help me build my new PC!

tell me if you recommend better parts or different website for anything on the list.


WEBSITE LEGEND
----------------------------------------------
[T] = TigerDirect.com



PARTS (note: all prices exclude rebates)
----------------------------------------------
Guts (CPU/RAM/Mobo)
$289.99 - [T] - Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.40GHz / 8MB Cache / 1066MHz FSB / Kentsfield / Quad Core / OEM / Socket 775 / Processor
$449.99 - [T] - Corsair Dominator DHX 4096MB Dual Channel PC8500 DDR2 1066MHz Memory (4 x 1024MB)
$279.99 - [T] - Asus P5K3 Deluxe WiFi-AP Intel Socket 775 ATX Motherboard / Audio / CrossFire Ready / PCI Express / WiFi / Dual Gigabit LAN / S/PDIF / USB 2.0 & Firewire / Serial ATA / RAID

Audio/Video Cards
$139.99 - [T] - Creative Labs X-FI Xtreme Gamer Fatality Sound Card
2x $199.99 - [T] - HIS Radeon X1950 Pro / 512MB GDDR3 / PCI Express / DL Dual DVI / HDTV / CrossFire Ready / Video Card

Hard Drives
$109.99 - [T] - Seagate / Barracuda 7200.10 / 500GB / 7200 / 8MB / ATA-100 / EIDE / OEM / Hard Drive

Cooling
$199.99 - [T] - CoolIT Eliminator Thermoelectronic CPU Cooler
$15.99 - [T] - Arctic Silver 5 High-Density Polysynthetic Silver Thermal Compound - 12g

Case & Mods
$149.99 - [T] - Ultra Black Aluminus ATX Full-Tower Case with Clear Side, Front USB, Firewire, Audio Ports and Ultra 700-Watt XVS Power Supply

Peripherals
$79.99 - [T] - Logitech G7 Laser Gaming Mouse
$69.99 - [T] - Logitech G15 Gaming Keyboard
$289.99 - [T] - Logitech Z-5500 THX Certified 5.1 500-watt Dolby Digital & DTS Hardware Decoding Speaker System
$319.99 - [T] - Samsung 226BW 22" Widescreen LCD Monitor - 2ms, 1000:1(DC 3000:1) Contrast Ratio, WSXGA+ 1680 x 1050, Gloss Black, DVI

Software
$119.99 - [T] - Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit DSP OEM DVD

newegg.com

seriously. tiger is a rip-off. i have never found one thing that i've needed that they'll have cheaper than newegg.

how do you mount that TEC cooler?

ill take a look at newegg, its always been recommended and apparently tigerdirect charges tax to FL whereas newegg doesnt (or so i have been told).


as for the cpu cooler; i have no idea
i originally thought i might go with a full out liquid cooling system and run it to the gpu(s) as well, but i doubt it is really necessary or worth it.

what about memory cooling? does anybody have experience or thoughts on hooking up water or fan cooling specifically for memory bank.

anyone have opinions for/against full blown liquid cooling? i was also looking at peltier as a possible alternative to liquid cooling or heatsink+fan.


edit: water cooling looks like it might be cheaper than whatever that CoolIT thing is and also cheaper than the peltier i was looking at, so who knows

Samsung 226BW....it's a good monitor... sometimes. The monitor has 3 different panels, 'S', 'A' and 'C' all of different qualities it's all a bit of a lottery.

http://www.behardware.com/articles/667-1/samsung-226bw-a-and-s-series-the-verdict.html
http://www.behardware.com/articles/673-1/samsung-syncmaster-226bw-c.html

Might be worth considering before spending $300 on it.

Only item I ever got from TigerDirect came DOA. I'd look into NewEgg.

The X-Fi isn't going to be able to do it's awesome hardware accelerated stuff in Vista x64. At least not until creative releases decent drivers for it. If you go x86 I have a hacked driver CD I'll send you that will work with Vista x86.

Totally ditch the crossfire and get a 8800 IMO. Crossfire (And SLI for that matter) totally is a ripoff.

Agreed. Everything else looks pretty sweet.

That keyboard seems pretty serious.

If you're still going to get a X-Fi card, there's no reason to spend the extra dough on a Fatality. You could get an XtremeGamer, which is the nearly the exact same as an XtremeMusic, and save 40-50 bucks. The only thing the Fatality has is XRAM, which isn't supported much from what I understand. And it has red lights.

