Please Critique My Build

[swjim]

The 5D Mark II files are making my four year old system whimper in fright every time a CF card gets close to it. It's been quite a while since I've put one together so I would appreciate it if some of you gurus could take a look at this configuration to see if it looks ok. Lightroom and Photoshop are the most taxing applications I'm concerned about, we don't do much gaming on the PC.

All of the components here are from Newegg. Thanks in advance for your help.

Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129021) Item #: N82E16811129021 $99.99

Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drives - OEM (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136284) Item #: N82E16822136284 $99.99

ASUS VH242H Black 23.6" 5ms HDMI Full 1080P Widescreen LCD Monitor - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236052) Item #: N82E16824236052 $197.99

HIS Hightech H467QT512P Radeon HD 4670 IceQ Turbo 512MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported ... - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161252) Item #: N82E16814161252 $69.99

CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX 650W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 ... - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139005) Item #: N82E16817139005 $89.99

Rosewill RCR-IC001 40-in-1 USB 2.0 3.5" Internal Card Reader w/ USB port / Extra silver face plate - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820223103) Item #: N82E16820223103 $12.99

OCZ Gold 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Low Voltage Desktop Memory Model OCZ3G1600LV6GK - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227365) Item #: N82E16820227365 $87.00

ASUS P6T LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131359) Item #: N82E16813131359 $249.99

Intel Core i7 920 Nehalem 2.66GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80601920 - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115202) Item #: N82E16819115202 $244.05

Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-bit for System Builders - OEM (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116488) Item #: N82E16832116488$99.99

Rosewill RCW-905R 6 FT. HDMI TO HDMI CABLE V1.3 - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16882021036) Item #: N82E16882021036$17.99

[j_m_k]

One of things I would do is switch out the monitor for the Dell 2209WA. Yes it is only a 22" monitor and a little bit more expensive but has an e-IPS panel instead of the TN panel that the monitor you have listed does. You can read about it in this thread. (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=129) Also, is the price on the i7 920 a mistype or did you find a way to get it for 244.05. I see it as 279.99

[j_m_k]

Ahhh I see why you are saying its 244.05, it is charging for a 6 month subscription to CPU Mag which is 35.94. That makes it 279.99 when you combine them.

[swjim]

Thanks for the feedback, Jason. I'll take a look at the Dell 2209WA. I haven't researched the benefits of e-IPS yet, so I'll look into that tonight.

[nphsbuckeye]

IPS panels are 8 bit, so they truly show all 16.7 million colors instead of the 6 bit TN panels "faking" many colors to get to 16.7 million. IPS panels also have a 178 degree viewing angle and they don't shift colors much. I don't have one, but I ordered that Dell and will be here by this time next week.

[In2Photos]

Looks good! Only thing I would do is ditch the Rosewill card reader in favor of the AFT Pro 35u. It is a MUCH nicer card reader.

[j_m_k]

The CPU, mobo, and memory are exactly what I just ordered this morning. All the rest I am bringing over from my old comp. The combo seems to be a very popular one around here and other forums.

[swjim]

Cool. I'll look into the Dell monitor and the AFT card reader. Thanks guys, I really appreciate the help.

[cccc]

I basically just ordered the same parts!

[Marloon]

you are missing the wireless card...

grab a gigabyte wireless card. its the only one that works well with x64 bit computers and its 20 dollars or less.

you are getting the x64 version of vista right?

[swjim]

I wasn't too worried about a wireless card because my pc sits right next to my WRT54G so I'll just direct connect it.

Yes, I'll be ordering the 64 bit version of Vista.

Thanks!

[ZGMF-X20A]

You don't want to wait couple months for Win7?

[j_m_k]

You don't want to wait couple months for Win7?

Just download the Release Candidate from HERE (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/download.aspx). It is good through 1 March 2010, after that it will start shutting down every 2 hours. By that time you could purchase it as it is supposed to be released for retail in October if I remember correctly.

[swjim]

I like the idea of just using the RC of Windows 7 until the retail version is released. Thanks ZGF and j_m_k!

[jm4ever]

Just download the Release Candidate from HERE (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/download.aspx). It is good through 1 March 2010, after that it will start shutting down every 2 hours. By that time you could purchase it as it is supposed to be released for retail in October if I remember correctly.
+1
No way would I go Vista with 7 being so close to release. Try it for free, you have nothing to lose.

[DocZ65]

I would go with 64bit RC7 too, I've been running it since released and all I can say is that it's incredible...

[swjim]

I just found a problem: The area of my desk where I would like to keep the computer has a height limitation of 18 1/2". The Antec 900 is 19.4" Does anyone have any other case recommendations that are a little shorter? Thanks!

[binlerne]

You will probably have to go to a Mid tower instead to fit. Make sure you are measuring with about 6" of room on all sides of the case for air circulation.

[swjim]

I looked at other cases today and decided to stick with the Antec nine hundred. I'll just keep the PC to the side of the desk so it can breathe better. Thanks.

[Zepher]

Did you look at the Antec 300 while you were browsing the other cases?

Also, have you considered a small form factor setup?

[swjim]

Actually, I didn't look at the Antec 300. I mistakenly assumed that since it was also a mid tower Antec ATX case that it would be too tall as well so I was mostly looking at models from other manufacturers. I just looked and saw that the three hundred was only 18" tall so it would have fit the bill.

I decided to keep the new pc to the side of the desk so it will have better ventilation and went ahead and submitted the order with the 900 yesterday. Hopefully the new system will be up and running by the end of the week. Thanks again to everyone for your help.

[swjim]

I wanted to follow up with a thank you to everyone who provided input on this. All of the parts came in and I put the system together and loaded it with Windows 7. It's running much faster than my old PC!

The only issue I've had is some intermittent loss of internet connectivity. I can ping my router whenever this happens, can release and renew my IP address, swapped out network cables and my laptop doesn't have any problems accessing the internet when this is going on. One or more reboot(s) seem to be the only fix. I've updated the network drivers but need to continue troubleshooting it later this evening. If anyone else is running Win 7 and has seen a similar issue I'd appreciate some suggestions.

Thanks again!

[binlerne]

Might want to search around seveforums.com to figure out waht is wrong with your internet connection.

[swjim]

I've been looking on windows7forums.com and am going to try disabling IP Version 6, Link Layer Topology Discovery Mapper and Link Layer Topology Discovery Responder to see if that helps. It seems to have worked for some other people. There were also some reports of stopping the Bonjour DNS Responder Service as helping but I don't have it running.

Fingers are crossed...