Might Build a PC After All

[George]

Okay, gotta admit, I know a fair amount of what kind of shit I want out of a PC, but there's so much crap to know, I can't ever be positive on my own. So I come to the savvy here at TNL to ask if this particular lineup of components are even compatible with one another before I go and take the dive. All items re from Newegg:


LITE-ON 20X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe Black SATA Model LH-20A1L-05 - OEM
Item #: N82E16827106073
$41.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827106073

Thermaltake Armor Series VA8000BWS Black Aluminum / Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case - Retail
Item #: N82E16811133154
$149.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811133154

Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
Item #: N82E16822136073
$119.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136073

EVGA 768-P2-N831-AR GeForce 8800GTX 768MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Video Card - Retail
Item #: N82E16814130072
$559.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130072


LITE-ON Black IDE DVD-ROM Drive Model LH-16D1P-187 - Retail
Item #: N82E16827106066
$17.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827106066

Thermaltake Toughpower 850W W0131RU – NVIDIA QUAD-SLI APPROVED, FOUR +12V RAIL READY - Retail
Item #: N82E16817153043
$259.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817153043

CORSAIR Dominator 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TWIN2X2048-8500C5D - Retail
Item #: N82E16820145043
Return Policy: Standard Return Policy
$193.00
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145043


EVGA 122-CK-NF67-A1 LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 680i LT SLI ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
Item #: N82E16813188014
$194.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813188014


Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800 Conroe 2.93GHz LGA 775 Processor Model BX80557X6800 - Retail
Item #: N82E16819115001
$975.00
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115001


Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium DVD - Retail
Item #: N82E16832116142
$219.99

It comes to about 2700 bucks before shipping, which is nominal anyway. I'm open to any suggestions. My goal is to have a very strong start when it comes to gaming and editing performance with plenty of room to expand. If you feel I have too much or too little in one department, by all means, let me know.

[Razor Ramon]

Why not just wait for the new Intel procs to be released? Those Extremes are supposed to be slashed in price, if I remember correctly. And by a significant amount.

[Frogacuda]

If you overclock the shit out of an E4300 (you can safely get them up to 3.6Ghz or so) it can outperform a stock 6800 and you'll save like $850. Just a thought. I don't know how much money you have to burn (looks like a lot).

[sleeve]

If I were you, I'd grab a 6600, an EVGA 8800 GTS, and an OEM copy of Windows Vista and save myself $1300 or so. The increase in performance just isn't worth that much money.

[George]

The processor price drop I have heard about, I think it's supposed to be around July 22nd. The processor I have listed will go down to around 500. I'm most likely gonna wait until then, but in terms of the graphics card, I don't mind the cost of it, considering how much glowing praise it's been receiving, but I'll start looking into the difference in performance. BTW, who the hell would pay nearly double the price of a GTX for a GTX Ultra?

But yeah, the processor is a monster in terms of cost, which is the main reason I'm probably going to wait patiently, save up some more scratch and at the same time save ~500 when it comes down in price.

[Thief Silver]

Just got with the 6600 it's nearly just as good and half the price.

[Dyne]

do NOT get an SATA burner. you'll thank me later. i would also spring for a Seagate HDD because of their standard 5 year warrenty.

[George]

do NOT get an SATA burner. you'll thank me later.

What do you recommend? I'm fond of the dual drive setup but since the prices on these are relatively low I'm willing to take pretty much any advice about it.

Also, thanks for the info about the Seagate HDDs.

[Thief Silver]

Dyne speaks inanimate truths.

[Dyne]

i would get two IDE opticals (and put one drive on each chain with an SATA HDD) if you ever do disc to disc burning having an optical with a chain to itself is the best thing you can do. NEC and Ben Q are the best. from what i hear the SATA drives still are not quite up to snuff.

i have a Pioneer 1100D (with a custom flashed firmware). look over at club cd freaks a little bit and see what will work for you. you may have to end up removing the rip lock from whatever ripper you use. while you may want to get two burners (since burners tend to rip better) it's not completely necessary depending on how anal you are about such things.

i agree with frog about the cpu.