Help building new PC

Hi all. I've recently decided to build a new gaming rig, and after some talk wit coworkers and friends, along with browsing the internet, I've put together a list of hardware. Unfortunately I'm no expert at hardware compatibility and so I decided to look for help.Hre's the pieces so far....

Case: Antec 900
$119.99

Mobo: EVGA 132-CK-NF78-A1 LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 780i SLI ATX Intel $239.99

Chipset: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core
$194.99

GFX: MSI NX8800GT 512M OC GeForce 8800 GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI
Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI
$194.99

Memory: OCZ Gold 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory
$254.99

Newegg prices this at a grand total of $1,139.04, so here is where the questions arise.

~Is this setup going to work? (have I pikced parts that wont work well together?)
~Am I getting the best price at newegg? what other sites should I copare?
~Are there similar parts for less that I am better off getting? I'm not on the tightest budget but I don't want to spend too many unnecessary dollars
~Is there anything else I really should add on?

Thanks in advance for the help and info!
~SK

 

There are a lot of other parts you need. But the stuff you have will work together. Some people love OCZ RAM, a lot of people have problems with it, might want to think about corsair, it's the most stable and most reliable on the market. Just an idea.

 

I forgot to mention that I already have optical/hard drives and a power supply. I chose the OCZ because I'm using it now and i've never had a problem with it. I'll take a look at some corsair ram though, thanks. I have to admit I'm not a huge expert on RAM, is there a major difference between DDR2 and DDR3?

 

Check http://www.tigerdirect.com/ and compare prices, when I bought my Evga 8800 GTX the price on tigerdirect was $389, on Newegg it was $369 with a $60 instant rebate for a total of $309. Moral of the story is you really need to shop around before you buy a part. Some companies have sales and offer rebates here and there. You need to spend some time and do a little searching for the best price, also check the shipping price. I live in Germany so I have to be careful of the shipping price. My new build that is almost complete was cheaper to order a barebones system from http://www.buyxg.com/system/XG_Gaming_Thunder_2000/ and add parts that I ordered from newegg and tigerdirect. for about $2,300 U.S. dollars I have an awesome system by taking my time and buying the right items at the right time. Below are my specs for my entire system. With a little shopping around and a little patience I am really happy with my new system! There are better parts that money can buy but it will do everything I will need to do. Good luck to you:major

XION II Mid-Tower Case
ANTEC Neo Power 650w SLI ready
Intel® Core™ 2 Quad Q9300 @ 2.5GHz 1333FSB
CoolerMaster Hyper TX2 Gaming CPU Cooling
Asus P5N-E nForce 650i SLI Chipset LGA775 FSB1333
Corsair XMS2 800 MHz RAM x 4GB
Evga 8800 GTX (overclocked to Ultra specs) plan on SLI soon
22'' Samsung SyncMaster 2253, 8000:1 contrast, 2ms
Two 160 GB WD HD
Sony 20x CD/DVD
Creative Labs SB X-Fi Xtreme Audio 24-BIT PCI Sound Card
MERC Stealth keyboard
Logitec G7 wireless mouse
Thermaltake 4 channel fan controller mounted in drive bay
Microsoft® Windows Vista™ Home Premium w/ Service Pack 1, 64 bit

 

Change the memory, that 780i board doesn't support DDR3. You need DDR2, DDR3 is way overpriced right now, and isn't worth the price to performance ratio anyway, in my opinion.

Personally, Newegg is the best overall, hands down. You are going to need a quality Power Supply, I don't know what Video Card you plan on using, but if this is a gaming rig, I would suggest perhaps an 8800GT. For the Power Supply, 600W+ would do, though making sure it has 26 amps on the 12v+ rail. Brands like Power and Cooling, Antec, ABS, OCZ, Seasonic, Silverstone, and FSP are all good brands.

 

Thanks for the tip, I changed the ram to 4G of corsair DDR2 800. As for the gpu it's the MSI card I listed. It had really good reviews on the site but there's better for a similar price I'm all ears

 

I'm assuming the power supply you picked is a good one. If you're running some no-name $50 unit, you're in for some serious trouble. You could also save some money by not using 2 x 2gb memory sticks. If you're running a 32bit operating system, you can only address 3.2gb anyway, so the rest is a waste IMO. Besides, DDR3 will not run in the motherboard listed in the first post. It uses DDR2 which also is MUCH cheaper. 4gb of DDR2 would be about half the price of the DDR3. Since the motherboard has 4 slot for memory, personally I'd use 2 x 1gb DDR2-1066 and 2 x 512mb DDR2-1066 for 3gb total and you'd be taking advantage of the dual channels. But if you plan on running a x64 OS, then 4gb or more will be fine. Just remember, the motherboard uses DDR2 and not DDR3. More info:
http://www.evga.com/products/moreInfo.asp?pn=132-CK-NF78-A1

EDIT- I just realized that DarkCypher posted the exact same thing I did a couple of posts earlier. My bad. At least now you understand the importance of a good PSU and double-checking part compatibility.

Good luck with the build!

 

Sorry I overlooked the RAM speed, only 790 chipsets can run DDR3:major

 

Thanks for all the tips, I've begun to order parts and I just had a quick question about the gpu. Currently I have an sli-ready nvidia 6800GT(256mb ram) and I was wondering how much I would benifit from linking it to my new 8800gtx. Is it worth it or should I just sell the old card and buy a heatsink or something of the like.

 

None. You'd get no benefit from linking your 6800GT to your 8800gtx because it can't be done. In order to run SLI, both cards must be the same model. It used to be both cards had to be exactly the same make/model/manufacturer/everything. Things have relaxed a bit on the SLI front, but you still cannot hook up two completely differently models together, from two complete different series of video cards. Don't even try it 'cuz you think I'm wrong and full of :crap.... you may end up damaging one or both cards. Here's more info on SLI and how to do it successfully:
http://www.slizone.com/object/slizone_howto_install.html (read step 2)
http://in.slizone.com/object/slizone_howtobuild_1_in.html
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/391

 

Great, I'm glad I asked before doing it. And thanks for the links, I'll read into them. You learn something new every day, right?