My First Build :0

[iLuvnoobs]

Hi guys! A cool welcome from Canada ! I am building my first PC and I am very excited. Well, here are the specifications:-

T220:
Samsung T220 22IN Widescreen Lcd Monitor Black 1680X1050 2MS 20000:1DC Vga DVI-D Hdcp - DirectCanada

Western Digital Caviar 500 GB
Western Digital Caviar GP 500GB SATA2 7200RPM 16MB 8.9MS Cache 3.5IN Power Saving Hard Drive OEM - DirectCanada

Samsung 22X DVD Drive/Writer
Samsung SH-S223F/BEBN 22X Speedplus DVD+-RW Sata Dvd Writer Oem - DirectCanada

Creative Sound Blaster 7:1
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy SE PCI 7.1 Surround Sound Card (OEM) - DirectCanada

P6T Motherboard
ASUS P6T X58 ATX LGA1366 DDR3 LGA1366 3PCI-E16 PCI-E1 2PCI CrossFire SLI SATA2 GBLAN Motherboard - DirectCanada

Vista Home Premium 64-Bit
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium Edition 64BIT DVD OEM - DirectCanada

Corsair Dominator 6GB
Corsair XMS3 Dominator TR3X6G1600C8D 6GB DDR3 3X2GB DDR3-1600 CL 8-8-8-24 Core i7 Memory Kit - DirectCanada

Corsair 750W PSU
Corsair TX750W 750W ATX 12V 60A 24PIN ATX Power Supply Active PFC 120MM Fan - DirectCanada

CPU Heatsink (I don't know if this is for overclocking because I am not gonna use the stock fan)
Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme 1366RT Heatpipe Cooler LGA1366 120MM Fan FDB 1600RPM 28.0DBA 63.7CFM - DirectCanada

Cooler Master HAF
Cooler Master Haf 932 Full Tower Black EATX Case 6X5.25 1X3.5 5X3.5INT No PSU USB eSATA 1394 Audio - DirectCanada

ASUS GeForce GTX 295
Asus Geforce Gtx 295 576MHZ 1792MB 1.998GHZ GDDR3 PCI-E Dual DVI-I Hdmi Hdcp Video Card - DirectCanada

G15 Keyboard and G9 Mouse
Buy Logitech G9 Laser Mouse 3200DPI USB2.0 1000HZ Weight Adjustable Black
Buy Logitech G15 2ND Gen Gaming Keyboard USB Black Silver Amber LCD Panel Programmable Backlit Keys

i7 920
Newegg.ca Shopping Cart

Now, I am trying to keep all this under 2500 with shipping. I was wondering if you guys could advice me about DirectCanada.com. I discovered this last night and it seems like a great website offering great prices, although the i7 920 is a little overpriced. Can you guys help me keep it under the budget ?

Thanks again :).

[cadaveca]

You MUST switch your soundcard unless you want to pay for the Vista driver. It may be free now, but it wasn't...and your on-board will do jsut as well as that soundcard.

If you used XP, then I'd not mention anything...

Pricematch @ NCIX...

[Wurmer]

I agree here, most people don't need added sound card unless they are audiophiles. Direct Canada is a well known site, I have done some business with them in the past without any issues. BTW, you'll love the HAF 932 case. That's one hell of beastly case with galactic seize inside space to work with and cable management is just a dandy.

[Babrbarossa]

Undoubtedly a nice build! Nothing wrong with DC but you can save money on shipping by ordering it all at NCIX and 'price matching' all the prices at checkout- you can get the lowest prices on all the items there by doing that- if you've never done it, just before you submit your order, there is a button at the bottom of your items list that says "begin price match" and you paste in the links and type in the prices from the competitors. Also might want to run each item through the price comapre to find teh lowest prices on them in canada.

[geokilla]

Ditch the sound card and pricematch at NCIX. That'd be the first thing I'd do.

I vaguely recall seeing motherboards that were better than the P6T. Surf around review sites like here to get an idea.

Gaming at 1680X1050 does not require a GTX295. You may want to take a look at the GTX260 Core 216 and the ATI 4870. Both are great GPUs for the money.

You might want to look at the OCZ Vendetta 2 and it's superior for cooling. I have a Vendetta 2 and I love it.

[iLuvnoobs]

K thanks guys! I wasn't sure if the P6T would provide good enough sound so thats why I went with a sound card. I'm going to price match and see if I get a better deal. Geokilla, I'm looking for the best performance in games from a single card and after looking at benchmarks for 2 weeks, I found that it offers the best FPS. Also, I may occasionally use my HDMI cable on my TV to play a few games on 1920 x 1080. This is my first PC that will be able to play games on max like Sims 2 lol; yah, it was that damn bad :(. Thanks again though.

[ImmaPC]

+1 for OCZ Vendetta II, cheaper than the TRUE and costs far less. Get a good LGA1366 bolt-thru kit, and you should be fine.

Also, you may want to spend a bit extra and buy a Caviar Black 640GB, because the 640GB can be accessed more efficiently than on a 500GB, meaning that you get faster access times and 140GB more storage for $5 at DC.

BTW, the 6GB Dominator RAM you are buying looks nice and all, but don't spend the extra money because it has CAS8 timings (8-8-8-24). The reason being is that somehow you can get similar, if not better peformance from CAS9 (9-9-9-24) RAM than CAS8 RAM for less money.

Look it up on *********, I found a test someone there did with two similar RAM sets, one CAS8 and the other CAS9. In Everest, they both showed similar speeds, and CAS8 was topped by CAS9

[iLuvnoobs]

ImmaPC, thanks for the suggestions. I cannot find the tests done for the RAM sets. Any way you can link me to it? does the OCZ Vendetta II keep the i7 cooler than the Thermalright? Because, my friend gets 20C on Idle and I was hoping to keep it the similar, if not lower. Also, can someone tell me what the price match does?

Ex: The HAF is cheaper on DirectComputer.com, so does that mean NCIX will order from it and charge the same shipping? If thats the case, DirectComputer offers free ground shipping, but I don't know much about it as I have never order computer parts online or bought any before.

[cadaveca]

Direct Canada is kinda a partner w. NCIX, but without NCIX's overhead. ORder all goods from NCIX, and those that are lower-priced you can pricematch to the directcanada prices.

[iLuvnoobs]

I know but what does the price match really accomplish? Does NCIX get the items from Direct Canada if DC has the cheaper part? I just want to know as i did a comparision and NCIX was outbeaten by DC in every part.