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[I3erent]

I have decided its time to dump my p4 and i am going to build my own machine.  I have decided on the following stuff preliminarily...

Intel core 2 duo E8400 CPU
INTEL DG45ID motherboard
Loaded to the max with 8 gb ddr2 800 RAM
Not sure on the power suplply
not sure of the video card though ill probably go with an Nvideo 8 or 9 series PCIe card
Want a TB HD


What do those who know about such things think of my choices and are their any suggestions you can make hardwarewise or general advice on the build.

Thanks I3erent.

[sneakey pete]

I don't trust intel motherboards.

Get an aftermarket cooler (Noctua C12P is a good one) and overclock the e8400 to 4ghz/core for extreme df performance.
You'll need a good case, but i'm not actually sure what constitutes a good case these days...

[Aqizzar]

Don't overclock a damn thing, you don't need it.  That processor is more than enough for whatever you're doing, and if you've never messed with internal stuff before (I assume, since this is your first build), it's way too easy and expensive to screw up.  Ignore the fake-leet people and go with factory specs, you'll never notice the difference.

You can never have too much cooling going on, so go all out on fans.  Power supply is pretty uniform in price, so get a bigger supplier than you think you'll need.  For a setup like that, I'd imagine about 400, but I don't really know.

And this is just the crotchety old coot in me, but just get a big basic case.  I'll never understand people who spend money on lights and faceplates and other crap.

[A_Fey_Dwarf]

Don't overclock a damn thing, you don't need it.  That processor is more than enough for whatever you're doing, and if you've never messed with internal stuff before (I assume, since this is your first build), it's way too easy and expensive to screw up.  Ignore the fake-leet people and go with factory specs, you'll never notice the difference.

I agree with you on the overclocking stuff, my mate wrecked his brand new E8400, also I suggest you wait a little while before splashing out on the CPU as the new  (expensive) intel series will probably drive down the prices of mid range processors.

You can never have too much cooling going on, so go all out on fans.  Power supply is pretty uniform in price, so get a bigger supplier than you think you'll need.  For a setup like that, I'd imagine about 400, but I don't really know.

And this is just the crotchety old coot in me, but just get a big basic case.  I'll never understand people who spend money on lights and faceplates and other crap.

Why not pay a little extra for a case that greatly increases airflow? That way you won't need as many noisy fans that detract from the sound when playing. I suggest something from the coolermaster range, the C690 is relatively cheap and although it doesn't look as flash as other cases it provides really good airflow with mesh sides and top.

[Yanlin]

Am I the only who thinks that RAM is too old and too much of it?

Take DDR 3. You will not need more than 4GB any time soon. Hell, 2GB is almost future proof now.

Intel motherboards are not so good. They make good CPUs. Period.

Take a 600 watt power supply to be sure. 400 should be enough but that extra 200 will allow you to power a few extra fans.

You can NEVER EVER EVAAAAAAR have enough cooling. The more cooling the better. If your feet freeze, you win. Overclock until it's just chilly. But never more than that. Overclocking is dangerous. It voids warranty so if you have one, don't overclock.

Dust is a common killer of performance. It makes cooling less effective.

A terrabyte? You don't need that much. Half of that should be enough for ANYTHING you might want to do with ONE gaming rig. Unless you're planning on having a huge hoard of porn. But I didn't say that

Water cooling beats fans. But water cooling can never push it under room temp. Fans on the other hand can blow cold air on it. But you need cold air for that.

Good ventilation is important. Have the intake at the front and outtake at the back. Pump the air from low, vent it out from high.

Go future proof. Buy a good GPU.

[Il Palazzo]

Had the same mobo in my last PC, never had any problems with it.
This being micro-atx, with 1 pcie x16 slot, you won't be able to add a second gpu. But then, it's not that great anyway.
400W - 450W PSU should be enough for that specs. If you're ever planning on buying additional HD's, then maybe go for a bit more. Also, high end gpu's can use a lot of power, especially when factory-overclocked.(don't overdo it, more powerful PSU's are quite expensive and loud).
If you're going for Nvidia of the 8000 series, make sure to get one that supports dx10(8600-plus, I think).
Concerning fans, you can run the basic - not overclocked rig with just the GPU and CPU fans, both of which are always(?) supplied together with these. Often there's also a fan supplied with a case. I'll suggest considering buying new fans only when you notice some problems with heat dissipation or if you find those you've got too loud for your taste. In which case, buy large, slow moving ones - those are most silent.
Keep in mind, micro-atx cases are, well, small. It might get cramped inside, and the airflow is inherently reduced. Have you got any specific reason for not getting a regular-sized mobo?(mine was: small cases look better)
If you like this sort of stuff, you might consider getting more than one HD and rigging them up in RAID configuration - this way you can have an instantenous backup running non-stop, or speed up operations on files. Of course, the downside is: you need another, identical, HD that doesn't contribute to your storage capacity(when running as a backup, at least).

Don't ditch your previous PC. Build an immersion-liquid-cooled pc out of it. Loads of fun.(hint: use baby oil)

Yanlin: do not tempt the guy with DDR3, this mobo doesn't support it. Besides, the difference in perfomance should be noticeable only for a *serious* gamer.

[Reasonableman]

Watch the amperage on the 12v rail(s) when you're picking out a PSU. You'll want... well, honestly, I don't know, but about 20 amps oughta be respectable. 30 would be better.

I'm a big fan, personally, of Nvidia chipsets.

DDR3 isn't a terrifically big deal. DDR2 is cheap and fast enough for anything the average computer user can throw at it. Two gigabytes is one gigabyte more than I've ever needed, but then I have XP; Vista can use a gigabyte at idle.

Bigger hard drives tend to have higher failure rates.

