Legit Reviews

alrighty i've been a nuisance on the forums for a few months now, gathering information and waiting for my budget to even out. (long story, n/a here)

here's a link to my newegg.com wishlist!

Included is:
- ASUS P5N-E SLI LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI mobo
- Corsair 620HX PSU
- G.Skill 2Gb (1Gbx2) DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) with the Micron D9's in them
- Western Digital Raptor X WD1500AHFD 150GB
- ZALMAN 9700 LED
- C2D E6420 CPU

i'll be waiting to see the processor price drops, but this is a good reference seeing as i could still go this CPU route, and just take the price drop in stride

ITEMS I ALREADY OWN:
- BFG 7800 GT (bought from TechGreek)
- Antec P-180 Black

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can anyone see any issues with this build? i'm pretty sure the HSF will mount with plenty of clearance, and the GPU will slide in easily.
THIS PC WILL FEATURE THE RAM COOLER AND PCI COOLER I WON IN THE LAST CONTEST! just gotta make sure it'll have enough fan slots for it all!

that being said, please look over my build if you have the time, i've done a lot of research over the past few months, and i know i could get better parts if i wanted to spend more money, but i'd like to own my car too

one last thing: if i dont have enough fan slots on the motherboard, is there a USB to fan header i can get? i have a PCI slot card that provides me with 4 external AND one internal USB2.0 connection...

e6600 FTW

maj0r_pawnage wrote:e6600 FTW

He can easily overclock the 6420 to turn it into a X6800 ;)


That system looks pretty solid, of course theres space for upgrades, but I'm assuming it fits your budget and you didn't really want to spend too much more?

We just ordered that mobo for my friend and apprently reading..after getting it, it is very picky on ram. we have having to send back my friends ram and get a new set of ram. but so far your build looks good!!

also unless you are going to really flash your raptor x, get a normal one without a window. They are very loud. I am almost wanting to get rid of mine.

alrighty then, i just needed the capacity and size, and i didn't really notice the window on it. i'll look for a non-windowed raptor that fits my specs, thanks!

oh and,

He can easily overclock the 6420 to turn it into a X6800 ;)

i'm waiting for the price drops, i'll probably spring for a quad-core and overclock that beast!

the budget is pretty tight, but i plan on upgrading my OS to XP Pro x64 after a few months and buy another 2Gb of RAM

**edit** newegg keeps bumping my g.skill's off of the wishlist... with that 2Gb set, the final price will be ~$868

If we didn't have people asking questions, there wouldn't be half as many posts on the forums, so its fine.

Looking good so far.

Dan

g.skill price went up for the kit i wanted, if i'm goign to have to spend $20 extra, i should get a performance jump anyhow.

stopthekilling77 wrote:alrighty i've been a nuisance on the forums for a few months now, gathering information and waiting for my budget to even out. (long story, n/a here)

here's a link to my newegg.com wishlist!

Included is:
- ASUS P5N-E SLI LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI mobo
- Corsair 620HX PSU
- G.Skill 2Gb (1Gbx2) DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) with the Micron D9's in them
- Western Digital Raptor X WD1500AHFD 150GB
- ZALMAN 9700 LED
- C2D E6420 CPU

i'll be waiting to see the processor price drops, but this is a good reference seeing as i could still go this CPU route, and just take the price drop in stride

ITEMS I ALREADY OWN:
- BFG 7800 GT (bought from TechGreek)
- Antec P-180 Black

------------------------------------------------------------
can anyone see any issues with this build? i'm pretty sure the HSF will mount with plenty of clearance, and the GPU will slide in easily.
THIS PC WILL FEATURE THE RAM COOLER AND PCI COOLER I WON IN THE LAST CONTEST! just gotta make sure it'll have enough fan slots for it all!

that being said, please look over my build if you have the time, i've done a lot of research over the past few months, and i know i could get better parts if i wanted to spend more money, but i'd like to own my car too

one last thing: if i dont have enough fan slots on the motherboard, is there a USB to fan header i can get? i have a PCI slot card that provides me with 4 external AND one internal USB2.0 connection...

Dump the 7800GT, it is already an antique, seriously. Zalman anything is horrible. Use Thermaltake.

jtrain wrote: Dump the 7800GT, it is already an antique, seriously. Zalman anything is horrible. Use Thermaltake.

