Please review my build. I'm a newbie.

[someoney3000]

So here I am with a gigantic headache brewing from 1 week of research:

Computer hardware selection review time.

I want to know if this rig is any good (is there any mistakes, could I get better parts elsewhere, etc.).

So here's the specs + a load of comments:

Processor: Intel e6600 conroe; I hear that it overclocks well to 3.6. Meanwhile I have to learn just how to overclock...

Motherboard: nVidia nForce 680i SLI; Basically for future-proofing reasons. I don't really want to install a whole new motherboard after all. And it also apparently is pretty fast + is good for overclocking.

Graphics Card: nVidia GeForce 8800; Just to run one game. Hahah... maybe I'm going overboard. Oh well. This is the main reason I am building a new system in the first place.

Memory: Kingston Hyper X 2gb DDR2 SDRAM kit; Performance-wise, I think maybe this is overkill. But I prefer overkill than underkill... if that makes any sense.

Sound Card: Creative X-Fi XtremeMusic; Ouch. Apparently it allows for “high-performance-hardware 3D sound acceleration” according to http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,2090572,00.asp

Hard Drive: Western Digital Raptor 74gb x 2; in Raid 0... if I know how to do that >.>. Would this work out? How do you set up Raid 0 anyways?

Power: Coolermaster iGreen 500 watt; I don’t know what kind of power I should get!! Is this enough for this system? A nice stable and quiet power supply is a dream come true, but where am I going to find that?

Cooling: No idea. I’m thinking water cooling, but will I need it for this set-up?

OS: Vista. Not settling for anything else right now...

Case: Antec P180; will this work though? I’m not certain exactly certain if this would fit everything.

Moniter, speakers, keyboard, mouse, optical drive: I’m going to reuse old parts for these. So I don’t have to spend money for them for now!

Here’s the final outline:

Intel E6600 conroe
nVidia nForce 680i SLI
8800 GTS 320mb (ECS)
Kingston HyperX 2gb 800mhz DDR2 SDRAM SLI-Ready
Creative X-Fi XtremeMusic
Western Digital Raptor 74gb x 2
Coolermaster iGreen 500w
???
Vista Ultimate/Premium
Antec P180

Looks like it’ll be around $2000. Sigh.

Thanks for taking a bit of your time to help me out. I'm really grateful for any feedback.

I'm not even sure if this is the correct topic to post this thread in...

 

[Phantombadger]

K the CPU kicks aszz, but if your OC'ing it go with either the 4300 or the 6420. reason. its cheap and OC's easy too over 3.0Ghz, or so im told, I know the 6300 and 6400 can dont know about the 4300; heard good things bout it though.

The Vid card is good but I'd recommend the 640mb version. the 320 isnt much better than a 7950 gtko.

Ram nice choice, but Sli ram is pointless. extra cost for nothin you cant do in the BIOS on your own.

Excellent Soundcard.

PSU go with over 600W. 500w is pushing it for an 8800 + 2 raptors.

HDD's if your goin for RAID 0 with raptors and nothin else I'd say ok but you may wanna look at getting a storage drive like a 320GB for $100. and setting up Raid is easy as Cake. When setting up the BIOS, enable RAID on those drives, and during POST there will be a keystroke to enter Raid options. then just select the drives wanted and the RAID wanted, it will create the sectors needed and then it will show up as a single volume. Be aware that RAID 0 offers no integrity checks and as it is pulling off 2 drives it is twice as likely to hit a bad sector. Also 2 Raptors running RAID will create alot of Heat so put a front HDD fan on that P180.

Cooling, NEVER go Water if you are using it as your PC and not OC'ing for anything other than a performance boost. as you are asking Q's about your build and dont know about Oc'ing you arent even at the level for a heatsink swap. but I suggest in its place a Zalman cooler. along with cooling is your case the P180 series is excellent as well is the Nine Hundred. If you go for the gusto Get a P190; it comes with 2 PSu's a 650w for mobo and accesories and a 550 for Hdd's. as well the P190 has the greatness that the P182S is.

And finally the OS. Ultimate is kinda Pricey but worth it. IF you need an OS w/ DX10 get Premium Home.

680i =$290
P190 = $400
P182 = $150
600w psu = $150
8800gts 640 = $400
zalman cooler = $90
2x raptors = $400(ouch)
a 750gb drive = $350 (read into perpendicular vs parallel is comparable in speeds to the raptor)
Hyperx 2gb 6400 kit = $200
E6420 = $229

Total = 1850 - 2000 approx.
now the p190 comes with a psu and its 1200w
upto you thats my 2¢