Will <X> card fit in <X> case

The sound card:Creative Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS Platinum
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16829102163

...or more specifically, this part of it:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ShowI....1 Channels PCI Interface Sound Card - Retail


The Case: XION Ultimate Engineering XON-002 Black/Silver Computer Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811208004

The question is, will the case's drive bay door close with the front peripheral inserted into one of the 5.25" slots. It looks like it might looking at the inside of the door, but I'm just not sure.

Anyway, this is the first computer I'm building, so if anyone wouldn't mind looking at the full specs, I'd be glad to post them.

I see no reason why it wouldn't fit. I have never worked with that specific case, so I can't be sure, but my case here at home has a similar style front door

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ShowI...for AMD & Intel systems Power Supply - Retail

It it can fit that front control box no problem. That control panel is made to fit in standard 5.25 slots. It barely sticks out any further than an optical drive. I'd say 99% chance you are good to go.

A side note, I'd do some research (if you haven't already) on the PSU that comes with that case. The maker doesn't give any details on the specs, which is a cause for concern.... How many amps does it put out on it's 12v rail(s) for example? Scary....

Ok, thanks for the info. As I said, this is the first computer I'm attempting to build. I emailed a few techies I know with the specs because I'm not sure if all the parts will work with each other at all. I pretty much know everything fits are far as card types, drive slots, number of pins, etc, etc... I don't know things like whether the power supply is enough, whether the fan I picked is good enough, and other similar things. I attached a text file with the specs I chose. I'd like to stay in the $1500-$2000 price range (or cheaper of course ) so any tips or changes would be greatly appreciated.

I am not a big fan of ECS motherboards, however from the reviews on the net they have really turned themselves around and are producing some good quality motherboards, the one you have selected included. It is getting good reviews all around by the looks of it.

The only two things I myself would change in your setup:

You are getting an SLI motherboard. This means it has two PCI-E slots for dual graphics cards. However, SLI only works with nVidia cards, and you are purchasing an ATI card. Of course that ATI card will work in your system no problem, I just don't understand the choice of selecting an SLI board and an ATI card. I personally would do one of the following:

1. Get an Nvidia graphics card, something like a 7800GTX or 7900GT. Since your motherboard is SLI, this means that in the future, if you wanted to, you could add a SECOND identical graphics card as an upgrade to your system.

2. Get a "Crossfire" motherboard to go with your ATI graphics card. "Crossfire" is the same as SLI, but it is the ATI version of it. Same thing again, in the future if you want to upgrade your graphics, if you have a "crossfire" motherboard as opposed to an SLI motherboard, you could add a second ATI graphics card as an upgrade.

3. Get a non SLI board. If you don't plan to purchase a second graphics card, then cut the costs of having an SLI board, and just get the regular version without the SLI feature.

The other thing I personally would do is put a solid power supply in there. They are very cheap these days, and well worth the investment. If you search this forum, you will find hundreds (thousands?) of people who have problems that are caused by cheap power supplies. You won't regret it.

$60-$80 for a good one. Then just take the one that comes with your case out, and put a good one in. This is a GREAT psu for only $53 right now:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817103937

Wow, thanks a lot. That's exactly what I was posting around for. I would have bought this set up and not known it wouldn't work together, thanks again. I was actually considering switching to a 7900GT based on the comparison review on this website. My only disappointment with the GeForce cards were its performance in Far Cry which gets me concerned about the upcoming Crysis and how it will perform on that. Plus, I was more turned to ATI due to the fact that my last experience with buying an nVidia led me to buying a $300 FX 5600 Ultra.

I'll also buy a power supply, I wasn't sure if the 450 was enough. Thanks for the tip. Other than that, you'd say the setup is good? Another change I was considering making is switching to a Pentium D instead of the Pentium 4 because of the dual-core. Is that really as big of an advantage as the pictures show?

I think you may have misunderstood?

If you purchase that ATI card, it WILL work in that motherboard no problem, and the X1800XT is a very nice card!

But the motherboard you are looking at has a special feature that can ONLY be used by nvidia graphics cards. The special feature allows you to install two nividia cards at the same time.

You are buying a motherboard that specializes in utilizing nvidia cards, but buying an ATI card, so you would never be able to utilize the SLI feature of your motherboard. That's all. Nothing huge like incompatible parts or anything.

