Original link was here - http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/636334 Ok, I just made my purchase. I think I made the right decisions. Here's what I went with: # CASE: CoolerMaster Cosmos Silent Gaming Tower Case # CS_FAN: Default case fans # CPU: (Quad-Core)Intel® Core™ 2 Quad Q6600 @ 2.4GHz 1066FSB 8MB L2 Cache 64-bit # FLASHMEDIA: INTERNAL 12in1 Flash Media Reader/Writer # FAN: Thermaltake MaxOrb Enthusiast CPU Cooling Fan # HDD: Single Hard Drive (320GB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 16MB Cache 7200RPM HDD) # KEYBOARD: PS2 MULTIMEDIA INTERNET CONTROL KEYBOARD # MOUSE: Logitech Optical Wheel Mouse # MOTHERBOARD: (QX9650 Support) Asus P5N-D nForce 750i SLI Chipset LGA775 FSB1333 DDR2 Mainboard # MEMORY: (Req.DDR2 MainBoard)2GB (2x1GB) PC6400 DDR2/800 Dual Channel Memory (Mushkin Xtreme w/ Heat Spreader) # NETWORK: ONBOARD 10/100 NETWORK CARD # OS: Microsoft® Windows Vista™ Home Premium w/ Service Pack 1 (32-bit Edition) # PRO_WIRING: Professional Wiring for All WIRINGs Inside The System Chasis with High Performance Thermal Compound on CPU # POWERSUPPLY: Thermaltake Toughpower 700W Power Supply # SERVICE: STANDARD WARRANTY: 3-YEAR LIMITED WARRANTY PLUS 24/7 LIFE-TIME TECHNICAL SUPPORT # SOUND: 3D WAVE ON-BOARD 5.1 SOUND CARD # SPEAKERS: 600Watts PMPO Subwoofer Stereo Speakers # USB: Built-in USB 2.0 Ports # VIDEO: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB 16X PCI Express (EVGA Powered by NVIDIA) # VIDEO2: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB 16X PCI Express (EVGA Powered by NVIDIA) Even though I'm not the biggest fan of Vista, I chose it because in the near future I plan on buying two additional RAM sticks, plus I'm not sure how XP would've handled a Q6600 processor. I also chose the 32-bit version, because I read up on the 64-bit version and there seemed to be lots of compatibility issues with hardware. The biggest decision to make was whether or not to get Vista, But I think I'll be happy with my choice. The only concern that I have is the motherboard. I've read and heard alot of different thing about it. However, it seems to me that most of the negative reviews of this board were posted near it's release. As I researched even more, I noticed that the more recent reviews were much more optimistic. Didn't get a monitor because I'm buying that separately, and didn't get a DVD/CD drive, because I already own a nice Plextor. All-in-all, $1944 dollars for the system. It's mainly going to be used for gaming if you couldn't already tell from the hardware. I think I made a good choice. Thank you all who have continued to give me your input (especially Sammoris) on the different configs I have posted on here before. -esrever EDIT: Typos
welcome to the Quad Core club, LOCOENG is just finalising his build here - http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/571061 (can't remember if you've posted in that thread, apologies if you've seen it), teflonmyk is purchasing his here - http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_jump.cfm/569840/3853654 and if you want to compare my build it's here - http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_jump.cfm/569840/3645478 - i bought 4GB for my Quad Core rig, but still use XP so i only 'see' the proverbial 3 or whatever Gig, but i knew that would be the case when i bought it; if ever i use an OS that can use all 4GB i'm good to go; if not (very doubtful i'll switch from XP), no biggie - XP absolutely loves the Quad; i see from your post you'll be gaming on it; i gave up pc gaming something like 5yrs ago now, so my PC isn't built with gaming in mind - but it makes a monster of a video encoding machine, i'm often running DVD Rebuilder alongside ConvertXtoDVD and DVD Flick all at the same time. Nice. - i'm guessing the video cards are guilty of a large chunk of that cost, my initial build was around £829 i think, haven't had to spend a massive amount with any subsequent additions and mine's all finished now. I've run out of extras to add, if i'm honest
Nope, haven't read that thread before. Just skimmed through it now though. I was amused at the 2500-dollar picture of the 15MB hard drive, though. I lol'd.
