Please critique my build......

I put this together onhttp://www.ecollegepc.com which totals approximately $300 more than the components on Newegg....... a pretty fair deal in my mind. I tried to pick components that were well rated on Newegg but have no experience with individual components... Thoughts?

If I look for someone local to put this together what should I expect to pay for such labor..... perhaps $300 is a bit of a premium?

I want to make sure the video card is compatible with a nice monitor such as the NEC EA231WMI ......

Thanks!

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Looks good to me. No idea about prices though.

Everything looks good except for the 850W PSU. That is RIDICULOUS!!! You need nothing over a 500-550W unless you are overclocking and running dual or triple video cards. My i7 does 202W at peak during 1080p video rendering which utilizes all 8 cores!!!

Have you thought about building it yourself? It really is not that difficult. There are several video tutorials that show you how to go about it, and of course we can help you here.

You probably don't need Win 7 Pro 64 bit (Win 7 Home Premium is fine). Check this to decide:

http://windows.microso​ft.com …windows7/produc​ts/compare

If you aren't running a bunch of very old software or not connecting to a company network I can't see where Pro is an advantage.

Also, you don't really need more than 6GB RAM or more than a 500-550W power supply. Also take a look at the Antek Three Hundred ATX case. Works just as well as the one you spec'd, but is cheaper, just no clear side panel.

For a video card an ATI Radeon HD5450 is good enough. I bought this one: http://www.memoryexpre​ss.com …/PID-MX27887%28ME%29.aspx (Note: Canadian price). The case is so cool (4 fans) and since I don't do gaming I went with a fanless card.

Why buy from some unknown company? Either build it yourself or get a Dell. I just went to the Dell Home web site and whipped up an XPS 8100 that is slightly faster than that (5670 video card) and includes a cheap 20" monitor & 2 year in-home warranty for $1150. If you really want the 80GB SSD then order one from NewEgg for $200, install it yourself, and reinstall Windows (just drop in the DVD and walk through it).

I did something similar with my newest machine. I started with a Precision T3500 w/ Xeon W3680 & 6GB ECC RAM and then upgraded it after it arrived. I replaced the video card with a nVidia 460 GTX, added an additional 12GB of RAM (18GB total), and replaced the single 250GB hard drive with a 240GB Vertex 2 SSD and a pair of 2TB drives in RAID 1.

jasonlitka wrote in post #11169897
Why buy from some unknown company?

They aren't unkown to me; they've done three builds for me over the years for family and each machine has been top notch.

]If you really want the 80GB SSD then order one from NewEgg for $200, install it yourself, and reinstall Windows (just drop in the DVD and walk through it).

Wouldn't I have $1350 into the the Dell if I did that? Why bother to save the $150?

I appreciate the idea; just not into Dells; haven't ruled out taking on the build myself..... Or having someone else build it for less than $300....