College Gaming PC Build - Need Expert Advice!

Processor
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz 6MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W - $210

Graphics Card
MSI NX8800GTS 512M OC GeForce 8800GTS (G92) 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - $225

Motherboard
ASUS P5K-E/WIFI-AP LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard - $150

Memory
G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - $45

HDD
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3500320AS 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - $105

Power Supply
CORSAIR CMPSU-520HX ATX12V v2.2 and EPS12V 2.91 520W Power Supply - $125

Case
COOLER MASTER RC-690-KKN1-GP Black SECC/ ABS ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - $85

Monitor
Acer AL2216Wbd Black 22" 5ms Widescreen LCD Monitor with HDCP support 300 cd/m2 700:1 - $230


Mouse/Keyboard
Logitech MX518 2-Tone 8 Buttons 1 x Wheel USB + PS/2 Wired Optical 1600 dpi Gaming-Grade Mouse - $40
Saitek PZ30AUR Red 104 Normal Keys 4 Function Keys USB Wired Slim Eclipse Keyboard - $35

Operating System
I will use XP Pro.


Total Price - $1250

Looks good, a few suggestions (and the price on the motherboard is way off)
Get an 8800GTS 512. It's the exact same card as the 9800GTX.
This card:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127325
is 200 after 30 MIR and comes with a game, it's actually clocked FASTER than the 9800GTX in core speed, and just slightly slower in RAM...and it's 100 less.

For RAM you can get cheaper RAM and also 800mhz CAS 4 is perfect and you won't notice any gains moving to 1066.

Lastly, I'd go ahead and get vista premium or ultimate 64. Like it or not, DX10 is here to stay and DX9 is dying out. It may be a year or 2 down the road or even later, but if your gonna spend money, might as well get vista now.

Ok, if I followed your advice, I could drop $100 on a graphics card, and replace that cost with $100 for Vista Home Premium...

And that's the exact video card you would have me get? It will play all games nicely on the max res of that monitor?

Can you show me what RAM you would suggest?

mbowen89 said:

Ok, if I followed your advice, I could drop $100 on a graphics card, and replace that cost with $100 for Vista Home Premium...

Click to expand...

You should stick with XP and either upgrade your motherboard or get more hard drive space

And that's the exact video card you would have me get? It will play all games nicely on the max res of that monitor?

Click to expand...

Yes, that card will run most games full out. I have a volt modded one and these cards are insanely fast

The hard drive that you have selected is a horrible value, coming in at 28 cents per gig (take total price divided by total space). A better deal is around the 20 cents per gig range (100 for a 500gig).

Oh, now he says stick with XP ... lol

If I have an OEM XP disk from another computer that doesn't go online, could I use it for this new PC?

Why do I need to upgrade the mobo?

mbowen89 said:

Oh, now he says stick with XP ... lol

If I have an OEM XP disk from another computer that doesn't go online, could I use it for this new PC?

Click to expand...

If it did not come with a computer (like a pre-built dell), then I think it does.

Why do I need to upgrade the mobo?

Click to expand...

It was a suggestion


Also, swap that power supply out for this one, it will be quieter, modular and cheaper:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139001

Your definetly not the first, but its funny how people are willing to spend money on high end CPU and GPUs, then pick out the cheapest most cut down P35 motherboard on the market (DS3L).

Basically, DS3L is a weak board electricaly, especially if your going to throw a quad core in there, and if your thinking of doing any overclocking on the quad, then the board definetly needs to be stronger. Consider an Asus P5K-Pro (about $135, cheapest 8phase CPU board I've seen) or Gigabyte DS3R (about $130), or the cheapest p35 board I'd recommend the Abit IP35-E (about $100).

Also keep in mind that an E8400/E3110 dual core will out perform the Q6600 in every game, sometimes by a considerable margin, all the while costing less. If you take into account that with a dual you can spend less on the PSU, cooling and possibly motherboard, might be something worth considering.

As suggested, the 9800 GTX is basically just a rebaged 8800 GTS 512mb, so get one of those instead.

Do you plan on overclocking?

If you look around you can probably save 100-200 by saving a little on each part. If you look around, you can find 500 Gb hard drives for ~100, and you dont need 4 gigs of ram if youre using XP. You dont need to spend that much on a case either if you dont feel like it, but if you want the case for the looks, then go right ahead.

blazed...the DS3R and DS3L are the same if I'm not mistaken (except one has the ICH9R controller for RAID). Also people I've heard about on here have had good results with it. The whole 6-phase 8-phase power is BS. You can have 20-phases and it won't matter if they aren't good phases. A solid 6 phase is better than a weak 8 phase (and usually more phases are added for marketing PR or because they're using such cheap components they need 8).

