New comp specs! thoughts?

[Mehen]

I will be ordering/building a computer for my buddy shortly; thoughts/opinions/suggestions?

Intel Q6600 $268.99
ASUS P5K-E/WIFI-AP $153.99
OCZ Platinum XTC REV.2 PC2-6400 2X1GB DDR2-800 CL4-4-4-15 $40 x2

Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme HS $64.98
TBD 120mm Fan ~$15

EVGA 8800GTS Crysis Edition 670MHZ 512MB $359.99
(This is the NEW GTS)

LG DVD+RW 20X8X16 $28.99
WD SE16 500GB SATA2 7200RPM 16MB $99.98
Corsair HX520 520W Modular PSU $94.98
Coolermaster CM Stacker 832 EATX Black Tower Case $128.99

Samsung 226BW 22IN 1680x1050 $299.98

~$1500 before taxes and shipping, but after rebates. Priced in CAD from ncix.com.

Waiting till Boxing Day to order it though, so the prices should come down.

Couple of notes, sticking with ASUS, even though the Gigabyte ones offer an equal but less expensive alternative - brand loyalty I guess.
4x1GB will fill up the board, but we're confident 4gb is plenty for quite some time, and you can't beat the price.

[Mehen]

Another thing, he might get 2x of those Samsung LCDs

[ZokesPro]

I'd say an all around decent machine, except for the Asus board. I myself am losing confidence in Asus, I've been hearing a lot of stories about failing Asus parts lately, excluding my own. But it's your choice, good thing for warranties though.

[Wombat]

Not bad.

Try to make sure you get the SLACR / G0 stepping of the Q6600. It OCs like a champ.

I'd suggest springing the money for 1066 RAM - you're clearly planning on overclocking. I got my 2x1GB Ballistix for $103 from newegg, I think. I assume you're running Vista on that, or you wouldn't be getting 4GB.

I would seriously consider a larger power supply. It seems silly, but with a Q6600, and a GTS in there, you're already burning through a lot of power.

[Admiral]

One word of advice on Asus P35 entry models (P5K, P5K-E, P5KR, etc.), if you buy memory that doesn't boot at default voltage you're bound to have problems getting the system to post.

[Haig]

I myself am losing confidence in Asus, I've been hearing a lot of stories about failing Asus parts lately, excluding my own.

In the past year, between myself, brother, & a few buddies, all of our chipset fans died.

[Technoid]

That's why I got the whoping expensive highend model that uses heatpipes and passive cooling

[Nowhere]

There's something wrong when you have to pay extra for silence...

OK, luckily it isn't really that way (myself buying passively cooled mobo, with GFX, for 50€)...but occasionally one can see trends in this direction...

[Mehen]

A recent 500+ W PSU from corsair is a lot better than a PSU from a few years ago, they are highly efficient, and 500W should be more than plenty.
And I checked the Corsair PSU finder! http://www.corsair.com/psufinder/default.aspx

It'll be running 32bit XP, so it'll use ~3GB - 3.5GB. Eventually it will become a Vista box though.
Gonna stick with DDR2-800 I think, its so cheap (also the reason I'm going up to "4"GB)! 1066 is more than double

Gonna stick with the ASUS board - there's a reason you probably hear of a lot of people having problems with them - and its because a lot of people OWN ASUS boards. They have excellent customer support too (when I have used it).

@Admiral - I think SPD is still 667 for those, so they should boot fine, then I will raise voltage in order to get em running at 800. I seem to remember doing that with my brother's comp. I will look into it some more though to make sure - Thanks!

[Mehen]

If the boxing day prices are really good, I might see about getting DDR2-1066, but the 800 prices might drop even more too.

@Wombat - I believe I saw something on ncix from an employee saying that all Q6600 shipping from a certain date (few weeks ago or something) are now G0 - I forgot to double check that - so thanks for reminding me!

[Umfriend]

In the past year, between myself, brother, & a few buddies, all of our chipset fans died.

Same here. They look nice, but who gives a shit, but it broke down after close to a year.

[Mehen]

I've never owned a mobo with a chipset fan. I do, however, have a thermalright HS on it