[Drumbum667]

Yes very nice. What PSU do you recommend. Also when you say a 2x4 connector is it a special connector that is 2x4 or is it just two 4 pin connectors because it has 6 4 pins. Well I changed my PSU to a different one with modular cabling. So I decided Im going to post my whole system to make sure everything is compatible and that the PSU will power everything.

Corsair XMS2(3 gigs)
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600
Zalman CNPS9500 CPU Fan
Thermaltake 700 watt PSU
Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 Motherboard
Antec 900 Case
Sabrent Card Reader
WD 250 GB HD
WD External HD(For backups)
Samsung Monitor x2
Lite-On DVD Burner
Linksys Wireless Card
Creative P7800 Speaker System
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Sound Card

Edited by Drumbum667, 08 May 2007 - 10:43 AM.

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when I say 2x4pin connector I mean a single 8 pin connector. Sorry about the confusion, I don't understand myself why it's described like that.


Don't get an external hard drive, just get a second internal hard drive. Otherwise transfer rates are much slower. If your really parinoid about hard drive failure you can always get two drives and put them in RAID1 I believe it is. It back every piece of data you create on drive 1 and then back a complete image of it on drive 2.

Buy dual channel ram, but 3x1 stick of ram can cost a bit more and there is a much high chance of blue screens when you place the ram into dual channel mode.

Look around for the OEM version of your processor, then you won't be paying for a heatsink your not going to use. It'll save you around 20$.

Again, good choice on powersupply but it doesn't have the 8 pin connector. I'll look around tonight if I have a chance. If I have forgotten please bump this topic.

If you plan on getting HD optical drives in the future that monitor won't work as it doesn't have HDCP support. Also I'd try to shoot for 1000:1 contrast ratio or better. From personal experience I don't find a difference between 2ms and 5ms, I suggest you go and try to demo a monitor to see if you can see a difference. You pay a bit of a premium for 2ms though many claim it's much better for first person shooters.

Good choice on the burner.

I'd take a look at the x-540 series speakers, I think they are a bit better. 7.1 is pointless, no gains over 5.1. So the way I look at it, get a better set of 5.1 speakers then a OK set of 7.1 speakers.

Good choice on sound card.

Everything compatible, I just added some suggestoin above. Good luck!

[james_8970]

when I say 2x4pin connector I mean a single 8 pin connector. Sorry about the confusion, I don't understand myself why it's described like that.


Don't get an external hard drive, just get a second internal hard drive. Otherwise transfer rates are much slower. If your really parinoid about hard drive failure you can always get two drives and put them in RAID1 I believe it is. It back every piece of data you create on drive 1 and then back a complete image of it on drive 2.

Buy dual channel ram, but 3x1 stick of ram can cost a bit more and there is a much high chance of blue screens when you place the ram into dual channel mode.

Look around for the OEM version of your processor, then you won't be paying for a heatsink your not going to use. It'll save you around 20$.

Again, good choice on powersupply but it doesn't have the 8 pin connector. I'll look around tonight if I have a chance. If I have forgotten please bump this topic.

If you plan on getting HD optical drives in the future that monitor won't work as it doesn't have HDCP support. Also I'd try to shoot for 1000:1 contrast ratio or better. From personal experience I don't find a difference between 2ms and 5ms, I suggest you go and try to demo a monitor to see if you can see a difference. You pay a bit of a premium for 2ms though many claim it's much better for first person shooters.

Good choice on the burner.

I'd take a look at the x-540 series speakers, I think they are a bit better. 7.1 is pointless, no gains over 5.1. So the way I look at it, get a better set of 5.1 speakers then a OK set of 7.1 speakers.

Good choice on sound card.

Everything compatible, I just added some suggestoin above. Good luck!

[Drumbum667]

Ok for the monitor I think Im going to look for a good 22" an a 19 inch. My friend has that and I like it. Is Raid hard to set up. Do you need a CD or something. What's HDCP and what are the HD optical drives. High Defition I'm assuming. Also is Dual channel a lot better. Is it overclockable as well. Do you have to set it up in the BIOS to go into to Dual Channel mode.

Edit: Ok I looked around and I think Im going to get this RAM G.SKILL RAM . I can't find the 1 gig version but it's only a little bit more than what I was buying before. Im going to get this monitor Scepter Monitor. It's cheaper than the other one, bigger, and it has HDCP support. I think Im going to get 2 of them instead of spending like 30 dollars less and getting a 19". I have to clear some desk space. That's going to be pretty sweet.I'll probably get the speakers you recommended.

Edited by Drumbum667, 09 May 2007 - 03:15 PM.

[james_8970]

I'm not one to ask, as I don't have my own rig at the moment therfor have never tried it. If you want more information on it you may want to start a new topic. But it's pretty easy from what I hear, I believe it's only a simple BIOS setting, but again I could be wrong.

HDCP stands for High Definition Copy Protection. It's pretty self explanatory for why it was created, to protect High definition content from being copied. Anyways basically it stops the user from recording the screen(with programs such as easy screen capture or FRAPS) when HD content is being played. It's a requirement to play High Definition (HD) players such as HD DVD and Blu-ray, if you don't have it, it simply will be played in 720p, not 1080p. I'm only suggesting this to future proof your rig, this is totally up to you, but you'll probably want one of these two drives in a two year or earlier once prices come down. (they have already fallen about 400$ since they we released 9 months ago).

Dual channel, is a way to have two memory modules working together and have increased bandwidth, it averages on being 20% faster if I remember correctly. Yes it's overclockable.

I recommend different ram company, more well known, also for overclocking you'll want lower latency ram. Preferably 4-4-4-12 timing (lower the better).

