New Computer [Parts listed], suggestions welcome

[Vasco]

Hi all, I'm buying a new computer in the next two weeks and I was looking for advice on the parts I've put together. All prices are in AUD (using Static Ice), and I'm planning on buying Vista Home Premium (64 bit edition)...although I'm not too sure if everything is currently supported on it.

CPU
Intel CORE 2 QUAD Q6600
$336.00

Video Card
XpertVision ATI Radeon HD2900XT 512MB 512-bit DDR3 (Will probably upgrade this next year once some second gen DX10 cards come out)
$489.00

Motherboard
Gigabyte GA-P35C-DS3R
$199.00

Mouse & Keyboard
Logitech G7 (Was thinking MX revolution, but this seems like a better option for gaming)
$103.00
Logitech G15 Keyboard
$95.00

RAM
OCZ PC2-6400 DDR2 800MHz DC Platinum XTC R2 4-4-4-15 (2x 1GB)
Two of these (For a total of 4GB, will this be fast? I was looking at 4GB kits but they had timings of CL5)
$370

Hard Drive
2x 500GB WESTERN DIGITAL SATAII-3gb/s HDD (16MB, 7200rpm) - WD5000AAKS
$320.00

Speakers
Logitech X-540 5.1 Speakers
$108

Optical Drives
2x Pioneer DVR-212BK 18x Dual Black OEM - SATA
$100.00

Case
Antec P182 Black
$199.00

Power Supply
Corsair HX-620W ATX Power Supply
$168.00

Sound Card
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic
$168.00

HDTV Card
DigitalNow TinyTwin Dual Digital USB Receiver
$149 (Digitalnow)

Monitor
Dell 24" 2407WFP-HC Ultra Sharp Widescreen Flat Panel Monitor
$999

Total
$2804

With Monitor:
$3803

 

[Eric.]

I'll add a few changes, opinions, etc. (underlined)

CPU
Intel CORE 2 QUAD Q6600
$336.00

This will be even cheaper tomorrow.

Video Card
XpertVision ATI Radeon HD2900XT 512MB 512-bit DDR3 (Will probably upgrade this next year once some second gen DX10 cards come out)
$489.00

If you are upgrading so soon, I'd suggest you get a 320MB 8800GTS. Its nearly as good as the other 8800s for under $300 USD

Motherboard
Gigabyte GA-P35C-DS3R
$199.00

I'd consider getting a 680i board if I were you, but DS3s aren't bad

Mouse & Keyboard
Logitech G7 (Was thinking MX revolution, but this seems like a better option for gaming)
$103.00
Logitech G15 Keyboard
$95.00

Got the mouse, love it. Wouldn't spend that on a keyboard though.

RAM
OCZ PC2-6400 DDR2 800MHz DC Platinum XTC R2 4-4-4-15 (2x 1GB)
Two of these (For a total of 4GB, will this be fast? I was looking at 4GB kits but they had timings of CL5)
$370

Looks good, you will have to use 64bit Vista for that much RAM.

Hard Drive
2x 500GB WESTERN DIGITAL SATAII-3gb/s HDD (16MB, 7200rpm) - WD5000AAKS
$320.00

Maybe you should use a smaller drive as the main drive and put those two in RAID1

Speakers
Logitech X-540 5.1 Speakers
$108

Optical Drives
2x Pioneer DVR-212BK 18x Dual Black OEM - SATA
$100.00

Case
Antec P182 Black
$199.00

Power Supply
Corsair HX-620W ATX Power Supply
$168.00

Sound Card
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic
$168.00
[/U]

HDTV Card
DigitalNow TinyTwin Dual Digital USB Receiver
$149 (Digitalnow)

Monitor
Dell 24" 2407WFP-HC Ultra Sharp Widescreen Flat Panel Monitor
$999

Total
$2804

With Monitor:
$3803

Looks good if you have the money to blow on some of the expensive extras.

 

[Vasco]

Thanks for the suggestions, yeah I heard about the price drops (that price for the Q6600 was from a shop which had already dropped theirs) on CPUs.

How hard is it to setup devices in RAID 1? I have no experience with RAID and have no idea how it works, or how to set it up.

Oh and I'm getting the P35 for future compatibility with Penryns (just in case).

Thanks again for the suggestions.

 

[Burnout]

Thanks for the suggestions, yeah I heard about the price drops (that price for the Q6600 was from a shop which had already dropped theirs) on CPUs.

