Suggestions or comments on new PC

[s_gibson]

I've done my research and come up with the following part list to go with the new 8800 GTS card that arrived earlier this week.

Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 Conroe 2.66GHz LGA 775 Processor Model BX80557E6750
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16819115029

XFX MB-N680-ILT9 LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 680i LT SLI ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16813141002

Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Memory Model BL2KIT12864AA804
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16820146565

COOLMAX CXI-600B ATX12V 600W Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16817159055

Western Digital Caviar SE WD3200AAJS 320GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16822136098

Sony NEC Optiarc Black 18X DVD 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA 18X DVD±R DVD Burner
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827131047

Microsoft Windows Vista 32-Bit Home Premium

I tend to base much of my purchasing decisions on the reviews and opinions of members of this site. If anyone has any comments about any of the items I'd love to hear it. I'm not sure about the voltage requirements for the RAM, but I'm assuming it will work in this system. I figured the power supply would be sufficient since I will not be running SLI. I haven't used SATA DVD burners in the past, but I've had good luck with SOny and NEC in the past.

Thanks guys, about time to get this card working. The Lost Planet game that came with it will not run in any of my slow machines I have now.

[darkorb]

nice system, just general use on it?

even with ur 8800gts, its not gonna be running too well. since basically, the game runs **** on anything

[Xero (1)ne]

I personally would stay away from WD drives. Seagates have lasted me forever through rough patches.

I also would prefer AMD but C2D's do have the performance crown atm.


...Sometime I think I might build a pure AMD system....:-D

[darkorb]

yea my bad on missing it, i would also rather go with Seagate than WD. WD failed on me once and im not risking it again.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148140

[s_gibson]

The main use will be for racing games, rts and maybe a shooter or 2. I'm only running NASCAR 2003, COH, Empire Earth 2 and Counter Strike now, but I want a system that will get me by for a few years before it becomes a hand me down.

I haven't used a Seagate Drive since '99, but I really have no preference to drive as none of them I've had have ever gone bad.

Thanks for the comments. Someone on here told me the E6750 was a good CPU. I'm not sure if I will ever overclock it but I heard it clock well. The RAM says it runs on 2.2volts. Is that too high? Some of the others run at less voltage.

[Xero (1)ne]

It will probably run at a little less voltage. My DDR RAM is rated for 2.7v but I can run it at 2.5 with no problems. I run it at 2.6 for my overclock (450MHz) ;-)

Any rig that you build that cost at least 1k will last you some time and give you lots of gaming goodness until the end of its days :icon_tiphat:

[Scott]

Just do Seagate drives.

I am building this system for my son now.

E6700
XFX 680SLI LT
2 x 1GB Corsair 8500
XFX 8800GTX
Seagate 7200.10 750GB
Lite-On SATA DVD DL Burner
Lian-Li V1000 Silver
ThermalTake Tough Power 700
Windows XP PRO.

He just plays alot of net games and some games we bought. He is not into shooters to much so no need for DX10 stuff for him.

[Frag Maniac]

Fairly good build, with a few exceptions.

1) You're paying for an SLI ready 680i chipset MB yet specing a slightly underpowered PS for a future SLI option. It may work, but you certainly leave yourself no headroom wattage wise with that option.

2) You can do better than the Caviar at a good price with the Seagate 10 series Baracuda at 16MB buffer with Perpendicular Recording and large capacity. PR is also more reliable against data loss.

3) You could probably as well get just as good a DVD burner for less going Lite-On.

[Victor]

looks good, like everybody else, I would suggest seagate for 5 years warranty. Also, I would suggest get slightly better branded psu. Coolmax may not be the best maker on the market.

[s_gibson]

Looks like Seagate it will be. As I mentioned I've never had a brand preference I only selected WD because it is what I'm using now.

As far as the power supply if I ever do go with SLI, purchasing a new one would be no big deal. The one I'm getting could always be use in a hand me down upgrade for one of the other systems in the house or at my workbench. I just do not want to throw a bunch of money at an overkill supply now when I'm already going to be into this thing for $800+

If Coolmax is of poor quality I'd prefer not to buy it. I figured they were a reputable brand. I had looked at the Antec Basiq BP500U 500W Power Supply http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371004 but wasn't sure how it would stand up. I'm assuming any of these supplies have the correct connectors for the card and MB. If someone has a suggestion for a power supply of good quality and inexpensive I'm all ears.

