a final check of my new build ($700-$800)

linksolo74

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I'm making a new build and i think i have found the best bang for the buck. I'm still not sure about some of the parts so please tell me what you think.

And does anyone know if Ubuntu (or just linux in general) will support this hardware?

Here are the parts. My budget is about 700-800 dollars. I already have a monitor (22" 1680x1050), keyboard, mouse, and i am getting a msdn copy of windows (xp).

COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 CAC-T05-UW Black Aluminum Bezel , SECC Chassis ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119068
49.99


GIGABYTE GA-EP35-DS3R LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Dynamic Energy Saver Ultra Durable II Intel Motherboard - Retail
Model #:GA-EP35-DS3R
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128086
$119.99 ($20 MIR) (final $99.99)


MSI R4850-T2D512 Radeon HD 4850 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127359
$199.99 ($25 MIR) (final 174.99)


Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz LGA 775 Quad-Core Processor Model HH80562PH0568M - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115018
$194.99


OCZ Platinum Revision 2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model OCZ2P800R22GK - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227139
43.99 ($25 MIR) (final 18.99)
I'm getting two of these for a total of 4gb of RAM.


Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3500320AS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148288
84.99


Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835100007
$5.99

ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro 92mm CPU Cooler - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835186134
$26.99


Dynatron DB1206SPG PCI Slot Case Cooler - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835888602
$4.49

OCZ OCZ600GXSSLI 600W Power Supply Retail
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=316504&ps=pn3
$84.99 ($35 MIR) (final 49.99)

LITE-ON Black 20X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 20X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA DVD Burner with LightScribe - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106072
31.99

I'm planing on overclocking the CPU to 3.0GHz. I have never overclocked before but it doesn't sound all that hard.

I also planning on putting that pci slot cooler under the GPU to maybe help cool it down a little bit.

Is the power supply good? Will that be enough to power my system (it will have a extra hard drive to power too)?

Is the RAM good? i have heard that 4-4-4-12 is good, but is 4-4-4-15 good? or should i go with more expensive RAM? I will be ordering tomorrow evening. Thanks in advance for any feedback.
 

shadowduck

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4-4-4-15 is fine. I know that RAM is cheap- but 4x 1GB is not a good idea. It limits future upgrades and can slow you down. You will only get the rebate on one kit. But its still cheaper than 2x 2GB.

Change the motherboard to a P45 chipset board. P35 is on the way out. Look at the MSI Neo-F or Neo-3R.

PSU is ok... Corsair/PC Power and Cooling is better.

3.0 will be easy on that CPU. That PCI slot cooler is a waste of $4.50 + S&H. I had one. Completely useless until the fan broke off from the slot then even more useless.

Get Arctic MX-2 over Silver 5.

Great choice on the video card :)
 

linksolo74

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Okay thanks for the info. I didn't know that i would only get the mail in rebate on one of the RAM kits. How about one of these RAM kits? They will be about the same price.

OCZ Reaper HPC Edition 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227267
$99.99 ($30 MIR) (final $69.99)

or

CORSAIR 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145184
$86.50 (MIR $20) (final $66.50)

What are the exact advantages of a p45 over a p35, other then PCI-E 2.0? I did look at the one you suggested but it didn't have very good reviews (couldn't find the Neo-3R), i'm not to sure about that one.
I could get ASUS P5Q Pro and the Asus version of the 4850, they combo deal to save $30.

ASUS P5Q Pro LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131299
$149.99 (after combo deal it will be about $120)

This motherboard has crossfire which i probably won't use, but if i did at some point decide too, could i put a 4870 together with the 4850? This is just a hypothetical question. I probably will just keep with one video card.

and

ASUS EAH4850/HTDI/512M Radeon HD 4850 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121253
$199.99 ($30 MIR) (final $169.99)

I will pick up the Arctic MX-2 instead of the Silver 5. I just picked the Silver 5 because it had so many good reviews on newegg.

Since the PCI slot card is useless do you know of any that will actually work good? like maybe a VANTEC SP-FC70-BL?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835888112
it may not move the air out of the case but it might move it away from the video card some and improves my temps a little bit or should i just give up on the pci slot cooler idea?

Also if this isn't a good power supply can someone recommend a good one for about $50-$100? I'm at a total loss as far as power supplies go.
 
