Legit Reviews

This is the first time i am building my own computer, i just want to get feed back on what i came up with... any feed back is great!! i plan on OverClocking the AMD to 2.5 which will also be my first experiance with OCing.


Stage 1:
___ X-Clear Acrylic Computer Case
___ 4 Quad Blue Led Fans
___ Serial ATA Adapter UV Blue
___ Dual Blue Cathode Light Kit
___ Hiper Type-R 580W Modular Power Supply - Blue (SLI Certified)

___ Asus A8N-SLI Premium nForce4 SLI Skt939 DDR Motherboard w/Audio, Dual Gigabit LAN
___ AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Processor Socket 939
___ Microsoft Windows XP Professional

___ BFG GeForce 7800 GT OC 256MB PCI-Express Graphics Card
___ WinTV-PVR 150 Personal Video Recorder PC Interface

___ Seagate 300GB Internal Serial ATA/150 Hard Drive
___ Seagate 300GB Internal Serial ATA/150 Hard Drive
___ Seagate 400GB Internal Ultra ATA/100 Hard Drive

___ Corsair TWINX2048-3200C2 2GB Kit DDR400 XMS3200 Memory w/Black Heat Spreader
___ Corsair TWINX2048-3200C2 2GB Kit DDR400 XMS3200 Memory w/Black Heat Spreader

someone has a veeeeery fat wallet, lol

Welcome to the forums man!

I do have a question for you: while all of your hardware appears great, I must ask why 1 TB total of HDD space? What do you plan on doing with so much storage, lol...Also, I would go with all SATA if you need so many HDD's, just to keep data rates standardized. The XMS RAM is definitely a good choice in RAM.....Also, if you plan on OCing your processor, you'll want to make sure you have a good aftermarket cooler, mainly because stock HSF's aren't all that great at dissipating the amount of heat generated from OCing.....I would recommend the Thermalright XP-90C, due to its all-copper construction it is really efficient in getting that heat off your processor......couple it with a Panaflo H1A fan, and you have something there! Of course, if sound isn't much of a problem, then I would look into getting a Delta fan to go on that HSF, as they have some of the highest pressure and CFM ratings I've seen in a fan........what size case fans btw? I would recommend at least a 120mm in the front and also in the back. I would even go as far as to mod the side panel to accomodate another 120mm case fan, if not already constructed to take one. Also, were you looking for things to glow inside your case, or you just want blue CC's? If you want to UV glow, go with UV reactive cabling (SATA, power supply sleeving, the whole 9 yards)......I also recommend getting an aftermarket cooler, like the one from Arctic Cooling that fits the 7800GT......once again, if you plan on OCing your graphics card as well, you'll want a good aftermarket cooling solution in order to keep temps down, otherwise the stock cooler will give under all that heat. Remember, the graphics card and the CPU are your 2 biggest heat producers, with the PSU coming in a close 3rd IMO. Also, you might want to consider the Antec TruePower II 550W PSU, mainly because you'll want the security of 2 12V+ rails and not to mention they're highly rated (19A on each rail, the Hiper PSU you want is rated 20A on V1 and 18A on V2, which might cause some inconsistency down the road, especially with OCing, but maybe not that, as I'm one for uniformity in my ratings between rails)

All things considered, I think if you wanted to, and went with good aftermarket coolers and a stable PSU, you could get 2.5 fairly easily, maybe a little more.....of course, watercooling is always a future consideration as well, just thought I would throw that in there.

Remember, for high-end power needs and aftermarket coolers, along with visual mods like CC's and UV-reactive cabling, Performance PC's is your friend, as they have all sorts of cool stuff for the PC: aftermarket coolers, fans, case mod supplies, the whole 9 yards......even good watercooling units and kits! sorry post was so long, thought I would cover everything while I was here, lol

Super rig you got going there and I wouldn't worry at all about the PSU you picked. I've been using one in my main rig from before they were released and haven't had a problem at all. It's under a ton of load most of the time including pushing a huge water cooling system. Just a small note, this PSU replaced a Antec that took a crap on me cause it couldn't handle the constant high 12v load from the dual pumps and 7 120mm fans..............

Yeah, I agree with killswitch, why the odd UATA HDD? Why not just get all three SATA drives? Other than that, my only concern was the PSU, but it looks like Bio has managed to sweep that argument away from me
Good luck with your build, it looks like it will be a good one!

Having a 400GB drive as IDE makes good sence.....
It allows you to use it as an external drive and also to use it on an old pc.....

many times a friend wanted some movies etc. from me, it's soo easy using an external drive!!!

I've since changed to an 2" HDD as smaller but don't knock IDE.......
Can also be safer to OC when using IDE....
I'm anal when it comes to corrupt data...When I first OC, I install xp to an IDE drive, When I've found my max, I then reinstall onto my prefered HDD....

