First Time Builder

[Evan869]

Hello, this is my first time building my own pc and I just wanted to make sure that everything is compatible before I order it. Thanks in advance -

CPU - i7 920
GPU - EVGA GeForce 260 (core 216) superclocked edition - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130433
PSU - Corsair 750 W - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139006
RAM - 4 gb corsair DDR3 (1333 MHz) - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145183
Case - Antec 900
HD - 640 gb western digital http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136218
Motherboard - Asus P6T http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131359
DVD/CD drive - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106266
OS - Vista Home premium edition SP 1 32bit retail edition; I already own this so although it will not recognize all 4 gigs of RAM, i will still use it.

Also, any changes you would recommend?

Thanks

[RickyTick]

The WD Caviar SE16 640gb is a great HD, but the WD Caviar Black 640gb is a step up and has a better warranty.

Looks like you've made up your mind on Vista 32bit, so I won't go into that or the ram.

[chunkylover53]

That X58 board requires triple channel RAM, so the dual channel DDR3 won't work. Therein lies the rub with the X58 chipset.

If your going to stick with 32 bit this should work fine.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145225

[Evan869]

I was wondering about that, but dual channel ram is on the qualified vendors list in the user manual, so I had assumed that it was supported. Now I don't know what to believe. Should I just ignore the qualified vendors list?

[RickyTick]

Take a look at this.
http://www.corsair.com/configurator/product_results.aspx?id=831942

or this
http://crucial.com/store/listparts.aspx?model=P6T

These are specifically for the Asus P6T.

[chunkylover53]

I can't argue with the mobo manual saying it supports it (I dowloaded and read). In that sense, I learned something new because I was under the impression it would not work at all. It also illustrated that 2 or 4 modules would work, and I was always under the impression that only 3 or 6 would.

I looked around for benchmarks that compare running 4 dual vs. 3 triple, but I couldn't find any. The only good article I could find is below:
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/646/3

I guess the only advice I'll offer is to do a little more research on i7 and x58, and decide on what will perform best vs. what is supported. The technology is newer, and I am NOT an expert, so you really need to feel good about your decision and why you're making it. Let us know which way you decide to go... I'm curious to see how your build comes out!

[Evan869]

I decided to go with triple channel ram - my impression is that although the mobo accepts both dual and triple channel, it is probably a little bit more efficient with triple channel. So, considering 32 bit vista won't recognize more than 3 gigs anyways, ill go with 3 gigs of triple channel. Thanks for the advice.