First build; advice/feedback welcome

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Dreamstalkerwolf
Posts: 5
Joined: Tue Nov 16, 2004 9:25 pm
Location: Santa Fe, NM or Brookline, MA

First build; advice/feedback welcome

Post by Dreamstalkerwolf » Thu Nov 18, 2004 6:32 pm

So I've finally decided to build my own PC (I will be able to get course credit as independent study as well--woohoo). Mainly a gaming box. OC tinkering is also a possibility.

Case: Thermaltake SViking; I don't think I'm going to add any extra fans at this point. It arrived the other day.

CPU: Maybe a Prescott, although I read that the lower-end Northwoods would be available for Socket T (LGA775) boards.

Mobo: Asus P5AD2 Deluxe (I'm not entirely sure if it will fit in the SViking; may be a bit tight).

CPU cooling: I was considering the XP-120, but am not completely sure if it would fit in my case.

Memory: 240-Pin 1GB Corsair DDR2 PC2-4200 (matched pair 512).

HD: Samsung Spinpoint 160GB SATA.

Optical: Plextor 12X DVD+/-RW.

Video card: NVidia Geforce 6600.

The actual build probably won't start until February or so, once I have all the parts and the independent-study paperwork filled out.

Any suggestions/warnings/etc welcome :)

kie
Posts: 105
Joined: Wed Nov 12, 2003 10:46 am
Location: UK

Post by kie » Fri Nov 19, 2004 5:14 am

Why not go for a 64bit Athlon?

Ralf Hutter
SPCR Reviewer
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Location: Sunny SoCal

Re: First build; advice/feedback welcome

Post by Ralf Hutter » Fri Nov 19, 2004 5:32 am

Dreamstalkerwolf wrote:
The actual build probably won't start until February or so, once I have all the parts and the independent-study paperwork filled out.
I'd wait for a bit longer to decide on hardware. Things change quickly in Computer World and even though Intel is sort of wandering around without a lot of direction, new stuff will assuredly be coming down the pike by then. For instance, if you're stuck on Prescott, there's (supposedly) a new stepping coming out that runs a bit cooler than the first gen processors. It might be worth the wait for that alone.

Dreamstalkerwolf
Posts: 5
Joined: Tue Nov 16, 2004 9:25 pm
Location: Santa Fe, NM or Brookline, MA

Post by Dreamstalkerwolf » Fri Nov 19, 2004 8:22 pm

Yeah, this doesn't actually need to be completed until April, so I have a bit more leeway than I originally thought. The HDD/optical drives have pretty much been decided on; I'm getting lots of conflicting info right now re: 478/775, etc.

kie
Posts: 105
Joined: Wed Nov 12, 2003 10:46 am
Location: UK

Post by kie » Sat Nov 20, 2004 12:26 am

Yeah hold off if you can, although I doubt I could ;)

But if it's mainly a gaming machine, you need to decide on the video card first of all. And second of all, how noisey a video card you can handle.

Dreamstalkerwolf
Posts: 5
Joined: Tue Nov 16, 2004 9:25 pm
Location: Santa Fe, NM or Brookline, MA

Post by Dreamstalkerwolf » Sat Nov 20, 2004 3:36 pm

kie wrote:Yeah hold off if you can, although I doubt I could ;)
Heh. Yeah, the case is sitting innocently in a corner of my room; I can swear it's saying "Dreamstalker, build me..." ;)

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