New Build on the Way

[Lyeth]

Well its time to replace the second generation abacus (five year old Dell) I currently have:
Pentium 4 1.8GHZ
512 Ram
40Gig harddrive
and the ever uber 64MB Nvidia Geforce 2MX

So as you can see, I didn't get to upgrade for a while, so I probably went a little more bleeding edge that Foz or Rabbit normally recommend. :p

Case: Antec P160 (Wife ONLY liked this case of the 8 I listed. It appears they don't even make it anymore but Zipzoomfly had one, still a little pricey considering its "old")Also, the friend who is helping me build has already built in this case)

CPU: E6600 (Rabbit and Foz recommended) (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819115003)

Video Card: EVGA 8800GTX (Yes I know a GTS would have been fine but...its shiny)

Motherboard: EVGA nforce 680i (Rabbit Recommended) (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813188009)

Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD2500KS 250GB 7200 RPM(Rabbit & Foz Recommended) (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822144701)

CD/DVD burner: Lite-on DVD Burner (Rabbit Recommended) (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827106013)

PSU: OCZ GameXStream (Rabbit Recommended) (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817341001)

Speakers: Logitech X-540(Rabbit Recommended) (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16836121006)

Sound Card: Creative Labs Soundblaster X-Fi Xtreme-Gamer (Rabbit recommeded) (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16829102006)

RAM: (I really wavered on this one. Considered going with the 667 but the there was this discount and rebate, the new mobo...etc-) Corsair XMS DDR2 800 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145034)

So in short I went probably further than I needed in a couple spots but I stuck with the known name brands at you all recommend. When it all arrives, I'll take a picture or if things go wrong I'll come post here and throw myself at your mercy. (Now back to Foz's guide to building pc's :D )

Fixed the RAM link

[Fozzik]

Doesn't look like you went to far at all. Looks very nice.

I'd probably go up to the 700w OCZ power supply (or ask rabb1t what's good for the next-gen cards) just to give yourself more flexibility for upgrades. The 600w should work great...just thinking future proofing.

Can't look at the RAM, the link goes to the soundcard. If it is 2x1GB, and has a rebate...then you are probably golden. :D The DDR2-667 is just fine from a performance standpoint if it is selling cheaper... but if you can get DDR2-800 for a cheap price...go for it.

[rabb1t]

Considering what ram prices are these days I’d really say the DDR2-800 Dominator ram (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145168) is the best deal. :)

But yeah, if I were upgrading like all at once, instead of just the GPU, that CPU / MB / Ram would be what I’d go with today. In fact, I saw Foz’s wife’s ’06 score and was like :eek: wtf cause it’s higher than my GTX. I asked Evga if it was due to the lack of 64-bit drivers or if I had a broken card, as a GTX should see closer to 9k marks, and they said one possibility is my CPU may be gimping me. They didn’t know what I had, but I suppose that may be the case since the C2D is a bit more powerful. /cry /cry

I'd probably go up to the 700w OCZ power supply (or ask rabb1t what's good for the next-gen cards) just to give yourself more flexibility for upgrades. The 600w should work great...just thinking future proofing.

The rabb1t would say the diff between the 600w and 700w is nil when you are talking series 8. Both have quad v12 lines at 18a and the only diff is the +100w. So far peeps are saying you’ll need 800w to go dual 8800 GTS or 850w for 8800 GTX and quad PCIe x16, so in either case neither would cover you for dual series 8.

(In fact, after a few more days of testing I'll have my 'old' OCZ 700w that I'll likely be putting up for sale since I've gone back to my Phantom. So if ya want, and if you'd have 'cash' to pay with, ask me and maybe we can hook ya up with a good deal there. ;) )

I suppose, maybe, it may make a diff if you go series 8 and series 7 with the 7 running as a dedicated PPU, but I think the new series 8 “quantum physics” will be where it’s at.

[Lyeth]

Cruel cruel world. The one item not going to be delivered today is the video card! I guess it could be worse if there was no case but...I might not get the video card till Monday! So close but yet so far!