Building new computer

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I'm going to buy a new computer in the $1500-2000 range from scratch.

I'm currently looking at the following set up:

Case: Antec Twelve Hundred Black Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case - Retail

Master HD:Western Digital Raptor WD740ADFD 74GB 10000 RPM SATA 1.5Gb/s Hard Drive
Slave HD: Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD5000AAKB 500GB 7200 RPM IDE Ultra ATA100

Monitor: SAMSUNG ToC T260 Rose-Black 25.5" 5ms HDMI Widescreen LCD Monitor

CD/DVD: ASUS Black SATA DVD-ROM Drive Model DVD-E818A3T

Sound Card: Turtle Beach RIVIERA 5.1 Channels PCI Interface Sound Card - Retail

Speakers:
Logitech X-530 70 watts RMS 5.1 Black Speaker System - OEM

RAM: Two orders of the following, CORSAIR 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TWIN3X2048-1333C9DHX - Retail

Mobo: ASRock P43Twins1600 LGA 775 Intel P43 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail

Video Card: SAPPHIRE 100242-1GL Radeon HD 4850 1GB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail

PSU: Rosewill RX750-D-B 750W ATX12V v2.2 & EPS12V v2.91 SLI 8800GTX SLI CrossFire Ready Active PFC PFC Power Supply - Retail

Processor:
Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 Wolfdale 3.16GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Model BX80570E8500 - Retail

This setup clocks in at $1800.

I haven't done this before and have been away from this sort of tech news for a while, so any comments or suggestions or even any errors I might have made would be more that welcome.
 
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Indeed, get a SATA HDD, much faster :). I see you are also going for a ATI video card. I'd prefer NVIDIA, but that's me.
 
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Hmm we could judge the setup better with know what the PC is for..
 
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Ah oops on that IDE HD, oh well.

It's mainly just for gaming and one upping my roommate's new comp, lol. I have been looking around, and it seems that ATI's upper end video cards seem to be beating up on nVidia recently.

Would you say it's balanced though? In terms of GPU vs CPU?

I feel like the GPU is the weakest, so I'm thinking of spending $20 more on a Mobo that has 2 PCI express slots for a 2nd GPU some time down the road.
 
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Don't listen to these nvidia tards, ati owns the market atm.
 
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What nvidia tards? Sky was the only one to recommend nvidia. I would instantly recommend an nvidia card though if I could justify the current pricing.
 
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I'd go with this video card, this RAM, and this HDD instead of 2 seperate HDD's.

Should total about $1820ish, give or take some (excluding shipping).
 
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I was actually looking at that card as well. Good call on the RAM and HD, though. That looks much better than what had.

Edit: Now I'm questioning the Mobo. I'd like at least 2 PCI express slots for future Crossfire, DDR3 1333 support, and at least 5 fan connectors (LGA 775 socket type and Core 2 duo support). Why is this so hard to find?
 
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ASRock MOBOs I'd consider budget boards, dont get me wrong there not bad for what they are, I'v got one in one of my systems and I havent had any problems with it.

But for any serious system I build, I get ASUS boards. Actually ASROCK is subsidiary of ASUS. So ASROCK is pretty much a lower end of ASUS.

For the Motherboard your looking for would cost a bit more then a ASRock's top end. Take a look at this.

I sure the WiFi adds to the price of this but I dont think there's version without it.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131218
http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?modelmenu=1&model=1872&l1=3&l2=11&l3=572&l4=0

or if you wanna go with ASRock this is pretty much their top end board which seems pretty good.

WiFi less version
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157140
http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=X48TurboTwins

*NOTE* just in case you didn't know ASRock supports both DDR2 and DDR3, they usually have 4 DD2 slots and 2 DDR3 slots, and they cannot be used at the same time it's either DDR2 or DDR3.
 
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Yeah, I was just hoping not to have to shell out 300 on just a mother board.
 
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Yeah, I was just hoping not to have to shell out 300 on just a mother board.
I hear ya, but if you want quality usually ya gotta pay for it :( and considering the system your putting together, I'd go for the best quality I could afford.

One thing to consider, that I forgot to mention, when looking at mobos it's a good idea to check where the main power connector to the motherboard is located on the board (the 20/24 pin connector)

A lot of manufacturers place it in a decent location but others, your like "why the 01000110 01010101 01000011 01001011 would they put it there?"

for an example take a look at the two boards I mentioned.

The Asus board has it placed pretty good, ASRock not so much.

The Antec Twelve Hundred has some good cable management, but in that case, the power supply sits on the bottom meaning the power cables are coming from bottom up. So say you went with an ASRock, considering where the connector is placed, the cable will most like be going over/touching one component or another no matter how long or which way you route it, some people may be comfortable with that, but Im not, the less cables in the way, the better I'd say:smile:

Another thing I think you should you consider is the heatsink I'm assuming your going with the stock one? if so you might wanna take a look at what's gonna be taking care of your CPU the one on the left is for the E8XXX's. I know the new Core 2 Duos run alot cooler but I cant bring myself to trust the stock HSF.

I built a system for my aunt a couple of months ago, and the CPU I used was the E8400 @3ghz stock. I ordered a 3rd party HSF with the rest of the order and I'm glad I did. When I saw the heatsink that came with it I was like "Are you kidding?"

The HSF I ordered was http://icrontic.com/articles/noctua_nh-u9b, @ Idle it was about 35-38 degrees celsius and about 45-50 ish under load. I didn't even bother trying it so i dont know how the puny stock HSF would fair, but like I said I just couldn't bring myself to tust it, and especially in your case (I dont mean the 1200), for a gaming rig.

Although, the Twelve Hundred case has good cooling you maybe be able to get away with the stock HSF, but still I would consider a 3rd party one.

If I think of anything else, I'll let ya know.
 
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I was actually looking at a Zalman HS/Fan to replace it, but I figured with the 5 fan, the stock would be fine. Interesting note on the motherboard by the way, thanks.
 
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Don't tell me I need to add more money now for a heatsink for my new to come computer, NO MORE MONEY PLEASE!!!!!!!!!
 
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deco, this isn't your thread. Nobody is talking about you.
 
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I was actually looking at a Zalman HS/Fan to replace it, but I figured with the 5 fan, the stock would be fine. Interesting note on the motherboard by the way, thanks.
Which one? Zalman HSF are usually fairly high priced, you could probably find one half the price and still have it do the same job.

oh, and do you need a second sound card? Most motherboards these days have pretty good on-board sound these days.
 
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