Building New gaming Computer. Please help.

[winrot]

Greetings. I am building a new computer, to be used 90% for games. (well . . . perhaps 75%) but the main reason I am getting it is to play new games. My budget is around 1000 but there is a little flexibility if the value is better to step up. before I went all gung ho and started ordering parts. I figure I'll run it past the experts and see what they think. Please consider the following:

Case : Antec P182 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129025 --> already purchased I hope its good.
PSU: https://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=373100
MotherBoard: https://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=242683
CPU: https://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=80742
Ram: https://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=85025-5 --> X 2 for a total of 4 Gigs.
V-card: https://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=322837

I do have just a few questions.

1. Does this look like an efficient Mix. am I overlooking something?
2. Is it really worth it to go with the intel CPU? I have read that they OC better (I have never OC-ed but want to give it a try). Is it worth the extra moolah, if so what mobo should I look at.
3. I do not plan on using 2 V-cards, only one. Good idea? Should I look for a Mobo that only has 1 pci-E x16 or is it ok to get the extra open slot just in case I want another v-card in the future?
4. I chose nVidia 8800 GTS. (Which I guess is not DX 10 . . . I don't really know. Should I wait for a nice DX10 Card?)
5. Any suggestions for better items?


Many thanks folks. The help and advice is much appreciated.

 

[GoldenRiver]

1. you have optical drive, hard drive? i don't know if the amd comes with stock coolin gprobably does, but after market coolers are much better.

2. 4gb of ram is excessive right now. bench marks show that theres only a bit of performance increase with 4gb of mem. (or i could be on pot who knows)

3. if your not getting 2 graphics cards than why are you worrying? if you want to use 2 you need a Sli motherboard. if not get an intel p965 chipset motherboard.

4. 8800 GTS IS DX10

5.i don't know how good gigabyte is for motherboards but i prefer evga, msi, asus. also core 2 duo >amd right now, prices are going to be cut on april 22nd
like a week from now. so i advise you to wait till than and compare prices.

 

[winrot]

1. Thanks for the response. I do have a HDD and Optical drive that I will use already.

5. Are there any suggestions for a good Intel Mobo? Basically, I can pin down most components, but the Mobos just blow my mind. . . I know I want built in sound, 1gig ethernet. . . besides that I don't know what is best. any suggestions?

5. Will the power supply be sufficient?

 

[jeff_2087]

Intel's current CPUs OC very easily, and if you're at all inclined to overclock you should wait a few days for price cuts and grab a Core 2 Duo.

The RAM you have is good. 2GB is ideal.

Video card is good.

A good Intel overclocking board is the Gigabye 965P DS3.

Your power supply is sufficient.

 

[winrot]

Thanks guys for the help. One other question. What should I look at for an OS? I have decided to avoid Vista for now and go with XP, but Which XP version should I got with 32 or 64 bit? I am reading that the 64 bit lacks support.

is the Core 2 Duo a 64 bit processor?

 

[alcattle]

Any CPU less than 2 years old are 64bit, the problem lays in Windows and the address space it has. There are some driver issues but anything mainstream is probably fine. What do you want to get XP64 for?

 

[winrot]

I would only be interested in better performance. Mostly in better game performance (load speed, rendering, etc). I do not know if having a 64 bit processor requires a 64 bit OS to take full advantage of the technology.

Basically, I don't want to buy all this cool stuff and then be bottlenecked at the OS. In addition, I don't want to buy all this neat stuff, and get xp64 and not be able to run my current games and programs.

 

[alcattle]

Get Windows XP 32 bit is normal and it is the current champ for gaming.

 

[proof]

XP Professional x86 is better than x64 for gaming? This I did not know...