What Do You Think of this Build So Far?

[Stoney]

First I want to thank saphalline because a number of his suggestions in another thread helped me out greatly. What do you think of my mid-range build?

ThermalRock (divion of ThermalTake) mid-tower case w/ 2 120mm fans

DFI Lanparty UT nF4 Ultra-D mobo

Athlon 64 3200+ (venice) CPU

Seagate Barracuda 160 GB 7200 rpm SATA harddrive w/8mb buffer

connect3D Radeon X800 GTO 256 mb GDDR 3 PCI-Express video card

Antec True Power 2.0 550W PSU

Windows XP Professional w/SP 2

I haven't settled on a monitor, key board, mouse, or DVD-ROM drives yet. Suggestions fro the DVD drives that burn, R/RW that won't break the bank but are reliable? Anything else you see that I need like more cooling solutions for my system? Does the Seagate need a controller card? Thanks.

[saphalline]

I always recommend Lite-On drives (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827106988) as a starting point. Inexpensive, good quality, reliable. They won't set any speed records, and it can't burn to DVD-R/DL, but it's a good starting point. If you want to move up, companies like NEC, Memorex, Pioneer, etc - all make good drives.

Can you post a link to that case? The most important thing about a case is making sure it's a high quality one. It's sounds fine with those two 120mm fans, but pictures help us a lot.

Nope, SATA is silky smooth these days. No need for a controller card or "press F6 to install third party drivers" or anything. Just plug it in and go!

[Stoney]

saph, here is one link to this case:

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=244&num=1

And here is another:

http://www.bytesector.com/data/bs-article.asp?id=509


Someone suggested that I get the Thermalright XP 90 heatsink for the CPU. What do you think?

Another person felt that an Antec True Power 2.0 compliant 450 watt PSU would be more than enough. I did look it up and the 12v. rails supply more than 30A. Again, opinion?

Lastly, in your rig do you have two of the same DVD burners - make and model - or do you mix it up considering one will not be used nearly as often?

Thanks!

[saphalline]

Oh that case! I remember that one. Solid case selection, but the front CD/DVD holder is a bit corny. I'd put a nice colored CD there for good looks. Nothing with important data, though, cause it might get banged up a bit. Other than that, it's a good case.

I prefer Zalman HSF units these days. Very solid reputation and impressive cooling performance. They use larger fans by default (92-120mm) so they're quiet, too. Thermalright is good, but Zalman is better, IMO.

Yes, for a single vid card system, 450W is usually enough. As long as you don't plan on filling up all your drive connections, that should be plenty. But just keep in mind that having a higher wattage PSU never hurts, either. It's personal preference at this point.

I'm a single optical drive type of user. I never do disk-to-disk copying, and I have a lot of systems, so I just hand the optical drives down the line as I go through them. I'm primarily a gamer, so I get a new optical drive every couple years. Almost time for another one - DVD burner this time. I mostly burn data back-ups, not really a lot of home movie editing, so I haven't needed a DVD burner yet. But, it's about time for another one, and DVD burners are so cheap, so why not? ;)

[Stoney]

I decided to go with the 500W PSU afterall. I'll look up the Zalman. If I get the Zalman along with a cooler unit for my vid card, along with the two 120mm fans that come with the case, do you think that will be a good amount of cooling goodness?

[saphalline]

I don't really think you'll need a separate cooling unit for your vid card. Good case airflow plus what the vid card comes with is usually quite adequate. What did you have in mind?

[Stoney]

Some have suggested going with the Arctic Cooling AVC-AT5 Rev. 2 with a 72 mm. fan. But if this is overkill I'llbe more than glad to save the money. I'm already over budget.

[saphalline]

Yeah, just save the money. Replacing the HSF unit on your vid card brings up a number of implications, including voiding the warranty. It's one of those things where you shouldn't do it unless you have to. For instance, you'd get better vid card cooling by just leaving it alone and modding your case for a side intake fan to blow over the vid card. There are much better ways to spend your money.

[Stoney]

Okay, great! You saved me a little cash.