As for the PSU, you can calculate exactly how many watts you need here:
http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculator.jsp

Keep in mind that PSUs typically run at about 70% of their maximum rated capacity, so if it tells you you need a 300w psu, you should be looking in the 400w and up range to be safe. But more importantly (or at least JUST as important) is the number of amps the PSU is putting out on it's 12v rails.

Ok, I see. I'll look into the whole SLI and Crossfire deal. I don't know much about it, yet. Thanks. Even still, I may go with the nVidia card.

I used that calculator and it gave me exactly 350w running at 100% CPU and PSU utilization. This is without overclocking anything, so do you think 450w should do it, or should I buy a better one? I suppose I might go for the better power supply not to risk anything and give me some room for upgrading. I'll have to post around and find out about the Amperage on the +12V Rails on the power supplies I consider, thanks for that tip.

As I also editted in my post after you posted a reply. Another change I was considering making is switching to a Pentium D instead of the Pentium 4 because of the dual-core. Is that really as big of an advantage as these pictures show?

Alright a few changes:

Power Supply: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817148013
or
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817190007

Video Card: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814125031

I'm honestly confused about the power supply. The video card says it wants a 12V rating of 26A. The first power supply only offers a single 12V rail, which I assume means it's worthless if I want SLI because I can't hook up dual cards. Otherwise the 12V rating on that single is well good enough. The second power supply is made by the same makers as the case, which I like. It does only have 22A on it's two 12V rails. Though the top review on it says he's running a 7900GT overclocked, which if you checked is the card I posted here.

Have you seen these charts before?

Graphics cards: http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics.html

CPUs: http://www23.tomshardware.com/cpu.html

They are really good for comparing parts against each other. Myself, if I was building a new system now I would absolutely go dual core.

That PSU you have selected doesn't look bad, but I didn't search for any reviews of it. I tend to stick with the big names when it comes to PSUs. Antec, Enermax etc.

Your link for the graphics card doesn't seem to be working.

And finally, something up to this point I have never mentioned, and take it how you like but for gaming, AMD really is the better way to go. Have a look at those CPU charts I linked you to above.

Alright, a pretty large rework. New motherboard, processor, nVidia card, power supply, and different RAM. Total now is $1847.84.

Code:

[B]Case:[/B]
   XION Ultimate Engineering XON-002 Black/Silver Computer Case        $59.99
   http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811208004

[B]Cooling:[/B]
   Thermaltake Thunderblade A1926 120mm Sleeve Cooling Fan              $9.99
   http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811999127

[B]Power Supply:[/B]
   ASPIRE Chameleon ATX-AS550W-SV 550W                                 $74.99
   http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817148013
[B]
5.25" Drives:[/B]
   Pioneer 16X DVD±R DVD Burner With 5X DVD-RAM Read                   $35.99
   http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827129001

   SONY Black IDE DVD-ROM Drive Model DDU1615/B2s                      $19.99
   http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827101131

[B]3.5" Drive:[/B]
   SONY Black Internal Floppy Drive Model MPF920 Black                  $9.99
   http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16821103116

[B]Hard Drives:[/B]
   Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 250GB 3.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive         $89.99
   http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822148111

   Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 80GB 3.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive          $50.99
   http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822148107

[B]Motherboard:[/B]
   ECS KN1 SLI Lite (1.0A) ATX AMD Motherboard                         $86.99
   http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813135220

[B]Processor:[/B]
   AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego 2000MHz HT Socket 939 Processor      $235.00
   http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103539

[B]RAM:[/B]
   Kingston ValueRAM 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Dual Channel     $162.99
   Kit System Memory
   http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820141465

[B]Video Card:[/B]
   GIGABYTE Geforce 7900GT GV-NX79T256DB-RH-ED                        $299.99
   http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814125031

[B]Sound Card:[/B]
   Creative Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS Platinum                         $202.00
   http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16829102163

[B]Monitor:[/B]
   AG Neovo AGM CW-19 Black 19" 4ms Widescreen LCD Monitor            $222.99
   http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16824163130

[B]Input Devices:[/B]
   Ideazon 2-Tone Keyboard                                             $34.99
   http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16823161019

   Logitech MX518 2-Tone Mouse                                         $39.99
   http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16826104178

[B]Speakers and Headset:[/B]
   Creative Inspire T3000 2.1 Speaker                                  $41.00
   http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16836116147

   PLANTRONICS DSP500 PC Headset with Microphone Boom and              $49.99
   Digital Signal Processing
   http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16826106012
[B]
Operating System:[/B]
   Windows XP Home Edition                                             $119.99
   * from Target

                                                          TOTAL       $1847.84

Very nice system there. I'll offer a few changes for you to consider:

1. If you get a motherboard with solid onboard sound, you don't need that killer sound card you are looking at buying. In fact, it is a complete waste of money unless you are going to invest in speakers that are powerful enough to handle it. The speakers you are looking at are nice speakers, but a good onboard sound chip will power those without any problems at all. Long story short, if you are not going to invest in a couple hundred for speakers, you don't need a killer sound card. Granted it does free up your cpu a bit if you have an add-in sound card, but personally, the money you would save by NOT getting one can be used in better places for your system.

