Building new PC. Want opinions on my build

Here is what I have decided to go with (Updated - final build):

CoolMaster case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119137

PNY VCGGTX275XPB GeForce GTX 275 896MB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133268

CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128359

Patriot PDC24G6400ELK Ram (4 sticks @ 2 GB each)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820220227
** Decided to keep 8 GB. I may do some video editing in the future and I would also like to try my hand at 3D model editing **

GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3R
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128359

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115037
** decided to go dual core instead of quad for various reasons **

ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835186134

Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136319

I also already have a 21" monitor and don't need another (right now, maybe in the future). I also have Arctic Silver 5 here at home. I also have my dual layer DVD burner (IDE), so I don't need to buy any of that stuff.

There were some extra stuff that I needed and didn't have as well (couple cables, etc)
Total cost : $929.17
Mail ins : $60
Net cost : $869.17

I originally wanted to go Core 2 with DDR3, but there are not a lot of good motherboards on newegg...

I want to overclock the processor, but I am not sure if I should go 444 MHz @ 9x or drop it to 8x and see how far my ram will take me (hopefully to 500 MHz). Opinions on this would be appreciated as well.

Also, i am going to be running Vista Ultimate 64 bit

Thanks a bunch guys

 

I think is a good build but, I think this PSU

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139006&Tpk=tx750w

is better if you are willing to sacrifice the modular connectors

 

unfortunately i really want modular...


Never mind, after comparing, i have switched.

I also switched my mobo to this one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128359

 

Never had any problems with GIGABYTE mobo so can say is a good choice in mobo but I did notice that it has 1 PATA connector I don't know how that case looks inside but if your going to connect both HDD and optical drive you might run into some problems and slowdowns due to shearing that channel with an optical drive. I really recommend getting a SATA HDD, and use the PATA for your optical drive. As for processor it depends on what programs you are going to be running.

 

What's a modular PSU? And is your DVD burner SATA, or IDE(PATA)?

 

A modular PSU is one that the plugs can come out of and you can put just what you want (makes it cleaner). I also decided to buy a SATA hdd due to the thought that having a and ide optical drive and a ide hdd would be a stretch with only a single PATA slot. My dvd drive is IDE.

Keep the suggestions coming, every suggestion has saved me some problems!

For programs, i just plan on using it for sofware development, web development, basic stuff like email and web browsing, and games.

 

@gera229 take a look at this almost at the end of the page for modular psu

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_supply_unit_(computer)

and rockytrh mention under the mobo that he is using an IDE optical drive.

 

rockytrh that processor is quite good even for most games, most games care for GPU anyway.

 

That is why i got a GTX 260 That card is going to be sweet.

 

I also updated my first post to reflect the changes I have made.

 

I had one of the early GTX 260, and did great things for me I'm sure the new one runs better.

 

http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=12222346

First off the GTX260 isnt a full GB of VRAM. The card here is. The 260 is GDDR3 while the 4870 i listed here is GDDR5. Faster/better card, less money.

Patriot makes good RAM, but for a little more I would get a better set, and you dont need 8GB of RAM. 4 GB will do fine.

Bigger hard drive, and better performing. More cache. Trust me I jumped from a Seagate 750 GB 7200 RPM 16 MB cache to a 1 TB WD Caviar Black 7200 RPM and 32 MB cache. The seagate ran XP, the WD is running Vista, and yet I still see a nice performance boost. If your dead set on a 640 GB atleast get the 630 GB Caviar Black with 32 MB cache from WD.

You never stated a purpose for the PC other the OCing. Are you gaming, doing video editing/encoding, gaming, 3d modeling,etc? Based on the desire to OC I choose a high end quad. If your gaming though the Core 2 Duo are better.

Do you have a keyboard or mouse?

 

I'm going to take your advice on the ram and the HDD. I'll look into ATI graphics cards too. I'm a pretty big fan of NVidia though. I'll have to go look for benchmarks and such. Its too bad the card you posted is out of stock at newegg right now. Hopefully they get more in soon (if I decide to go with that card).

 

Oh and its DX 10.1 instead of DX 10. Not a huge jump but supposedly only certain ATI cards fully support DX 10.1 and this is one of them.

Depending on how soon you need it there also this card:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102815
Its a higher end 4870 so it costs more then the 4870 i linked to but it still puts you under budget.

I dont know how hardcore your going to be on software development and gaming but you could squeeze out an i7 build for $1000 and realistically its going to future proof you a bit more then the quad system. The quad will get the job done none the same.

 

I decided to go with a gtx 275 instead of the gtx 260, called it good and put the order through. Came to $920 after shipping with $60 in MIRs. I think it will be a pretty good system for $860 net.

Thanks for all your help!

 

No problem. Hopes the info helped.

 

No problem, tell as how the build came up and maybe some bench if you have the time

 

A bit late to the game on this one. To be honest, the build was pretty solid from the start (which isn't especially common). Since you edited your first post, I can't tell exactly what you went with, but a 750W PSU is frankly overkill to the extreme for that system (you could have got away with a 400W PSU with a pci express power adapter, certainly a modular 520W HX would have done). If you're using low resolutions the GTX275 is a perfectly decent card, maybe not quite as good value as the HD4890, but reasonable enough.

 

I'll post some benchmarks when I get it built.

I know the psu was probably overkill, but in addition to these components, i have 3 1TB drives that I raid5 for data storage/serving (this is going to be fun to move over), a soundblaster audigy 2 with a breakout box (that i use all the time for audio recording), another large IDE drive that is used almost strictly for storage (it is in a 5.25 cage that I can pull out and put back in with different drives), a PCI RAID card, a wireless n card, and I wanted to have enough that if I needed to add more disks to my raid, power wouldn't be an issue.

Also, if you look at benchmarks the gtx275 generally outperforms the HD 4890. I realize with less V-Ram it won't be able to do quite the high res/AA as the 4890, but what can I say, I'm a Nvidia fan

I'll update my first post with what I went with after submitting this.

 

You do realise that software RAID usually breaks when you migrate it to a different controller?
I run 9 hard drives off a 380W PSU with a graphics card that only uses about 60W less than the GTX275, and a CPu that uses the same amount of power. Seriously, what I said before still stands
As for the nvidia fan, what I usually say in this instance is 'you paid extra money for an nvidia badge' because it's true. The GTX275 and HD4890 are essentially performance equals in as far as what you actually notice in the real world. The only exceptions to this are ofc the nvidia programmed titles like GTA4 and Crysis.