First New Build.

[davecrom01]

Hi Guys - I'm planning my first build from scratch. I'm keeping it as per the recommended high end build. Namely:

Power Supply CORSAIR CMPSU-750HX
Motherboard GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD3R
CPU Intel Core i7-930 2.8GHz 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1366 Quad-Core Desktop Processor
Ram G.SKILL 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333
GPU HIS H585F1GDG Radeon HD 5850
Hard Drive Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB
Optical Drive LITE-ON Black 24X DVD+R 24X DVD-R SATA Black 24X DVD Writer LightScribe Support
Operating System Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

I won't get into prices here, as all components will be purchased in Canada, and in $CAD.

First question - is there anything on this build which you would suggest as an improvement for around the same price? The sole purpose of the machine will be gaming.

Secondly, the case that we're thinking of is as follows:

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811146030

I wonder if any of you can see any problems in putting this case together with the build as specified above?

Finally, as a first time builder, is there any extra cables/tools/extras that I should be looking at to ensure that when the parts arrive, I have everything we need?

Cheers for the help in advance.
Dave,

[RickyTick]

Hey Dave.

Take a look at this case. It's much cheaper, has free shipping, and still has a lot flash to it. Plus I really love the black painted interior.
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119196

The 5850 is a very high end video card, but you could take the money saved on the case and upgrade the video card to a 5870. That would be one killer system there.

Consider a wrist thingy for eliminating static. Otherwise maybe a small phillips screwdriver, small slotted screw driver, wire cutters (for cutting off the ends of nylon wire ties), a good flashlight, and maybe a telescoping magnet for dropped screws (but be very careful where you put that magnet)

[kris77]

As far as the hard drive

Go for the Seagate 7200.12 or the Samsung Spinpoint F3. Both are 1TB and they use the newer faster 500 gig platters.

Well worth the price difference in my opinion.

[davecrom01]

Thanks for the responses guys, very much appreciated.

The orders are placed (we stuck with the original build list as posted, due to various reasons on the part of the person who's machine this is).

Parts starting to arrive following the holiday weekend, looking forward to seeing how it all goes!

Cheers for now,
Dave

[davecrom01]

Hi all!

Well, I did it! The build is completed and functioning A-OK!

A few thoughts on the process:

1. Dealing with the NZXT case was the worse part. It's pretty, very pretty - but the additional wiring loom coming from the LCD display pop-up display on the top of the case caused me some head scratching. Their tech support was next to useless - "Oh I haven't had chance to look at one of these yet" etc etc. In the end, "we" decided not to wire up the fan controls via this unit, and instead left them connected to the multiple SYSFAN jumpers on the motherboard.

2. The HD5850 was too tall to fit under the quick release bar of the case. So, I ended up using screws to secure it - not a huge problem, but i'm not sure why that happened - isn't there a standard to component heights in PCI 16 slots?

3. Once I got everything in place, mboard, RAM, power supply etc for first boot - I found out that the HDD and Blue Ray player wouldnt fit into the bays without removing and unwiring everything all over again - a slight frustration. Especially since the case makes access to the horizontally mounted SATA ports very fiddly. But I LOVED using SATA not IDE ribbon cables for the first time :)

4. The frustration from (3) mostly came from the fact I had already had to take everything apart again once already - I forgot the I/O plate and had to take it apart to fit it :) Doh!

5. The Corsair power supply was just a dream to work with - totally modular, and very very solid.

6. GIGABYTE's support helpline was excellent. They went above an beyond the call of duty to explain things - even when it turned out that none of the problems were theirs. Their support guy, in response to my questions about the case, was "Hey, call me tomorrow, we'll go and buy one of these and take a look how we should be wiring to it". Talk about a difference with the case guys on their own product!

7. The mass of BIOS options was overwhelming. I left everything loaded as OPTIMIZE DEFAULTS, except on the recommendation of GIGABYTE, I changed the RAM options to match the gskill triple channel I used (1333), and also an obscure option for IDHR (??) on the HDD.

So, all in all -I did it! The next one will be LOADS easier now I've gone through the learning curve. Can't wait to do it again.

Thanks for starting this process off well people.

Cheers,
Dave