Another new build

[Tom Robbins]

This is a great site and has inspired me to build my own. I have been building r/c airplanes for many years and after studying the book and forums have decided to bite the bullet on this project . Following are the components I plan to use. If anyone finds something out of wack or incompatible, please advise. (If I get in trouble, I have my 6 year old grandson, who builds 1000 piece Legos to bail me out.)

Case: Antec Twelve hundred black ATX Full Tower
Power Supply: Antec True Power Quattro tpq-1000 1000w ATX
Motherboard: MSI K9A2 Platinum Quad PCI-2
Processor: AMD HD985ZXAGHBOX Phenon Quad Core 9850
Video Card: XFC PVT98GYDLU GEForce 9800 GT512MB 256-bit GDDR3
Hard drive: Wester Digital Cavier SE16 750GB
RAM: Crucial BallistixBL2KIT25664AR80A-DDR2 PC2-6400
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-S203N 20XDVD-ROM Burner SATA Drive
Keyboard/Mouse: Logitech 920000264
Monitor: Acer AL2216 wbd 22" LCD
CPU Cooler: Zalman CN-s700B-ALCu LED CPU coller w blue LED
Operating System: VISTA Premium Home

Thanks, Tom Robbins

[RickyTick]

Welcome aboard Tom.

I don't know what you plan to use the PC for, but if you're just web surfing, emailing, video watching/editing, and gaming, then this setup has a good deal of overkill. Can you give a few more details on how you will use this computer.

Thanks

[Tom Robbins]

I will be using the computer for web surfing, home business applications, emailing, 3D & internet gaming, video editing, photoshop editing, & webcam.

I may have gotten caught up in some of the hype for a top notch system, but I didn't want to have to keep upgrading along the way.

I'm open to suggestions.

Thanks, Tom Robbins

[RickyTick]

The 1200 is HUGE. :eek: but its certainly a great case. I will hold anything (or anybody) you want to put in there. If you have room for it, then go for it. It usually runs about twice the price of the Antec 900.

With the components you listed, the 1000 watt psu is way overkill. Take a look at this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341011
Its still overkill, but you'll never be underpowered.

[tomrunswithscissors]

Hi Tom,
Just curious how much this build is estimated to cost. I'm thinking of building one soon, it's just kinda daunting.

[Tom Robbins]

The case is too big for my current desk. But the desk is one of those cheap particle board assemblies, and it's falling apart. I do a lot of woodworking, so I will be building a custom corner desk designed around the system.

The components I have listed were selected from Amazon, Newegg, and Crucial.com. and cost $1640. I went to Dell and tried to price the XPS 630 with equal components, and it came out to be over $4500. I may have over selected some of the Dell components, but even so, say $3000, building your own is still a huge saving.

Tom Robbins

[Damlite]

Make sure you purchase the 64-bit version of Vista Home Premium, it will ensure all 4GB of your RAM is recognised and potentially used.

Ricky keeps pulling out ridiculously cheap deals and that particular powersupply has pretty nasty specs, I wouldn't pass up that offer.

Seeing as you have a flexible budget, I suggest investing slightly more into the video card that will last you a lot longer and will perform better overall. I would suggest the Diamond HD4850 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814103060)

Everything else looks good, good luck

[RickyTick]

I will be using the computer for web surfing, home business applications, emailing, 3D & internet gaming, video editing, photoshop editing, & webcam.

I may have gotten caught up in some of the hype for a top notch system, but I didn't want to have to keep upgrading along the way.

I'm open to suggestions.

Thanks, Tom Robbins

Upgrading along the way just seems to be the norm. With the system you're proposing, the only thing that might need upgrading at some point is the video card or processor, but thats probably far into the future.

After reading some of the reviews on newegg concerning that motherboard, I would suggest rethinking that choice.

[Tom Robbins]

Thanks for the comments. As a result, I've selcted the following components over the ones originally listed:

Motherboard: EVGA 123-yw-E175-Al
Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Quad Core
Video Card: Diamond 4850PE512 Radeon HD 4850 512MB
PCU Cooler: Zalmon CNP59700 LED Ultra quiet Cooler.

New cost: $1702

Tom

[Damlite]

Uhh, just be careful with your motherboard choice selection. You've switched over to an nvidia and intel motherboard, which is good that you changed to the popular intel Q6600, but the Diamond HD4850 is a Radeon card, and will not be compatible with your new nvidia mainboard selection. In this case you'll have to switch over to nvidia video cards, which I will then recommend:

EVGA 9800GTX+ SSC Edition (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130386)
The fact that it comes massively overclocked from the box and is at that price after rebate, this is probably the best nvidia performance vs price ratio'ed card in the market. If i was making a new build, I couldn't pass this one up.

EVGA 8800GTS SSC Edition (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130317&Tpk=evga%208800GTS)
Pretty much the same thing cept performance and price is both lowered, but still roughly the same ratio.

Make sure your motherboard and video card are the same brand, increases the chance of stability.

[zburns]

I encourage you to look more closely at your choice of monitors. Take a look at this forum link:
http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/hardware/20990-help-my-colors-images-look-funky.html

The two or three posts I read about this monitor say that it has a TN panel which is the current and cheapest vogue in LCD monitor panels right now. As far as I know, most or all manufacturers use it.

The big negative of the TN panel is the viewing angle, meaning colors may look fine when you are looking perpendicular to the center of your monitor, but if you physically move your head and eyes lower (looking upwards), colors get darker and contrast gets more pronounced; if you raise your head (looking downward), colors get lighter and you lose contrast.

Yesterday I was loading RAW images (10 megapixel) from a Nikon and noticed exactly what I describe on my 24" Samsung 245BW monitor with a TN panel. Purchased it fully knowing what I was getting, but not really knowing how severe the effect is.

TN panels are not a good idea for those who do photoshop, and I assume video editing. If your use of photoshop and video editing is just for home, you can probably get by but you should determine that. I would not use a TN panel if I was routinely using Photoshop as an integral part of my business.

Here is another link from a user on the Acer monitor. He mentions specifically a TN panel and describes the viewing angle problem. Says it is 8 bit color, not 6 bit as is said about most TN panels; I cannot find spec that says either one for this Acer model. http://arstechnica.com/guides/buyer/2007-holiday-upgrade-guide.ars/5

Another link that offers a ton of information on monitiors is: http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/ Their home page has reviews on two new 24" monitors by Samsung and Dell that do not use the TN panel; also reviews on some smaller monitors.

There may be a "conflict" between the monitors with very high response time of about 2 ms and monitors with slower times. The fast monitors best for gaming; slower best for photoshop, etc..

22" monitors have the same native resolution as 20" monitors (all else being equal). This means that the "pixels per inch" on the 22" monitor are less than the "ppi" on the 20"monitor by about 5 - 7%. The pixels on the 22" monitor are larger than the pixels on the 20" monitor by this small amount.

The native resolution of 20" monitors compared to 24" monitors (all other things equal) works out in both cases to approx 94 pixels per inch. 22" monitor around 87 to 89 pixels per inch (ppi).

Monitors best suited for Photoshop and video editing will have a spec stating they meet a % of the NTSC color gamut standard. I believe the minimum is 72%; some Dell Ultrasharp monitors are over 100%.

Based on my experience looking at specs, some manufactures are reluctant to put "TN" openly in the spec; you have to work hard to find it some or most of the time. Viewing angle of 160 degrees is the first clue.

Hope all this helps!