Building my own desktop?

[gletob]

I have a few questions. This is what I have so far on newegg. (I plan to look for better prices but am building it with newegg only) If you see a problem tell me!

http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=12571588

Ok so I was first wondering how are Nvidia drivers for this card (I don't mind propriety drivers).

What brand and wattage psu should I get?

Is the Heatsink overkill?

What do you think about this machine?

[mips]

The nVidia 180.xx series drivers are excellent. I own a XFX 9600GT. There is a thread in the cafe about them, http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=990978


http://www.silentpcreview.com/article699-page1.html
These are good brand PSU units, the lower Wattage units should be fine for your system:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371017
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371018
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817194027
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817194020
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151030
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151031
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151028

I don't think the heatsink is overkill but would probably buy a decent brand, Scythe etc, fanless (with the option of a fan) one. http://www.silentpcreview.com/article30-page1.html

Machine seem fine but maybe look into AM3, dunno what the price difference would be.

[Dr. C]

The nVidia 180.xx series drivers are excellent. I own a XFX 9600GT. There is a thread in the cafe about them, http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=990978 provided you do not run afoul of the DRM ported over from Windows in the nVidia drivers. I posted my experience with the nVidia drivers in another thread http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=6771297&postcount=161

I would take a serious look at ATI cards that are supported by FLOSS drivers.

[rotwang888]

The power supply is a good brand, but overkill. Something like the earthwatts 430 would be fine and save a lot of money.

[3rdalbum]

provided you do not run afoul of the DRM ported over from Windows in the nVidia drivers. I posted my experience with the nVidia drivers in another thread http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=6771297&postcount=161

I would take a serious look at ATI cards that are supported by FLOSS drivers.

There's nothing that suggests this is related to HDCP. In fact, one of the links you posted to says that disabling HDCP did not fix the problem. I dislike DRM as much as anyone, but I don't think this is related.

I'd also take a look at ATI cards that have 3D FLOSS drivers, but there aren't any at the moment. The HD48xx series should be supported before too long but I don't think the drivers will make it into Jaunty. Feel like compiling Xorg in May? There are integrated ATI graphics chips that work with open-source 3D drivers (my workmate was fortunate enough to already have one!) but for this system I think the OP wants something better than integrated.

[3rdalbum]

I'd recommend a better case; something that looks nice. Come on, you can't build a computer for yourself and it look like crap on a stick! :-P

I don't know much about the heatsink. I've never come across the brand name. It's probably not overkill at all, for that price. I bought a Noctua NH-C12P and it is excellent, but it cost a lot more than what you're paying. I assume if you're getting a black edition CPU you're going to do some overclocking? Doesn't "black edition" mean unlocked multiplier? If so you will need a good cooler - check out some online reviews and see what the performance is like with your selection.

The PSU sounds fine, a bit overkill for what you're running though. For comparison, I've got a fast dual-core, a slow graphics card, three optical drives, three hard disks and a wireless card running off a 620w modular power supply. A 500 watt PSU would be plenty for you, unless you're planning to get another 9600GT in the future and running them with SLI?

The price for the wifi antennae seems to be pretty good - today in Officeworks I saw something similar for b****y $95 each!

Also the price on the CPU seems good too, but AMD dual cores do suffer in comparison to Intel's. I won't press the issue because it sounds like you're getting reasonable performance for a great price, but if you can extend your budget it would be a good idea to go Intel.

[rotwang888]

The heatsink is a good choice if you're going to be overclocking. You might want to spend the extra $8 and get the bolt-through kit for it as well. Here's a review of the 964 from the same site as the "decent brand" above. http://www.silentpcreview.com/article818-page1.html Not that Scythe is not a decent brand, but I wanted to defend Xigmatek's honor. I'm very happy with my S1283. :D

[gletob]

Ok I figured y'all were right so I'm throwing a little extra to a case that I think looks really cool.

BTW if you see two of something I'm still tweaking.

[gletob]

I've decided to spend extra on this so I picked out this motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131343
(I can't add it to my list because you can't add combos and there is no option on Newegg for a mother board without the combo.

I might get a second card in the future once the prices drop more.