[Jared11]

Hey everyone,
I am planning on doing my first desktop build. I have some idea lined up from general knowledge and I would love to hear your input and recommendations. I just received my ASUS G71GX and LOVE it. Now i would like to step up my desktop. It right now is a... T6600 Core 2 Duo 3.2Ghz, ASUS P5LD2 motherboard, 4GB Corsair RAM, Stock intel Heatsink, 500Watt Safe Power PSU, Nvidia 8800GT OC, Windows Vista Business

Here is my RAW idea...feel free to add!

Case: Mid sized (Dont know the brand, but its a good one for the job)
OS: Windows 7
Processor: Core i5 750
Motherboard: ASUS P7H55-M-Pro Micro ATX
Memory: OCZ PC3-10666 Platinum RAM (4x 2GB sticks = 8GB)
PSU: XION Simple Power 630W ATX
GPU: Gainward GTX280
Heatsink: ZEROtherm Core92 CPU Cooler
Hard Drives: 250GB 5400RPM SeaGate, 160GB 5400RPM, 500GB 7200RPM SeaGate Barricuda

I am a newbie to building cpu's so feel free to give constructive criticism! The only thing I would have to ask is if the power supply I have added would be too small for the output of the system PLUS the high wattage requirement of the 280GTX graphics card.

Thankyou all!

Jared

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Where preferable, go for 7200rpm or 10000 rpm drives over the 5400. You will notice the difference.
Also do you need three hard drives? A single 1 terabyte drive will probably be cheaper.

Also with regards to the power supply, pay little attention to the wattage. It's like looking at the speedometer in the car and seeing it'll do 130mph. Nice, but realistically you'll never go that high. On a PSU you need to look at the rails from the PSU and then compare them to the rail requirements on the graphics card because they all need a certain amount of amperage. It is perfectly possible to have a 1000w PSU that doesn't deliver enough amperage on the 12v rail and a graphics card still won't work. 400w is a bare minimum, though a lot of branded systems seem to go out with dirt cheap 200 and 300w PSUs that eventually go bang and wipe the entire system out.

[Neil Jones]

Where preferable, go for 7200rpm or 10000 rpm drives over the 5400. You will notice the difference.
Also do you need three hard drives? A single 1 terabyte drive will probably be cheaper.

Also with regards to the power supply, pay little attention to the wattage. It's like looking at the speedometer in the car and seeing it'll do 130mph. Nice, but realistically you'll never go that high. On a PSU you need to look at the rails from the PSU and then compare them to the rail requirements on the graphics card because they all need a certain amount of amperage. It is perfectly possible to have a 1000w PSU that doesn't deliver enough amperage on the 12v rail and a graphics card still won't work. 400w is a bare minimum, though a lot of branded systems seem to go out with dirt cheap 200 and 300w PSUs that eventually go bang and wipe the entire system out.

[Jared11]

Thanks Neil
Ya I am new to the cpu building and figured I needed at 1 seperate unit for each drive. Now that you bring it up, I do see your side to just using a 1TB hard drive. However, will any gaming software or high powered programs I put on the same drive as the C; drive (since it is one big drive) slow the entire system down?
I only inquire because my dad as I was young taught me to always throw my big games on a seperate drive rather than on the main drive. I do realize that this is a new era of computers compared to those days, and new technology that has come out has probably cured this problem in most aspects.

With the 1TB hard drive, would I just partition a good amount of it towards Gaming and the other half would obv be the main cpu components found naturally on the C; drive?

How about this idea. Instead of the three hard drives, what about using two hard drives; one being 500GB 7200RPM Seagate Barricuda for my main drive, and the other a 300GB 10000RPM WD VelociRaptor which would be dedicated to gaming and high performance programs. Good idea? This way, it would save not only power usage by subtracting one spinning hard drive, but also increasing room in the case and leading to better air circulation by my CROWDED hard drives lol. What do ya think?

As for the rest of the components listed on the new build, does everything else seem alright for a good gaming and recreational cpu build?
Thanks for the input so far!

Edited by Jared11, 28 January 2010 - 10:47 PM.

[Neil Jones]

1) Makes no difference where they're installed.
2) You can partition it if you want but realistically most people just have one big Drive C.
3) It doesn't matter where the programs are installed. They won't run any faster from a faster hard drive. Windows will boot a little faster from it but that's all.

[Spyderturbo007]

I like to partition my drives only to save myself some aggravation if I have to restore an image or deal with an OS re-installation. If your data is on the same partition as the OS and you have to reformat, you need to find a way to remove your data before the re-installation.

If it's on a different partition, you can just re-install the OS on the original partition and your data will be safe and secure on the secondary partition. But as Neil stated, it's personal preference.

In either case, just be sure you have a good backup somewhere other than the drive you are using.

Edited by Spyderturbo007, 01 February 2010 - 10:30 AM.