The Q6600 vs E8400 is something to consider. In games the CPU isn't very important (thideras did a test with a quad at 3.0 and at 4.0 in crysis which is the most CPU demanding game, and the frame rate difference was 10% at most...that was at 1920x1200 IIRC)...At the same time though, if your not gonna use the quad for rendering or anything then the 8400 is still probably better since it will clock higher.

As for the vista/XP argument, if your gonna spend money on an OS, get vista. If you want to stick with XP then that's good, but don't spend money on vista 64 as that OS is gonna die in terms of gaming. (And you need 64 bit to run 4gb of RAM) I'm not a fan of vista, I just realize XP is dieing.


Oh and check cyber deals I think they had a TT armor for 100 bucks at microcenter.

I was actually planning to buy that very same monitor. I don't know about the costs stateside atm, but I ended up with a Samsung 2253gw for the same price. When they pulled the Acer out for a test, it had dead pixels...so I wandered to another vendor and picked up the 2253 for the same price (no dead pixels).

Ok, I have collaborated all the comments from this site and others, the results are up top.

Thanks to you guys I have dropped $400 while not really losing any power, plus adding a nice keyboard and mouse

So, does that build look good? Any other problems you foresee?

But, I guess the only thing I can possibly see being bad is the motherboard. Is the mobo ok or not?

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Here is my biggest question though: should I really get Vista? I don't give a crap about how nice it looks or anything, I just don't want to be limited with the software I can use...but I can always upgrade later.

I have a Gateway computer my cousin gave me, and it has an XP install disc. Would I be able to use that with this new PC, as long as I never take that Gateway online again?

No.

It is locked to the PC it came with, it will not work in another.


Even if it would that would be illegal whether that machine is online or not.

I agree with blazed and would upgrade the mobo. When you start to push the CPU to 500Mhz you don't want your board holding you back.

I would also go with vista 64. You can get OEM home ~$100. You can always add another 2GB's of ram later, it will run fine on 2GB.

Have you thought about a heatsink? TRUE, Tuniq, among others are all good. It just depends on how much you want to put into one.

If you can recommend a motherboard that's $30-$40 more than what I have posted, and will be a lot better, then I would do that. Can someone show me a good mobo for this setup?

I think I will stick with XP, and if I ever decide to go Vista, I will just put it on a new partition and buy more RAM then. For now, 2GB RAM and XP is OK for me.

As to getting a HS+Cooler, I already have one: ZALMAN 9500A 92mm 2 Ball CPU Cooler. Will that be sufficient?

Asus P5K-e,P5K Pro, Gigabyte DS3R all would be good.

I have no idea how that cooler will hold up but since you already have I would try it out before I bought something else.

So, is this maybe what you were thinking?

ASUS P5K-E LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard - $140

Why did a guy on there say that when he OC'd his E8400 to 3.6 or something, there really wasn't much of an improvement??

Is it really going to be that hard to OC my E8400 to 3.8 on a GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L and be stable?

For example a guy says this: "p35-ds3l w/ intel e8400 @ 3.8ghz 1.28volts on the vcore. 425mhz FSB. all tests done with OCCT produce STABLE results."

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Lets just say: I don't want to try to cut corners (especially on a mobo) but from what I have read, it seems that the DS3L can do everything I need, and it's $50 cheaper than the P5K!

There is more cut down to the DS3L then you can see in the specs, a look at the back of the board itself shows how much less electricaly is going on. I'm not 100% on phases, but I know that how many CPU phases a board has is related to the quality of the mosfetts used, and has a direct impact on the CPU stability and overclocking, as well as power efficiency.

The only time I'd specificaly say not to get a DS3L is for quad core overclocking, Xbit labs has an article where they're DS3L ATX connector actually melted during Q6600 overclocking, but I've also seen quite a few threads of people having trouble with their DS3L's overclocking stability.

However I always recommend going for something less cut down, if only for the better chipset cooling and peice of mind. DS3R, P5K-Pro, DFI Blood Iron(OC settings up the wazoo) and even the cheaper Abit IP35-E are all under $140 and great P35 boards.

P5K-Pro is a newer addition from Asus it has 8 phase for the CPU (DS3L only has 3 and they're probably the weak 3phase mosfetts for it to have problems with under stress stability) and I'd say represents the best value P35 motherboard at around $140.

Ok, so you would say if I change my motherboard to this: ASUS P5K PRO LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard this setup would pretty much be perfect?

Edit: Just noticed that altogether there are $75 in rebates.. nice.

I have no comment about the Asus but the Abit IP35-Pro is a nice board for overclocking and it's a great price.

P5K Pro, IP35 Pro, or anyone of the boards I mentioned and you'll be golden. GL with the new system.