Help me build my gaming PC

ezjay1975

Here in about a month I will be ordering my first custom built gaming machine. Since I know that most of you have more knowdelge than I do, I thought I would run it by you and see if there any improvements i could make.



Case:  X-Cruiser Mid-Tower



Power Supply:  Apevia 680W BEAST POWER W/ PFC



Cpu:  Intel® Core™ 2 Duo E6700 CPU @ 2.66GHz 1066FSB 2x2MB L2 Cache EM64T



Cooling Fan:  CoolerMaster Liquid CPU Cooling System

    Would I need any extra case fans?



Motherboard:  Asus P5N32-E nForce 680i SLI Chipset LGA775 FSB1333 DDR2 Mainboard



Memory:  2GB PC6400 DDR2/800 Dual Channel Memory (Mushkin Xtreme w/ Heat Spreader)

    Do I really need the heat spreaders?



Video Card:  NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB



Monitor:  ViewSonic Q20WB 20" WSXGA Color TFT Active Matrix LCD Display Monitor



Hard drive:  500GB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 16MB Cache 7200RPM HDD

    What would a separte data hard drive do for me?



Optical drive:  LiteOn LH-20A1H 20X Double Layer DVD+-RW Super Allwrite + Lightscribe Technology

    Should I get a second one?



Sound:  Creative Labs SB X-Fi Xtreme Audio 24-BIT PCI Sound Card



Network Card:  Killer K1 10/100/1000 Gigabit



Keyboard:  Saitek Eclipse-II (PK02U) Gaming Keyboard



Power Protection:  OPTI-UPS ES1000C 1000VA/700W UNINTERRUPT POWER SUPPLY

I have speakers and a mouse already

Well there it is. All advice and suggestions are welcome.



BTW  cost: $2500

xpyrofuryx

Qty.	Product Description	Savings	Total Price
		LITE-ON 20X DVD±R DVD Burner with 12X DVD-RAM Write Black IDE Model LH-20A1P-185 - OEM Item #: N82E16827106049 Return Policy: Standard Return Policy		$27.99
		APEVIA X-CRUISER-BL Blue Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail Item #: N82E16811144153 Return Policy: Standard Return Policy		$69.00
		Western Digital Raptor WD360ADFD 36GB 10,000 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive - OEM Item #: N82E16822136054 Return Policy: Limited 30-Day Return Policy Select An Optional Extended Warranty Plan 1 Year Service Net Replacement Plan -- $14.99 2 Year Service Net Replacement Plan -- $19.99		$99.99
		Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM Item #: N82E16822136073 Return Policy: Limited 30-Day Return Policy Select An Optional Extended Warranty Plan 1 Year Service Net Replacement Plan -- $29.99 2 Year Service Net Replacement Plan -- $39.99		$119.99
		Hanns·G HW-191APB Black 19" 5ms Widescreen LCD Monitor - Retail Item #: N82E16824254023 Return Policy: [LCD] Limited Non-Refundable 30-Day Return Policy Select An Optional Extended Warranty Plan 1 Year Service Net Replacement Plan -- $29.99 1 Year Service Net 1 Peripheral Extended Plan -- $39.99 2 Year Service Net Replacement Plan -- $39.99 2 Year Service Net 1 Peripheral Extended Plan -- $49.99 3 Year Service Net 1 Peripheral Extended Plan -- $59.99	-$25.00 Instant	$189.99 $164.99
		EVGA 768-P2-N831-AR GeForce 8800GTX 768MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Video Card - Retail Item #: N82E16814130072 Return Policy: Limited Non-Refundable 30-Day Return Policy Select An Optional Extended Warranty Plan 1 Year Service Net 1 Peripheral Extended Plan -- $49.99 2 Year Service Net 1 Peripheral Extended Plan -- $69.99 3 Year Service Net 1 Peripheral Extended Plan -- $99.99	-$10.00 Instant $30.00 Mail-in Rebate	$546.99 $536.99
		Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer 7.1 Channels PCI Interface Sound Card - Retail Item #: N82E16829102006 Return Policy: Standard Return Policy Select An Optional Extended Warranty Plan 1 Year Service Net Replacement Plan -- $14.99 2 Year Service Net Replacement Plan -- $19.99		$90.99
		OCZ GameXStream OCZ700GXSSLI ATX12V 700W Power Supply - Retail Item #: N82E16817341002 Return Policy: Standard Return Policy Select An Optional Extended Warranty Plan 1 Year Service Net Replacement Plan -- $29.99 2 Year Service Net Replacement Plan -- $39.99	-$10.00 Instant $25.00 Mail-in Rebate	$149.99 $139.99
		CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 675 (PC2 5400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TWIN2X2048-5400c4 - Retail Item #: N82E16820145015 Return Policy: Memory (Modules, USB) Return Policy Select An Optional Extended Warranty Plan 1 Year Service Net Replacement Plan -- $14.99 2 Year Service Net Replacement Plan -- $19.99		$79.99
		ASUS P5N-E SLI LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail Item #: N82E16813131142 Return Policy: Limited 30-Day Return Policy Select An Optional Extended Warranty Plan 1 Year Service Net Replacement Plan -- $29.99 2 Year Service Net Replacement Plan -- $39.99		$126.99
		Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 Kentsfield 2.66GHz LGA 775 Processor Model BX80562QX6700 - Retail Item #: N82E16819115011 Return Policy: Processors (CPUs) Return Policy		$968.00
		Microsoft Windows Vista 64-Bit Home Premium for System Builders Single Pack DVD - OEM Item #: N82E16832116204 Return Policy: Software Return Policy	-$5.00 Instant	$119.99 $114.99
		HIPER HFF-1B08N 80mm Blue LED Case Fan - Retail Item #: N82E16835224001 Return Policy: Standard Return Policy		$2.99
		HIPER HFF-1B12S 120mm Blue LED Case Fan - Retail Item #: N82E16835224004 Return Policy: Standard Return Policy		$5.99
		ZALMAN CNPS7000B-ALCU 92mm 2 Ball Cooling Fan - Retail Item #: N82E16835118112 Return Policy: Standard Return Policy		$29.99
		ZALMAN ZM-CS1 Clip Support for installation of CNPS7000 series onto Socket 775 - Retail Item #: N82E16835118219 Return Policy: Standard Return Policy