They have some good deals occasionally, but they are kind of shady. Before they switched to OnRebate, it was unheard of to get your rebate money. I've gotten all mine from OnRebate, but since reading about their run ins with the BBB, I'm more hesitant to buy from them. At the end of the day you're better off with newegg.

Well, except maybe at the moment, since NewEgg hasn't fully updated to reach Intel's price cuts.

ditto, not only will you get better, faster hardware in one card you'll have less heat and noise in your system.

Good choice. Maybe wait for NewEgg's price to fall. It's supposed to be $266.

Waste of money. There is absolutely no reason to ever buy anything better than value RAM from a good manufacturer. Kingston, Crucial, Patriot, Corsair to name a few, are all good. It's only ever worth bothering if there's an outrageous rebate that knocks it down to the same or similar price as value RAM. I suppose the only time it makes sense is if you are doing extreme overclocking. Gaming is not an instance where it matters.

Looks like a solid choice. As others have said, both SLI and Crossfire aren't worth it, but SLI is supposed to be better.

Waste of money. EAX is a gimmick to begin with. Yeah, it adds some decent reverb and environmental effects, but most newer games are going with more powerful software engines. And EAX isn't supported in Vista anyway. Otherwise the X-Fi is a decent card, but get the cheapest one you can. XtremeMusic or whatever. Beware of the XtremeAudio, I think it is, that isn't really an X-Fi at all.

Good card choice, bad manufacturer. There is a reason HIS is so cheap. You might buy HIS cards and never have a problem, but they have a much higher rate of failure than reputable manufacturers. They are worthless for overclocking. As others have said an 8800 is a much better choice anyway.

Why the hell are you getting the IDE version? The SATA version is like $20 more, has twice the cache and has higher transfer speeds. If this was covered in a previous post, then disregard. I know it's common to accidentally select IDE instead of SATA. The SATA version of this drive is the absolute best 500 GB drive you can buy.

Huge waste of money. Take a look at the high end heatsink offerings from Thermalright. Get one of the models that supports a 120mm fan and use one of this on it. They have fluid dynamic bearings that last really long and are extremely quiet. The 800 RPM one is virtually inaudible. You may not even need a CPU fan if you get a tower-style heatsink and have a decent rear exhaust fan. I would recommend the 1200 or 1600 RPM versions of the same model for that.

Waste of money. Artic Silver doesn't cool that much better than standard white goop and doesn't last anywhere near as long. I've pulled apart 20 year old components that have their silicone or zinc oxide white stuff still as wet as the day it was applied. AMD recommends thermal pads like these for long term use. They actually don't approve any grease for long-term use. There's a myth that thermal pads suck, but it's from the days of those ****ty yellow ones. The modern ones are made of a phase-change material that liquefy within during a break-in period, then solidify for a solid long-term application. They work better than most pastes. If you don't want to bother ordering these then use white goop.

Ultra tends to make flashy things that don't always last that long. Like other cheap brands, it's not that they're bad, just inconsistent. I would be especially wary of the power supply. Considering that thing looks like a rebranded Chieftec, I wouldn't bother. Good power supply brands are Sparkle, Fortron, FSP Group and Seasonic. Most other "high end" power supplies are from one of these companies, rebranded and have double the price.

Just consider the new MX revolution, it has a forward button. The mouse wheel can be either smooth scrolling or ratcheting. It has a servo mechanism inside that switches modes. The software can even be configured to do it automatically. I think if you're going to spend a lot on a mouse, you might as well get a really good one.

Not bad but, generally, Klipsch is the best you can do without a dedicated receiver/amplifer and real speakers.

I don't know anything about this particular model, but Samsung is dominating the LCD market for a reason. Talk to Jon`C. Avoid glossy screens if possible, they're gimmicks. They actually reduce color accuracy. It's not that important for most people, but they're often more expensive and have awful glare anyway.

Don't get 64-bit. The compatibility issues far outweigh any of the benefits. There is little to no benefit of 64-bit computing at the moment for desktop users. I suppose you might need it if you want to do 64-bit development or something. 64-bit Vista (and XP I think) require drivers to be signed, but you can disable that if you really need to. Just watch out.

The "Glossy" refers to the plastic around the screen. Note "Gloss Black".

I know, I was just saying anyways. A lot of people go "OOH SHINY" and get suckered into glossy screens.

All hail Emon and his thorough command of computer-building knowledge.