New Build - Advice/Opinions appreciated

BlackWizard

Well thanks to 8T8 and Hopeful I have decided on what case to get. The Antec P180.

I need help choosing the components for the case. Hopefully this isn't as tough as looking for a case.

Case: Antec P180 - I like the colour and simplicity.
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA_965P_DS3P - I don't know much about MB's so if this isn't great then I don't mind changing it.
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 - Seems like decent bang per buck.
RAM: Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2-6400C4 TwinX - 8T8 Recommended this brand to someone so I kinda..copied him and went with the same brand.
GFX Card: BFG GeForce 8800 GTX - If this isn't good I'll eat my foot because it costs an arm and a leg.
PSU: Tagan TG600-U25 600W - Don't know what PSU to get. Put this one down anyway.
Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar RE 250GB - (X2) Going to try RAID
Monitor: Samsung SM-206BW 20" Widescreen LCD Monitor
- I've never had a TFT of any sort before. I used to use a 21" CRT. Now I have a 17" widescreen on my Dell XPS.

Price comes to £1,263.02 inc VAT

I set a budget of £1,360.00 (2000 euro)

So the motherboard and PSU are really the only ones I'm unsure about. The rest are educated guesses based off what people said in reviews on OCUK So any ideas/suggestions/improvements are much appreciated.

CarefulNow

You should get an E6320 or an E6420 and a decent cooler and then overclock it.
Btw. Check out this site. It could save you a few bob.

plonk

For an extra 185£ you could get this

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MO-054-SA&groupid=17&catid=510&subcat=

hopeful

I have the Gigabyte DS3P. It has my E6320 at 2.8ghz right now...load temps 44c with Sythe Ninja. Still under stock volts too so should go alittle higher I reckon.

Seems a good stable mainboard.

BlackWizard

plonk wrote:

For an extra 185£ you could get this

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MO-054-SA&groupid=17&catid=510&subcat=

I was kind of thinking 22" was to big , thats why I went with 20". That thing looks like overkill. I'd have to move my head from left to right to see whats going on. But I am a big fan of having lots of windows open and do a good bit of development work. Im tempted, but it seems too big to sit close to.

As for overclocking, I really don't know how to do it. And I'm definitely going with OCUk on this build. I'd want to buy a few small things off a site before I trust them with an entire build. Komplett isn't bad, but I find OCUK cheaper or with more choice.

awhir

go for the 22" you will never turn back i have a 20" atm and i want a 22"

wana give 1 to me or swap

hopeful

BlackWizard wrote:

I was kind of thinking 22" was to big , thats why I went with 20". That thing looks like overkill. I'd have to move my head from left to right to see whats going on. But I am a big fan of having lots of windows open and do a good bit of development work. Im tempted, but it seems too big to sit close to.

If you're going to spend €2000..in the process getting an 8800gtx...you will thank yourself for getting a good 24" screen. It may cost now but you won't have to upgrade that component for a few years.
If you get a 20" screen now you ARE going to be wanting to upgrade the screen in a year or so.

BlackWizard

plonk wrote:

For an extra 185£ you could get this

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MO-054-SA&groupid=17&catid=510&subcat=

I'd go for this if there were any reviews about it. I can't find any online so it could be a load of crap? And I kinda wanted to order this weekend and hopefully have it for next weekend.

There is this one on komplett. A little bit more expensive and it doesn't have HDCP. What would I need HDCP for? Outputting HD quality video onto a TV right? edit: It's getting bad reviews on newegg

Anyone know any other sites for 24" monitors?

BlackWizard

Well I'm ordering the 22" Samsung SM-226BW

I taped a few A4 pages together and drew out what the 24" looks like. I also put the 17" and 22" on it too. Sorry to say that the 24" is just way to big. It's almost the same size as my sitting room TV. 22" is perfect.

I'll be marrying this build to my credit card in the next hour, so if anyone has any reason as to why these two should not be married yet, speak now or forever hold your peace. I think I'm still under budget too!

BlackWizard

Is the PSU powerful enough?

hopeful

PSU will be fine...Tagan is a good choice.