Judge my PC Build

[DrBoom]

So I'm in the process of building a new PC. It's my first time actually building one and this is to basically get some thoughts on what I chose, and how I could make it better.

What I'm going for is a media hub that will host all of my movies/shows/music. Most of the games I play are on consoles. But I do play WOW/Spore on my computer so I am ensuring that the components in it can easy play both of these titles and titles like them at max settings without too much trouble. This isn't a machine I plan on playing Crysis 2 on or anything.

So here it is. I'll link each item to its spot on Newegg where I'll most likely buy it from.

Motherboard - EVGA X58 FTW3 132-GT-E768-KR LGA 1366 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16813188065

CPU - Intel Core i7-930 Bloomfield 2.8GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core
newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16819115225

Memory - OCZ Gold 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2000 (PC3 16000) Low Voltage
newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16820227424

Graphic Cards - EVGA 01G-P3-1467-AR GeForce GTX 465 (Fermi) Superclocked 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16
newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16814130557

HDD - Seagate Barracuda XT ST32000641AS 2TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" ( Two of These )
newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16822148506

Power Supply- Nexus RX-8500 850W ATX 2.2 SLI Ready Modular
newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16817610003

Disc Drive - SAMSUNG Black Blu-ray Combo Drive - Bulk SATA Model SH-B083L/BSBP
newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16827151199

Case - Silverstone CW02 (Black)
silverstonetek.com/products/p_s...02&area=usa

OS will be Windows 7 (probably 64bit)

There is room to install another two video cards but for my current needs, one will get the job done. But I like the option for adding more later. I'm still looking into fans for the system as the ones that come in the case look like they could be upgraded to run quieter and cooler. Depending on my library size I'll probably install another HDD someday or upgrade the ones that go in there. My only hang up is the power supply, could use some ideas on that.

So yea, that is my build I'm looking at right now. Any comments/constructive feedback is welcome. I'd also like to see other builds people have gone with. Over all the setup will run me about $1900 if I buy from Newegg. I will of course look for deals on each item before I purchase it to save my money.

[vesseblah]

What I'm going for is a media hub that will host all of my movies/shows/music. Most of the games I play are on consoles. But I do play WOW/Spore on my computer so I am ensuring that the components in it can easy play both of these titles and titles like them at max settings without too much trouble. This isn't a machine I plan on playing Crysis 2 on or anything.

There is room to install another two video cards but for my current needs, one will get the job done. But I like the option for adding more later.

Depending on my library size I'll probably install another HDD someday or upgrade the ones that go in there. My only hang up is the power supply, could use some ideas on that.

The requirements/expectations you're putting in this project are complete mess, and I'd recommend starting again having clear picture of what you're actually aiming for.

The problem is that you've picked a lot of parts aimed for high end gaming, especially for new titles when you said you aren't gonna do that on this computer. It also goes diagonally opposed to what's needed from media hub, ie. low power and low noise. Considering second video card proves you don't really know what you actually want, and it can make some serious and costly mistakes with this project.

i7 and any Fermi card is a combination that will require a lot of power and will be noisy anywhere near TV unless you go for extreme cooling solutions, and if you keep system like that on 24/7 you'll see pretty big increase in electricity bill without any real benefit for the intended purpose.

Few random notes on the specs:
-I'd recommend RAID5 for media server which requires 3 discs, maybe 3x 1.5TB is most cost-effective at the moment.
-You definitely need 64bit windows because 32bit can use only 4GB of ram and half of your 6GB would be wasted from the start factorin in video RAM.
-All links are broken.

edit:

In addition to having all media stored in RAID5, put in small SSD as a boot disc and storage for most used apps. It will help keeping power consumption and noise down when the computer is just idling.

[Deleted]

Thing is from experience with computers, on paper you can look at a pc and know it should be able to do X, but practically, sometimes it turns out it cant do X very well. Anyway, id definately get 64 bit windows 7, or u wasting some raw power thats in your system.

[Jiran]

You need windows 7 64 bit. As a gaming pc, this looks fine. The GTX 465 is a good card for mid ranged gaming. You said you are not going to run high end games on this so you're good to go there. Well you still could, you just won't see max frames.

As an HTPC, as vesse said. Your hard drive configuration is wrong for that. You should go into a RAID5 setup, with multiple 1-2TB drive setups. I like to use 1.5's for my HTPC's. Also as vesse said befor,e the i7 is a powerful chip, it's going to throw off a good bit of heat sitting in your living room next to your tv, it's way overkill. If you're looking for a htpc/gaming look at the i3 530, or the i5 650, that would satisfy your needs more.

Also your no name power supply, I wouldn't trust it, go with a better brand like corsair, xfx etc.