Good monitor, if your wondering it has an Ultra Wide Viewing Angle 176/176. More details about it are here, http://www.sceptre.c...x20wc-Gamer.htm.

James

Edited by james_8970, 09 May 2007 - 06:02 PM.

[james_8970]

Your looking at getting something like this
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16817256021
James

Edited by james_8970, 09 May 2007 - 07:25 PM.

[Drumbum667]

Will that be enough to power everything and have room to add more. Anyways, I'll find out how to do Raid 1. I wanted to get RAM with a lower timing but my mobo said in the description that the RAM has to have 5-5-5 timings or 6-6-6 timings. Unless it's possible to use it with 4-4-4 timing because then there is a lot more products I could get. Because I want to get RAM with timings of 4-4-4 because it's faster for the same price. Maybe these if it's possible to use on the mobo, Crucial RAM or this RAM, Corsair RAM. Corsair seems a little better with a lot more reviews and it seems more popular even though it's 5-5-5 it's what the mobo recommends so I'll probably get that. Ooo and I was reading up on RAID 1 and it says that only half of the drives are useable for storage. Either I'll just buy a small like 80 GB drive or something and partition it and just backup important files onto it unless there's a way to use the whole drive for mirroring instead of half of it, or I'll get the external drive and use Acronis every now and then to backup stuff. Instead of having it backup everyday which i what I was going to do anyways.

Edited by Drumbum667, 10 May 2007 - 10:48 AM.

[james_8970]

If you want to have the 8pin PSU you have to pay a premium so I tried to keep costs down, I recommend 700-750W on a higher end build like this. Especially for the future upgrades, it's your call but your going to have to fork over 200$ for it.
That motherboard stinks if it can't even accept low latencies.
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16813128044
This motherboard is good, but will not be able to run crossfire, unless you have moded drivers. I don't like crossfire though, unless you have very high resolutions or else you want 3 or 4 monitors.
Ok I looked it up on wikipedia now, I was correct, RAID 1 makes an exact mirror of one drive onto another simultaneously.
James

Edited by james_8970, 10 May 2007 - 04:08 PM.

[Drumbum667]

I dont mind paying more for a PSU. Just show me one. I dont plan on doing crossfire. Also that mobo is specified for RAM at 667 the other one is 800 that's kind of a downside. I'll take a look around for more. Im probably going to get this mobo MSI mobo. Are the lower timings going to make a big difference. If not then I dont mind getting the slower RAM. Anyways, the real issue is the PSU. Also the the MSI mobo has an 8 pin CPU plug but can you use a 4 pin also.

Edited by Drumbum667, 10 May 2007 - 07:55 PM.

[james_8970]

Shoot, I thought I changed the link in my edit, my bad. The one you just showed there is good for the price, mine was 50$ more for slight advantages.
No the timings won't be huge, but why not get better performance for the same price?

There is a none modular version of this PSU for 20$ less. Your call.
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16817256017

Cheaper one below
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16817256016

These PSU will be able to handle anything you throw at them and will be a really good investment for future builds.
James

[Drumbum667]

Im going to get the MSI one with Crucial Ballistix RAM. It also has an overclocking utility for Dual core processors so I dont even have to use the Bios. Also what's the point of the USB bracket. Are they extra USB ports you put into an expansion slot. Hopefully the vid card won't need the 8 pin connector or you can use 2 4 pins or something else because there's only a few PSU's with the 8 pin. We'll just have to wait and see. Also what about the case fans. What kind of connectors do they use and will their be enough of them because there's 6 120 mm fans. Also what are EPS12V connectors, and what's an ATX12V connector. Are they for the CPU or something.

Edited by Drumbum667, 11 May 2007 - 02:41 PM.

[james_8970]

It's a bracket that has USB's on it and goes into an expansion slot instead of having them directly on the motherboard.
James

Edited by james_8970, 11 May 2007 - 02:37 PM.

[Drumbum667]

BUT WHAT ABOUT THE FANS IN THE CASE. I really need to know about that. So here is everything I'm getting. I think Im going to get the External drive even though transfer rates are slower I'll back it up weekly and it will be much easier than setting up RAID 1. And it will be more portable. Also with the bracket does it plug in to the mobo and get power from that or does it need its own connector.

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6600(Couldn't find it OEM)
CPU Fan:Zalman CPU Fan
Motherboard: MSI P6N SLI-FI Motherboard
Video Card: The New Ati Card
Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Gamer Sound Card
PSU: Silverstone PSU(Only if the Video card requires the 8 pin connector otherwise the OCZ PSU)
RAM: Crucial Ballistix RAM(Another gig of this)
Monitor: SCEPTRE X20WC-Gamer Monitor x2
Hard Drive: Western Digital 250 GB HD
External Drive:Western Digital 250 GB My Book Essential
DVD Burner: Lite-On DVD Burner
Speakers:Logitech THX Z-5300e Speakers

Please tell me about the case fans and I want to thank you so much again for helping me.

Edited by Drumbum667, 11 May 2007 - 09:14 PM.

[james_8970]

What are you talking about?
If you mean what fans to get on your case, please give me a link to your case and I'll tell you what size you need. Or do you just want me to recommend some case fans in general? If this is the case I'll still need to know the size of the fan.
Yes you plug the bracket into the motherboard, it should also give the little juice that's required, no need to plug it into your PSU.
James

Edited by james_8970, 11 May 2007 - 09:59 PM.

[Drumbum667]

I mean what kind of connector do the fans in the Antec 900 case use. The plug on the PSU.

[james_8970]

your case fans plug into your motherboard
James