My first build on $1000 budget, critique and comments please

[willyallthewei]

Hey guys, this is like my first post, but I've lurked here sometime reading the forums. I plan to be overclocking my first build, would appreciate some feedback, everything arrives tommorow. Here's my list:

Case:
Cooler Master Centurion 5 --> $30 after mail in rebate

Power Supply:
Thermaltake ATX 12V 500W (Has Dual 12v with about 15amps on each, i want feed back on this guys, tell me if the amps are enough for my system) --> $50 after MIR

MotherBoard:
Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 --> $150

Processor:
Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 --> $225

Ram:
Pattriot 2GB 240pin 667 --> $170 after MIR

GPU:
X850XT 256mb --> $95 after MIR

Harddrive:
Caviar WD2500 7200rpm 250gbs --> two for RAID $140 after MIR

Extra stuff:
Ram heatsinks for $10, PCI Wireless adapter from the Newegg 99cents sale for $1 and a usb bluetooth adapter for $1 and a usb hub for $1.

The whole thing is about $900 shipped to new york with no tax. I also found a great monitor:

Hanns 19" LCD display with the normal 1280x1024 and 300cm2 and 8ms response time for $116 shipped. I think its a great deal, the reviews i read say they don't ghost so I'm going ahead with it.

The total sits around $1,020 with the monitor, and it hits right where i wanted it to hit. Really thinking about upgrading to the 7900gt but just not big on any games right now so i think I'll wait for DX10 before i drop any more money.

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I've read people getting the Patriot Ram to DDR2 1000 levels and I'm hoping to get atleast DDR2 800 and run the Allendale at 3.2 Ghz.

I'm thinking about switch from two 250gigz to four 160gigz or even 80 gigz because i want my computer to fly, and i think fast hard drives would do that, no? Anyone know how much performance four Raid drives gives you compared to two? And also, how stable is four hard drives in Raid 0? I know it increases the likelyhood of HD failure, but is it that likely? I mean what are the chances one fails sometime in its lifespan if I'm using for 3-4 years?


How Long do you guys think this setup will last? I don't want to change anything except the GPU from here on out untill like 2010. I might get water cooling down the line and push the CPU further if it ever becomes a bottleneck.

On Video Card, I thought about the 7900gt for $225 but I just don't want to spend much for a card before DX10 comes out.

I would like any comments from you guys, this is like my first build not to mention first post. Any comments would be appreciated. Also, i need some takes on my Power Supply.

It has dual 12v rails but on the description, one says 14A and the other says 15 amps. Is that too little? Anyone know if i should switch out the PS?

 

[willyallthewei]

sorry to bump this, but this is my first build and i really know very little about amps and the PSU.

Does anyone know if the amps will be enough? heres a link to the PSU I'm getting....
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16817153028

I got it while they had a $30 rebate so i thought it was a good deal for $50.

Someone please look at the amps and explain that part to me, will i need the amps for my build? thanks in advance.

 

[Doughbuy]

Your PSU will be enough, but your comp won't fly... it'll glide at best. I would take down the 6400 to a 6300, and save some money there. I would then put that money into a better graphics cards. Most things these days are GPU limited, not CPU limited. You can also OC the CPU quite a bit, might want to invest some money in a decent HS.

Graphics card wise... I'm not too sure which low end card to get. Someone else would have to give you pointers. The Patriot Ram might be able to get up to 800MHZ, but we'll have to see how fast you can get your FSB to go.

4 HDD's in Raid is pointless. Two 320 Gig PMR drives in Raid is probably your best bet right now. Raid offers marginal performance gain, and mainly on heavy Read/Writes from your drives. Raid is useless for gaming. And since I don't see you running a file server or doing anything that would involve that much file access, then I wouldn't recommend it. I'll say you have a 20% chance of one of your drives dieing in 4 years, and losing everything you got.

Monitor is fine.

 

[willyallthewei]

Thanks for letting me know the PSU would be fine.
About the Harddrives, i didn't mean that the raid would increase gamming performance, i know it won't. I was more pointing to just every day tasks, etc.

On the GPU, the x850xt seems to be the best $100 option according to the benchmarks on here on tomshardware. I've thought about getting a 7900gt instead but it would be double the cost.

I'm just waiting for Directx10 to come out before upgrading my gpu; do you think i should just go with the 7900gt anyways? its 225 on newegg i think. Whats the performance increase from 7900gt to 850xt assuming both are overclocked... worth $120 more?

On the CPU, if i dropped to the 6300, i lose 1x multiplier. I don't want to overload the ram @ 1000, i just want 800 for now and do 400mhz on the FSB of the CPU. that way i can get a nice overclock to 3.2ghz. On the 6300 that would be 2.8ghz.