im about to click the order button, just wanted to make sure im not doing anything stupid.


SAMSUNG 18X DVD±R DVD Burner With 12X DVD-RAM Write, LightScribe Technology Black SATA
$46.99

Antec NSK6500 Black/Silver 0.8mm cold-rolled steel construction ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 430W Power Supply - Retail
$99.99

Western Digital Caviar RE2 WD5000YS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
$169.99


XFX PVT71JYHE9 GeForce 7950GT 512MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP ExTreme Edition Video Card - Retail
$289.99

Kingston HyperX 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model KHX6400D2LLK2/2GN - Retail
$243.49

ASUS P5N32-E SLI LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
$269.99



Microsoft Windows Vista 32-Bit Home Premium for System Builders Single Pack DVD - OEM
$119.99

Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe 2.4GHz LGA 775 Processor Model BX80557E6600 - Retail
$316.00


see anything stupid?

2/10/2007 7:44:51 PM

personally i'd rather get two decent drives then one huge drive.
get a 10k drive for os and programs and one for storage.

2/10/2007 7:47:14 PM

ok.. 32 bit os on 64 bit processor?

i'm sure i'm the ignorant one but why??

[Edited on February 10, 2007 at 8:23 PM. Reason : .]

2/10/2007 8:23:25 PM

i dont want to have to deal with a 64-bit os until it is mainstream. for what i use it for i wouldnt notice any difference anyways

2/10/2007 8:28:42 PM

I wouldn't adopt vista right away. There's articles showing that games run slower in vista then normal xp pro. Not to mention that there's reports of people have a butt loads of problems installing nvidia drivers on vista. Plus hardware support for sound cards are non-existent yet.

I also 2nd the multiple drives. Get a fast hdd for OS and main programs, then a high volume for shit you download. Make sure that 430 watt PSU is good enough, specially if you plan on OC. Make sure that the 12v rail (or rails if multiple ones are there, but unlikely since its the stock 430) has enough amp to support that 7950gt. Sure, the 7950GT maybe slow compared to the 8800's, but they also draw about the same power as 7800GTX.

If you don't plan on going SLI, its just a wasted feature that will never be used. I'd suggest buy a cheaper priced mobo like DFI and invest the difference in an 8800GTS card for 100 more. Those GPU's are just as powerful as SLI 7900gt's. Also I've had a lot of Asus problems recently and their tech support bites. Make sure you get approved ram for the mobo, they've all seem to be very picky these days, specially 1.9v specs.

[Edited on February 10, 2007 at 9:15 PM. Reason : ]

2/10/2007 9:14:33 PM

Get a Mac instead.

2/11/2007 1:01:37 PM

Quote :

"ok.. 32 bit os on 64 bit processor? i'm sure i'm the ignorant one but why??"

b/c the vast majority of app's are 32 bit....

2/12/2007 8:35:29 AM

Quote :

"Get a Mac instead."

2/12/2007 8:54:21 AM

- don't do vista
- two hard drives, not one
- consider a 500w ps
- SLI is retarded...i'd love to see a plethora of evidence showing it actually DOING anything worth the price

2/12/2007 9:07:20 AM

Quote :

"SAMSUNG 18X DVD±R DVD Burner With 12X DVD-RAM Write, LightScribe Technology Black SATA"

why waste one of your sata slots on an optical drive? you won't be able to read/write any faster. just get a random ide dvdrw, pioneer makes nice ones.

2/12/2007 10:00:00 AM

Quote :

"NVIDIA nForce 680i "

Quote :

"Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe "

ERROR

2/12/2007 10:07:15 AM

I'm too lazy to look it up but isn't the 7950 dx9? if you are really going to get vista might as well get a dx10 card...

2/12/2007 10:27:51 AM

^ the 7950 is a dx9 card. but it's niiiice. I'm in love with mine.

and I imagine it will be some time before games require dx10.

2/12/2007 10:33:10 AM

dx10 games won't hit the markets till late this year or next... I'm waiting for a midrange dx10 card for the 200-300 price range.

2/12/2007 1:53:53 PM

well you can get 8800gts's for right at or under 400...

It will be a very very very long time until games require dx10 but in the next couple of months you should see a few popping up that support it. I haven't payed too much attention but have read of atleast a few games that are supposed to be dx10 compatible by summer.

$290 now and 200-300 later, or 400 now. I guess it's just preference.... and the mid range dx10 will probably perform better than a 8800 but still I'd hate to have just upgraded and then not be able to see all the cool new visual effects of hellgate/crysis later this year.

edit two: just saw that they are offering a 8800gts with less ram for only 300-350 msrp...

[Edited on February 12, 2007 at 2:41 PM. Reason : typo]

[Edited on February 12, 2007 at 2:44 PM. Reason : aasdf]

2/12/2007 2:41:35 PM

Shaggy, whats wrong w/the 680i and the Intel E6600? they'll work together just fine

2/12/2007 3:03:13 PM

if you're buying an intel proc, buy an intel chipset.

Its worth it, especially at that price.

2/12/2007 3:09:07 PM

well the architecture of the 8800 gpu's with the unified cell shaders will make current games run faster and smoother then normal dx9 cards.

2/12/2007 5:36:55 PM

http://tinyurl.com/ywx77p

nearly twice the performance as the standard 7950GT (don't know if that extreme edition you listed is overclocked) for $10 more than what you listed with support of DX10.

2/13/2007 3:27:25 PM

I'd also vote for the 8800 gts 320mb version since their msrp is 299 and you can find them for about 280 ar or with coupons. They are a steal currently since there's no dx10 competition from ati. I'm pretty tempting in buying one of them for myself.

2/13/2007 4:24:22 PM

Quote :

"why waste one of your sata slots on an optical drive? "

my (somewhat older) Intel Mobo has 4 sata slots...of which I use two. Nothing wrong with going SATA if he has open slots.

Quote :

"ASUS P5N32-E SLI LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail $269.99"

that seems like whole lot of $ to spend on a mobo....but thats just me. any reason why you want this very one?

Quote :

"personally i'd rather get two decent drives then one huge drive. get a 10k drive for os and programs and one for storage."

yeah you can even cheap out and get a 74gb raptor for storage and use a 500 for storage.

2/13/2007 4:59:58 PM

What are you doing for a monitor setup / what is your current monitor setup?

2/13/2007 5:16:20 PM

Quote :

"my (somewhat older) Intel Mobo has 4 sata slots...of which I use two. Nothing wrong with going SATA if he has open slots."

Ditto, my last mobo had 6 sata slots.

2/13/2007 6:09:37 PM

^Agreed. I just built a pc with an nforce 680i mobo, and if the asus design is anything like the evga design, this board has 6 SATA slots as well. I'd definitely go for the SATA optical drive if it means getting rid of the last huge IDE cable in a PC.

2/14/2007 10:18:25 AM

besides, SATA optical drives aren't terribly expensive... less than 50 still. They used to be $100+ with the same features as the cheap $30 dvd burners.

2/14/2007 4:15:00 PM

Quote :

"I'd definitely go for the SATA optical drive if it means getting rid of the last huge IDE cable in a PC. "

yeah i hate those, like when im sleeping and i want to roll over i cant because of the huge IDE cable is in my way.

2/14/2007 6:47:28 PM