[Brettfavor]

This is my first build and I am pretty excited about it. This was built mainly to be a media center, but I also game a little bit and I didn't want to be limited at all in my game selection so I may have gone a bit over board in the graphics area for what I will use on a daily basis, but I got a really good deal and I stayed under my $1100 budget. Which is not like your average budget because I have a friend who gets this stuff for REALLY cheap. Makes Newegg look like Best Buy when it comes to prices. For instance he just gave me a 1TB hard drive. So yeah you probably kind of get the picture. Anyways here is my FIRST BUILD! Please critique it any way you please good or bad. Like I said this is my first time so ANY input will be appreciated. I have all the parts except the processor and it should be in tomorrow. So I haven't put anything together yet so I can still change the plans a bit if it is ABSOLUTELY necessary. Anyways here ya go.

ABIT IP35 PRO mobo
Wolfdale e8400
MSI NX8800GT 512MB
8GB Mushkin DDR2 800 PC2 6400 RAM (4x2GB) Yeah I know its overkill but I got an awesome deal and I am sure I wouldve upgraded to 8GB eventually anyways might as well do it while its cheap
1TB Seagate Barracuda 7200 RPM SATA Hard Drive
1TB Western Digital 7200 RPM SATA Hard Drive once again maybe overkill getting 2 but 1 of them was free and I really might need the room because I movies, music, tv shows, etc. are a big hobby of mine plus I do a lot of video editing b/c I am a journalism/film Major
Flashed KREON Pioneer DVD ROM
Lite-On 20x DVD Burner IDE
Samsung 20x DVD Burner SATA, Burns DL @ 12x
APEVIA X-Tellstar S-Type Case w/ APEVIA Warlock 750 watt power supply
26 " ACER widescreen LCD monitor plus two 15" ACER monitors on each side of the Big Boy. Main reason I keep the other 2 monitors is for online poker, but it comes in handy for other things as well but I would probably drop them if I didn't play for cash online.
Hauppauge Dual TV Recorder Tuner Card From my current somewhat crappy set up. Lets me see all of the HD channels with my cable company, extra S-video cable, FM tuner, TV input. Its pretty cool. I can hook my xbox 360 up to it and use my HD monitor and play, DVR on 2 different channels at the same time, pause live tv all that crap. I'm sure yall know about it and it has some bugs here and there but it is what makes a Media Center PC to me. I have to the reverse hook up to my Plasma big screen as well, but I usually watch tv or play 360 on my computer unless people are over.

Anyways that about it.....let me know what you guys think good or bad and any suggestions you may have.


The one question I really want answered though is this. I haven't ordered a CPU fan yet. I know I probably should, but I was thinking I might just try the intel one that comes with the e8400 and just watch my the temp close and see how it went. My friend has the same case I have and he says he doesn't even turn his aftermarket fan of off low unless he is OCing pretty hard and he knows what he is doing. I really don't plan on over clocking much if at all......but to be honest I am not really familiar with all the ins and outs of it. I know the basics but I have been reading some of the stickies around here and it kind of makes me want to push it just to see what my creation can do.....and if I do that I will definitely need to get a good aftermarket CPU fan.


Oh yeah I have access to Windows Vista Ultimate x64, Windows XP x64, as well as either 32-bit Windows for free. What should I go with? I have decided at all on that yet so you all could definitely help me there. I know you can't utilize more than 4GB of RAM unless you go 64 bit, but I also heard that you are supposed to start out with 2Gb when you first start your OS and THEN upgrade your RAM to 8GB or whatever. I don't really understand why that is or why you can't just pop it all in before installing your OS and then just going with a 64 bit system. Answers appreciated.....This is my first post too by the way. Love the forum so far. Look forward to getting to know some of the members, learning some stuff, and hopefully in time teaching some stuff?..maybe

[Hazaro]

Good choices, that Samsung is a good burner, I'm guessing it's a SH-203, which I have.

I'd grab a different PSU to be handling all that expensive hardware, but other than that it looks great.

How awesome of a deal was the mushkin? You an get 8GB of G.Skill 1000Mhz for $230.

