My First Build. Would Welcome Any Suggestions Please!

[bedhead75]

This will be my first build so I'd welcome any suggestions or opinions.

 

Case: Cooler Master Centurion CM-590

Power Supply: Corsair CMPSU-450W ATX12V

CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad 6600 (G0 stepping expected)

CPU Cooler : Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-EP45 UD3P

Graphics Card: EVGA Nvidia GeForce 9600GT 512MB

RAM: Crucial 2 x 2GB DDR2 SDRAM (PC 6400) 1.8V CAS 6

Hard Drive: Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000 1TB internal SATA HD

DVD/CD drive/burner: Lite-On LightScribe SATA IHAS422-08

 

I'll be mainly using this system for media/entertainment and some gaming. I might get a TV tuner card at some point. I'm more interested in playing RTS games, like the upcoming Starcraft II, rather than FPS games like Crysis (I think), that require the most demanding of graphics requirements. I'll also be doing some limited overclocking of the CPU, but probably not of the RAM or GPU, in order to get more "value" out of the system. Since I'll be dual booting with both Ubuntu Linux and Vista, I'm choosing the Gibabyte P45 board over Asus P45 boards due to many reported problems with Linux and the Asus P45's.

 

I'm most concerned about hardware incompatibilities, and issues such as whether the CPU cooler will fit into the board without clashing with onboard heatsinks or sides of the case. I'd like not to spend too much more than about the $800 that this will cost.

 

Any advice is greatly appreciated!

[maj0rgamer]

hello and welcome to occ

 

i use an evga 9600gt and it's a good card...but not the best. If you're not gaming too much or just on a budget, then it's hard to beat...especially if you can afford another down the road. You should know that there is a factory overclocked edition of that card, i suggest it for the better performance out of the box.

 

that power supply unit should do the job with what you have listed, but you may wanna go with something a little stronger in the 12v rail(s) category (this is/are the rail(s) that support video card and cpu and you need some juice in that department) if you wanna go sli in the future or if you upgrade your video card later on. Plus i think getting a psu that can be used beyond a current build is a good idea, since it's one of those parts which this can usually be done. Check the 12v rail(s) if you wanna do some research, some psu's have multiple 12v rails and added together can reach in the ballpark of 70+ amps (i think the one you have listed has 33, and keep in mind the 9600gt is going to use around 26 amps by itself). But again, if you don't care about possible future upgrades or sli, then that looks like a quality unit from a trusted brand and it should run your proposed setup just fine.

 

what operating system are you thinking of using? These days 64-bit is really the only way to go...and since you're aiming for 4gb of ram 32-bit would already be placing a limit on you since it can only utilize about 3.25gb.

Edited December 7, 2008 by Maj0r Gamer

[bedhead75]

hello and welcome to occ

 

i use an evga 9600gt and it's a good card...but not the best. If you're not gaming too much or just on a budget, then it's hard to beat...especially if you can afford another down the road. You should know that there is a factory overclocked edition of that card, i suggest it for the better performance out of the box.

 

that power supply unit should do the job with what you have listed, but you may wanna go with something a little stronger in the 12v rail(s) category (this is/are the rail(s) that support video card and cpu and you need some juice in that department) if you wanna go sli in the future or if you upgrade your video card later on. Plus i think getting a psu that can be used beyond a current build is a good idea, since it's one of those parts which this can usually be done. Check the 12v rail(s) if you wanna do some research, some psu's have multiple 12v rails and added together can reach in the ballpark of 70+ amps (i think the one you have listed has 33, and keep in mind the 9600gt is going to use around 26 amps by itself). But again, if you don't care about possible future upgrades or sli, then that looks like a quality unit from a trusted brand and it should run your proposed setup just fine.

 

what operating system are you thinking of using? These days 64-bit is really the only way to go...and since you're aiming for 4gb of ram 32-bit would already be placing a limit on you since it can only utilize about 3.25gb.

 

 

Hey, thanks for the prompt reply! You have good point about the power supply. Because of the current rebates and sales on Newegg, I could get the 650W Corsair power supply for the same price! The 12V rail goes up to 52A on that, and it is SLI ready with 2 PCI-e connectors. I assume this is a larger unit. You don't think it would be too big for the case or anything right? I'd assume power supply and case manufacturers have certain size standards they conform to, but correct me if I'm wrong because I probably can't return the unit after sending in the rebate forms.

