Final Checks before purchase - Suggestions / Comments / Criticisms needed

[1kiwi]

Hey Guys,

After months of quietly monitoring these forums, I have decided to finally go ahead with a new build. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Note, I already have the mouse, keyboard and monitor.

Purchsed - Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient SLACR 95W Edition" 2.40GHz
Asus P5K Premium/WiFi-AP Intel P35

Hard drive (see this thread) - Either:
2 X 2.5” 8GB Transcend SATA SSD SLC drives in a RAID 0 Config OR
1 X Samsung SpinPoint F1 750GB

Antec Nine Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case (I know about the dust/noise but many people have commented that this is one of the best priced cases for cooling)

GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC2-6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency
LiteOn 20x DVD+/-RW/RAM LightScribe
BFG GeForce 8800 GT
Purchsed - Tuniq Tower 120-LFB CPU Cooler (Socket 478/754/939/940/AM2/LGA775)

OCZ Technology StealthXStream 600W Active PFC (Can anyone suggest anything better?)

I’m still undecided about the thermal compound.


Thanks in advance

 

[platinum87]

id say the Samsung f1, the SSD are not worth it.
id suggest 2X2GB, because 4gig is useful in many ways, + future upgrades wise
also, get a modular power supply, the corsair one i have is very good, but make sure its modular

thermal compound i would suggest AS5 over MX-2, have not tried any others

everything else is good

 

[1kiwi]

Thanks your quick reply Platinium. Did you need any extension cables for your PSU? Would you recommend the one you have?

 

[1kiwi]

Anyone else care to share some thoughts?

 

[platinum87]

Thanks your quick reply Platinium. Did you need any extension cables for your PSU? Would you recommend the one you have?

you dont need it, but i got a 8pin extention, so i can route the cable around through the metal to hide it (have not done that yet. also with the tuniq on the 8pin is impossible to reach so i use the extension, get it, its only 2.5 or so in the other cables section

and yes mine is very nice, no sound etc cables are bendy enough and most importantly its suppose to be really reliable and solid..

 

[Kirth Gersen]

What OS will you be using?

If Vista 64bit, you may want to stick 4Gb of the Geil in there. Remember that Vista is a memory hog - it uses up the best part of a Gig just idling. So not often, but sometimes you may hit a bit of a memory wall on just 2Gb, and the 64bit version will address it all.

 

[Ethics]

What OS will you be using?

If Vista 64bit, you may want to stick 4Gb of the Geil in there. Remember that Vista is a memory hog - it uses up the best part of a Gig just idling. So not often, but sometimes you may hit a bit of a memory wall on just 2Gb, and the 64bit version will address it all.

With killing off Aero Transparency etc, cleannig the system properly, turning off unneccesary services my Vista Ultimate uses 500MB of RAM...

Stock Vista is a memory hog, with some tweaking it isn't too bad (an X server using KDE and full effects comes to about the same though).

 

[1kiwi]

Thanks guys for you replies. I've had vista before and i agree that it is a total memory hog. However, i'm a bit of a budget and assume that if i can get away with 1GIG on a dell laptop using Vista Business then 2GIG should be OK for now. The GeIL memory is so cheep anyways that i plan to purchase another 2GIG is the near future.

I have since purchased the following kit (contained within my signature).

Thanks for all your responses!