Ok, well, I guess I can see how using it for external/portable storage would be useful...

gvblake22 wrote:Ok, well, I guess I can see how using it for external/portable storage would be useful...

Even the option to do so is worth it........IMO

But you can still get front panel or PCI bracket SATA and molex power plugs and then just put your SATA drive in an external enclosure. As long as the other computers you are using can take SATA too, it is still possible (although less compatable) to use a SATA drive externally.

I still use a 80 gig IDE when starting out with a new system. Much easier and faster than setting up a SATA because I don't use a floppy drive. Like
kenc51, I switch over after it's up and running stable.............

hmmm, that's interesting. I haven't had to use a floppy drive for setting up my SATA drive since socket A
I just plug it in and it is recognized by the BIOS and windows setup and everything... Just like an UATA drive.

Bio-Hazard wrote:Super rig you got going there and I wouldn't worry at all about the PSU you picked. I've been using one in my main rig from before they were released and haven't had a problem at all. It's under a ton of load most of the time including pushing a huge water cooling system. Just a small note, this PSU replaced a Antec that took a crap on me cause it couldn't handle the constant high 12v load from the dual pumps and 7 120mm fans..............

OMG HEARTS TO THE PSU!!!!!!!!! I love the old style microphone connectors instead of the molex!!!!!! I want one!

DFI's good like that I guess...some mobos are picky and require SATA drivers during setup, but perhaps DFI has it down-pat.

On a separate note from this, the only reason why I wasn't too sure on the Hiper PSU is because of the max current difference between both 12V rails......I used to work on electrical components as an old job (repairing small electric motors, working with AC and DC controls, etc), and I found that a 2A gap even on 115-120V can have a devastating effect in high-power usage application......now, there may be some protection against current frying in this case, but that's the only reason why I wanted identical 12V+ rail maxes.

DragonCooler wrote: OMG HEARTS TO THE PSU!!!!!!!!! I love the old style microphone connectors instead of the molex!!!!!! I want one!

hey, it's nothing but a modular PSU, but pretty handy for cable management....I heard there could be problems with that in cheaper PSU's, but I don't think that's the case with this one......it is a nice-looking PSU.

killswitch83 wrote:DFI's good like that I guess...some mobos are picky and require SATA drivers during setup, but perhaps DFI has it down-pat.

Was the same with my Chaintech too

Windows will detect and install fine on any SATA drive using the Nforce4 chipset.....(or Intel)

What happens with overclocking to far is you get corrupt data....this happens even with working pci/agp/pcie locks....
Sometimes I get constant BSODs or if I don't I find alot of RAR files etc. misteriously have become corrupt...

When I OC first with a new system, I install to an IDE drive....use this drive for upto 1mth getting used to the motherboard etc. After I find my max stable OC and other settings...I then install to a clean SATA drive....then format the IDE drive and use it as an external one.....
I've learned that lesson B4...I've lost ~300GB of data, I was on a different drive to the OS...but I stupidly had it plugged in when overclocking....

my 2$

I found an awesome external enclosure for an external drive too, though it's semi off-topic you brought up making an IDE drive external after OCing, so:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6817145656

opinions on this one, Ken?

killswitch83 wrote:I found an awesome external enclosure for an external drive too, though it's semi off-topic you brought up making an IDE drive external after OCing, so:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6817145656

opinions on this one, Ken?

Cool, even has a fan to keep the drive cool.....
Mine doesn't come with a fan, but I don't have it connected 24/7
The make doesn't matter much aslong as it's robust....
Laptop drives are cool aswell for external drives...

That's my first pick if I decide to go with an external drive. Would be useful for disaster recovery using Acronis TrueImage or Norton Ghost, but I can get a trialware version of TrueImage, you gotta pay for Ghost unfortunately.....unless you know of somewhere I can get a trial copy....the website only has a pay option. Plan on eventually grabbing it and a 300 GB HDD and putting a full-sized image of this 60 GB I have in my PC now onto the drive.

edit: I think this drive would go well with it, though it only has an 8MB cache:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822148061

man you guys are quick to the gun..... i am now looking into a aftermarket CPU Cooler taking in the suggestion of the Thermalright XP-90C. The reason i have a Terabyte of hard drive space is so that i can say i have a terabyte of hard drive space anyway im getting a 400 gb hard drive for just copying movies (i copy everymovie that is ever released on tuesdays) and so i can take it with me with an incloser with no issues. i plan on making both 300gb put in a RAID. This will be my first self build project with computers so i did a ton of research. the only thing i am doing alot of research now is on OCing because i have no clue how to do that. ive seen reports of the x2 3800 beating the stock x2 4800 with an OCing of 2.5, so thats my goal..... i dont want to push past that.

thanks for all your input

mike

Hey Mike...The XP-90 cooler is a great heatsink....you sould be fine with that...
When you have it up an running we can help with anything, that's why were here mate!!

Happy New Year!