Am I missing much?

[Jon Miller]

First time builder, had a $1500 dell all picked out and thought maybe I would enjoy it more and get a slightly better machine doing it myself.

I basically followed the latest recommendations from this site, no gaming required but will be working with photos extensively and otherwise the mothership home computer hopefully to last several years...hoping to be able to add hard drives as storage requires (already have several external)

Case: Antec Sonata III 500 Black 0.8mm cold rolled steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 500W Power Supply


PSU:
Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-EP45-DS3R LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX

CPU:Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 Yorkfield 2.83GHz LGA 775 95W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80569Q9550

RAM: G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1000 (PC2 8000) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-8000CL5D-4GBPQ

Graphics card: EVGA 896-P3-1260-AR GeForce GTX 260 896MB 448-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card

Sound card:
Hard Drive(s):Western Digital VelociRaptor WD1500HLFS 150GB 10000 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive (bare drive)

Optical Drive(s): SAMSUNG 22X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe Black SATA Model SH-S223Q

Monitor: Acer X203Wbd Black 20" 5ms Widescreen LCD Monitor


Speakers:

Operating System:Vista Ultimate


thanks in advance


Jon Miller

[russwin13]

That sounds sweet. Make sure vista is 64bit to take advantage of the 4 gigs of ram. I would also buy a 500-750 gig HD for storage, since your primary drive will be full really quick.

[zburns]

The acer monitor you have chosen has a lot of good reviews, particularly when it comes to price. Please take a look at TFT Central; here is the link http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/news_archive/13.htm. Go to reviews and look at the review on the new HP LP 2275W. It is a complicated technical review if you try to take in the whole thing; the important parts are the type panel, an S-PVA from Samsung with a viewing angle of 178 x 178 degrees. Look thru the review for viewing angles and what is said about TN panels vs. this S-PVA panel; also, what it says about viewing angles and contrast. This is a 22" monitor; not suggesting you buy it, just look at the review because it is not TN panel.

The monitor that Rob recommends is the Dell Ultrasharp 2007 FP; it too is a non TN panel. You can tell from the viewing angle of 178 x 178.

Typically, on a TN panel, the contrast of the image varies as you move your eyes up and down and left to right. If Photoshop images are paramount, you need a monitor that does not do this. So I recommend you use the internet to find reasonable cost monitors that Photoshop users recommend. The best monitors are very expensive; Rob's recommendation is reasonably priced from Dell. 8 bit color, 16.7 million colors, 92% color gamut standard all are important, also.

I personally have a 24" Samsung with a TN panel; purchased it based on price knowing all of the above. My contrast varies all over the place as I move my eyes up, down, etc.. I do some photo work, no photoshop image altering, etc.; it is just not a suitable monitor if you are going to alter images, tone, colors, etc. particularly for publication. There is no way to know if your colors are accurate. All that said, bottom line TN panels fine for gaming and low price. Photoshop users do not want to see that contrast move around on them as you change the viewing angle on your monitor. I do not see how one does consistent photoshop work with a TN panel. Check it out!

You should also read Blazer's comments on the Antec 300 case; his points make sense (Case Modding and Cooling). This is a new case, not as "snappy" looking on the front (no door) as the Sonata III 500, which I also use. If you plan to load the case up with hard drives, air flow and low temps matter. According to Blazer, his temps dropped in this new case compared to the Sonata. My temps are on the high side as he indicates his were.

[RickyTick]

Hi Jon. Welcome to MySuperPC Forums.

If you're not gaming at all, then the GTX260 is a bit overkill for your needs. You'd be fine with a 9600GT, or something similar.

I would also encourage you to consider Windows Vista Home Premium as opposed to Ultimate, unless you need the added feature of remote access.

[Jon Miller]

Thank you everyone, this is exactly the feedback I was hoping for.

As far as the processor, I don't mind paying a bit more for something to last longer, both physically (heat) and as applications require more horsepower. Is it your opinion that the rest of the machine will wear our before the extra processor power is needed/used?

My thinking on the 10,000 rpm smallish drive was a quick spool up time. If I plan on leaving the machine turned on for long periods might this be a waste of money as well?

again thanks for the help.

[RickyTick]

The processor you listed is super fast and should serve you well for a long time.

