I build myself a new PC about every 4 years. It's time to replace my aging Athlon and DX8 video card with something a little more modern.
I'm not interested in overclocking or a dual video card setup. The primary uses will be gaming (World of Warcraft, Half-Life 2, etc) and software development.
The goal is more of a bang-for-the-buck PC than a hot rod and I'm trying to make it reasonably quiet. (low speed 120mm fans vs 80mm fans)
case - undecided (Lian Li PC-7B plus II?)
power supply - SeaSonic S12 Energy Plus SS-550
motherboard - Asus P5B-E
cpu - Intel Core2Duo E6600
ram - Corsair 2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR2-800 (PC2 6400) TWIN2X2048-6400
sound - on board
video - ATi X1950 PRO (probably Sapphire) -or- GeForce 7600GT (probably eVGA)
nic - on board
hard drives - 2x Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD2500KS
dvd-rw - reuse existing BenQ DW1640
This works out around $1300.
Now, my questions:
1) Is this a reasonable balance between cpu - video - ram?
2) I've read different opinions on the 'ideal' ram speed to get for the Core2Duo. Is DDR2-533 or DDR2-677 sufficient?
3) I was leaning toward a 500W power supply, but the 550W is only $10 more. 500W (or 550W) will be more than enough for this setup, but am I preventing a future DX10 video card upgrade due to power constraints?
4) Anything missing?
Thanks for your input and advice.
-Gak Toid
I'm not interested in overclocking or a dual video card setup. The primary uses will be gaming (World of Warcraft, Half-Life 2, etc) and software development.
The goal is more of a bang-for-the-buck PC than a hot rod and I'm trying to make it reasonably quiet. (low speed 120mm fans vs 80mm fans)
case - undecided (Lian Li PC-7B plus II?)
power supply - SeaSonic S12 Energy Plus SS-550
motherboard - Asus P5B-E
cpu - Intel Core2Duo E6600
ram - Corsair 2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR2-800 (PC2 6400) TWIN2X2048-6400
sound - on board
video - ATi X1950 PRO (probably Sapphire) -or- GeForce 7600GT (probably eVGA)
nic - on board
hard drives - 2x Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD2500KS
dvd-rw - reuse existing BenQ DW1640
This works out around $1300.
Now, my questions:
1) Is this a reasonable balance between cpu - video - ram?
2) I've read different opinions on the 'ideal' ram speed to get for the Core2Duo. Is DDR2-533 or DDR2-677 sufficient?
3) I was leaning toward a 500W power supply, but the 550W is only $10 more. 500W (or 550W) will be more than enough for this setup, but am I preventing a future DX10 video card upgrade due to power constraints?
4) Anything missing?
Thanks for your input and advice.
-Gak Toid