How hard is it to setup devices in RAID 1? I have no experience with RAID and have no idea how it works, or how to set it up.

Oh and I'm getting the P35 for future compatibility with Penryns (just in case).

Thanks again for the suggestions.

It's literally a 2 or 3 step process. Extremelly easy these days. 👍

 

[Eric.]

Yeah, if you were to need any help building or setitng it up, ask Burnout or possibly myself. RAID looks very easy to do on my EVGA 680i SE, its in the BIOS. My old Gigabyte 965P-DS3 had a software utility, maybe something in BIOS too.

 

[GT3mich]

The quad can be bought here for under $300 with free shipping. I just bought on last night.
http://http://www.clubit.com/product_detail.cfm?itemno=CA1938452
I also bought the same Gigabyte board from ClubIT for $152.00
http://www.clubit.com/product_detail.cfm?itemno=CA4830710
That'll save you about $100 👍 I've bought items from ClubIT in the past and had no problems.
For the Antec case $125.00
http://www.mwave.com/mwave/viewspec.hmx?scriteria=BA23818
Another $75.00
For the monitor I might suggest:
BENQ 24" FP241VW WIDESCREEN 1920X1200 1000:1 6MS VGA DVI-D HDMI for $774.23
http://www.mwave.com/mwave/viewspec.hmx?scriteria=4239857
I read a review on it at:http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/benq_fp241vw/
I don't have the budget for a monitor that costs that much so I bought a "20 in widescreen BenQ and love it. I would buy another again in a minute.
I hope some of this may be usefull.

 

[ROAD_DOGG33J]

I hope some of this may be useful.

Psssttt...he's in Australia.

 

[GT3mich]

Well I tried.

 

[Vasco]

Thanks for the suggestions but because I'm in Australia (like Road Dog pointed out) they don't really help too much.

I've made some changes...

- Going with a GeCube HD2900XT because apparently XpertVision are really poor to deal with as a company for warranty, and I don't want to take any chances seeing as my 9800 Pro conked out after about 2 years of use.

- Logitech G5 2007 Edition seems the best choice, I can live without wireless.

- RAM wise, I've gone with 2x Kingston CL5 2gb DDR2-800 kits, much cheaper than the OCZ and I'm not OCing so it doesn't really make a difference

- 2x Seagate 500GB Sata II drives instead of the WDs

- 2x Asus DWH-1814BLTs because Pioneer drives have been problematic.

Oh and my 24 inch monitor arrived yesterday, probably the greatest new computer part I have ever gotten. It's so ****ing good!

 

[Eric.]

Thanks for the suggestions but because I'm in Australia (like Road Dog pointed out) they don't really help too much.

I've made some changes...

- Going with a GeCube HD2900XT because apparently XpertVision are really poor to deal with as a company for warranty, and I don't want to take any chances seeing as my 9800 Pro conked out after about 2 years of use.

- Logitech G5 2007 Edition seems the best choice, I can live without wireless.

- RAM wise, I've gone with 2x Kingston CL5 2gb DDR2-800 kits, much cheaper than the OCZ and I'm not OCing so it doesn't really make a difference

- 2x Seagate 500GB Sata II drives instead of the WDs

- 2x Asus DWH-1814BLTs because Pioneer drives have been problematic.

Oh and my 24 inch monitor arrived yesterday, probably the greatest new computer part I have ever gotten. It's so ****ing good!

Agreed with the Pioneer drives being junk. The guy that built my PC had a customer computer with two of them...both not working.

I'm curious about your HDD choice. Why do you need a Terabyte, and how are you going to configure them?

Going backwards here, I know...You mean that as 4GB of RAM? Nice.

I'll take the 2900XT off your hands when you upgrade to a Geforce. Just let me know how much the shipping will be.

 

[Vasco]

I was thinking a terabyte because I have about 200gb of stuff now on the HDD, and I'm looking to record a lot of Hi-Def TV onto the computer. Not to mention I have about 100 DVDs which I'd like to backup onto the computer (which I had to burn in order to save space).

I'm going with your suggestion of RAID 1, it sounds good to me.

Yeah 4GB of ram should be excellent.

Haha, I'll probably be upgrading to the 9800s early next year, so by then my 2900XT will probably have halved in price...damn technology advances!

 

[Eric.]

RAID1 will give you 500GB of usable space then. The same data is put on both disks for redundancy. I'd still suggest having a smaller drive to use for the operating system.