Please comment on my build......

[bstard]

Hello All....I am new to this forum....
Seems like this is the custom building season
I too am in the process of building my 1st custom build....lemme know what you think...

Asus Crosshair ROG Motherboard
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 5200+ Windsor Processor
Zalman 9700LED CPU Cooler
OCZ 2GB PC6400 800MHz Titanium DDR2 SDRAM
EVGA e-GeForce 7600 GT Graphics Card 256MB DDR3 Memory
2 Western Digital 150GB 10K Raptor SATA Hard Drives
1 Western Digital RE2 500GB SATA 3.0/Gbs Hard Drive for storage
Plextor 760a DVD Burner
Lian Li v1200b PlusII Case
OCZ GameXstream 700W Power Supply
Windows XP Pro SP2

[azzey]

Welcome to http://www.pcguide.com/ubb/pcgubb.gif, bstard...

First, I need to know what you intend to use this computer for. Is gaming a priority or are you going to use it for another purpose? I also need to know your budget before I can help you.

Just a quick scan over those specs shows me that you aren't cheaping out on anything :D! Those Raptors are going to make your startup time so fast you will be able to blink and miss it!

Unless you aren't planning on gaming, my only comment is that that video card is definetly going to be the weakest link in your system. Why not move up to a 7900GT? You can easily drop down to a lower wattage power supply if you don't have enough money to do so.

[saphalline]

If you're planning on gaming, you're putting your money into the wrong components. Drop down the CPU and put a lot more into the vid card. An A64 X2 3800+ with a GeForce 7950 GT would perform much better in modern games.

[bstard]

Hey thnk u for your feedback....at some point I will be using my system for some level of gaming and I realize there are better vid cards out there....the reason I chose this one was I got a crazy black friday special on it and only paid $89 for it after $110 Circuit city rebate....the cpu was a steal at only $288....and the power supply @ $114.99 after $25 rebate....if I was paying full price for these components I definitely would have considered altering certain parts....thnk you and your feedback is always welcome!!!

[TopChip7]

700 Watt PSU is a bit of overkill - I only got 500w and it's plenty for SLI, 2 HDDs, X-Fi etc etc.

Crosshair - great board if you are an expert overclocking enthusiast - however, most of its features will be wasted if you're not an expert at o/cing as that is what the ROG is for.

2 x 10k rpm raptors - and only a 7600GT vid card??? I don't really understand where you're heading with this system - It looks like a gaming machine to me but with a low end vid card?

IMO drop at least one of the HDD's (if you really need the storage you can add one later), drop the CPU down to a 4600+ and increase VGA to 7900GTX or 8800GTS.

But hey!!!, if you can afford it go with the Intel E6600, 680i chipset, 8800GTX. mmmmm 8800GTX yummie