1st custom build... need advice

[tvalenti]

Im building my first custom computer soon and im looking for advice on how to make it better. I plan to use it as a gaming rig (FSX) as well as an everyday fast computer that i can burn and watch DVD's on. Ive come up with these components so far:

Vista Home Premium

Dual-Core Intel® Core™ 2 Duo E8400 3.00GHz (im waiting for it)

WD Raptor X 150GB

ASUS p5k deluxe motherboaard

OC Radeon HD 3870 512MB videocard

Logitech X-230 32 watts RMS 2.1 speakers

OCZ Gold 4GB(2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) RAM

Lian-Li PC7H+ w/ Window (black) Case

Auzen X-Fi Prelude 7.1 Sound

Seasonic 550W High-Efficiency Power Supply

Dell 22" Widescreen Flat-Panel

Samsung DVD burner w/ Lightscribe x1

Asus DVD-ROM drive

The price i have now is around 1700. Is there anyway to save money without sacrificing speed? Also havnt quite figured out a heatsink for the CPU..

Thought id ask the more experienced as this is my first build, does anyone have any suggestions? for anything?

Thanks so much!!!!

[clidx]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...eezer%2b7%2bpro for a heatsink.

since you're only using 2.1, i'd skip on the sound card, onboard will be good enough.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16827129009 i don't know if it saves money on the asus drive but you haven't shown the site you're getting it from, so i don't know the price

and imo, lightscribe does not beat printing on cd/dvds. not through experience, but through pictures.

and now the price has FINALLY gone down, the 8800GT is A MUCH better choice than the HD3870.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16814130318

[tvalenti]

Im going almost exclusivly with newegg ive done my research, i might upgrade to a 5.1 for the soundcard, anything worthwhile without spending too much?

[puntoMX]

Not bad indeed, you did your homework.

But, I would start, like clidx also stated, with the onboard sound.

Why do you want to have the DVD reader by the way? Just to copy a DVD-/+R directly? You will be better of using just the DVD-RW and make the image on your hard drive.

The P5K is a wonderful board but IMHO the Gigabyte GA-P35-DS4 Rev. 2.0 would give you the ICH9R in comparison with the ICR9 found on the P5K. This gives you the option to upgrade to RAID0 and use 2 less expensive drives in RAID or even 2 raptors in raid for a higher (mostly) read performance. Stock cooling on the Gigabyte gives you better cooling then the Asus. The price isn’t that much higher, if you like to stay with Asus then look at the P5K Deluxe/WIFI-AP. BE AWARE!: With the new CPUs you need to upgrade the BIOS, so there is a BIG chance that the CPU out of the box doesn’t work with the motherboard. Using a second and older S775 CPU properly is needed!

The CPU cooler: Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme.

For the VGA card, I would take a look at tomshardwareguide in his VGA chart.