now.

Motherboard = good.

Case, I love my Kandalf case, so would do for that. Very easy to work with, unless you want to take out the front hdd cage out when the GPU is still in. :eek:

PSU is fine. I am slightly bored of Antec but they make great PSU's.

The graphics card will run games great at the resolution of the monitor. I have started running games at 2048 resolution, and its great until HDR is used. That graphics card should run it flawlessly though.

The CPU. I do think the FX60 is a rich mans toy. If you have the money you will not be dissapointed. If not spend the weekend overclocking a Opteron 165. Or otherwise get a 4800 and bump it straight to 2.6ghz.

Fan controllers are not needed, but are if you get tornado fans due to the noise levels...

Heatsinks, I think it is worth it to get a good one along with a syringe of Artic Silver 5.

For Pro, if you want to run a server on your PC, network multiple PC's, have more advanced administrator controls or other DOS prompt codes than it is worth it. Otherwise, no.

The GPU comes with a huge heatsink, you will not get anything much better than that.

and no to temperature gauges...
 
Awesome advice guys thanks keep it coming :D, another thing about the cpus, yea i know you can overclock a cheaper processer to the speeds of the fx series, but if i get the fx series i have read i can over clock it to 3.5, it might not be true but i think it sounds about right. If you can overclock an opteron 1.8 to 2.6 then i should easily be able to get my fx-60 (or fx-57 havent decided yet) 3.2+ ^^b
 
i c, thanks for the info, so whats the highest i can overclock one of the FXs to with out using one of those crazy cooling things, and just using a good heatsink.
 
true but the fx has an unlocked multiplier so you dont need to use a ram divider, so giving you better performance. still 700 dollars isnt worth it
 
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