New build, anything to watch out for?

rosskilgour · 11 Jan 2009 at 18:30

Hi all

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. This is the setup I'm buying from OCUK:

Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient SLACR 95W Edition" 2.40GHz (1066FSB)
Asus P5Q Intel P45 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM
Gigabyte ODIN GT 550W ATX2.2 Dual-SLi Compliant Modular PSU
Corsair 4GB DDR2 XMS2 PC2-6400C5 TwinX (2x2GB)
Arctic Cooling Alpine 7 Pro CPU Cooler

Also buying an XFX GeForce GTX 280 elsewhere (much cheaper). Just wondering if anyone can offer any advice, or foresee any problems. I'm using my existing case (a Centurion ATX case from about 3.5 years back), drives, sound card, wi-fi card, etc. Anything to watch out for when upgrading the OS from XP 32 bit? Planning on a clean install.

Cheers

jak731 · 11 Jan 2009 at 18:34

how old is your current HDD?

if more then 3 years, i would say get a new one as they should be faster due to larger platters

95thrifles · 11 Jan 2009 at 18:34

fork out the extra £20 for the P5Q Pro if I were you, its got a much better layout
If you can afford it also look at PC8500 RAM rather than PC6400
Make sure you format your old HDD before you start so you dont encounter any problems when you do your fresh install on new system, or better yet buy a new one, theyre cheap enough

PhillyDee · 11 Jan 2009 at 18:38

AFAIK you cannot upgrade a 32-bit to 64-bit anyway.

rosskilgour · 11 Jan 2009 at 22:11

Yeah I'm doing a fresh install of Vista, not an upgrade. My HDD is a SATA 7200RPM. Can't remember the model, possibly a Hitachi Deskstar. Only 160GB but would rather spend what I can on the rest of the system just now and upgrade the HDD later, it's not as urgent to me.

rosskilgour · 11 Jan 2009 at 22:12

95thrifles said:
fork out the extra £20 for the P5Q Pro if I were you, its got a much better layout
If you can afford it also look at PC8500 RAM rather than PC6400
Make sure you format your old HDD before you start so you dont encounter any problems when you do your fresh install on new system, or better yet buy a new one, theyre cheap enough

Cheers. How best to format the old HDD before starting?

rosskilgour · 11 Jan 2009 at 22:13

jak731 said:
how old is your current HDD?

if more then 3 years, i would say get a new one as they should be faster due to larger platters

Yeah it's about 3.5 years old. Cheers for the tip.

mp260767 · 11 Jan 2009 at 22:28

95thrifles said:
If you can afford it also look at PC8500 RAM rather than PC6400.

no real point getting pc8500 for the q6600, pc6400 will allow a decent enough overclock.

as for the build , just give your self time to do it, as much space as u can, decent light and make sure all the motherboard stands match up to the mobo.