New build

I'd say it all looks good. I might change the Mobo to an abit brand board, but you probably won't have any probs with that gigabyte board.

I wouldn't buy the Gigabyte board. I've had three of them and two ended up dying with leaking capacitors. The large caps around the processor just leaked brown gooey meep all over and then they died. I don't know if it's a heat issue or what but it was two different models and both of them lasted less than a year. I've had luck with Abit and Asus but I'll never buy another Gigabyte. YMMV.

1. Get a SATA-interface dvd burner. PATA is olde, yo.
2. If you're gonna get two big SATA HDDs, get two of the same kind and RAID dat meep son.
3. unless you're buying an aftermarket HSF, don't bother w/ the thermal paste. your retail HSF should have it pre-applied.

metatron: 2. If you're gonna get two big SATA HDDs, get two of the same kind and RAID dat meep son.

This does make some faster meep. I record audio, up to 16 tracks at once, and the disk I/O is the number one assmeep in streaming 24/96 tons of tracks.

Two 100GB Seagates at 7200 or 10,000 RPM, striped for RAID 0 will slap the meep out of load times for any I/O intensive project... video editing, gaming, audio multi-track, all of that. Streaming will get way easy. Not so perfect for gaming because disks do meep all once the game gets loaded... mostly.

Just remember to add a fair amount of caution. RAID 0 loses all of your meep when a single drive dies. They die more often with RAID because those meeps have to spin up together and stay spun.

Back your meep up, yo.

Wotak:

metatron: 2. If you're gonna get two big SATA HDDs, get two of the same kind and RAID dat meep son.

This does make some faster meep. I record audio, up to 16 tracks at once, and the disk I/O is the number one assmeep in streaming 24/96 tons of tracks.

Two 100GB Seagates at 7200 or 10,000 RPM, striped for RAID 0 will slap the meep out of load times for any I/O intensive project... video editing, gaming, audio multi-track, all of that. Streaming will get way easy. Not so perfect for gaming because disks do meep all once the game gets loaded... mostly.

Just remember to add a fair amount of caution. RAID 0 loses all of your meep when a single drive dies. They die more often with RAID because those meeps have to spin up together and stay spun.

Back your meep up, yo.

or run RAID 5 (striping+parity ftw) - but then you'd need at least 3 drives. if it's just going to be a system partition and won't be holding anything of real value, you could probably get away w/ RAID 0.

Wotak:

metatron: 2. If you're gonna get two big SATA HDDs, get two of the same kind and RAID dat meep son.

This does make some faster meep. I record audio, up to 16 tracks at once, and the disk I/O is the number one assmeep in streaming 24/96 tons of tracks.

Two 100GB Seagates at 7200 or 10,000 RPM, striped for RAID 0 will slap the meep out of load times for any I/O intensive project... video editing, gaming, audio multi-track, all of that. Streaming will get way easy. Not so perfect for gaming because disks do meep all once the game gets loaded... mostly.

Just remember to add a fair amount of caution. RAID 0 loses all of your meep when a single drive dies. They die more often with RAID because those meeps have to spin up together and stay spun.

I applaud your attempt to appear knowledgeable :)

Ok, I looked over your list, NinjaMan.

The Acer monitor has got to go--it is way crappy. If you value your eyes, and the colors on the screen, it's Dell or Samsung or nothing at all. Look at the Dell 2007WFPs -- they are very good monitors. Sure, they're only 20 inches across, but the image quality is top notch.

I'd advise you to hold off on your purchase just about a month or so--Nvidia's going to release 8800GT (the so-called G92 design), which is a $200 card that will beat the pants off 8800GTS.

Also, $130 for an Antec Sonata 3 is way too much. If you have the time, keep checking at http://www.fatwallet.com/c/18 and look for Antec sales from Fry's.com or Outpost.com -- they have a preferred retailer relationship with Antec, and previously, I was able to get P150 for $40 and a P180 for $70, both with power supplies.

