First Build - Help Please

[neva-]

Hey guys.

My current pc is pretty old now and its only a Dell dimension. I've been wanting to upgrade for quite a while and i think now is quite a good time. I'll be buying the parts in the next couple weeks.

So my budget is around £1300 - £1500
The pc will mainly be used for gaming but also a little photo editing and 3d rendering.

I've been looking around for the best parts to get for quite some time and i have settled on a few components but motherboard - ram and hdd im not so sure.

Here's what im thinking of getting:



Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate 64-Bit Edition DVD - OEM - 1Pk (66R-00838)

Corsair HX 620W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU (CMPSU-620HXUK)

Scythe S-FLEX 1600RPM Ultra Quiet 120mm Fan - 3/4 Pin

Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme Heatsink (Socket AM2/LGA775)

Pioneer DVR-112DBK 18x18 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter - (Black) OEM

Pioneer DVR-212D 18x18 DVD±RW Serial ATA Dual Layer ReWriter - (Black) OEM

EVGA GeForce 8800 GTX KO ACS3 SILENT 768MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (768-P2-E837-AR)

Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient 95W Edition" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail

Western Digital Caviar SE16 400GB 4000AAKS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM

Western Digital Raptor 74GB WD740ADFD 10,000RPM SATA 16MB Cache - OEM

x2 GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC8500C5 1066MHz Black Dragon DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GB22GB8500C5DC)

+ Silverstone TJ09 Case


I have no clue what motherboard to get, i will not be going SLI in the future so no need for that. I will be overclocking.

Hard drives im not sure, I thought about getting the 75g Raptor to put my games on, and the Caviar 400g for everything else... good idea ?? or any other suggestions about that ???

RAM wise i dont know if i really need PC8500 ??? Should i just go for PC6400 to bring the price down or would i really benefit from PC8500 ?


I've got a 20" monitor already but planning to go up to a 24" in the near future.

All help would be much appreciated

 

[semi-pro waster]

Any reason why you are going for an IDE DVDRW and a SATA one?

PC8500 is probably overkill unless you will be attempting fairly hefty overclocks, remember also that quad cores tend to be fairly warm (although the Energy Efficient version will be better) so the CPU is more likely to be a limiting factor than the Ram here.

Motherboard - I'd pick a P35 based motherboard that fits your budget, Asus, Abit and Gigabyte all do good models.

 

[BillytheImpaler]

You should definitely get the "Energy Efficient" Q6600 rather than the vanilla onme since they clock better and run cooler. As above that RAM is overkill. You would do well to get some PC2-6400 C4 or lower. Also as above a P35-based mobo is the way to go. If you've got the money perhaos the best board is the Asus P5K Deluxe. It would probably be smartest to get identical optical drives. SATA is better than IDE.

 

[neva-]

Abit IP35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard

x2 Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 PC2-6400C4 800MHz Dual Channel Kit

Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate 64-Bit Edition DVD - OEM - 1Pk

Corsair HX 620W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU

Scythe S-FLEX 1600RPM Ultra Quiet 120mm Fan - 3/4 Pin

Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme Heatsink (Socket AM2/LGA775)

x2 Pioneer DVR-212D 18x18 DVD±RW Serial ATA Dual Layer ReWriter - (Black) OEM

Western Digital Caviar SE16 400GB 4000AAKS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM

Western Digital Raptor 74GB WD740ADFD 10,000RPM SATA 16MB Cache - OEM

EVGA GeForce 8800 GTX KO ACS3 SILENT 768MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail

Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient 95W Edition" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail

Total : £1,358.08


What you guys think now ? The Abit IP35 looks good enough to me or would i benefit from gettin the Asus P5K Deluxe?

 

[BillytheImpaler]

The IP35 should do nicely. I think the 620W PSU is overkill since the 520 should do the job just fine. If it were me I'd also steer clear of the Raptor since I don't think the speed increase is worth the money spent. Perhaps you could take that money and go with RAID 0 with 320 GiB AAKSes?