About to start

[RainMaker]

So all the parts for my new build have arrived and I am about to embark on my FIRST build. Any pointers? Do you think I need a heatsink? If so any recommendations?

•ANTEC - Sonata III Quiet Super Mini Tower w/ EarthWatts 500W, eSATA
•Intel - Pentium® Dual-Core Processor E5200 2.50 GHz w/ 2MB Cache
•P5QL PRO w/ DualDDR2 1066, 7.1 Audio, Gigabit Lan, PCI-E 2.0 x16
•BFG - GeForce 9500 GT 1GB PCI-E w/ Dual DVI, HDTV-Out
•OCZ - 4GB PC2-6400 Vista Performance Platinum Dual Channel DDR2 Kit (2 x 2GB)
•Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 500GB SATA2 3GB/S 7200RPM 16MB Cache NCQ Hard Drive OEM
•Samsung SH-S223F/BEBN 22X Speedplus DVD+-RW SATA DVD Writer OEM
•Microsoft Windows Vista Home Basic Edition 64BIT

Any last tips or hints?

~RainMaker

[Jake_HT]

If you're doing any gaming you should look into a better video card, even a 9600 would be quite a bit better than the 9500. As long as you're not doing any serious overclocking the stock heatsink should do fine.

[Soultribunal]

I personally, Have never been a Fan of the stock Intel Heatsinks.
So, I will always suggest that you source and find a decent one on any newbuild, OC'ing or not.

ZeroTherm FZ120, OCZ Vendetta, Zalman C9700 are a few that come off the top of my head.
The Cooler everything Runs, the longer everything lasts. Usually at least anyways.

My two cents,

Best Regards,
ST

[rjbarker]

I personally, Have never been a Fan of the stock Intel Heatsinks.
So, I will always suggest that you source and find a decent one on any newbuild, OC'ing or not

If you're not OC'ing your CPU the Intel Stock Cooler will be more than adequate. I had my E8400 (CO Stepping) OC'd to 3.6 Ghz w Stock HSF and Temps were acceptable.
You'll likely be fine even with a mild OC....if you want to push things..then yes, you'll require an aftermarket HSF.

[SugarJ]

Put the memory, CPU and heatsink on the mobo before installing in the case.

Everything you add needs 2 things. Power and data. Make sure there's a way for both to get to your HD, DVD, GPU, etc. Don't forget there's 2 power connections to the mobo.

Have fun. It's worthwhile testing everything before you actually install it in your case.

[Soultribunal]

Originally Posted by rjbarker

If you're not OC'ing your CPU the Intel Stock Cooler will be more than adequate. I had my E8400 (CO Stepping) OC'd to 3.6 Ghz w Stock HSF and Temps were acceptable.
You'll likely be fine even with a mild OC....if you want to push things..then yes, you'll require an aftermarket HSF.

I suppose this is just a difference of opinions. Just because I don't like them, doesn't mean they won't work, as you've said.
I always feel safer having more than sufficent cooling, as opposed to less.
This way too, if in the future he decides to OC, he doesn't have to rip everything out of the case to install a new HSF as well. (unless its a pushpin style)

To each their own,

Regards,
ST