Building my first computer.

I haven't done this before so I'm just compiling components right now. This is where I stand. I looked around for quite a while before making purchases.

• nVidia 680i SLi mother board
• (one) GeForce 8800 GTX (most deffinately a second one to run SLi in the future.)
• Intel Q6600 Core Duo Quad cpu
• 2 gigs of ballistics dual channel ram
• 650w power supply and a random 'largish' simple case.
• 2 Seagate 250 gig HD's (I think these only come with Serial ATA hook ups now)
• A full version of Windows Vista Home Premium (so I can run DX10)

What else should I be looking at? I appreciate any advice.

-Luke

 

Avoid the 680i and grab something based upon the Intel P35 chipset.

Ram...get Corsair.

Power supply...get a Seasonic.

Drives...get two 500 GB units, or at least 320 GB. Not much more expensive than 250 GB drives.

 

You need a fan right, im not that smart with computers but my cousin built his on gaming, and his computer heats up the room like no other. It will be good in the winter.

 

I bought one for the pcu. I'm moving all my other ones over from my old computer.

 

I prefer Crucial.

Why would you say that?

 

AMD??

 

Nah. I think the intel core duo quad Q6600 is BY FAR the best bang for the buck out there... especially with the ease of overclocking via the 680i sli. It's extremely capable and only ran around $260 + shipping.

 

I'd go with an Intel Bad Axe 2 motherboard especially if you plan to do some overclocking. Any quality name brand memory should be fine. And get a name brand powersupply. Enjoy your new build, you'll be ready when Crysis comes out next month

 

Alex Wake looks great I can't wait. Think I could run Crysis with only the one 8800gtx?

 

I'm still using a Pentium III 1gb proc with 640mb of ram on a 40gb HD.
ATI rage fury pro VC, Asus P3V4X mobo....

I just upgraded to a DVD burner about a month ago... (!)

Seriously, I used to be all over this stuff - 10 years ago with the BX440 chipset, etc., but things just exploded so fast I couldn't keep up with all the different toys, coppermine, evergreen (?), all the different variations of CPU's, mobo's, VC's and chipsets.... besides, the only game on my PC is Solitaire - my wife plays it.

 

don't bother with the P35 and DDR3 just stick with the 680i. like said above get a Seasocnic for the PSU brand any thing over 650w will do. if you planning on running Vista and doing gaming then you should look into 4gb or ram for vista.

My current PC is
E6600 @ 3.0ghz
Evga 680i
Evga 8800GTX
4gb G.skill
Seasonic S12 650w
Zalaman 9700led
and i have 2 HDD's one 250gb and one 500gb
Windows Vista

 

The 680i is pretty nice, plus he wants to go SLI so if he buys the EVGA motherboard/ video combo LINK and CPU/video card combo LINK he will get a pretty good deal.

I would suggest a 100 gig drive for the OS and 2 500 gig drives for storage. That way if he ever has issue and needs to reinstall the OS he never has to worry about backing stuff up to do so.

 

Good idea, get a 10k RPM Raptor drive for the OS

 

I got some sweet deals on some 7200 Seagates I'm content with the 7200's. Besides, these are S-ATA. I haven't ever used that before so this speed will most likely blow my mind alone.

 

Frankly, to the average person I have noticed that the Raptor drives don't make much of a difference and don't justify the price difference.

 

I would bag the Vista, it is a real POS. stick with XP Pro, at least until Vista has its 2nd service pak out.

 

You're building your first computer at a good time. I built them about 14 years ago... it was harsh!

 

Agreed.

The current Vista (any edition) is a mistake.

 

I noticed! I was floored at the low costs of some of these components. The only thing that really sucked so far was the cost of a GPU that'll be dx10 compliant.

Really? I'm really only interested in it for the dx10 stuff.

 

I know this may be a bit off topic, but I've been searching the net for a laptop that has accupoint or a dual pointing device...and have come up with nothing. Do they even have these anymore?

My brother has the Dell Latitude D410, its a very good laptop, but I'd prefer not to have the same one.

I'm looking for something along the same lines, something that is:

light weight,
very good performance wise, maybe a little gaming,
long battery life, and
accupoint (i cant stand touch pad, and its a substitute for carrying a mouse around).

Any recommendations would be great.

All price ranges accepted.

 

Sorry, I wish I could help you out?!?!? How about a bump for your question.

Here's where I'm at.

I have pretty much everythings assembled. I'm waiting on..

• Case fans
• My 4 gigs of ram
• My 8800 GTX PNY XLR8

I'm pleasantly suprised with this case. It is engineered well as far as being able to suit your needs easily. The build quality is 'decent'.

I've only got one drive in there right now but I'll be running all three Seagate 7200 Barracuda's. (an 80gig for the OS and such, a 160gig and a 250gig for backup). I wanted to do away with all the IDE ribbon cables so everything is S-ATA. This really helped me to keep the case looking 'clean'. I think it turned out excellent for my first build!

I'll post some pics of my workstation too. I love my audio. I'm running two Bose companion 3's (series one). The sound is terrificly immersive and really wraps around you.
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Damn, that looks good. It looks fast too. I always wanted to try that but I'm afraid I might break something or it might just not work.

 

Thanks, but it isn't going anywhere until I get my GPU in there. :|

You can do it no problem. I promise! Right now is the time too! I got my QUAD CORE intel processor for $200. The mother board was $180. The case was like $60. It's the graphics cards that'll kill you.

 

I'm gonna have to do that! I bet it'll take me 8 hours to figure that out though lmao.

Here's where I"m at.

Case fans (2 x 120mm with filters in)
and 2 pci card fans blowing on the GPU.

PGU is here too

All I need is my ram and then I can fire this puppy up! I"m excited. I think I would like to get my Q6600 to about 3GHz. I don't think that's asking too much.

This card should scream.
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Would you guys call me a really old fart-nerd if you knew that I soldered together one of the first Altair 8800 kits way back in 1975?

That's the one with all the switches they showed with it's creator Ed Roberts on that PBS show "revenge of the nerds".

I still have his business card - M.I.T.S. was the name of his company. He got mad at Bill Gates, closed down, and went back to being a regular old country medical doctor.