Comments on my PC configuration?

Here's my final component selection for my new system:

SUNBEAMTECH, TRIO IC-TRIO-SV (Black) Mid Tower Case w/ Window, 450W PSU, ATX, Steel

GIGABYTE, GA-965P-DQ6, LGA775, Intel P965, DDR2-800 8GB/4, PCIe x16 2, SATA II RAID 5 4, eSATA 2 4, HD Audio, GbLAN, FW, ATX, Retail

INTEL, Core™ 2 Duo E6600 Dual-Core, 2.4GHz, 1066MHz FSB, 4MB L2 Cache, 65nm, 65W, EM64T EIST VT XD, Retail

ZALMAN, CNPS9700 Copper CPU Cooler, Socket LGA775/AMD754/939/940/AM2, Blue LED

KINGSTON, HyperX 2GB (2 x 1GB) PC2-6400 DDR2 800MHz CL5 (5-5-5-15) SDRAM DIMM, Non-ECC

ASUS, EN7600GS SILENT/HTD, GeForce™ 7600 GS, 256MB DDR2, PCIe x16 SLI, VGA+DVI, TV-Out, Retail

SEAGATE, 250GB Barracuda 7200.10, SATA II 300MB/s, 7200-RPM, 16MB cache

RAID, No RAID, Independent HDD Drives

LITE-ON, LH-20A1H Black/White 20x DVD±RW Dual-Layer Burner w/ LightScribe, EIDE/ATAPI, Retail

LINKSKEY, LKA-CR15BW Black/White Internal 52-in-1 Card Reader/Writer Drive, 3.5" Bay, USB

MICROSOFT, Windows Vista Home Premium Edition 32-bit, OEM

The total cost, including shipping to California, is $1527.99 from AVADirect.com.

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Birk Binnard
http://www.birkbinnard.com/photography

The case is not very good but it is ok but the PSU has to go. Its very unreliable and will have trouble running your machine after a while. Remember that a PSU must be stable and high quallity since it can take out every component in the machine.

Oh dear! All the cases they offer come with power supplies. It seems rather pointless to buy such a case and then replace its PS with a different one. The system has a 3 yr warranty which is about as long as I keep systems anyway so I figured all the components should be OK.

Do you have a recommendation for a better power supply?
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Birk Binnard
http://www.birkbinnard.com/photography

The best combo on the page is the Antec Lifestyle Sonata 2. Antec is pretty good but not the best. Much better than SunbeamTech.

Some of the better brands:

PCP&P, Corsair, Seasonic, BFG, Silverstone Zeus

You can beat some of the prices at NewEgg.com or TigerDirect.com or Performance-pcs.com.

The Thermaltake TMG I1 (P0370) has ratings as good as the CNPS9700, it is cheaper and more than adequate. If you are not over-clocking the stock fan does an OK job.

More GB less $ - http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/Category/category_tlc.asp?CatId=8&CMP=ILC-FPM06

Yes, I am aware that I could probably save some cash if I bought all the parts and put the thing together myself. I just have no interest in doing that. Plus I'd rather deal with a single source in case of any questions or problems.

I put the CPU cooler in because I do plan on overclocking the little beastie. That's one reason I switched from the ASUS P5B-E board to the Gigagyte - the Gigabyte seemed to have better BIOS options for doing the overclocking.
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Birk Binnard
http://www.birkbinnard.com/photography

I can vouch for the Sonata II. It is very quiet and nice built. It comes with a air baffle (if you like for your CPU or graphics) and the power supply is pretty good (and quiet). Note the Sonatta II is one of the highest rated cases made by a good company (antec).

Whatever you use, don't skimp on the powersupply or motherboard. The passive devices (capacitors) are the Achilles heals of these products if poorly made.

turtile1 said:

The best combo on the page is the Antec Lifestyle Sonata 2. Antec
is pretty good but not the best. Much better than SunbeamTech.

Some of the better brands:

PCP&P, Corsair, Seasonic, BFG, Silverstone Zeus

Click to expand...

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Sports, Urban, Street Photography Enthusiast in Dallas