 

Total Price: $2,582.86

xpyrofuryx

To sum it up, its:

 

Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 @ 2.66Ghz

4GB (4x1GB) Corsair XMS2 675Mhz DDR2 (4-4-4-12)

ASUS nVidia nForce 650i SLI

EVGA nVidia GeForce 8800GTX 768Mb

36GB Western Digital Raptor SATA150 10k rpm

500GB Western Digital Caviar SATA 3Gb/s 7.2k rpm

Lite-On DVD/CD Drive Burner/Reader

Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer 7.1

OCZ GameXstream 700watt PSU

Apevia X-Cruiser Blue ATX Mid Tower

Zlaman 92mm Ball CPU Cooler

Microsoft WIndows Vista Home-Premium 64-bit

Hanns-G 19" LCD Widescreen Monitor

 

Elapsed

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Originally posted by ezjay1975
Would I need any extra case fans?

---

The one or two fans included should be fine. I'm assuming it comes with one or two fans.

---

Do I really need the heat spreaders?]

---

Yes, they wouldn't waste money including it if it wasn't needed.

---

What would a separte data hard drive do for me?

---

You could install Windows on one hard drive and keep all your important files on the other. That way if you ever have to reinstall Windows you don't have to worry about finding and backing up everything. That's what I do. Alternately you could run two hard drives in RAID.

---

Should I get a second one?

---

I wouldn't unless you do a lot of DVD or CD copying.

Spathotan

Both of you guys built good systems, but me personally, I would stay away from ASUS motherboards. Ive had 2 of them, a P5NSLI which died and killed my 7900GS in the process, and my current board is an ASUS P5W Deluxe. It has not died on me YET, but the BIOS loads extremely slow, and it has gone into a coma on me once, to the point where I had to disasemble the entire system and put it back together, to get it to work again.

ASUS makes good stuff though, some exorbent/stupid and overpriced. But when I eventually find somebody to buy my current PC, and build my microATX gaming system, im going with a MSI or Sapphire mobo.

gpett

Originally posted by ezjay1975

Here in about a month I will be ordering my first custom built gaming machine. Since I know that most of you have more knowdelge than I do, I thought I would run it by you and see if there any improvements i could make.



Case:  X-Cruiser Mid-Tower

Just make sure your case has atleast a 120mm intake and 120mm exhaust.  Moves more air and is quiet.



Power Supply:  Apevia 680W BEAST POWER W/ PFC

I have 0 faith in Apevia as a powersupply.  In this review the apeiva failed the test, melted, sent in for rma, failed the test and melted again.   To do some research on powersupplies go to jonnyguru.com



Cpu:  Intel® Core™ 2 Duo E6700 CPU @ 2.66GHz 1066FSB 2x2MB L2 Cache EM64T

Nice choice, but keep in mind intel has some major price drops and new cpus slated for release July 22nd.  So I would wait untill then.  I would choose the Quad Core Q6600 for $266.  If you want to stick with dual core the E6750 for $183 looks like a bargain.



Cooling Fan:  CoolerMaster Liquid CPU Cooling System

    Would I need any extra case fans?