If you're getting all of that, I highly encourage you to overclock
I mean, who DOESN'T want 4Ghz?

You can pick up a cheap budget cooler if you want, or go high end giant aluminium tower

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835200035
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835207001

[Careface]

to the forums mate

+1 on the different choice of PSU. Not sure what others would suggest, but my next build is going to have the Silverstone Decathlon 750W, unless people give me reason to get another.

Ive heard good things about the Corsair HX520/HX620 also.

Btw Hazaro.. love the avatar :P

[beancooker]

Depending on how good of a price your buddy can get you, look at the QX9650. If he can get it to you really cheap, ebay it, then buy the e8400 and pocket the extra cash.

[Brettfavor]

Thanks for the replies guys. Yeah I was thinking about another PSU but I haven't thought of one I want to go for yet. I get the mushkin RAM of off Newegg I believe for $248 for all 8GB. I have heard good things about G Skill and when I first started pondering doing this build I had decided I was going to try them out because they have awesome prices and I had heard only really good things. But Mushkin is just the best of the best when it comes to RAM IMO. And since it only cost a little more I paid it gladly. I went with the 800 PC2 6400 instead of the higher ones because the better ones don't get utilized with the mobo I am using. Benefits cut off around the max of the ones I have when machine is moderately OCed. I have seen several examples of this and my friend has the same set up except with the 6660 and he swears its the truth and getting the top of the line mushkin for my build would be waste. I don't complete understand that but I have read that online and he does know his **** when it comes to this stuff so I trust him on that. Besides most of the rest of my build and the knowledge about it came from my friend anyways. He owns his own computer shop type of place. He buys, sells and fixes computers.


What about the OS ? Vista Ultimate x64, XP x64? and do I need to just put all my RAM in when I build or just put 2GB in at first and then add the rest later? What is the thinking behind that if that is indeed how you do it?

Thanks again.

[Brettfavor]

no go on the QX9650. This is the best processor I could get from him. I had to beg him too because he only had 1 left and I got it for $160. I couldn't find any online but I heard they were going for at least $229 some were listed at like $270 or something that is crazy.

To be honest I really wanted to go with an ASUS mobo like the Maximus extreme or P5E3 Deluxe w/ wifi. But I heard from people they might not work well with the e8400 and I was set on getting that. My friend said the Maximus would definitely work well with it with a BIOS upgrade but my last build was an AMD and I am not really familiar on how to do that so I went with the ABIT IP35 PRO. I am glad I did too just from the things I have been reading and some of the OCed speeds I have seen with the mobo/cpu combo I have. and that is with less RAM. Thanks again for the info guys and once again Vista Ultimate x64 or Windows XP x64? Do I need to just go ahead and install all of the RAM up front or stagger it like I aforementioned.

[beancooker]

At least with Vista, you can only install 2 gigs, load the OS, then after the OS is finished loading, then you can install all the rest.

As to which OS... I like Vista. But I like the a lot of the stupid wastefull crap that it has to offer. I have never had a problem with it, but have been using it at work, longer then it has been available on the open market. We were a test site for Vista. I used some of the older builds like RC1, and those make you appreciate what it does now.

[Stratus_ss]

To be honest,
I hate vista with a passion that burns so deeply. There are so many, many, many irritants about that OS.

However for a basic end user vista is very friendly in terms of not being able to muck with the settings to much.

I will say this though, my gf got a laptop with vista on it and absolutely hated it. She has no technical expertise... she can use the computer for her basic tasks and thats about it. I had no input on this. She hounded me for a a few weeks to put XP on.

From what I have found, though everyone's experiences vary, people who are used to XP will be annoyed to no end by vista (this includes both end users and skilled people). Granted, vista has its fanboys... myself however am much more inclined to put linux on my computer rather then vista nad I have been a windows user for years

[beancooker]

Well, you can "muck" with the settings, it's just a lot harder. And some of the crap like the "cancel or allow" gets really old. Speaking of, I don't know why I haven't turned it off yet...

