First build - looking for suggestions (am noob)

[Nimbus]

Hello ;D

As you can clearly see I am new to these forums, I came across it while digging around for information on gaming PC's and I'm glad I did ;P

I'm looking into building a PC from scratch. My current setup is lacking in the gaming department and is generally just out of date and with all of these new gen games being released soon ex. Crysis, I wish to have a fully capable system. Also as I mentioned before my rig is just plain out of date, slow ect.

So I was hoping you guys could offer a few pointers, I'm sorta new at this so I apologize for my limited knowledge ;P I'm thinking my budget will probably land somewhere in between $1800-$2300. I don't want to completely overdo it and go way over the top but I also don't want to cheap out on parts as this PC will have to last me quite a while.

Some of the things I've been looking at:

Thermaltake Kandalf LCS Case
3dGameMan.com - #807 - Thermaltake Kandalf LCS Case

Western Digital Raptor X 150GB Hard Drive
3dGameMan.com - #830 - Western Digital Raptor X 150GB Hard Drive

Mushkin PC2-6400 4GB 3dGameMan.com - #820 - Mushkin PC2-6400 4GB Memory

Ultra X3 1000W Modular Power Supply
3dGameMan.com - #843 - Ultra X3 1000W Modular Power Supply

CPU - Quad Core, still need to research this, prices seem to be all over the place

Video - Nvidia 8800GTX

Motherboard - I have nfc, I've looked around on different sites, I hope someone can lend me a hand with this :S

Not to concerned with Audio, will most likely jack the one in this PC until a better one is needed

I am willing to change anything in this list, it will be a little while before I start buying parts. Thanks in advance ;P

Edit: Hope I didn't forget anything

[sswilson]

Are you a hands-on kind of dude, or would you prefer that everything just fall together like it was meant to work together???

The reason I ask is that folks are going to question the choice of case/water cooling, and probably suggest a WC kit from swifttech or DD. (I won't be one of those folks steering you away from TT, I've had good results with the TT kit in my sig.... :) ).

Secondly... are you planning on overclocking, and if so what is your experience level? This will have an effect on what motherboard / CPU combinations are suggested.

Lastly.... Welcome to the Forums!!!!!!!!

Nice to see another Bluenoser kicking around. :)

[cdn_Madrach]

I definately agree with Wilson....better to go the seperate case and W/C by swiftech or DD. As for cpu choice...wait till price cuts on the 22nd to see if the quads are within your budget. From the limits you gave 1800-2000 you should have no problem putting together a KICK A$$ rig Also decide wether or not you wanna leave sli as an option cause if you plan on sticking to a single card set up you can save a little there. For memory....probabley something a little faster...pc2 8500 maybe...as prices are o low at the moment. As far as PSU you wanna get as high a quality/power you can afford. A lot of people...myself included don't consider or overlook how important a qulity psu is....cause it can really affect how well and long your perfoms. Just my 2 cents... and welcome to the forums....nice to see another maritimer

[Jim]

I'm not one of the experts here but I'm pretty sure you should pass on the Ultra brand power supply.Just bought a Corsair brand for my build because of their high rating.And welcome man to HWC the most friendly , helpful form you'll find(their so polite they have to be Canadian)

[Nimbus]

Originally Posted by sswilson

Are you a hands-on kind of dude, or would you prefer that everything just fall together like it was meant to work together???

The reason I ask is that folks are going to question the choice of case/water cooling, and probably suggest a WC kit from swifttech or DD. (I won't be one of those folks steering you away from TT, I've had good results with the TT kit in my sig.... :) ).

Secondly... are you planning on overclocking, and if so what is your experience level? This will have an effect on what motherboard / CPU combinations are suggested.

Lastly.... Welcome to the Forums!!!!!!!!

Nice to see another Bluenoser kicking around. :)

I'd like to think I'm a hands on type, if you're talking about actually putting together everything. As for the latter option, who wouldn't want everything to just fall together and work perfectly ;P Seems like a fantasy when it comes to computers

I have also been looking at other cases since I have read reviews that the pump on the Kandalf is apparently "too weak". Also I don't think a case that big is needed so right now I'm exploring other options, such as going mid-tower and buying a cooling system separate.