While everyone is entitled to their own opinion on products and companies, the mentioned Zalman is a solid cooler.

And if stk77 didn't have to work to a budget I'm sure he'd be getting something better than a 7800GT, but that fact is that he does have budget to work to, and having already bought the 7800GT he's not likely to now throw it out to buy something more expensive.

Dan

The new CPU's are now out at a lot of the smaller sites, the EGG is holding out for some stupid reason, why, only they know for sure. But anyways, you might want to take a look at the E6750 instead of the 6420, right now it's only $10 more and it's a much better CPU IMHO. I ordered one myself.

http://www.mwave.com/mwave/viewproduct. ... rs+%2D+CPU

Bio-Hazard wrote:The new CPU's are now out at a lot of the smaller sites, the EGG is holding out for some stupid reason, why, only they know for sure. But anyways, you might want to take a look at the E6750 instead of the 6420, right now it's only $10 more and it's a much better CPU IMHO. I ordered one myself.

http://www.mwave.com/mwave/viewproduct. ... rs+%2D+CPU

Bio has a point. I'd go with this. For only $10 more, you can't go wrong.

Looks like a decent build. Whats your price range if you dont mind me asking. Im trying to build a rig in the 700ish range so im waiting for everything to go on sale too hahaa

With all the computer problems that I've been having as of late maybe I should start from scratch and build a new box, but then again my wife controls the purse strings and she's not about to let loose any money right now.

Your specs look solid and for $10.00 more I'd go with the E6750 too. Might as well get what you can, when you can right now, so as not to have any regrets later down the line. Make sure that you post some pics of your new box after you build it, especially if you do any mods.

Good luck with the new build!

Razorbacx

thanks everyone for your help! a few financial elements have changed, and my shopping list is now more or less locked in, albeit a little more expensive - but i think it'll be way more worth the money. as far as my budget, i'm sticking at a cap of $1,300.00 USD.
originally i'd wanted a straight up budget board, and i almost bought the list i first posted in this thread, but then i realized if i waited a month or so i could get one of the new e6750s. (and due to the forum changes i didnt see this thread being active anymore...)
at any rate, i've gone from the 650i to a 680i board, from the 520HX PSU to the 620HX PSU, and although i'm sticking with the 7800 card, i WILL end up selling it to my buddy within a few months, whenever he decides to build a new pc, and i'll go with an 8800 GTX or GTS.

so anyhow, here's the up-to-date list at newegg: up-to-date list at newegg:

i think i'm going to be QUITE happy with this build! (i can't emphasize enough that i'm running a PIII @ 1Ghz right now >.< )
(and by thanksgiving time i'm going to buy another 2Gb kit of the mushkin RAM and a copy of Windows XP Pro 64-bit)

Are you planning on overclocking right away? Reason I ask is because I've seen Fry's run a Q6600 and ECS POS for pretty cheap. If you wanted to overclock down the road just pick up a new motherboard. If you live near a Fry's keep an eye out to see what combos they put on sale on Tuesday and Friday.
http://www.frys-electronics-ads.com/

This is just a personal opinion too but I think for the cost/performance of a Raptor is a giant waste of money. For that price you can get a lot more storage space but might have to wait an entire second longer for a game level to load.

Dude that's a solid spec sheet if there ever was one.

werewolfdaddy wrote:Dude that's a solid spec sheet if there ever was one.

thanks! i was especially careful to try to make sure i picked a good HSF, what would the equivalent price/product from Thermaltake?

Speaking of the Deals at Frys, todays paper has the Asus P5N-E SLI and E6850 for $377, not a bad price....

stopthekilling77 wrote:

werewolfdaddy wrote:Dude that's a solid spec sheet if there ever was one.

thanks! i was especially careful to try to make sure i picked a good HSF, what would the equivalent price/product from Thermaltake?

From all of the reviews I've read, that one you have picked out there is as good as it gets for air. There maybe a few others that do better, but it's a great cooler. I wouldn't even worry about other brands. Now, if you had the money to go with water, then that's another story.

The P35 chipset tends to clock better than 680i and is cheaper too. The ASUS P5K series are pretty solid boards.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6835109140
Pretty much the best HSF on the market, but the Zalman (I use the 9700NT) is great as well.