My first decent PC

[Thoku]

Hi all

Okay, I haven't built a PC for myself for about 4 years but now have a job for a year so am going to spoil my self with a top of the range PC for around £1300. I was wondering whether I could get some advice on it especially sound card and headphones.

CPU - Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.40GHz (1066FSB)
CPU Cooler - Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 775)
Motherboard - Gigabyte GA_965P_DS3P (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
RAM - 2 x GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400UDC)
Graphics Card - Leadtek GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express)
Power Suppply - OCZ GameXStream 700w Silent SLI Ready ATX2 Power Supply
Hard disks - 2 x Western Digital Raptor 74GB WD740ADFD 10,000RPM SATA 16MB Cache
Case - Thermaltake VA8003BWS Armour Super Tower - Black
Sound Card - Creative X-Fi Xtreme Gamer 7.1 Soundcard
Headphones - SpeedLink Medusa SL-8793 5.1 ProGamer Edition
OS - Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64-Bit Edition DVD - OEM - 1Pk (66I-00788)

The plan is to set up the Raptors in RAID 0 and have all the other data (tv programs, films etc) on another box, so when a friend accesses the shared files it doesn't have any performance effects on my PC.

What do you guys think?

[Flewis]

Looks pretty sweet. All your choices seem pretty good really and obviously well researched. You may want to get a better cooler depending on how much you want to overclock, for high clocks you may want something like the thermalright ultra-120. Up to you though.

[saltynay]

everything looks great except the raptors I would consider a waste of money you can get 2x500gb's for the same money and when they are in raid0 they have nearly the same real world performance

[staffsMike]

Agreed I'd probably drop the raptors..You won't see an amazing gain and you will fill them up really fast..

Good choice with the PSU

[redddraggon]

Why don't you get a e6700 tom? And an ASUS mobo.

[redddraggon]

And why not 4GB of RAM?

[satan]

And why not 4GB of RAM?

I think he is getting 4GB, hence the 2 x 2GB.

RAM - 2 x GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit (GX22GB6400UDC)

[redddraggon]

Sorry my mistake, Tom.

[Thoku]

Why don't you get a e6700 tom? And an ASUS mobo.

the e6700 is about £50-£60 more, and thats money i dont have considering that build is gonna cost £1279.

[redddraggon]

the e6700 is about £50-£60 more, and thats money i dont have considering that build is gonna cost £1279.

Drop the raptors and raid 0 some WD 160GBs. That'll save you a lot of money.

[Thoku]

Drop the raptors and raid 0 some WD 160GBs. That'll save you a lot of money.

hmmm, i need to read some reviews about how much faster the raptors really are. I have about 1TB in another machine so all im looking to do is install the OS and applicaitons on it. I don't need space, I need speed.

[kalniel]

PSU is overkill.

X-Fi is good, but not really needed these days - you'll have plenty of spare CPU so the few % usage difference is negligable.

I've heard reports of poor quality for those headphones, but I can't really think of anything to replace them with if you need 5.1

[saltynay]

the e6700 is about £50-£60 more, and thats money i dont have considering that build is gonna cost £1279.

The e6700 is a waste the e6600 is the best if your going to over clock then there is no point in paying the extra cash

[satan]

PSU is overkill.

X-Fi is good, but not really needed these days - you'll have plenty of spare CPU so the few % usage difference is negligable.

I've heard reports of poor quality for those headphones, but I can't really think of anything to replace them with if you need 5.1

People don't always buy sound cards just to offload sound processing from the CPU. They also offer superior sound quality. I have an Audigy 2 ZS which is noticably better than onboard when connected to a good sound system, and I can only imagine the X-FI is at least just as good.

I have also had a pair of those headphones, and for the price they're excellent.

[Thoku]

PSU is overkill.

X-Fi is good, but not really needed these days - you'll have plenty of spare CPU so the few % usage difference is negligable.

I've heard reports of poor quality for those headphones, but I can't really think of anything to replace them with if you need 5.1

the XFi is to get better quality than onboard not necessary to aleviate stress from the CPU.

With regard to the PSU I would rather overkill than not have enough and damage a £350 8800GTX.

[Flewis]

You cant damage components from underpowering them, the only thing that would get damaged tho is the psu itself from being overworked.
The psu is fine, a high quality psu will be super stable and doesnt matter if all the watts arent being utilised.