My old Compaq recently died, and I've been trying to decide whether to attempt this home-built thing, or just go buy a new computer. I have very little computer experience/knowledge, and the total jumble of google results when searching for help and guides threatens to make getting involved in the process overly intimidating for first timers. I stumbled on these forums, and it's great to find the stickied guides and the helpful answers. I've spent a few hours reading threads, and decided I'd like to take a shot at this.
I've got a decent amount of money available (~$2000). My main usage is weekend gaming, and downloading movies for family to watch on the living room tv (so HDMI output is desirable). I know what I've picked out below is probably overkill for my needs, but seems like if I'm going to bother building for the first time, I might as well make something "nice".
Per the following list, I've got most components picked out based on guides and ratings. I could use a hand in verifying that everything will work together, making suggestions for swaps that either improve performance or save considerable money, and in selecting the final couple items.
CPU- Intel Core i7-950 Bloomfield (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115211)
MB- ASUS P6X58D (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131614)
RAM- Corsair Dominator DDR3 6GB (3x2GB) (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145224)
Graphics Card- Sapphire Vapor-X Radeon HD 5870 1GB (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102872)
Power Supply- Corsair HX 850W (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139011)
Case- Antec 902 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129058)
DVD- ASUS Black (might add a Blu-Ray drive as well, depending on final costs)(http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135204)
OS- Windows 7 Home Premium for System Builders (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116754)
My remaining questions are:
1-If I decide to start playing around with overclocking, am I going to need a heat sink/fan with this setup? Is it worth just getting one and putting it in now, rather than deal with having to rearrange things to make room for one in the future?
2-Seems like most people recommend a SSD for OS and programs and a HDD for storage. Is this a noticeable boost in performance beyond boot-up time? Is it difficult to implement this type of setup? On a related note, should I be bothering with the whole RAID setup thing? It sounds complicated, so I was thinking it might not be for a first timer, but then I was reading that it's particularly difficult to implement after installing the OS, so maybe I should take the time to learn about it now?
3-Mid size case over full is ok, right?
Thanks for reading...I appreciate any help offered!
I've got a decent amount of money available (~$2000). My main usage is weekend gaming, and downloading movies for family to watch on the living room tv (so HDMI output is desirable). I know what I've picked out below is probably overkill for my needs, but seems like if I'm going to bother building for the first time, I might as well make something "nice".
Per the following list, I've got most components picked out based on guides and ratings. I could use a hand in verifying that everything will work together, making suggestions for swaps that either improve performance or save considerable money, and in selecting the final couple items.
CPU- Intel Core i7-950 Bloomfield (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115211)
MB- ASUS P6X58D (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131614)
RAM- Corsair Dominator DDR3 6GB (3x2GB) (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145224)
Graphics Card- Sapphire Vapor-X Radeon HD 5870 1GB (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102872)
Power Supply- Corsair HX 850W (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139011)
Case- Antec 902 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129058)
DVD- ASUS Black (might add a Blu-Ray drive as well, depending on final costs)(http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135204)
OS- Windows 7 Home Premium for System Builders (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116754)
My remaining questions are:
1-If I decide to start playing around with overclocking, am I going to need a heat sink/fan with this setup? Is it worth just getting one and putting it in now, rather than deal with having to rearrange things to make room for one in the future?
2-Seems like most people recommend a SSD for OS and programs and a HDD for storage. Is this a noticeable boost in performance beyond boot-up time? Is it difficult to implement this type of setup? On a related note, should I be bothering with the whole RAID setup thing? It sounds complicated, so I was thinking it might not be for a first timer, but then I was reading that it's particularly difficult to implement after installing the OS, so maybe I should take the time to learn about it now?
3-Mid size case over full is ok, right?
Thanks for reading...I appreciate any help offered!