For example, if you save that money, you could then get yourself an AthlonX2 cpu. That 3700 you are looking at is absolutely amazing for the price. Very fast CPU (the one I currently have in my desktop), but most new games these days are starting to make use of dual core CPUs now. The 3700 will likely still be faster than the X2 3800 but if you can get yourself an X2 4400 you'll be flying. If you take the price of your sound card and plug it into your CPU, you could get one.

Or you could upgrade your motherboard to something a little sweeter. A few examples:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813128301
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131517 (the one I currently have)

And finally, that Aspire PSU. Aspire doesn't have a very good reputation for PSUs. Have a look at the information here: http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=792566

I notice that the two psus you have selected so far have been very.... pretty. High quality PSUs that are also pretty tend to be very expensive. If you are wanting to keep your PSU price below $100 or so, you probably shouldn't be looking at pretty PSUs. Get an ugly one that won't toast your system

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817103931
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817103512

You've been a consistently good sport and I thank you.

As for the sound card, I think I'm going to stick with it. I agree with your idea, but I slightly mislead you with the speakers. The speakers and headphones were just temp things I threw in really. My brother works in Audio and he can probably get me some very good quality speakers and headphones that will make good use for that sound card.

For the power supply, I also agree. I have been trying to get pretty ones, but I could live with one that doesn't have a light or what have you. To be honest, I'm not completely understanding power supplies. Most of the high end video cards expect somewhere near 25A on the 12V rail, but many of the power supplies boast SLI support for high end video cards with only 18-19A on the 12V. Am I missing something? Also, if you support 2 video cards, do you need two 12V connectors or the power supply connects to one and one connects to the other? Thanks again for your support.

I also forgot to subtract the rebate prices from the total. I know I'll be mailing those in. I switch my vid card for the same model, just made by MSI instead since it was the exact same price and has a $30 rebate. Not to mention I've heard MSI is a pretty respectable manufacturer.

Sweet. If you get some high end speakers, you are going to be loving that sound card. It'll be a great setup.

As for the PSUs, I'll take a guess and say that perhaps the part you are missing, is when a PSU has DUAL 12v rails. So for example, there can be two identical PSUs, both 550W. One has a single 12v rail at 30amps, and the other has two 12v rails at 15amps each. Same thing. When there are dual 12v rails, you add the two amps together to get the total amps. There are debates as to which is better (personally I go for the dual rails), and to tell the truth it isn't all that important. What IS important is the total amps.

So for most high end cards, you need to be up in the 25-30 amp range or higher, and that can be either 30amps on a single 12v rail, or 15amps split into two 12v rails.

The next thing to consider is if you are going to eventually install that second 7900GT. Each one requires a connection directly to the PSU and they have a special connector specifically for PCI-E cards. Most psus only come with one of these connectors. SLI rated PSUs come with two. Not a huge deal, as you can always buy an adapter for the second PCI-E card if/when needed, but still nice to not have to mess with adapters.

Phew... long day. Thanks for hangin' in there. Well, this may be my final set up. I left the speakers and mic in just for filler, I might even buy them until I can get the good set. This list has a bigger breakdown of price with the sub total, tax, and shipping. Also I subtracted all the rebates. All together after rebates I managed under $2000 and that was my goal, so I'm happy. I stuck with the second power supply I decided on since it seemed to meet the requirements for SLI(two 12V rails at 22A each, plus it looks pretty )

Again, thanks for your help, you've done more than I could have asked for.