Good, cheap Nvidia graphics cards (I know ATI has some nice ones out, I'd look them up if I were you, but I don't have any personal experience with 'em): 8600 and 8800 GT/GTS can be bought for less than a hundred bucks and are fast enough for all the latest games. Well, at reasonable resolutions at least.

[Duke 2.0]

 Also: If you get a motherboard without an integrated video card due to the suckiness of them, and you are having everything shipped to you, be prepared to wait if your graphics card comes late. A lesson I had to learn on my own rig.

 Damn lack of VGA ports. Had to wait a week for the Graphics Card to come before I could do anything on it.

 Edit: Also, I second a cheap case. I used the one from my old crappy compy. Works fine for me after I cleaned away all the dust. Even came with an unusual amount of fan spaces. It even came with a combined fan/speaker.

[Heavy Flak]

Am I the only who thinks that RAM is too old and too much of it?

Take DDR 3. You will not need more than 4GB any time soon. Hell, 2GB is almost future proof now.

Depending on your OS, more RAM is a moot point.  Windows XP 32bit can't handle more than 2gigs of RAM per application, unless you set a switch that for the life of me I can't remember right now.  Vista 32bit can handle up to 3gigs per application.  To be able to use more than that, you have to knock the OS up to a 64bit architecture. 

Though that could be something you're just not concerned about.  Some users aren't.  Here at work, we're always having issues with older machine trying to run applications that actually run out of memory and crash and burn after three to four days of number crunching.  If you're at home playing WoW, I doubt you'll see two (or three) gigs of use. 

Edit: 2gigs of RAM is definately not future proof, if you're doing anything like Photoshop with tons of layers, Ray Tracing, Modeling and Simulation of networks, etc, etc.

[I3erent]

I am planning on using my old case it is a giant hulk of a thing (alienware), and i was thinking of the getting an intel dg45sg mobo that can use ddr3 but it maxes out at 4 gb ram, also i will be getting vista for my OS.

I like the pricing on the ddr2 (8gb for just over 100 bucks) and i didnt think ddr3 would make that much of a difference.  Also, yeah this will be the first one I build myself.

The TB HD is cause of my music collection and Porn of course LMAO hahahahahahahahahahahaha, not to mention all of the movies I get..............

Anyone have experience running 2 graphics cards together?

[Heavy Flak]

Anyone have experience running 2 graphics cards together?

Yup, my rig currently has two ATI 512meg Crossfire cards in it.  You won't see a huge performance boost even if you're cards are the same chipset AND your motherboard supports it.  That's not to say future developments won't offer benefits, but it's like the 64bit Versions of Windows.  It's nice, there are some benefits, but overall it's a hassle, a little pricier, and not currently worth it.

[Darkone]

Yup, my rig currently has two ATI 512meg Crossfire cards in it.  You won't see a huge performance boost even if you're cards are the same chipset AND your motherboard supports it.  That's not to say future developments won't offer benefits, but it's like the 64bit Versions of Windows.  It's nice, there are some benefits, but overall it's a hassle, a little pricier, and not currently worth it.

Either:
A: You're using something silly like CF'ed 3870's to play DF as your example.
or
B: You fucked up.

In any case, an extra card will let you crank up settings, or make certain settings playable.

Second, to the OP, I would try and aim for a Q8200. Plenty fast enough given that its Core 2, and its future proof. For the card, just go with the flow, and get what matches your price range. Ie, at 60-70 go for the HD4670, at 120 go for either an 8800/9800 GT, or a HD4830 (I think).  Don't seriously overdo PSU: get what you need, plus enough for any future upgrades. Otherwise 12v rail is more important then wattage, as you can have an utterly shit 550-600watt psu with nothing on the 12v, or a nicer, lower wattage one that will handle your card and processor. Unless you need it small, go for a mid-tower case. You can stick a microATX into a midtower

Note also, that you can built a monster rig for a little under 800 if you're shopping newegg. HD4870's are made of win.

[sneakey pete]

Second, to the OP, I would try and aim for a Q8200.

In all the games tested, the Q6600 outperforms the Q8200.


In MP3 and x264 media encoding the Q8200 outperforms the Q6600. In DivX 6.8 the Q6600 pulls slightly ahead.


In final rendering the Q8200 wins in most of the benchmarks performed.


In Photoshop the Q6600 wins.





In overclocking the Q6600 wins.

Depends what you want to do really.

[Darkone]

Didn't check entirely first, but yea. Theres apparently something wrong with Q8200's that they don't OC well, even though they're 45nm :/ Then again, that doesn't matter for you. Also, check game FPS bench's if you plan on gaming. Otherwise, the Q8 will run cooler, and is the same price.

[I3erent]

So I went shopping today and due to tiger directs inability to stock what they advertise (and my impatience) I made a few substitutions...  I bought

Intel core 2 duo E7300

4096 mb pc6400 ddr2 800mhz ram

seagate 260gb serial ata HD

500 w power supply

And the intel DG43NB motherboard.

I was rather upset to not get the mobo with more RAM and the e8400 was sold out anyways...

Altogether i spent 400 bucks (200 less than planned)  wich came out good cuz i dont have january's rent YET!!!!!!!!!!!!!! hahahahahahahahahahaha screw you landlord its a recession.

Anyways what do you guys think of this setup? I am returning a new HIS video card i bought and am gonna get a new one that is PCIe to go with this setup.   Any thoughts of how I did and should i just have waited to get the 8400?  will the little extra processor speed make a difference?  And did i screw up getting this motherboard??? I really wanted the 8gb of RAM but..............Now its pick a video card time and ill throw this badboy together and see what happens...

I really want that 1333 FSB MD 6MB L2 but i guess im rolling with the 1066 FSB 3mb L2 did i make a bad choice?