First build ever PLEASE HELP

[mobusta]

Ok first off some background info:

This is my first build ever so I'm pretty nervous about buying all the right parts, putting them all together, then overclocking and having everything work out (fingers crossed). I'm also a college student so I pay to attention to price very closely.

I have been using my p4 3.2 for the past coupe of years doing minor upgrading so I could still play the latest games. It's time to do a big upgrade as I'm just not getting enough FPS in online shooters (which is what I mainly play)

I own a Dell 2407 24inch lcd and I like to game at 1920x1200. After gathering various opinions on this I will probably install vista x64 on this machine. I'm going to MAINLY use this computer for gaming and very light video editing (i.e. using fraps to record myself ingame to make frag movies). I'm going to mostly use this PC to play the latest games, Crysis, COD4, UT3, Asassian's Creed, Dark Messiah, AOC etc. FPS is very important to me, especially in games like cod4 where if I dont have a constat 80-90 fps I can't play. And, I'd like to be able to do this at high settings with a high rez.

After reading the OC thread in the OC section I had my heart set on a q6600 but after making a thread on helping to chose a video card a fellow poster informed me that it is actually better to go with a dual core then quad core if all I mainly do is game.

And the last bit of info... I do want to overclock, my goal is somewhere around 3.5-3.6 (without water cooling). I read somewhere that your memory speed has to match your cpu speed fsb, so I'm not sure if I picked out the correct memory.

It took me weeks to do all the research and get together all the information by reading reviews on different websites and reading all the theards here, so any help at all would be really helpfull

Anyways without further ado here are the pieces I've picked out so far.

WS= with shipping

CASE:

Rosewill R5604-TBK 0.8mm SECC Screw-less Dual 120mm Fans ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147033
$56.99


MB

GIGABYTE GA-EP43-DS3L LGA 775 Intel P43 ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128347
W$= 109



CPU

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115037
$189.99

(Again this is where I dont know what decision to make. Either the above CPU or a q6600 which is the same price range)


PSU

Corsair 750W TX750W ATX12V Power Supply
http://www.provantage.com/corsair-cmpsu-750tx~7CSMC05E.htm
WS= $107.06


GPU

SAPPHIRE 100242L Radeon HD 4850 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102747
$159.99 after $30.00 Mail-In Rebate

Another question here would be is it worth it to upgrade to the 4870 (with the settings that I like to game at as listed above)



HD

Maxtor 1TB Serial ATA/300 32MB Buffer Hard Drive
http://frys.com/product/5524820
$ 159.99


RAM

AGAIN NOT SURE WHICH ONE TO PICK. WHICH ONE GOES BEST WITH MY MB/CPU?

1:
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1000 (PC2 8000) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231145
WS= $92

2:
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231166
$104.99

3:
mushkin 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146731
WS= $72 after $25.00 Mail-In Rebate (THIS ONE IS ACTUALLY SIGNIFIGANTLY CHEAPER)


AFTER MARKET CPU COOLER

XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233003
$26.99 after $10.00 Mail-In Rebate


RETENTION BRACKET FOR COOLER

XIGMATEK ACK-I7751 Retention Bracket
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233019
WS= $14




Thanks for all your help guys

 

[OnDborder]

Welcome to the Forum! http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=491697
Do you need a 1tb hdd? Get a smaller one or 2, cheaper and use the extra money on a better mb. Imo.
I've had good luck with ddr2 1000 ram.

 

[Evilsizer]

looks pretty good but if your in for hi-res gaming with things on high. then you need to consider the E7200, that way you can put money to a 4870 card instead of the 4850. both E7200 and E8400 will hit the clocks you want with ease. with not much work you can get 3.8ghz, for right now quad core for games is not worth it.

get this ram from your list
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231166
get one of these coolers instead
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835186134
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835185027
http://www.svc.com/ocztvanq.html
http://www.svc.com/sy-scnj-2000.html
http://www.svc.com/scnj-1100p.html

everything else looks fine.

 

[Albuquerque]

Got your PM

The E7200 is a great option, it's still a Wolfdale core like the E8400 but with a little less cache. As such, it overclocks great and is a bit less expensive. The cache difference will be negligable in nearly all games; tests have shown that equally clocked cores with drastic reductions in cache only suffer an average of about 3% in gaming and apps.

If you do decide that you want the extra cache, I'd suggest looking into the E8200 rather than the E8400... It seems to be that all the E8x00 processors hit pretty much the same overclocking wall, somewhere between 4.0 and 4.5Ghz -- no mater which model they are. This is of course assuming your motherboard can deal with the FSB speeds, but I found my best overclock on my E8400 by reducing the multiplier to 8x -- effectively making it an E8200.

I don't know a whole lot about the P43 chipset, but by googling around a bit, it seems pretty solid. Obviously the price is right