If you are going to do watercooling, build yourself a custom loop.  The retail watercooling kits do not perform better than air cooling.  Plenty of good places to go for watercooling such as , petrastechshop, dangerden or swiftech

Motherboard:  Asus P5N32-E nForce 680i SLI Chipset LGA775 FSB1333 DDR2 Mainboard

The nvidia chipsets are popular.  Lots of people like them.  I prefer the Intel P35 chipset.  I also do not get a motherboard that has crossfire or SLI.  It is better to just replace and sell your video card instead of messing around with sli or crossfire.  Asus, gigabyte, or intel (for stability instead of overclocking capability) brand motherboards are the way to go.



Memory:  2GB PC6400 DDR2/800 Dual Channel Memory (Mushkin Xtreme w/ Heat Spreader)

    Do I really need the heat spreaders?

Heatspreaders are a joke.  But most memory has them.  There are actual ram heatsinks you can buy if you are concerned.  But a fan pointed at the ram is plenty. These days the heatspreaders are just bling to cover up the chips on the stick.  There are a ton of good memory bands out there.  Do some research and make sure you are getting micron d9 chips on your ram.  No point to switch to DDR3 yet so stick with DDR2.



Video Card:  NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB

Spending all of this money and getting a GTS 640 instead of the GTX?  Interesting.  They are both good cards, and I would probably get the GTS 320 and then get the new Nvidia high end card that comes out this fall.



Monitor:  ViewSonic Q20WB 20" WSXGA Color TFT Active Matrix LCD Display Monitor

If I am getting an LCD flat panel, I see no reason to get anything other than a Dell S-IPS monitor.  They make the rest of the monitors look like garbage.  They are the flat panel to have until O-LED monitors hit the stores.  If you want to know which dell monitors have the S-IPS panels check out this thread at [H]ardforums



Hard drive:  500GB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 16MB Cache 7200RPM HDD

    What would a separte data hard drive do for me?

Nah, gone are the days of trendy RAID and dual disk drive solutions.  Todays high capacity drives have up to iTB storage and perform just as good as !)K rpm raptors.  The only need to have two disk drives is to be able to have your data on a seperate disk than your OS and applications.  This allows you to reformat restore or do whatever you want to your OS drive while still retaining your data.  This setuip is made obsolete by the $30 usb flash drives.



Optical drive:  LiteOn LH-20A1H 20X Double Layer DVD+-RW Super Allwrite + Lightscribe Technology

    Should I get a second one?

I don't know anyone that pays for lightscribe blank disks.  If you know you can aford the expensive lightscribe blank media go for it.  Otherwise dont get a lighscribe optical drive.  Two optical drives used to be popular when you needed to record straight from disk to disk.  But the stuff people burn these days is downloaded, not from a disk.



Sound:  Creative Labs SB X-Fi Xtreme Audio 24-BIT PCI Sound Card

People swear by discrete sound cards.  It used to be the case.  Now that vista does not support EAX, the discrete sound cards do not really offer anything that the onboard sound on your motherboard can do.  So, if you are using XP or think you absolutely must have a discrete sound card get it.  Otherwise, just use onboard sound.



Network Card:  Killer K1 10/100/1000 Gigabit

Absolute garbage and a waste of money.  It would be more fun to roll up some hundred dollar bills and smoke them than to buy this card.  This card is just a gimmick. 



Keyboard:  Saitek Eclipse-II (PK02U) Gaming Keyboard

If you are going to spend a lot on a gaming keyboard the G15 is the gaming keyboard of choice.  I however prefer just the basic run of the mill natural style microsoft keyboards.



Power Protection:  OPTI-UPS ES1000C 1000VA/700W UNINTERRUPT POWER SUPPLY

Why get the UPS?  They only last 5-10minutes anyways.  They are meant to povide enough power backup for business situations so that you can shutoff the computer on your own terms and not loose any database information or have a corrupted database due to a forced shutdown.  They do not really provide a gamer anything other than an extra 5-10minutes if your power goes out.

I have speakers and a mouse already

Well there it is. All advice and suggestions are welcome.



BTW  cost: $2500

That price seems very high.  Where are you buying this from?  A place that assembles it for you?  Well, to make a long story short, you are spending a LOT and not getting much in return.  Wait till July 22 for the intel price drops and assemble the computer then.  You will be able to build a rocking system for ~$1500 that is better than the one you listed.

Jackcolt

Originally posted by Spathotan


Both of you guys built good systems, but me personally, I would stay away from ASUS motherboards. Ive had 2 of them, a P5NSLI which died and killed my 7900GS in the process, and my current board is an ASUS P5W Deluxe. It has not died on me YET, but the BIOS loads extremely slow, and it has gone into a coma on me once, to the point where I had to disasemble the entire system and put it back together, to get it to work again.
ASUS makes good stuff though, some exorbent/stupid and overpriced. But when I eventually find somebody to buy my current PC, and build my microATX gaming system, im going with a MSI or Sapphire mobo.

Yeah... I prefer MSI too(never had Sapphire though)

But I'd say it's really good rig you configured there.