I agree with Russwin that you'll want a larger hard drive. The difference between the 10k and 7.2k rpm drive is not huge. Sure its faster, but a quality 7200 is very fast and reliable, not to mention much much bigger. You could have two hard drives. The 10K for your OS and main software, and a bigger one for saving files and pictures to. just a thought.

[Jon Miller]

With a few tweaks I ordered the parts today, hope to build next week. Thanks again and look forward to sharing frustrations and success shortly.

[Jon Miller]

OK, first of probably many silly questions.

Reviewing the mother board, do I need an additional networking card on top of this? It appears to have that functionality built in.

Does an additional heat sink make sense on the processor?

For a non gaming machine are additional fans suggested / requiered. (I stuck with my original choice of case)

[blazer]

networking is built in, no extra card needed.
a high performance heat sink may not be required but they are not expensive
and are easier to install before you put the motherboard into the case.
the sonata III only has space for one additional fan next to the HD cage. i tried one there and it made little difference. i think air flow is hampered by lack of air intake ports. i had best results with the sonata III by leaving the side door off.
when i switched to the antec 300, all cooling problems went away.
your cpu is a 95W while mine is a 125W. you may not experience the high temps i did.

[zburns]

No silly questions on any of this stuff when your beginning point is ground zero. Do it right the first time, read Rob's assembly instructions at each stage multiple times, read your mobo manufacturer's "Installation Manual" carefully and make sure it "coincides with Rob's instructions" (as best possible if the CPU is not the one he refers to. This was my situation; I found the mobo manual very helpful and it "trumped" Rob's instructions because they were vastly different.).

Are you refering to the factory cooling fan / heatsink or a separate fan / heatsink (like Rob's rec, Zalman)?

Your cooling unit that sits on top of the CPU is the only heat sink in direct contact; are you talking about specific mobo cooling features in the vicinity of the CPU which would be a mobo feature? My CPU is AMD dual core 5600, CPU fan is Zalman Heat Sink and Fan (Rob's rec), 120mm rear case fan (comes installed in Sonata III) and the Earthwatts 500 watt PSU with fan installed in rear of PSU housing. Two fans external to the PSU fan.

The rear case fan, Antec 120mm, has a three position fan speed switch; ran it on "low" for three or four months, noise level very low. My temps a little high, but well within range, so I switched to "high" which I found "not really loud" but objectionable nonetheless, settled on "medium" which sounds "close" to the "low" speed level.

The Antec Sonata does provide space for one more fan behind the hard drive bay. Cannot comment on networking card, no experience! Good luck, it is all in the details!

(15 minutes later), After the above reply, I checked my temps, CPU is 38 C, Mobo is 37 C. Computers been on about 2 hours; only use this website and this "Reply" starting about 30/40 minutes ago. I think my worst case temps, about 10 degrees Centigrade higher during "moderate" use. Heavy use, I am guessing, would be games with high frame rate, lots of color, lots of high speed action. I do not do anything even approching this intense use!

[zburns]

When you get to the point in your build of installing the CPU cooling fan / heatsink to the CPU heatsink, use a "pea" size blob of Artic Silver as Rob recommends, and be very careful when you lower the Fan / heatsink combo down on top of the CPU. It should come down flat and parallel, left to right, front to rear on the CPU heatsink. Doing it correctly will spread the Artic Silver out symetrical from the center.

The danger is the fan heatsink coming down at an angle and "skewing" the Artic Silver blob so that neither heat sink gets "symetrical" coverage. As a first time builder, it is an easy mistake to make in "real time" as you do it, even tho you know in advance "what not to do".

If this was done on a production assembly line, the mobo would be on a flat surface, and a "rig" from above would lower the fan/heatsink in an exact parallel, side to side and front to rear fashion. A perfect seating.

As a home builder, I think you will find your angles of "view" somewhat obscured. I did it wrong twice, the second time not as bad as the first so I left it alone. If I had to pick one flaw in my first build, this would be it.

[Jon Miller]

Well, off to the first boot page, but I am typing from my new computer. Still some little things to tweek, windows can't see the second hard drive , suspect I plugged it in wrong or the bios is set wrong (it does see the drive in bios)

Thanks for the help, on to more, very rewarding experience so far.:)