Over clocking is new to me, I have never intentionally forced any component to run at a higher rate. Dose it do this automatically when there is a lot of load? If yes then the only over clocking I've ever done is trying to run C&C3 at a decent speed I've heard overclocking can potentially lengthen the time until you'll need new parts to keep up to date with product releases, that would be a plus there, however for what I would use the PC for I don't think it would be necessary, unless it helps with running more demanding games/mods/programs.

Thanks for the welcome I live in around Halifax as well, more specificity Lower Sackville.

Originally Posted by cdn_Madrach

I definately agree with Wilson....better to go the seperate case and W/C by swiftech or DD. As for cpu choice...wait till price cuts on the 22nd to see if the quads are within your budget. From the limits you gave 1800-2000 you should have no problem putting together a KICK A$$ rig Also decide wether or not you wanna leave sli as an option cause if you plan on sticking to a single card set up you can save a little there. For memory....probabley something a little faster...pc2 8500 maybe...as prices are o low at the moment. As far as PSU you wanna get as high a quality/power you can afford. A lot of people...myself included don't consider or overlook how important a qulity psu is....cause it can really affect how well and long your perfoms. Just my 2 cents... and welcome to the forums....nice to see another maritimer

Ill consider Swiftech or DD, I'm always hearing about problems with WC systems (pump to weak, leakage, blah blah blah) so ill have a look at them. With Quads I'm still not sure, how much better is a Quad then a Dual? There are at least 7 different models, just trying to figure out which one :S RAM looks ok, any recommendations on PSU? 1000w preferably.

th4nk5 fu0r t3h w31c0m3 ~

Originally Posted by Jim

I'm not one of the experts here but I'm pretty sure you should pass on the Ultra brand power supply.Just bought a Corsair brand for my build because of their high rating.And welcome man to HWC the most friendly , helpful form you'll find(their so polite they have to be Canadian)

Would you suggest a Corsair for a mid-high end gaming PC?

Most certainly Canadian ~~

[sswilson]

Ok, so you're looking for a future proof rig, with overclocking capabilities that you may or may not want to OC, and you don't mind getting your hands dirty......... :)

Sounds like a good start anywise..... I'm sure you'll have lots of input.

First thing is to wait on CPU choice for a couple of weeks after which the new price list should be out. That will be a huge deciding factor in what you feel you can afford.

As far as motherboards go...... If you're looking for "future proof" I'd recommend one of the newer chipsets that supports the new 1333 procs. The 965 chipsets (like what's on the board in my sig) push out some pretty decent performance, but chances are they won't be supporting the new chips when they are released.

Think P35 chipset....... :)

[cujo]

Originally Posted by Nimbus

Would you suggest a Corsair for a mid-high end gaming PC?

Most certainly Canadian ~~

i'd go with an enermax 1000w dxx or a thermaltake 1200w toughpower. both have received excellent reviews.

ultra does not make quality power supplies so buy at your own risk.

[Nimbus]

Originally Posted by cujo

i'd go with an enermax 1000w dxx or a thermaltake 1200w toughpower. both have received excellent reviews.

ultra does not make quality power supplies so buy at your own risk.

Ill check them both out.

Forget the Thermaltake case, forget the Raptor.

Have a look at the Black Pearl Case by Tagan. It appears to be a FINE piece of engineering, and it's made by Lian Li.

As for the raptor. I benched the raptor against the new Hitachi 1TB drive a while ago and found that they did not perform all that differently. The hitachi drive is similarly priced and has 6x more storage space...

For motherboard, any P35-based board would be a good choice.

[Nimbus]

Originally Posted by Misoprostol

Forget the Thermaltake case, forget the Raptor.

Have a look at the Black Pearl Case by Tagan. It appears to be a FINE piece of engineering, and it's made by Lian Li.

As for the raptor. I benched the raptor against the new Hitachi 1TB drive a while ago and found that they did not perform all that differently. The hitachi drive is similarly priced and has 6x more storage space...

For motherboard, any P35-based board would be a good choice.

I assume a p35 will be compatible with all the lasted releases (cards, processor, RAM) actually, speaking of RAM, anyone know what DDR3 is like? It's supposedly way better then DDR2, maybe it's worth getting even though it is a bit pricey.
With case, basically as long as it's designed well, can support a WC system, and is stylish I'm down (I'm all about the looks, especially a window for viewing the innards). As for the Hitachi 1TB drive, I don't think I'm ever going to need 935.5GBs of space :P