New Rig Spec Check - Advice Needed

[Steyr]

Hey all

I've spec'd up a new build and I'm close to pulling the trigger but I need a few bits of advice;

ASUS P5W DH Deluxe
Core 2 Duo E6600 Retail 4MB L2 Cache
Corsair TWIN2X2048-6400C4 2x1GB XMS2-6400 CL4
Sapphire Radeon X1950 XTX 512MB
Antec P180 Black
Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition SP2 OEM


These are the basic specs atm, just the last few bits and bobs I need some guidance on.

HDD - This will (obviously) be the main disc for the OS and I'm thinking of a 320 Gb Seagate ST3320620AS Barracuda 7200.10 but apparently these are noisy? Another thread has recommended Samsung Spinpoints for quietness but I don't really have much experience of Samsung tech and Seagate's have always been good to me so I'm intending on getting another hdd in a few months time purely for storage if this helps.

DVD-/+RW- I've heard NEC are the way to go for dvd-rw drives particularly the NEC-3550A, but looking at the prices, newer models are available for around the same price so any recommendations which one to grab/avoid?

PSU - I recently had to buy a new psu for my current system as the old one died, but I was desperate, so I was forced to grab a PC World(i know ) pos, a 450W Jeantech w/ neon blue lights heh. Bearing in mind this new rig is fairly high end I doubt this will be good enough. Also budget-allowing future CrossFiring may be an option (w/ either the x1950 or dx10 cards), so I'd like it to be a good solid brand, future proof, as quiet as possible but nothing OTT that its gona hammer my electricity bills

Mouse/KB - Gona be mainly gaming so I'm loking for a decent mouse k/b setup. I'm not too sure about wireless as I don't want to worry about recharging and mouse lag. Desk space is a slight issue so I can't have a huge k/b but I'd like a comfortable one w/ wrist rest etc.

Thats pretty much it

Any input is much appreciated

[kalniel]

HDD: Any noise difference is likely to be muffled by the good case you've got, so don't worry about the differences between same generation products - go with seagate if you're happiest with them.

DVD: I and a few others have had problems with Sony drives, Samsung have also had a mention as potentially problematic. I've not heard of anything about other manufacturers recently.

PSU: A good brand 480+W should be plenty for your current set up, though if you're thinking of possibly crossfiring DX10 products maybe make that 600 . I recommend seasonic, FSP, OCZ etc.

Input: Saitek eclipse sounds like a good match on keyboard - for meeces I think the king of corded is probably the G5.

[MSIC]

Regarding PSU / power / electric bills, it's not true that a higher rated PSU will lead to higher power usage, at least not in a strict sense.
Basically, if your whole system pulls, for example, 150W most of the time and 300W when running games, then that is what gets used. This is true whether you have a 300W PSU or a 1000W PSU. A 300W PSU however in reality would not be able to provide 300W to the system because no PSU is 100% efficient, in reality a really good one might be 85% efficient (with 15% being wasted and converted into heat), and more typically 70 - 75% for a rubbish PSU (and therefore 30%, or twice as much being wasted).
The summary is, buy a quality, efficient PSU (ie a good name with good reviews) that covers your power needs with a little extra headroom. If you have money to burn, a 600W PSU is not a bad idea in principle as it wont use more power than a 400W PSU, it will just allow you to add more stuff in your system (that would then use more power ).

[Steyr]

I'm a little ignorant when it comes to PSU's, but I should be thinking along the lines of bigger is better right, with 600W being around the general baseline area?

I'm aware there are psu cabling length issues due to the layout of the p180, but aside from that I don't really know what else I should be looking for, i.e. all the voltage/rails stuff, diff between regular and modular etc.

I'm looking to spend around £70, less if possible so any suggestions on specific models?

Regarding the hdd and dvd-rw; so basically I shouldn't worry about which hdd I get, and any NEC drive is a good choice right?

Input; would that be the Eclipse or Eclipse2? I know one of them had issues with keys wearing away, but I kinda like that backlight thing. I only really have experience with bog standard mice, so would I have problems moving up to a larger gaming mouse such as the G5? I've also heard good things about the MX518.

Thanks for the help so far, looking forward to further input

[Clunk]

If you plan on going crossfire in the near future, or even dx10, then a decent brand, with a decent amount of overhead is the way to go. have a look at Enermax, Seasonic, (cant recommend Tagan as ive had 2 different faults in 6 weeks, cant recommend FSP either for similar reasons). If you buy something that might seem a bit like overkill now, you wont be splashing out for a second psu later, when you go crossfire.

The samsung hard drives are great, very quiet, not had a seagate for a while so cant comment there.

NEC dvd drives are cheap and reliable, the last one i bought (4570) is about an inch and a half shorter than the one before it (4550) and weighs a lot less. Not very interesting, but handy if you are short on space

[RavenNight]

Its well worth going for the G5, the best mouse ever, bar none.

[Steyr]

Right, I've decided to take everyones advice and go for the G5, NEC ND-5170A (don't need the RAM support of the next model up), and Im thinking of this PSU, LN11603 600w Seasonic S12-600 SLi Ready Silent PSU 2xPCI-E 4xSATA 120mm Fan ATX1.3/2.01, but I'm slightly concerned about the issues raised in http://forums.hexus.net/showthread.php?t=87379. Would this psu cause issues in my new system?

TIA