An early review of the P45 Asus boards.
http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=3309
Since the P43/P45 boards were only released about 2 weeks ago reviews are still a bit thin. "Rumor" has it that the P31/P35 boards will begin to be phased out in favor of the new boards. The crossfire on the new boards is limited to 8x per card, they are not a good choice to crossfire, but they do have the PCIe 2.0 which is an advantage as graphic cards become more and more powerful. The heat of the new 4850s is more a driver problem than a physical card problem having to do with fan speeds, my bet is that ATI will fix it within the next few weeks. If heating is a problem with the card any aftermarket cooling solution that fit a 3850/3870 will fit on the 4850. OCZ makes decent power supplies, not in the same tier as PC Power and Cooling (which is owned by OCZ) or Corsair, but they get decent reviews.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139004 for single card, not for Xfire.
 

rockyjohn

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The OCZ your selected is an excellent PSU and you found a bargain price for it. The PC Power and Cooling may be a little better - but you could not touch one for the price of the OCZ. In your price range I would say go for the OCZ and fell very comfortable with it.

You did an excellent job of allocating money to the key performance parts - the CPU and graphics card, and still finding solid options for the mobo, memory and PSU. Your original choices are excellent - if you can afford some of the upgrades suggested - particularly getting the P45 mobo - so much the better.
 


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131295 $134.99
ASUS P5Q LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail - EPU w/ 8-Phase power, deluxe OC features
 

linksolo74

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Well i'm going to be ordering within the next few hours (or so i hope) I decided to get the ASUS P5Q Pro and Asus 4850 combo ($319.98 and $30 MIR). Right now the only thing left undecided is the power supply. Any tips in this area would be a great help. Right now i'm stuck between the one that dirtmountaim suggested http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139004
and the Gamexstream
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=316504&ps=pn3
I don't want to spend more then $80 (after MIR) on a power supply and the lower the price the better. I don't want to sacrifice quality though either.
 

dagger

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The second one has higher 12v rail ampage. It's old atx12v, and has 4 rails at 18amp each. The first one use newer atx12v v2.2, and therefore get 41amps on a single large rail. The split rails suffer from some power loss on switch, but overall it's still significantly more powerful.
 

linksolo74

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So the Gamexstream will have a total of 72amps i'm guessing. So will i even need that extra 31amps? will it be overkill for my system? and your talking about power loss, are we talking a big power loss or a small one. I don't really want to up the power bill to much, or add to much heat to my case.
 

dagger

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You can't add up the rails, there is some loss, which depend on load and other factors. It shouldn't be large though. It's split rail, so the behavior really isn't the same. To simplify, I'd say it's basically around 20amps more. And the power isn't as much being "lost" as just stay unused.

As for power bill, it depends mostly on how much juice your components actually use, not the max limit of power the psu provide. Power bill from a 750w psu with 500w being used and 650w with the same 500w being used is basically the same. Higher power psus tend to be slightly less efficient on low load than lower ones, but the waste there is probably a dollar or two per year.

There are also psus that can split/combine rails using a manual switch. The one I use is like this.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817101029
Normal output is 4x20amps on split rails. There's a button on the back that combines them into a single large rail. As far as I can tell, it's pretty much meaningless though. :sarcastic:

 

linksolo74

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So basically, if i get the gamexstream the power bill will go up about $1 a year and i will get a more powerful PSU for a cheaper price. While if i i go with the Corsair i will have a lower power bill (by $1), a lesser powerful PSU and it will be more expensive? Is that the basic gist of it?
 

dagger

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Basically right, but don't go by $1. I was just making up a number. It probably won't be that high. :na:

They're both overkill for your configuration, so you can't go wrong with either one. Don't stress yourself out over it. I just kept rambling on and on because you asked. :p
 

linksolo74

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Okay thanks for all the info! I will just get the OCZ Gamexstream then. it is cheaper. I don't see the sense in paying more for something that won't be any better. Thank you you all for all of the help now i can order with my mind at ease.
 

linksolo74

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Thanks. I'm sure i will love it. It will be a big step up from my AMD sempron 2800+ (1.83GHz), 1Gb DDR RAM, and ATI 256mb 9600!