Just started assembling my first computer build last night...., Critiques and tips welcome Options

[Fastbird]

Pretty cool. I haven't ever built one from scratch before, though I've swapped cards and what not. It was a little confusing at first with getting all the wire pinout confirmations, but after that I got into a groove and moved pretty good. I've been wanting to do this for a LONG time and got the push with the kid on the way, figured I wouldn't have time or money to do it anytime soon.

Here's the system overview:

Case -- Ultra Microfly BX6 -- came with a Ultra modular 600 watt power supply -- 2x front USB 1 x front Firewire, 2 5.25 bay, 1 3.5 bay, front CPU temp display
CPU -- AMD Phenom 9850 Black Edition -- 2.5 gig quad core 125v
Motherboard -- Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-US2H -- This is a SWEET mobo. HDMI, HDCP compliant, great onboard graphics and sound, copper jacketed, expandable like a mofo
HDD -- Westerd Digital Caviar Black 750GB 32mb Cache SATA
Optical Drive -- LG Black Blu-Ray/HD DVD Drive, DVD/CD Burner, litescribe, SATA
Fan/Heatsink -- Ultra X-Wind 120mm copper (used OCZ Freeze paste)
Memory -- OCZ Platinum DDR2 Dual Channel, 4 Gigs (2 x 2 gig), PC6400 (800 mhz), 4-4-3-15 timings
Card Reader, internal, 3.5" bay -- PowerUp AIO USB 2.0, black
Monitor -- ASUS VH242H 24" (23.6 actually) 1920x1080, full HD

Just putting it together currently. Made a slipstream XP SP3/SATA Driver included installation disk last night, even with SP3 cut out a bunch of stuff and got the install down to 356MB (haven't installed yet, not planning on success first shot). Going to get a bluetooth keyboard w/integrated mouse (Logitech diNovo Edge -- pricey but AWESOME) and a 5.25" bay storage box (most awesome idea ever) in the near future. Down the road will add a larger HDD for archiving.

Point of the rig? My Dimension 8100, circa 2001 w/ a P4 1.3, 768K Rambus RAM, is on it's last legs. Need a new desktop for storage, and wanted the power for photo/video editing. That, and with a newborn joining the house in a couple of months, I'll be upstairs more and wanted something to watch hulu/blu ray's on in the office next to the nursery.

Anyway, just bragging a little because I'm pretty happy with how it's turning out. Never built one before, and by compiling parts over the last four months (save for case that I bought 1.5 years ago) the financial impact is minimal. I have a grand total of $800 in it so far.

So....thoughts, critiques, suggestions?

This post has been edited by Fastbird: Jun 5, 2009 - 2:46 PM

[Bitter]

get a better PSU, the ones that come with cases are not very good usually.

[MercuryFree]

Well, I'm going to see how the OB Graphics do first, and if the Blu-Ray playback suffers then I'm going to get a compatible Graphics card and do a crossfire setup. That should fix any issues.

The graphics card doesn't do the blu-ray decoding unless it's a certain type and if you set it up like that, so you'll be running it off of your quad core instead. Which should handle it no worries if my 2 year old q6600 can do it fine . Although if it's anything like the 9400gt we have in our media pc here, the 3200 built in to your motherboard would be capable of offloading it (basing this on the fact that most mobos are bundled with 9400's, not too up with the ATi side of things at present)

get a better PSU, the ones that come with cases are not very good usually.

Generally true, but afaik Ultra PSU's are well regarded.

This post has been edited by MercuryFree: Jun 5, 2009 - 10:44 PM