Building New PC

So I'm finally building my first PC, and I need some advice on whether or not these components are good choices and if they are compatible.

• NZXT Alpha Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
• OCZ GameXStream 600W ATX12V Power Supply
• EVGA LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard
• Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz 2 x 4MB L2 Cache LGA 775 Quad-Core Processor
• OCZ Platinum Edition 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1000 (PC2 8000) Dual Channel RAM
• EVGA GeForce 8800GT Superclocked 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card
• Western Digital Caviar SE 160GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

Pulling out of an existing computer (trying to save some money):

• Sound Blaster Audigy SE (PCI)
• Cheapo HP Speakers
• Cheapo HP Keyboard
• Cheapo HP Mouse
• HP DVD480 DVD Burner
• Hanns-G JW199D 19" Widescreen LCD (Max Res 1440x900)
  

Total cost: ~$890
Total cost after rebates: ~$780

Now this computer will be used as a family computer, but mostly for gaming and a little school work. Photoshopping every once in a while, using Microsoft Office, and playing games mainly.

Games looking to play:

• Half-Life 2
• Battlefield 2
• America's Army
• Battlefield 2142 (Possibly)
• Team Fortress 2(Possibly)
• Any other Battlefield games (Possibly)

So, hows the system look for the games/uses listed? Are all of the components compatible?

After reading some reviews on the Q6600, some people were complaining about Intel's stock cooler. I don't plan on overclocking it any time soon, so will I be fine using the stock cooler?

Also, does the Q6600 come with thermal paste, or do I need to order some Arctic Silver or something? I've also never applied thermal paste to a CPU or even installed a CPU for that matter, so any help is appreciated.

It seems like a lot of people upgrade/replace parts quickly... do these components tend to have short life-spans? I would like this PC to go for at least 3 or 4 years without having to replace something.

Dude you already knew it was decent. C'mon!

Anyways, depending on what you're playing you're gtg for most. Besides it doesn't take much to upgrade, just wait til you get to that bridge. And hey, trick out the case bro.


notice the skull on the wall.


Been almost a year since I modded. I need to get off my lazy arse.

Hey, I have those same speakers for my school computer, hehe.

Anyway, the parts listed should be more than adequate for the application. Check prices on www.tigerdirect.com and www.zipzoomfly.com too before you order though, sometimes one of them will have a better price on some stuff but not others. If your CPU is a retail package (not OEM) then it will most likely come with some kind of thermal goo but it probably won't be anything special. You might want to just grab a small tube of arctic silver anyway. The stuff is cheap and it works real well, I use it for everything. Also, a 500 GB drive is only about $80-90 these days and you'd be surprised how fast you can fill that space with games and downloads and whatnot. You might want to spring for the bigger drive just so you don't have to worry about it later.

As for the fast upgrade cycle, that's just the nature of technology. Everything gets outdated extremely fast now but that doesn't mean it's useless. This computer was built about a year or 2 ago and newer systems could run circles around it but it still handles all my stuff pretty well, especially after a few upgrades. Originally it was:

• Asus A8N-SLI (socket 939)
• AMD Athlon 64 3500+
• 2GB OCZ Platinum XTC
• 2 x XFX GeForce 7600 GS
  
• Ultra XConnect2 550w
• WD Raptor 74GB 10,000 rpm 8MB cache
• Thermaltake Blue Orb CPU cooler
• Some cheap DVD combo drive
• $20 sound card from Turtle Beach
  
• Aspire (now Apevia) X-plorer case

It was decently fast but I was doing 3D modeling and stuff so I needed multiple cores for rendering with Blender and editing in Photoshop. Also, my video cards were passively cooled which did not work so well with the hardcore overclocks they came with from the factory. Tried placing 3 60mm fans around them to keep them cool, kept them cool but didn't fix the artifacts. I sent one back for warranty replacement since it was making some absurd artifacts but eventually the problem came back and I just said screw it. I also filled up my hard drive quite fast so I needed to do something about that. What I did to remedy these problems is to add:

• AMD Opteron 165 (dual-core at 1.6 GHz, OC'd to 2.6GHz)
• EVGA 8800GTS 320MB
• WD Caviar SE16 500GB

3dMark06 score is around 8396. It handles just about everything without a problem, usually maxed out or damn close. I think the 8800GT is actually a tad faster than the GTS so you'll be even better off. The quad-core will also help tremendously on multi-threaded apps. My roommate at school has the same processor and it was great when we were doing 3D modeling, let him play with a lot of advanced stuff since he could render faster. It also overclocked pretty well.