New PC build (gaming)

Gonna chirp in here, Owner of the Western Digital Caviar Black 640GB and 1TB, and the Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB (four of them) and F4 2TB. All four drives are great, but as mentioned the Samsung drives are cheaper, and to my experience run cooler and just work faster (transfer speeds). Both the 1TB and 2TB samsung drives are faster than the Black 640GB, and the Black 1TB is the loudest and hottest of the four.

The only real advantage (if you want to call it that) with the WD Black drives is for the extra price you get an extra 2 years in warranty, but as posted previously [link] I argue that isn't really worth it considering what you end up trading for those two years.

Then go with the XFX 750W PSU instead; it's essentially identical to the Cooler Master one, but modular.

RAM has no correlation or impact on performance at any resolution. VRAM does however.

Modular meaning the cables aren't attached, right? That might be necessary with a mid-tower.

What about Cas Latency? I tried reading into it but it might as well have been in Taiwanese. All I understood was the lower the better, but I want to know if it's worth the price or if it makes a difference at all.

Lower latencies don't make for any noticeable difference in performance. The only time lower latency RAM matters is when you'd be overclocking.

So why the difference in prices?

If I go with a cheap set with good reviews, I should be good to go, right?

Out of all these (or any other you think is better) which one would you pick and why?

Lower latency RAM that runs reliably at high frequencies involves more work to produce, so they cost more.

I would recommend buying from the "Big Three" companies (Corsair, Crucial or OCZ) for best results. As long as it's from them, you're good to go IMHO. The only difference is that for the "Value" kits from these companies will come without heatspreaders (basically HSFs for the RAM). I only buy RAM that has heatspreaders, and I suggest you do the same too.

Out of those, I'd buy the G.SKILL RipJaws kit solely for its great heatspreader design.

Is the heatspreader a really big issue? I was planning on buying a couple of 120mm fans to stick on the side panel.

Also, some OCZ stuff has been getting really bad reviews, should I still trust it?

I wouldn't trust Newegg reviews. Most of the people don't know what they're talking about.

I have an OCZ kit and I highly recommend it. So would other people on this forum, I imagine. Even if you do have issues, you could just return it and get a new one ASAP.

As for heatspreaders, it's subjective. I prefer buying RAM with heatspreaders, but if you don't want to, that's upto you, especially if you're going to cool it via a fan.

Alright, this is what I have so far (from advise, suggestions, etc.):

OS + Case
Windows 7 64-bit + CoolerMaster Stormscout

MOBO
Biostar P55

CPU
i5 2.88 Quad Core

PSU
XFX 750w

RAM
Mushkin Enhanced (2x2gb)

Video Card
MSi 460 (Non-Overclocked)

HDD
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB

DVD Burner
LITE-ON

$995
$1084 w/ tax

I picked the Mushkin over the G.SKILL RAM because I didn't particularly like the color scheme (I know, what am I thinking?) But they both have the same price and specs and both have good rep for reliable hardware, so what the heck.

I also want to buy 1 or 2 extra 120mm fans to make sure it stays well ventilated, do you guys have any suggestions?

With the adjustments that Relic has suggested, this is damn close to my system which you can see in my profile.

I've had it for about two months and is without a doubt the best rig I've ever built. If you can spare the coin, I'd go for an SSD drive to hold the OS. A 60GB SSD will do the trick. It is really nice to be able to turn on the power and in 8-10 seconds be able to actually start doing some computing.

Currently I'm running all games (Fallout: NV, Civ V, Dirt2, MW4, etc.) at max settings (including max AA and resolution) and have not suffered a single slowdown, and I haven't even O/C'd the cards or CPU yet.

What is the deal with SSDs? Are they simply for holding the OS? I know they're faster but the smmall memory space kind of turned me off them.

SSD's (solid state drives) are non-mechnical hard drives. They're like giant USB thumb drives. You can use them as you would any hard drive, but the read/write times are considerably faster than a mechanical drive, even one with 10,000 rpm speed.

I have a 128GB drive which allows me to put my OS on it plus a couple of commonly used programs. The speed difference is VERY noticeable, especially boot and shut-down times. Again, for an OS only, you could get a 60GB drive. Plus they make zero noise because they're non-mechanical. Yes, they're more expensive, but in my opinion worth it. And I've seen some really good sales this past weekend and imagine that will continue. I've seen 60GB drives in the $100 range. 2-3 years ago those sized SSD drives were nearly $500.

For new fans, I always swap out my case and CPU cooler fans with Noctura fans. They are unbelievably quiet and push a ton of air. Here's the link to Noctura:

http://www.noctua.at/main.php?show=productview&products_id=25&lng=en

An SSD would be fantastic if you could squeeze it into your budget. They are worth the massive performance benefit.

As for fans, I prefer Scythe's S-Flex SFF21F and their Kaze Jyuni range of fans, as well as the Yate Loon\Nexus D12SL-12. Noctua's NF-S12-1200 is also a pretty good fan to consider as well.

Should I look into getting an SSD couple with a smaller HDD for general storage instead of a big HDD?

I have 2 250gb HDDs and I'm probably only using about 200-250gb shared between the two.

Absolutely. In fact, I would recommend that you get the cheapest 1TB HDD you can find from Samsung, WD or Seagate, and grab an SSD to go with it.

Ok, I won't be ordering anything until I get my money back anyways so I might as well take a look at them.

Alrighty. But just make sure you buy a 7200RPM drive; there are a couple of 5400RPM drives out there too, IIRC.

The Samsung Spinpoint F4 2TB drive is a 5400RPM drive. It's also as fast or faster than the F3 1TB, at least in my experience.

That build looks good and the RAM too, however I still personally prefer the GIGABYTE GA-P55A-UD3 over the Biostar motherboard. I'm sensing that you're still looking at SLI down the road hence that board. With the Hawk GTX 460 (btw amazing deal for $160 if you can get it) at your resolution you should be set with a lot of room to spare once you move on to another monitor not to mention that the Hawk has a lot of overclock headroom.

Regarding SSD's as already pointed out it would be a great investment. Like Rage said if you can get yourself an SSD + a large HDD for just storage you'd be set.

As an owner of the Storm Scout I say wait and see how well the air flow works with your build first before looking at any additional fans. It will already be coming with 3 fans and should do rather well depending on your room temperature. I personally only added one 120mm intake fan on the side to help out a bit.

LOL I recommended only 1TB drives, although yeah the F4's performance is surprising for its low spindle speed and areal density.