Code:

Case:
   XION Ultimate Engineering XON-002 Black/Silver Computer Case             $59.99
   http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811208004

Cooling:
   Thermaltake Thunderblade A1926 120mm Sleeve Cooling Fan                   $9.99
   http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811999127

Power Supply:
   Xion PowerReal XON-600F14T-201 ATX12V V.2.01 600W                        $89.99
   http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817190007

5.25" Drives:
   Pioneer 16X DVD±R DVD Burner With 5X DVD-RAM Read                        $35.99
   http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827129001

   SONY Black IDE DVD-ROM Drive Model DDU1615/B2s                           $19.99
   http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827101131

3.5" Drive:
   SONY Black Internal Floppy Drive Model MPF920 Black                       $9.99
   http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16821103116

Hard Drives:
   Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 250GB 3.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive              $89.99
   http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822148111

   Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 80GB 3.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive               $50.99
   http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822148107

Motherboard:
   ECS KN1 SLI Lite (1.0A) ATX AMD Motherboard                              $86.99
   http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813135220

Processor:
   AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego 2000MHz HT Socket 939 Processor           $235.00
   http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103539

RAM:
   OCZ Performance 2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR SDRAM                                 $169.99
   http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820146970

Video Card:
   MSI Geforce 7900GT NX7900GT                                             $299.99
   http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814127098

Sound Card:
   Creative Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS Platinum                              $202.00
   http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16829102163

Monitor:
   AG Neovo AGM CW-19 Black 19" 4ms Widescreen LCD Monitor                 $222.99
   http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16824163130

Input Devices:
   Ideazon 2-Tone Keyboard                                                  $34.99
   http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16823161019

   Logitech MX518 2-Tone Mouse                                              $39.99
   http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16826104178

Speakers and Headset:
   Creative Inspire T3000 2.1 Speaker                                       $41.00
   http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16836116147

   PLANTRONICS DSP500 PC Headset with Microphone Boom and                   $49.99
   Digital Signal Processing
   http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16826106012

Operating System:
   Windows XP Home Edition                                                 $119.99
   * from Target

                                                           SUB TOTAL      $1869.84
							         Tax       $112.19
							    Shipping        $62.20
							       TOTAL      $2044.23

					       After Mail-in Rebates       -$30.00 (Video Card)
									   -$10.00 (Power Supply)
									   -$15.00 (Case)
									   -$20.00 (Motherboard)
									   -$20.00 (RAM)
									   -$20.00 (Monitor)

						           New Total      $1929.23

Nice, alot of things learnt.

Also, being a little of an audiophile, I'd like to point out getting a kickass soundcard+speaker combo doesn't matter if all you do is listen to MP3s. You'd want to listen to an uncompressed format. Evaluate what you're going to do with it, and buy something that'll suit your needs. Playing games doesn't require the top end soundcard I must say.

Also, if you can't tell the difference between a song in 2 different formats, you probably aren't gonna tell the difference between a good soundcard, and an onboard one. You brother might, but he's not gonne be using the comp, is he?

I noticed that you selected 2 HDDs, a 250gb and an 80gb one. May I ask why are you buying the 80gb? I think its a better idea to get 2x250gb and run RAID0 on it.

Also, I might want to point out that alot of people are putting off buying new comps because of the impending release of Intel's latest processor, the Conroe, and the release of DirectX 10 (which will render all cards today, even the biggest, most expensive ones, obsolete). Probably out at the end of the year, so if you can wait that long, it will definately be worth the wait.

Hmm, well I ended up making some more changes since that I was looking again to see if it will all fit together. That whole obsolete comment is getting me worried though. I found out that if I shipped to my mother's house (who lives in a neighboring state) there is no sales tax. So that's a bonus. Plus, I lowered my sound card from the $200 version with the front peripheral to the $70 card that's exactly the same minus the said peripheral. I don't think that's worth $130.

So with the changes I was able to upgrade my processor to AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ Manchester 2000MHz HT Socket 939 Dual Core which has a combo with a ATI 100-435801 Radeon X1900XT 512MB GDDR3 for believe it or not the relatively same price. Now, is this worth it if it's going to be obsolete at the end of the year? There is no chance these cards could run DirectX 10? How much will the new cards cost at the end of the year? Thanks.

EDIT: Looking at the Conroe performance benchmarks I just saw, I'd say Intel is the way to go it seems. Anything new on the horizon for AMD? Sigh, looks like I'll have to switch again to an Intel Motherboard (which I hope will work with Conroe. Will it?)

Well, I said it'll be obsolete, but it may be anywhere till 1 year later before your card can't support any games. Either way, DX9 cards are on the way out.

Intel has said that Conroe will work on some current motherboards. I think they made that promise before, but turned back on it so I won't get Intel just for the upgradability.

Besides, most of the time its the GC that bottlenecks performance on comps. That said, a fast CPU helps