[vesseblah]

No clue how easy/hard it is to find this or something similar from USA, but for HTPC and light gaming I'd look into Radeon 5750 with passive cooling. It eats 100W+ less power than any Fermi card and reduces noise significantly. It's probably easy enough to buy passive cooling set and install it yourself on more high-powered card if necessary. Arctic Cooling claims their new heatsink can run Radeon 5870 as passive card. That would give more than enough power for your gaming needs in near future.

Any Fermi card is bad idea for HTPC because of the crazy power requirements.

[Jiran]

No clue how easy/hard it is to find this or something similar from USA, but for HTPC and light gaming I'd look into Radeon 5750 with passive cooling. It eats 100W+ less power than any Fermi card and reduces noise significantly. It's probably easy enough to buy passive cooling set and install it yourself on more high-powered card if necessary. Arctic Cooling claims their new heatsink can run Radeon 5870 as passive card. That would give more than enough power for your gaming needs in near future.

Any Fermi card is bad idea for HTPC because of the crazy power requirements.

nvidia shot themselves in the foot with the lower tier market by not releasing a mid/low grade card.

[DrBoom]

Ok so I took another try at this. Price looked great until I added the SSD to it. Trying to find another SATA III drive with less storage to drop the price some. But I won't be to upset if I can't find one. The only thing I'm not comfortable on with this setup is the Power Supply.

Foxconn A9DA-S AM3 AMD 890GX SATA 6Gb/s HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard

AMD Phenom II X4 945 Deneb 3.0GHz Socket AM3 95W Quad-Core

OCZ Reaper Edition 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666)

SAPPHIRE Vapor-X 100273L Radeon HD 4850 1GB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16
SAPPHIRE 100282-3SR Radeon HD 5850 (Cypress Pro) 1GB 256-bit DDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16

Crucial RealSSD C300 CTFDDAC128MAG-1G1 2.5" 128GB SATA III MLC

Western Digital Caviar Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s
(Will Eventually Upgrade to a 2nd, or better hard drive)

LG UH10LS20 Blu-ray Disc Combo Internal SATA 10x

Nexus RX-8500 850W ATX 2.2 SLI Ready Modular Active PFC Power Supply

That's the setup, with two of the video cards it comes to just under 1500. Which is about what I feel comfy spending.

But the feedback is good so far I'm sorta learning as I go along, I never really delved into the world of hardware enough.

[Cilraaz]

• PSU is crap. As Jiran said, get a name brand.
• Dual Radeon 4850s? Why?
• You still don't seem to have settled in to what you really want from this build (see vesseblah's first response)
  
  • If you're going for a HTPC, you're still going to want a good RAID 5 array. SSDs are just too small
  • If you're going for a gaming build, a 5850/5870 is better than dual 4850s

[DrBoom]

Like I said I wasn't to into the PSU I picked. The SSD was an idea Vesseblah put out there. Using it as the boot disk and main apps I use. And I'll eventually fill out my hard drives. More hard drives can always be added later wit little trouble. Thats why I only have the one listed on my last post.

[Cilraaz]

Like I said I wasn't to into the PSU I picked. The SSD was an idea Vesseblah put out there. Using it as the boot disk and main apps I use. And I'll eventually fill out my hard drives. More hard drives can always be added later wit little trouble. Thats why I only have the one listed on my last post.

Using the SSD as a boot device and to store some apps on is a good idea. Using it to store media for an HTPC isn't really feasible.

Sorry, I was a bit unclear with my last post.

[DrBoom]

Picked out a new card as well. Just one 5850. It takes care of my dual monitor setup while also giving me my HDMI support I want for my TV. Cost about 50 bucks more than getting two 4850's, but meh.

[vesseblah]

I play WoW with single 4850, FPS is about 20 with all graphics turned to max in 25-man raids at fullHD resolution. Shadows turned off completely the speed is 50-60fps. While second monitor has firefox, vent, msn and other random crap running. And it does have HDMI output as well.

What I meant about the discs is getting something like 60-64GB SSD for boot drive, It'll still fit WoW just fine and few other programs. Maybe could bump it to 80GB to be sure but 64GB is enough for me to fit Win7, WoW and some other crap. 128GB is not really necessary for the purpose you want the PC for. Also for media server you dont need fast discs, so SATAIII is just waste of money there. Caviar Greens would fill the slot just fine. However you decide to do it, make sure the media discs have some redundancy for data security. RAID5 is ideal for it really, giving pretty good security along with high storage space.

[Dethh]

A few things I saw
You are getting 6 gigs of ram you better get a 64 bit OS or just buy 4 gigs of ram if you get a 32 bit OS.
I have read that modular PSU's while helping on wiring issuse arent as reliable as non modular PSU's
I would recommend G Skill Ripjaws for memory but its not a big deal.
Also what people already mentioned the Fermi GPU and the cons.
SSD is a waste of money at this point but if it aint no thang who cares right?