New Build - compatibility

CrazyRabbit

Hi there,

It's been a long time since I built a new PC, and I'm a little behind on the technology, so I hope you guys and gals can offer some advice.

Looking on dabs, I've chosen the following so far:

Mobo
Gigabyte S775 Intel P35 Express ATX DDR2 Audio Lan

CPU
Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 S775 3.0ghz 4mb Cache 1333FSB
Graphics
XFX GeForce 8800GTS 320MB DDR3 PCIE Dual DVI "XT" ED

RAM
Corsair Memory TWIN2X2048-6400C4 2x1GB 240-Pin DIMM XMS2-6400 CL4

Storage
Western Digital Caviar 500GB S300 16mb 7200rpm

Case
Akasa Mirage 62 Black Case ATX

CPU Cooling
Zalman heatpipe CPU cooler with quiet 92mm PWM fan

PSU
Akasa Dual Fan Active PFC 650W PSU Quad 12V Rails 2xPCIE


Total cost : €1250

This is purely a gaming machine (WoW, FPS & Driving games etc). I need something that can play current games with high graphic settings enabled, and is somewhat future proof. It also needs to be fairly quiet...my current system sounds like a jet taking off. Doesn't have to be ultra quiet though. I don't require a system that can be overclocked to the max. I have a CRT monitor that is still quite good (CTX Ultra Screen), so I won't need anything in that department.

I have a few questions that I hope you can help with.

1. Should all the above parts be 100% compatible with each other?
2. Will a 650w PSU be enough? I've checked several of the PSU calculators on the web but they all give varied results.
3. I hate motherboards...nothing but hassle in the past. Is the chosen mobo decent and relatively trouble free (after bios upgrades of course)?
4. Should I be looking for additional cooling like GPU fans, extra case fans etc? I don't like it when I can fry an egg on the pc.
6. Will I need an adapter to connect a 4 year old CRT monitor to the graphics card?
6. Do you have any suggestions for improvement (but keeping within the same budget)?


Thanks for your help, advice and suggestions.

py2006

Are you getting 6gb of memory or did I read that wrong???

highlydebased

Have a look at www.hardwareversand.de - will probably save you around €200 or so...

I would think a 650w is plenty

Regarding connecting up monitor, most GFX cards have VGA and DVI outputs


What operating system are you planning on using? With Vista you'll need more than 2gb RAM for comfortable performance with gaming IMO

CrazyRabbit

py2006, I wish I was getting 6gb of ram. Sticking with 2 gb for the moment though.

Neon-Circles, thanks for the advice, I'll check that site out. I'll be sticking with XP for the moment. Though I have a conspiracy theory about MS releasing patches that destabilize XP to 'convince' people to upgrade to Vista. If I'm right, I'll probably have to upgrade in a few weeks. On the plus side, I have legitimate copies of both XP and Vista that I can install.

BTW, does Vista recognise SATA disks by default now? When I installed XP it didn't and since I had no FDD, I had to modify the win xp installation cd to load the drivers during install. Pain in the backside.
vbmenu_register("postmenu_54119381", true);

PogMoThoin

Vista detected my sata's in raid 0 without installing a driver during install

py2006

CrazyRabbit wrote:

py2006, I wish I was getting 6gb of ram. Sticking with 2 gb for the moment though.

oops, read your post wrong!