Two things that I liked about the 680i over the other nvidia boards was the future potential if I did change my mind and go SLI, fans on the chipset and I wanted more rear USB ports and firewire than many of the 650i boards had.

Several people mentioned Lite On in this thread. How is this one? I could use a newer version of Nero than 6 also :) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106072

Thanks again.

[Frag Maniac]

Well WD HDs are OK if you go Raptor, as they are more ruggedly built and very fast. At your price point that wouldn't make sense though. There are lots of good PSs that will run one card. If you want to game for long hours though look for one that is effeicient and stable, preferably in the over 80% club efficiency wise.

The thing to keep in mind with combo burners is they often will not last a long time, so no sense getting an expensive one. Any of the Lite-Ons that have enough burn speed for your liking should be plenty adequate.

One other thing I neglected to note but I think is relevant, especially since you'e not sure if you'll even use SLI, is the grade of chipset on the MB. A 680i chipset is capable of full 16x X 16x SLI, which you may never utilize. There you could probably save some money.

[Scott]

Steve,

That is the same Lite-On I put in Mikes (Zac) machine. We will be powering that baby up today.

[Raptorfury]

i use Wds for years never had any issues with them ... out of 20 or so i owned i had 1 go out on me this has been since 1998 . lostplanet will play nicly on that system . you may experience a few slowdowns but for the most part it cruises .. i played it @ 1280x780 with 16af 4 aa and also 1440 x 900 with 8 af , 0 aa . i used the first one more mainly it gave me a lil cleaner looking edges the best advice i can give you . DONT use the CRAPPY STOCK COOLER .... either use thermalrights solution or go water .......

[s_gibson]

Parts arrived yesterday and I started putting everything together. All I have left tonight is putting the processor, ram and graphics card in and cranking it up.

Any suggestions on the install of Vista? Should I just put all the latest drivers on disc or let Vista choose which drivers to install. Will Vista prompt me for any drivers during the install? I'm guessing the Vista install and the driver install has to be much that same as XP.

I did remove the jumper on the Seagate for SATA 300.

[Xero (1)ne]

Since Vista comes with drivers for Nvidia hardware already you should be able to get online right away. I would download the newest drivers possible from Nvidia(and other) instead of using drivers off the disk.

As long as you're not doing any overclocking or going to any LAN's (hot areas) a stock cooler should be fine for you. If you experience some heat issues though an aftermarket cooler would be a good idea.:icon_tiphat:

[s_gibson]

Everything is up and running with no problems. Vista is actually easier to setup than XP.

I haven't been able to figure out the front audio connections on the motherboard. I'll have to mess around with it a bit tonight. Counterstrike Source also seems jerky for some reason.

[Frag Maniac]

I haven't been able to figure out the front audio connections on the motherboard.This may help if it's Realtek AC/97 or Intel HD audio. It worked wonders for me when I built a PC recently for a friend with an Antec Sonata II case. http://www.intel.com/support/motherboards/desktop/sb/CS-015851.htm (http://www.intel.com/support/motherboards/desktop/sb/CS-015851.htm)

[Bio-Hazard]

Easy enough for the front panel sound..............:ahhhhh:

[s_gibson]

Easy enough for the front panel sound..............:ahhhhh:

That is the same thing that is in the manual Bio, but it doesn't tell me anything.


Thanks Frag. That link will help me out. It has an explaination of what the terms are. I ended up throwing this into a CoolerMaster case and that link will help me determine which wire is which.

[Bio-Hazard]

All the wires in the case should be marked and if it's a newer case it should have connections for both standard (AC97) and high def (HD Audio). The MoBo has onboard hi def, I've got the same board and it was as simple as matching the wires to the pin out's, can't get much easier.

[s_gibson]

Naah, the case I have was bought 2 days ago and the markings on the wires for the front audio are marked completely different than the motherboard.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119115

[Bio-Hazard]

Does it have connectors for AC97 as well as HD and seperate wires, or just a AC97 connector?

Pin out for your case.

[s_gibson]

Thanks again Bio. THe only wires in the case are AC'97 labeled

R-OUT (THERE ARE 2 OF THESE TIED TOGETHER)
L-OUT (THERE ARE 2 OF THESE TIED TOGETHER)
GROUND
MIC POWER
MIC-IN

Now for the AC '97 layout it is easy to determine how the pins would be laid out. It is shown in the documentation that came with the case. (Which is similar to the image in your last post.)

