My Future (Buying bit by bit) Gaming Rig

[Gobbob]

Hi Guys.

Looking for advice on my new Gaming Rig. So far I have bought an Antec 900 case which is awesome (and mahoosive), but I'm yet to buy the rest. My budget is between £800 and £1000. This is my first custom built Gaming Rig and I do want it to be reasonably future proof.
Here are my ideas so far:

V1:
Mobo - Asus P5KC, Asus P5K Premium or MSI P35 Platinum
CPU - Intel Core 2 Quad-Core Q6600
Memory - 4GB (2x2GB) Corsair TwinX XMS2 or 4GB (2x2GB) GeIL PC2-6400 Black Dragon
PSU - 500W Enermax Liberty or 520W Corsair HX
GPU - 512MB BFG Technology 8800GT OC2
CPU Cooler - Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro
Hard Drives - 2 x 250 Gb Western Digital WD2500AAKS Caviar SE16 (in Mirrored RAID)
Keyboard - Microsoft Digital Media Pro
Mouse - 1600dpi Laser Mouse (Already Bought with Laptop and is most definitely up to scratch)

V2:
Mobo - Asus P5E iX38 (final)
CPU - Intel Core 2 Quad-Core Q6600 (might change depending on price of new Yorkfileds, overclocked)
Memory - 4GB (2x2GB) Corsair TwinX XMS2
PSU - 520W Corsair HX
GPU - 512MB BFG Technology 8800GTS (probably final)
CPU Cooler - Scythe Mugen (Infinity) Quiet CPU Cooler (final)
Do-all Drive Array - 4 x 160 Gb Western Digital WD1600AAJS (final, striped and mirrored RAID) See below for partitions
Keyboard - Microsoft Digital Media Pro (for now)
Mouse - 1600dpi Laser Mouse (final)
Monitor - 22" LG M228WA Black Widescreen

Drive Partitions:
1st - 15Gb for OS
2nd - 75Gb for Games
3rd - 40Gb for Programs
4th - 80Gb for Media (Vids and Photos)
5th - 100Gb for Downloads
6th - 10Gb for Documents and other stuff

Apart from other extra bits and pieces (such as red LED fans from Antec to replace the blue ones that came with the case to make it look more badass), that's it...

These choices are not write in stone and really want you guys to rip it out of me so I make the right choice(s).

Thanks in advance,

-Gobbob

[Blitzen]

Mobo - Asus P5KC, Asus P5K Premium or MSI P35 Platinum - ABIT have the IP35. Nicer than the ASUS boards and ABIT support is FAR superior
CPU - Intel Core 2 Quad-Core Q6600 - Wait for a week or so. The new Quads are coming and will be faster, cooler and cheaper.
Memory - 4GB (2x2GB) Corsair TwinX XMS2 or 4GB (2x2GB) GeIL PC2-6400 Black Dragon - Memory is all much the sameness. Cantr eally go wrong here as long as it Corsair (dont like their RMA)/Geil/OCZ/Gskill.
PSU - 500W Enermax Liberty or 520W Corsair HX - Personal preference. Both are very good. Corsair slightly more powerful. Enermax superior quality (in my opinion...i have both)
GPU - 512MB BFG Technology 8800GT OC2 - New 8800GTS G92 will be on general sale the end of this week. All reports seem to say they are around the £200 mark and are faster, quieter and cooler than the 8800GT
CPU Cooler - Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro - It'll do for a budget cooler
Hard Drives - 2 x 250 Gb Western Digital WD2500AAKS Caviar SE16 (in Mirrored RAID) - All much the sameness. Personal preference here with this one.
Keyboard - Microsoft Digital Media Pro
Mouse - 1600dpi Laser Mouse (Already Bought with Laptop and is most definitely up to scratch)

[neonplanet40]

I have the asus p5k premium and that processer = you wont be dissappointed

Ram is corsair so it will be good im sure. I have the crucial ballistix and love them. Especially for overclocking.

Would maybe get a beefier power supply? 620watt or similar. Others might not agree thouigh but you never know what you might add at a later stage.

Graphics card is good but the new GTS is due out soon and the GT's are hard to come by.

Might want bigger hard drives? they arent much more expensive than a 250GB. For example a 500 GB drive is about £50.

Also dont get that CPU cooler. It isnt as good for quad cores. Look at this which is what i got. Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme CPU Cooler (Socket AM2/LGA775)

Get a nice quiet 120mm fan for it

Rest looks fine.

[pepsi_max2k]

see X-bit labs - 250GB Hard Disk Drives Shootout: 30 HDDs Tested for hard drive comparisons. the WD2500KS (16mb cache) and WD2500JS (8mb cache) came out pretty much neck and neck, and I think the overall top spot went to an older maxtor drive. personally I just bought a JS as it was the cheapest of the lot.

[moogle]

blitzen, when are the new quads coming? which models? got a linky to an article or something?
thanks

[barker967]

Originally Posted by moogle

blitzen, when are the new quads coming? which models? got a linky to an article or something?
thanks

New quads are due in January.



The q9450 is the one to go for. Best bang for buck, should cost about £200 for a 2.66ghz quad core, 1333mhz and 12mb cache.

[barker967]

Originally Posted by moogle

blitzen, when are the new quads coming? which models? got a linky to an article or something?
thanks

New quads are due in January.



The q9450 is the one to go for. Best bang for buck, should cost about £200 for a 2.66ghz qaud core, 1333mhz and 12mb cache.

[kungpo]

Worth noting the new processors will quite likely push the price of the existing stuff even lower, and although the Q9450 has more cache, the 9x multi on the Q6600 could yield better results *if* you plan to overclock.

[moogle]

ohhh, f-it. i already got the q6600 and I haven't opened it but I don't want to be be without a pc during christmas.

[spiral out]

Guess it depends if you want to wait moogle.

It does seem like an endless waiting game though.

[moogle]

Originally Posted by spiral out

Guess it depends if you want to wait moogle.

It does seem like an endless waiting game though.

yea, i'll be content with a q6600 for christmas and maybe next year when it comes to christmas i can get the cpu. i think around 1+ month is too long for waiting when you have no current pc.

[kungpo]

You'll love the Q6600.

And I don't think the new range will offer a *massive* improvement to justify waiting.

As for price drops...unavoidable.

[moogle]

thanks for the reassurance guys

[Gobbob]

Well back on topic ...

I've updated my first post with my V2 and I have taken the comments into account but I can't say I've really swayed towards an abit mobo.

-Gobbob

[staffsMike]

Raptor is noisey and the 36GB version is pretty pointless. Another 500Gb AAKS would be a better OS drive as it will fit lots of games on as well if need be.

You could do with a better cooler if you are planning on an overclock.

Scythe Range are very good. Ninja and Infinity being the best (of the Scythes)
Thermalright ultima 90 is good and of course the extreme 120.

[Gobbob]

In an Antec 900 noise is really not a problem and I have been advised by a multitude of people on the Raptor in striped RAID but I'm not that insane so one raptor works for me.

The cooler will probably change to one of your suggestions though so thanks.

-Gobbob