Please review my build. I'm a tech newbie.

[someoney3000]

So here I am with a gigantic headache brewing from 1 week of research:

Computer hardware selection review time.

I want to know if this rig is any good (is there any mistakes, could I get better parts elsewhere, etc.).

So here's the specs + a load of comments:

Processor: Intel e6600 conroe; I hear that it overclocks well to 3.6. Meanwhile I have to learn just how to overclock...

Motherboard: nVidia nForce 680i SLI; Basically for future-proofing reasons. I don't really want to install a whole new motherboard after all. And it also apparently is pretty fast + is good for overclocking.

Graphics Card: nVidia GeForce 8800; Just to run one game. Hahah... maybe I'm going overboard. Oh well. This is the main reason I am building a new system in the first place.

Memory: Kingston Hyper X 2gb DDR2 SDRAM kit; Performance-wise, I think maybe this is overkill. But I prefer overkill than underkill... if that makes any sense.

Sound Card: Creative X-Fi XtremeMusic; Ouch. Apparently it allows for “high-performance-hardware 3D sound acceleration” according to Will Vista Run Your Games: The Final Word: Test Configuration

Hard Drive: Western Digital Raptor 74gb x 2; in Raid 0... if I know how to do that >.>. Would this work out? How do you set up Raid 0 anyways?

Power: Coolermaster iGreen 500 watt; I don't know what kind of power I should get!! Is this enough for this system? A nice stable and quiet power supply is a dream come true, but where am I going to find that?

Cooling: No idea. I'm thinking water cooling, but will I need it for this set-up?

OS: Vista. Not settling for anything else right now...

Case: Antec P180; will this work though? I'm not certain exactly certain if this would fit everything.

Moniter, speakers, keyboard, mouse, optical drive: I'm going to reuse old parts for these. So I don't have to spend money for them for now!

Here's the final outline:

Intel E6600 conroe
nVidia nForce 680i SLI
8800 GTS 320mb (ECS)
Kingston HyperX 2gb 800mhz DDR2 SDRAM SLI-Ready
Creative X-Fi XtremeMusic
Western Digital Raptor 74gb x 2
Coolermaster iGreen 500w
???
Vista Ultimate/Premium
Antec P180

Am I missing anything essential so far?

Looks like it'll be around $2000. Sigh.

Thanks for taking a bit of your time to help me out. I'm really grateful for any feedback.

 

[peterhuang913]

 

[b1gapl]

Hey someoney3000,
Welcome to T.F.!

OK first you don't need the 680i chipset. Get the cheaper 650i chipset. Cheaper and it performs and overclocks just as well, without the extra bells and whistles, that aren't necessary.

Which 8800 are you going for? The GTX or GTS?

For the memory, I would suggest G. Skill. It's the hottest RAM brand for the money. Especially the G. Skill DDR2-800 4-4-4-12 timing HZs.

Don't RAID two raptors. Too much money, for not much space. RAID 0 two Seagate 7200.10 320GB hard drives or two Samsung Spinpoint 500GB hard drives. They're cheaper than two raptors, and you get a ton more of space.

For this system, I recommend the Corsair 620HX power supply. It's a rock stable and solid PSU.

For cooling....you can go watercooling if you have the money. Don't skimp on a cheap watercooling kit. A good one will run you $250+. If not just get a Tuniq 120 CPU cooler.

The Antec P180 should fit everything, but I'd suggest the Antec 900 case. That is a great mid-tower case, with room to work with and great airflow.

That's pretty much it.

Heres a nice list for you to look at, for a budget of $2000. It pretty much sums up, what I said:
Case - Thermaltake Armor or Gigabyte 3D Aurora 570 or Antec 900
Motherboard - ASUS P5N32-E SLI or MSI P6N Platinum
CPU - Intel Core 2 Duo Q6600($270 on July 22) or E6600
RAM - 2 x 1GB G.Skill DDR2-800 HZs
Graphics - EVGA 8800GTX
Power Supply - Corsair 620HX
Hard drive - Seagate 7200.10 320GB 16mb cache(x2 if you want to RAID them) or Samsung Spinpoint 500GB 16mb cache (x2 For RAID)
Optical Drive - Sony NEC Optiarc DVD Burner
Optional Sound card - Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer Fatal1ty or X-Fi XtremeGamer 7.1(Cheaper)
Optional aftermarket CPU cooler - Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme edition(No fan included) or Tuniq 120(Cheaper)

Actually these parts, come under $2000.

 

[harnar123]

I would check out some of the rosewill power supplys, they are pretty capable. If you wanna blow money 2 raptors will make for really fast load times, basicly the hard drive is the slowest part in your computer. But I would go for a nice 22" hanns-g instead personally.

 

[Enigma]

Sound card

One thing to note about the Creative X-Fi XtremeMusic is that it does not have dolby digital live encoder or optical out. That means that if you ever want to hook your computer up to a home theatre system you're going to have a very difficult time.

Try using the onboard sound, if you don't like it then look around some more.

 

[someoney3000]

Thanks! I'm going to look over your suggestions and finally FINALLY finish this stage of computer building.

 

[dude112]

I'm planning to use almost the same build with some adjusted thanks to the comments here ^^

My build:
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600
nVidia nForce 650i SLI
Asus GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB DDR3 (PCI-e, 2x DVI) EN8800GTS/HTDP/320M
G Skill DDR2 Dual Channel 2048 MB, PC6400, 800 MHz model: F2-6400PHU2-2GBHZ
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10, 320GB (7200rpm, SATA II, 16MB) 2x
Corsair CMPSU-620HXEU, 620W (ATX12V v2.2)
Antec 900
DVD rewriter Nec 7170S
A floppy drive

Geforce 8800 GTS 320MB since I'll be using a 19" monitor so I won't play over 1200*1078 res. Or will 640MB or the GTX make a big diff?

As for the cooling I was thinking about the Arctic Freezer 7 Pro or the Zalman 9500. Tuniq Tower 120 is almost the same price as the Zalman only doesn't come with a fan. I don't really want to skimp on the cooling but a watercooler is a bit much.

Do I need any extra casefans or something? Anything else to add?

In total it's about 1200-1300 Euro's ($1600-1700)

 

[nerdygeek]

That case has excellent airflow so don't worry too much. And the tuniq tower does have a fan it is inside the fins, and it is the best choice out of those options the only better air cooler is the thermalright 120.

 

[dude112]

I was planning on getting this Mobo nVidia nForce 650i SLI but since I'm only planning to put in 1 videocard, is it still the best choise?

and i will take the tuniq tower innstead.