[Krieg1337]

Hey, thanks for the prompt reply! You have good point about the power supply. Because of the current rebates and sales on Newegg, I could get the 650W Corsair power supply for the same price! The 12V rail goes up to 52A on that, and it is SLI ready with 2 PCI-e connectors. I assume this is a larger unit. You don't think it would be too big for the case or anything right? I'd assume power supply and case manufacturers have certain size standards they conform to, but correct me if I'm wrong because I probably can't return the unit after sending in the rebate forms.

 

I would suggest this one if you have enough money for it http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16817703009

Or this one if you can't afford the first http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16817703005

And I would suggest a 64-bit system if you want to use all your 4gb of memory.

[n4mr3h]

Do EVGA 9600gt use single slot cooling solution? Because my leadtek is too hot under full load.

[maj0rgamer]

you shouldn't have to worry about the psu being too large for any case, i'm pretty sure there is a size standard...i've never run into a problem installing a psu into any case so far and i don't think the actual size of the psu is going to vary no matter how much it pushes. However, keep in mind that if your case situates the psu on the bottom you will most likely need to position the psu upside down for proper fit and function (this is a really cool design and works well by the way).

 

@n4mr3h: the evga 9600gt is a single slot card and under decent conditions there should be no heat worries

Edited December 7, 2008 by Maj0r Gamer

[Zertz]

That build looks pretty good, although I'd upgrade that RAM if you think you'll want to overclock it at some point. Otherwise, I wouldn't hesitate to buy this stuff!

 

you shouldn't have to worry about the psu being too large for any case, i'm pretty sure there is a size standard...i've never run into a problem installing a psu into any case so far and i don't think the actual size of the psu is going to vary no matter how much it pushes.

 

You're right, except some PSU's are longer, but pretty much only the 1000W+ units.

Edited December 7, 2008 by Zertz

[bedhead75]

you shouldn't have to worry about the psu being too large for any case, i'm pretty sure there is a size standard...i've never run into a problem installing a psu into any case so far and i don't think the actual size of the psu is going to vary no matter how much it pushes. However, keep in mind that if your case situates the psu on the bottom you will most likely need to position the psu upside down for proper fit and function (this is a really cool design and works well by the way).

 

@n4mr3h: the evga 9600gt is a single slot card and under decent conditions there should be no heat worries

 

 

Thanks for all your help. The parts have started coming in today. I decided to go for the Corsair 650W power supply and also upgraded the graphics card to an evga nvidia geforce 9800GT as both were on sale or with big enough rebates to make them worthwile.

Edited December 10, 2008 by bedhead75

[paulktreg]

hello and welcome to occ

 

......and keep in mind the 9600gt is going to use around 26 amps by itself....

 

Where did you get 26A from?

 

In the real world the 9600GT will pull around 6A thats somewhere in the region of 70W maximum, 26A is way too high, thats 312W! The 9800GT is about 10A, 120W and the Corsair 650W will be more than enough.

 

Cheers

 

Paul

[n4mr3h]

Thanks for all your help. The parts have started coming in today. I decided to go for the Corsair 650W power supply and also upgraded the graphics card to an evga nvidia geforce 9800GT as both were on sale or with big enough rebates to make them worthwile.

 

I think Geforce 9800GT better than 9600GT

[Yoosty]

I would suggest you change your ram to G.SKILL PI Black 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail $49.99 Free Shipping.

(New DDR2 800 CL4 @ 1.8v~1.9v) Cas Latency 4 Timing 4-4-4-12

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16820231209

 

The ram you have chosen are Cas6 and do not have any heat spreaders on them. The G.Skill is a far better set of ram. :thumbs-up:

Edited December 11, 2008 by Yoosty

[tonpal]

Interesting choice of motherboard and graphics card. The motherboard is crossfire capable but the graphics card is not.

 

Did you particularly want a Nvidia graphics card?

 

I would suggest either downgrading to a motherboard with a single PCI-E x16 slot or looking at an ATI graphics card. The 4830 is only around $20 more than the 9600 and would give you the option of adding a second card if you needed more graphics processing power.