Vista wont make a difference. Even if you add 2 more gigs of Ram Vista will see as much as XP does. That's just a limitation of a 32-bit operating system. You want XP64 or Vista 64 to use more than ~3.5GB.
It's a decent system, the Coolermaster case cools relatively well, though it won't exactly be silent, the CPU and Graphics cards are very powerful. I'm not really convinced about the motherboard, and the CPU cooler is a poor performer, but it sounds like a prebuilt PC so you might not have had a choice. The speakers also sound a bit crap - PMPO isn't actually a scientific measurement, it's used to hide how powerful the speakers really are (probably the bare minimum). Performance-wise, the PC should be good as long as the motherboard stands up, but you'll have to watch out for heat issues with that cooler.
I'm not too worried about how loud the case is, within reason of course. 4 120mm fans just seemed too tempting to pass by, plus the case looks like something out of Star Trek. I was skeptical about the motherboard too at first, if worst comes to worst, I can count on the three-year warranty to get me another one. Hopefully they worked all of the possible kinks out. I would hope a website that specifically builds gaming PCs knows what kind of hardware to choose from. But I share your concern. The CPU cooler doesn't seem all that bad to me. I read up on it quite a lot, and it seemed to cut the heat of the CPU by quite a bunch on a lot of other systems. But once again we'll see. If it can't keep it cool I'll wait and get something else. I already have the speakers that I want. They're just regular desktop speakers. But I got these because they were only 5 additional dollars. If I can get speakers and a sub for 5 bucks, sure. I'll go pawn them or something. Heat probably won't be that big of an issue. I tend to keep it at around 60-65 degrees in my gaming room. With the combined cooling efforts of all the case fans and the CPU cooler, I think it should be just fine. Oh, and thanks Creaky for linking my threads...I promise I won't make another one like this. I just got overexcited. =)
No worries, glad (unlike most posters round here) you can see why i closed it, just keeps the place running smoothly. when it comes to PC noise i'm not quite as particular about noise as Sam (no insult intended), though for a long time now i've been having major problems with insomnia so the slightest noise from my PC's can be quite annoying (along with all the LED's, then there's all the lights from dvd players and whatnot (part of the reason i fit my own isolation switches to any gadgets that only have standby switches). Anyways, as you're into gaming i guess you don't mind some fan noise, though i can certainly confirm that my Quad machine is sooooo quiet, even when i'm encoding the hell out of it ie all 4 cores are virtually on maximum for long periods, it still only hits 45C maximum (all my various fans on the CPU and in the Antec 900 case are always on lowest setting). Of course we have summer around the corner and in my room that'll probably mean cranking up those fans at some point; maybe i'll sleep in the other room in the summer if i have too many AVI's to encode overnight edited for usual spelling mistakes
haha, and the one I use doesn't? lol As for the motherboard, I wouldn't know. All the P5N-E boards were crap, and they still are now, over a year after they came out. As for a gaming PC builder knowing which parts to use, I'm dubious. I see more shoddy parts in prebuilt gaming systems than I do in normal prebuilds. E.g. the quality of the power supplies and motherboards is usually much poorer in gaming systems like IBuyPower, Cyberpower and so on than it is in bog standard Dell, HP or Gateway systems, because they cheap out to fit in decent graphics cards, something that Dell etc. don't do unless you get an XPS. On the cooler front, I couldn't say for sure, most reviews suggest it's marginally better than the stock cooler for a dual core CPU. Quad cores need better heatsinks for the most part, so you're probably looking at in the 60C ranger under load with that ambient temperature. Who knows though, maybe it won't turn out to be as bad as everybody says... Creaky: I too am wondering how much the summer weather will affect my PC noise level. So far so good in that department (as in, when I turn the heating up the temps are still fine) but the real test will come over the summer holiday. Last hot summer, I still had the stock cooler on my Radeon X1900, that was NOT a quiet system! lol