The documentation that came with the motherboard shows what you had your first post. It says, "The audio connector supports HD audio standard and provides two kinds of audio output choices: the Front Audio, the Rear Audio. The front Audio supports re-tasking function."

The BIOS has an HD Audio setting under the integrated Peripherals Menu that is set to auto. The text in it reads, "This function ....... allows you to enable or disable the hard disk audio function." By disabling it would it allow me to hook up the connectors based on the AC'97 layout. The documentation seems vague on this. If so would the effect of disabling the HD Audio only effect the front panel also? I don't need the sensing capabilities on the front panel, but I would like to have the plugs working for CounterStrike Source.

Worse case I'll just replace the plugs on the little 3 1/4" bay knockout with one that are wired for HD Audio. I guess I can search later to see if there is something I can buy for this.

[s_gibson]

Well I hooked up the wires to the case shortly after the last post and nothing worked. I had all but given up until last night when I found that clicking on the little folder in the Realtek setting manager allows you to disable Front Jack Detection. Selected that and all is well. Only other lingering problem is how crappy Vista is transferring files through the network.

[Frag Maniac]

The "re_tasking" function is likely another word for "return", which is how it's usually labeled. Return just means the speakers are cut once you plug headphones into the front audio panel. If you have HD audio enabled however and the case front audio panel doesn't not support HD audio, the return function may not work.

I had a problem when building a PC for a friend whereby the Antec Sonata II case front audio panel did not support the HD audio of the ASUS MB. The lack of support only affected the return function though. Since my friend already had an inexpensive CMedia sound card I set it up so the speakers ran off it and the front panel off the onboard, which requires a change in software settings.

This way he's able to hear HD onboard audio with headphones and full analog audio on the speakers depending on the source he's playing. The Sonata II had separate single pin plugs and an all in one plug for the front panel. I ended up using the all in one as it happened to fit his MB front panel audio socket. I never tried uninstalling the HD audio codec to see if it would make the return function work as I didn't see a point to using the onboard sound without HD in this situation as he had a sound card.

Before you continue I would check with the case manufacturer to see if it's front panel audio supports HD onboard sound.

[Scott]

Well I hooked up the wires to the case shortly after the last post and nothing worked. I had all but given up until last night when I found that clicking on the little folder in the Realtek setting manager allows you to disable Front Jack Detection. Selected that and all is well. Only other lingering problem is how crappy Vista is transferring files through the network.


The file transfer thing is supposed to get fixed in SP1. Microsoft is trying to have it ready for the end of the year. Beta testers said it fixed the issue, just can't remember where I read that.

Might try this site, http://www.winsupersite.com/

[s_gibson]

The "re_tasking" function is likely another word for "return", which is how it's usually labeled. Return just means the speakers are cut once you plug headphones into the front audio panel. If you have HD audio enabled however and the case front audio panel doesn't not support HD audio, the return function may not work.

I had a problem when building a PC for a friend whereby the Antec Sonata II case front audio panel did not support the HD audio of the ASUS MB. The lack of support only affected the return function though. Since my friend already had an inexpensive CMedia sound card I set it up so the speakers ran off it and the front panel off the onboard, which requires a change in software settings.

This way he's able to hear HD onboard audio with headphones and full analog audio on the speakers depending on the source he's playing. The Sonata II had separate single pin plugs and an all in one plug for the front panel. I ended up using the all in one as it happened to fit his MB front panel audio socket. I never tried uninstalling the HD audio codec to see if it would make the return function work as I didn't see a point to using the onboard sound without HD in this situation as he had a sound card.

Before you continue I would check with the case manufacturer to see if it's front panel audio supports HD onboard sound.

I have it up and running with the AC'97 pins hooked up the HD Audio motherboard. It did not require anything other than hooking up the wires appropriately and turning off jack detection. As long as jack detection was on it would not determine what to do and nothing worked on the front panel. After it is turned off you can simply tell it what you have hooked up to the jack (mic, headphones, etc.)

[s_gibson]

The file transfer thing is supposed to get fixed in SP1. Microsoft is trying to have it ready for the end of the year. Beta testers said it fixed the issue, just can't remember where I read that.

Might try this site, http://www.winsupersite.com/

I'm crossing my figures that SP1 is released soon then :)