I am not a fanboy, but I didn't really use XP that much, so I wasn't to used to it. When I started to use Vista, it wasn't any better/worse than XP. The biggest thing about Vista that I don't like is the Nvidia control panel is s**t on Vista. It was much more user friendly on XP.

[Stratus_ss]

@bean
sorry mate i wasnt directing any of my comments at you
As for the settings i know you can, but for the basic end user they are almost inaccessible which was all my point was.

Also I have read of a lot of people who turn off all the prettiness of vista. When you do that, you have essentially upgraded for nothing except excess headaches again that is just my 2 cents

Since he is not a hardcore gamer he may/maynot really need directX 10 anyways. Especially since right now there arent a whole lot of games that maximize its potential anyways

[terran2k]

Go with Vista and see if you like it. Some people like it, I for one hate it. I've tried to use it, but it always finds a way to annoy the heck out of me. I end up going back to XP. I think I'll skip Vista and wait for Windows 7

[beancooker]

Originally Posted by Stratus_ss

@bean
sorry mate i wasnt directing any of my comments at you
As for the settings i know you can, but for the basic end user they are almost inaccessible which was all my point was.

Also I have read of a lot of people who turn off all the prettiness of vista. When you do that, you have essentially upgraded for nothing except excess headaches again that is just my 2 cents

Since he is not a hardcore gamer he may/maynot really need directX 10 anyways. Especially since right now there arent a whole lot of games that maximize its potential anyways

It's the intrawebnetz, I never take offense.

[Brettfavor]

Remember guys I have Vista ULTIMATE x64. So keep in mind I am not choosing between XP x64 and Vista Home Edition x64.

With that said I am definitely not your basic end user. I need things exactly my way so customizability is important and I HATE bloat software. The fact that Vista has a lot of makes me not want it, but if there is added performance or features with Vista ULTIMATE x64 that are WORTH the extra crap I could put up with it. So are there any performance benefits or added features to Vista ULTIMATE x64 that would make the extra crap and annoyances WORTH IT?

The fact that you say the NVIDIA control panel is crap worries me. Because I will have 3 monitors(a 26" monitor with 15" monitors on BOTH sides of it). I want THE MIDDLE 26" monitor to be the screen with all my ICONS, TASK BAR, etc. and the LEFT and RIGHT 15" monitors to be BLANK other than my background unless I drag a WINDOW either RIGHT or LEFT respectively. Will Vista ULTIMATE x64 or XP x64 inhibit me from setting up my monitors in this fashion?

Any input on how to set up my monitors in this way and the settings I should use?

Also I can install BOTH systems if need be. Would there be any benefit in doing that?
What about using UBUNTU in addition to either Vista ULTIMATE x64 or XP x64? (I have never used Linux before, but I am interested in trying it)

Thanks again everyone for answering my questions and giving me feedback on this build.

[Brettfavor]

Remember guys I have Vista ULTIMATE x64. So keep in mind I am not choosing between XP x64 and Vista Home Edition x64.

With that said I am definitely not your basic end user. I need things exactly my way so customizability is important and I HATE bloat software. The fact that Vista has a lot of makes me not want it, but if there is added performance or features with Vista ULTIMATE x64 that are WORTH the extra crap I could put up with it. So are there any performance benefits or added features to Vista ULTIMATE that would make the extra crap and annoyances WORTH IT?

The fact that you say the NVIDIA control panel is crap worries me. Because I will have 3 monitors(a 26" monitor with 15" monitors on BOTH sides of it). I want THE MIDDLE 26" monitor to be the screen with all my ICONS, TASK BAR, etc. and the LEFT and RIGHT 15" monitors to be BLANK other than my background unless I drag a WINDOW either RIGHT or LEFT respectively. Will Vista ULTIMATE x64 or XP x64 inhibit me from setting up my monitors in this fashion?

Any input on how to set up my monitors in this way and the settings I should use?

Also I can install BOTH systems if need be. Would there be any benefit in doing that?
What about using UBUNTU in addition to either Vista ULTIMATE x64 or XP x64? (I have never used Linux before, but I am interested in trying it)

Thanks again everyone for answering my questions and giving me feedback on this build.