Also, for hard drives, hold off until Black Friday -- usually, Best Buy runs amazing hard drive sales on that day ($0.15/GB is not uncommon).

Wotak: I wouldn't buy the Gigabyte board. I've had three of them and two ended up dying with leaking capacitors. The large caps around the processor just leaked brown gooey meep all over and then they died. I don't know if it's a heat issue or what but it was two different models and both of them lasted less than a year. I've had luck with Abit and Asus but I'll never buy another Gigabyte. YMMV.

I'm guessing that you have air circulation problems inside your box. Fans are like meep. You can't have too much unless you're meep.

Crackalackin: Ok, I looked over your list, NinjaMan. The Acer monitor has got to go--it is _way_ crappy. If you value your eyes, and the colors on the screen, it's Dell or Samsung or nothing at all. Look at the Dell 2007WFPs -- they are very good monitors. Sure, they're only 20 inches across, but the image quality is top notch. I'd advise you to hold off on your purchase just about a month or so--Nvidia's going to release 8800GT (the so-called G92 design), which is a $200 card that will beat the pants off 8800GTS. Also, $130 for an Antec Sonata 3 is _way_ too much. If you have the time, keep checking at http://www.fatwallet.com/c/18 and look for Antec sales from Fry's.com or Outpost.com -- they have a preferred retailer relationship with Antec, and previously, I was able to get P150 for $40 and a P180 for $70, both with power supplies. Also, for hard drives, hold off until Black Friday -- usually, Best Buy runs amazing hard drive sales on that day ($0.15/GB is not uncommon).

It's funny, I have a meepty Acer laptop which I hate. You'd think that would be fair warning to me that I shouldn't get that even with such great reviews? Well think again, meeper. Thanks - I'll look into the Dells. Also thanks on the case advice.

As for the HD, I can certainly hold off on the bigger drive until Black Friday and fight my way through unruly Nascar lovers for cheap drives.

And I'm not waiting on anything else. I'm sick of "waiting a few months" because it turns into a year. I want this meep now. meep.

I don't know much about RAID (yet) but I know I don't want to mess with it in a gaming box.. I want to build a filez box later this year and will probably implement some form of RAID in that.

Yeah, I'm sick of waiting for new computer parts too, but in this case it's just a month, and the right kind of sales will definitely come.

I think that maybe you don't need RAID unless you want to archive valuable data, like family photos etc. The perpendicular recording drives have about 5x reliability of the previous generation; they can still crash, but it's way less likely.

Antec's P180 case for $70 after rebate

GO GO GO

http://www.fatwallet.com/t/18/773918/

Rock, dude.

I'm going to get everything but the card now, I guess I can wait a few more weeks for the 8800GT.

Seagate 500GB for $95:

http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthread.php?sduid=0&t=598046

GO GO GO!

I'm not too worried about storage right now. That can wait till black Friday.

uh herf I assume this what you had me wait for? Is it worth it to preorder or should I wait to see if the GTX's price goes down because of it?

meepNinja: I'm not too worried about storage right now. That can wait till black Friday. uh herf I assume this what you had me wait for? Is it worth it to preorder or should I wait to see if the GTX's price goes down because of it?

That storage deal is as good/better than what you'll see on a big drive on Black Friday.

I'd wait until ATI RV670 drives 8800GT's price down -- that's two weeks from now. This card will definitely go for cheap on Black Friday.

Crackalackin: That storage deal is as good/better than what you'll see on a big drive on Black Friday.

It looks to be within $20 of the usual price, unless I've missed something.

Me, I wouldn't jump ship from planville for $20.

I would like to see a separate thread where we all shared these deals on an ongoing and timely basis, though.

I'm not waiting until black Friday to get the GT. Newegg has the 512 superclocked version listed at 280, but it's OOS there and everywhere else right now.

All told I'll have spent around 900 dollars on this new build, which is 400 less than I thought I would. w00t.