Critique my PC build
 

This is what I have down so far. Is there anything I'm missing that I should have or anything on the list I should change? Before any suggestions are made, my goal was to build a gaming PC strictly made for gaming, but without going top of the line on everything. Rarely is there any reason to spend over $2,000 because usually you never get to fully utilize the hardware before you have to upgrade anyway.


My initial budget for the computer itself was $1200, which I almost accomplished. The total for the parts minus the monitor and OS came out to be $1306.91, but I originally never envisioned going dual cards.


Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz LGA 775 Quad-Core Processor Model BX80562Q6600

$199.99 $199.99


SAPPHIRE 100242L Radeon HD 4850 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card (X2 CROSSFIRE)


$179.99 each -$5.00 Instant $349.98


ASUS P5K PRO LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard

$119.99 -$15.00 Instant $104.99


G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-8500CL5D-4GBPK - Retail

$144.99 -$40.00 Instant $104.99



Western Digital Raptor X WD1500AHFD 150GB 10000 RPM SATA 1.5Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

$174.99 $174.99


Thermaltake Armor Series VA8003BWS Black Full Tower Case w/ 25CM Fan - Retail $169.99 -$25.00 Instant $144.99


SAMSUNG 20X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe Black SATA Model SH-S203N
$26.99 $26.99


Thermaltake W0106RU 700W Complies with ATX 12V 2.2 & EPS 12V version Power Supply - Retail

$169.99 -$20.00 Instant $149.99

ZALMAN CNPS9500 AT 2 Ball CPU Cooling Fan/Heatsink

$49.99


Microsoft Windows Vista 64-Bit Ultimate for System Builders Single Pack DVD - OEM
$189.99 -$10.00 Instant $179.99


SAMSUNG 2253BW Black 22" 2ms(GTG) DVI Widescreen LCD Monitor - Retail

$299.99 -$30.00 Instant $269.99




Subtotal: $1,756.88

Looks good for the most part, the raptors require a good bit of air cooling as they run rpetty hot, ive 2 in a raid 0 config, also pretty prone to failing compared to other drives though WD are good with rma's. Ram and mobo look good and should allow a good overclock on the quad. Gpu wise, might be better waiting on the 4870x2, 4850's are good but do run pretty hot and don't exhaust the air outside of the case, the x2 in some benchmarks has outperformed crossfired 4870's and is prolly gona be avaialble in both 1 gig and 2 gig incarnations so the 1 gig version would probably be closer to the price of dual 4850's.

Make sure the quad is a g0 stepping, they clock much better than the older variations while running cooler.

your post looks like one of those spam threads with all the computer parts and numbers

Yeah, I've read the 4850's can get up to 90 C on full load (vat das fook?) but people claim after a fan hack they can keep it at 50 C.

With the Raptor, is it really worth it? I've been able to find good results on all the other components pointing to great performance, but will the Raptor give me much benefit in games at all besides load times? I'm thinking if I can cut a few $ here and there, I can bump up the video card a bit, as I was really close to going with 4870s. When should the 4870 GX2 come out?

X2 due first half of august, as for the raptors, it speeds your loading times slightly, even with 2 in raid 0 i cant say ive noticed that much difference.

So you think it might be more beneficial to cut the Raptor and use the extra money to get a power supply of 850 w or greater? I used a PSU calculator and it recommends 870w.


BTW here's a rather large database of people who overclocked intel processors with varying results. Highest on my combo turned out close to 4 GHz. Not bad.

http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h9...asterz/db1.gif

Didn't look at it but I know it sucks dick. Fgt.

ngrdck

fgtpns

sweet !

but theres still tomorrow
forget the sorrow

I finished my build today. No hitches at all. I've only played TF2 so far, but I never dropped below 100 on a full server, and that game takes a pretty hard hit on most peoples' machines (8800GT people claiming 20 fps on full...WTF)

Next up is COD4, Crysis, Bioshock, and Arma.

The only gripe I have, and I already knew this going in, is the fact that the 4850 cards idle at 75C...ouch. I'm going to run a fan hack to get that down to the low 50s hopefully.

Other than that, I can't think of a single thing to complain about. All my research seems to have been pretty good. I haven't done a build in close to 4 years so I was kinda shitting my pants about how the performance would be.

I did a modest overclock on the CPU to 3.0 GHz. Temps stay below 35C on full load, so I have a lot of opportunity to overclock more. I did a 3dmark06 run on this current clock speed and got 16,889. Not bad at all.