First Build Questions

Hello all. I am going to attempt my first complete building of a new system - from scratch. I've done major overhauls before - replace mobo, ram, video card, drives, etc, but never a who system from scratch.

My goal is to build a nice machine that I can toy with overclocking (noob overclocker) and run without hiccups 24/7

I've been researching what I want, and this is what I have come up with - to date. (all prices are from the egg).

1. P5B-Deluxe Asus Mobo ($187)
2. E6400 Conroe ($220)
3. Corsair Mem XMS2 - 2 x 1 gig (5-5-5-15)($280-$50) or (4-4-4-12)$280
4. Asus X1900XT 256Mg Video card ($270)
5. Rosewill RP5502.01 ($62)
6. Artic Cooling Freezer 7, pro ($32)
7. Artic 5 Thermal paste ($5)
8. Windows Home Media Edition ($90)
9. Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 (Perpendicular Recording Technology) 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM ($80)
10. or
11. Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD2500KS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM ($80)
12. Unchosen case

What do you think?

1. Now, for the questions. The Mobo says that it needs 5-5-5 or 6-6-6 RAM, but I've been seeing people use the 4-4-4-12 RAM. Will the 4-4-4-12 Ram work and is it worth the extra $50?

2. Will the PSU support everything sufficiently?

3. Which HD is better and why? Is the Perpendicular Recording something better than that of the WD?

4. Anything that I am missing?

Thanks for your thoughts,
O

I have two of the Seagate "Perp" drives and they are rock solid, Faster? I dunno if they are or not. Seem the same as any sata drive now days to me.

Dont skimp on a cheesy PSU, thats one thing that will come back to bit ya in the ***.
I have used both Corsair 6400 and 8500 ram with 6400 and 6600 cpu's,you can get the same performance either way.

Windows media edition? up to you i guess.
Case wise, Thermaltake Armors with water and your gunna be chilly all day long.

I see guys going nuts with o/c and temps and if they only used a good case they wouldnt be in that boat.
Not saying that you have to use this cooling kit at all but here is the case to look at.

http://www.xoxide.com/thermaltake-armor-lcs-ve2000bws.html

What PSU do you reccomend? I think I'd like to spend around $100 or so on a good PSU, with thoughts in mind that I might get a duplicate video card down the road sometime.

As far as the RAM goes, I think I am going with the Corsair XMS2 6400 4-4-4-12 over the 5-5-5-15. What do you think?

O

OCZ Gamexstream 600w or 700w even...

If I didn't have a kick@ss case I'd go for this. http://svcompucycle.com/rc-830-ssn1.html
If you only want to spend 100 bux or less, this one's not too bad. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817103932
Otherwise, I'd go for OCZ 600 also. Like I did already, see sig..

Sorry for the newb question, but what does +12V1@19A, +12V2@19A, -12V@1A mean?

Specifically , what does the 12v2 mean and the -12v @ 1A mean?

O

+12V1@19A, +12V2@19A means there are seperate 12 volt rails (12v2) and each one carries 19 Amps.

-12v has no relevance anymore since the -12 volt spec is not used in modern motherboards.

The case depends on the use. Since you have Media Center were you going to build this as a HTPC or did you just get it cheap? Your specs could easily be used for Home Theatre use if, that is your TV is up to it. If you did go that route get one large enough to water cool later on if you decide to o/c it alot.