I am building my own gaming PC for around $1000 and have all my parts picked out. I only need to know if there are any major weak points in my system--mainly the cooling and Power supply. Please tell me if I need to improve either, or if something else is faulty. CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Motherboard: Biostar P35D2-A7 ATX Motherboard RAM: 2X DDR2 2GB 800Mhz Video Card: Nvidia Geforce 9800 GTX Sound Card: Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme 7.1 Hard Drive: Maxtor DiamondMax 10 200GB 7200rpm 9.3ms seek time Case:XION II XON-101 (Comes with Power Supply and case fans) (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811208005) Power Supply: 450W Case Fans: 2X 120mm, 1X 80mm OS: Windows Vista Home Premium DVD Drive: Lightscribe 20X DVD+-RW Wireless Card: Zonet ZEW MIMO Monitor: Westinghouse LCM-22W3 22inch Flat Panel LCD Monitor CPU Fan: Cooler Master X Dream 4
The CPU is a sound choice for a modern PC, and while that's a good type of RAM, you don't state the brand, I recommend corsair. The motherboard isn't very good, I recommend a Gigabyte EP35-DS3R. The Graphics card isn't very cost-effective, I recommend a Radeon HD4850, preferably from Asus, Gigabyte, Sapphire or HIS (Avoid others) Sound card is fine, but over the top, stick with the normal X-Fi or Audigy SE, they look basic but get the job done perfectly well. The hard drive is old, noisy and slow compared to modern drives, if you onlt want a small drive, get a WD2500AAJS from Western Digital. Go with a Xion case if you must, but not a Xion PSU, they're cheap, crap and can cause fires and other issues. Stick with a Corsair VX 450W instead. I'd also recommend the NZXT Tempest case above the Xion, better made, better cooled, a better case. Westinghouse make OK monitors, but Samsung are far better, aim for an SM2232BW The CPU cooler is also mediocre, get a Thermalright Ultra-120 cooler with a Scythe S-Flex 120mm fan. A big combination, but far better.
The corsair RAM costs nearly twice what the RAM I was looking at does (Generic, which is apparently a brand). Is it that much better? Thanks for the graphics card recommendation. Thanks also for the sound card recommendation, but the X-Fi eXtreme I found was only $50 including shipping, which is only $12 above the Audigy SE. If there is no real difference in sound quality, I'll take the Audigy, but if the X-Fi eXtreme is better, I think I'll take that one. Thanks for hard drive recommendation I was considering getting a different PSU if the one that came with the case was insufficient. I was considering the Cooler Master eXtreme Power Plus 460W. Would that be good enough? I have looked at the case you recommended and I can easily see that it is better. That's the one I'm getting. I had only picked the monitor I did because it seemed outrageously inexpensive for a 22" monitor (only $200 including shipping). However, I have looked at some of the samsung monitors and come to the conclusion that 22" is simply large enough to be impractical. Could you recommend a smaller (19") Samsung monitor for me? For the CPU cooler: I am looking at the heatsink you suggested, but the fan you recommended is a case fan. I'm not sure if case fans work for cooling CPU's, so if they can, can you tell me, and if they can't, can you either suggest another fan or tell me where you found the S-Flex as a CPU fan?
Cheapo RAM can go wrong, and should you ever want to overclock, it'll limit you severely there too. Corsair RAM isn't that expensive anyway, it's worthwhile doing the job right. Of course, I forgot all X-Fi cards are 'extreme' even the cheap ones. Go with it then if it's so cheap (though I'm pretty sure the Audigy SE is nowhere near $38) Some cheaper Coolermaster PSUs can be a bit iffy, I'd stick with the Corsair to be safe, they're reliable and proven units, also very quiet, which Coolermasters certainly are not. 19" widescreen monitors are very low res and should be avoided. You can however go with a 20" wide like the 2053BW: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824001270 You are correct about the CPU cooler, you attach a regular 120mm case fan to it as its fan. It may seem an odd combination but these coolers are miles ahead of any standard cooler.
What about 19" non-widescreen monitors? I'm trying to keep to my budget here ($1000-$1100). Can you recommend some less expensive parts?
