nebraskaboy Posted September 6, 2009 Share Posted September 6, 2009 QUESTIONS My power supply is at least 100W bigger than I need, in order to allow for adding onto this as time goes on... is that a bad idea? Should I scale down to a 750W power supply? Can anyone recommend a good built-in solution for adding bluetooth support? Is the Graphics Card Compatible? Should I be picking a different one? Is the Motherboard Compatible? Is i7 the way to go, w/ the DDR3s.... or should I scale back to a Quad w/ the DDR2s? Is the pioneer optical drive compatible? Do I need the network adaptor, or should I try to make the one on the MOBO work? is there anything I've missed? (besides keyboard, mouse, retail copy of OSX10.6, and LCD monitor... all of which I already have) do you rec' starting from Snow Leopard, or waiting a little while longer? If I get some good feedback on this list, I'll probably be ordering the parts starting tomorrow night. As I build it, I'll take photos and put up a guide so others can take advantage of this high-end system. Here's my hardware list (you can see it here at NewEgg) Processor Intel Core i7 920 Nehalem 2.66GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80601920 - Retail Model #:BX80601920 Item #:N82E16819115202 $288.99 -$9.00 Instant $279.99 Motherboard Open Box: GIGABYTE GA-EX58-UD3R LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard Model #:GA-EX58-UD3R Item #:N82E16813128375R $198.99 -$62.00 Instant $136.99 Sold Out @ NewEgg. New Plan: GIGABYTE GA-EX58-UD3R LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail Model #:GA-EX58-UD3R Item #:N82E16813128375 Total Cost: $189 Graphics Card EVGA 512-P3-N871-AR GeForce 9800 GTX+ 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail Model #:512-P3-N871-AR Item #:N82E16814130339 Mail in Rebate $134.99 RAM - 8GB (4x2gb) Kingston 2GB DDR3 1066 (PC8500) ECC Memory For Apple Model #:KTA-MP1066/2G Item #:N82E16820134924 $59.99 -$14.00 / each $183.96 total for 4 sticks. Optical Drive x2 Pioneer CD/DVD Burner Black SATA Model DVR-218LBK LabelFlash Support - OEM Model #:DVR-218LBK Item #:N82E16827129045 $32.99 / each $65.98 / total Network Adapter TRENDnet TEG-PCITXR 10/ 100/ 1000/ 2000Mbps PCI Copper Gigabit Network Adapter - Retail Model #:TEG-PCITXR Item #:N82E16833156139 $11.99 $11.99 Power Supply OCZ GameXStream OCZ850GXSSLI ATX12V v2.2 and EPS12V 850Watts Power Supply - Retail Model #:OCZ850GXSSLI Item #:N82E16817341003 Mail in Rebate Card $199.99 -$70.00 Instant $129.99 Case SILVERSTONE TJ09-S Silver Aluminum ATX Full Tower Computer Case - Retail Model #:TJ09-S Item #:N82E16811163074 Mail in Rebate $289.99 -$10.00 Instant $279.99 Hard Drive x3 SAMSUNG Spinpoint F1 HD103UJ 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive - OEM Model #:HD103UJ Item #:N82E16822152102 $89.99 -$5.00 Instant = 84.99/each total for 3: $254.97 extras Thumb Drive for Install Team Fusion Plus 16GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive (Red) Model TG016GF102LR $28.99 Power Conditioner powercom KIN-1500AP 1500VA 900 Watts UPS - Retail Model #:KIN-1500AP Item #:N82E16842106115 $149.99 -$15.00 Instant $134.99 Subtotal For EVERYTHING: $1,700 If all goes well, I'll be pulling the trigger on this build in the next 48 hours or so. And of course I'll be documenting the build as I put it together and do the install. Thanks in advance everyone, the amazing help in this community is the only reason stuff like this is possible! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nebraskaboy Posted September 7, 2009 Author Share Posted September 7, 2009 As if there weren't enough questions in 1-9, I've now been convinced by this thread: http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=176155 that I should at least wait to find out if the new Lynnfield processors will run snow leopard easily. If so, I will be switching my MOBO to: Gigabyte Motherboard GA-P55M-UD2 ($100) and my CPU to: Core i7 860 is 2.80GHz 4 cores 8 threads. ($284) This will actually save me about $30, and my CPU will end up being a little faster and will run on 45w less power... maybe I really should rethink my power brick. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nebraskaboy Posted September 11, 2009 Author Share Posted September 11, 2009 ok, I rearranged the text of the post so that my questions would be front and center. I would be really super incredibly amazingly appreciative if someone who has at least done one or two vanilla installs could give me some feedback. I've done a lot of research on my own, but I'm understandably a little scared to spend nearly $2000 without having at least one experienced person sign off on the build. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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