First time builder looking for input

[Dread]

$2,000 will certainly get you a very respectable system.

If very large, or multiple large monitors are in your future you may want to reconsider SLI or Crossfire.
I'm a big fan of the SLI systems out there so my recommendation would be to lean that way, but others would
certainly attempt to sway you to the other side with valid arguments as well. At the end of the day it is your decision of course and when selecting the components for your system you really can't go wrong as long as it performs to your expectations.

An up-front expenditure of two capable SLI cards now does not necessarily mean you will have to upgrade 18-24 months from now any more than buying a single 8800GTX now does. If your build still functions as you would like it too after 2 years, no need to upgrade at all.

Single-core vs. multi-core CPU's. This is a can of worms that once out, cannot be put away. J

If you do any multi-tasking (as you mentioned) on a regular basis (as I do), you just can't go wrong with a dual-core or quad-core CPU. I would highly recommend going at least C2D if not Q2D for your build. Much faster single-core solutions are for those that require a single app to run very fast, all the time. The down side to single-core CPU's is they are not scalable like their multi-core brethren. A lot of people
forget that just because there are not that many mainstream multithreaded apps out now, doesn't mean they aren't coming, or that people multi-task on a daily basis. Multi-core for the win IMNSHO :)

Power supplies and CPU cooling. In my mind your going to get what you pay for with both of these.
I've scrimped to save a few pennies on PSU's before and have been burned more often than not.
Buy a quality PSU up front and it will be one less thing that can go wrong down the road.

The current crop of stock coolers is adequate for ideal system configurations and conditions.
With that said, if your room is a little warm, you run CPU intensive applications, or plan on over clocking at all, get a good aftermarket CPU cooler. I'm partial to the Zalman 9x00 series of coolers, others have reported great successes with others like the Tuniq et al.

For optical devices, I've been very happy with HP, Sony and Lite-On drives. I have several Lite-On drives
that have been running error free for a few years, and they were very inexpensive to boot.

[fstroupe]

I'll start with the last comment first....with that attitude, you are far less likely to need to post in the "Troubleshooting" forum. I spent weeks researching my first build. I ended up buying what at the time was the best overclocking setup out there. I had no intentions of overclocking, but felt that if it was stable overclocked, it would be awesome at stock clocks. (I think I lasted about a week before trying overclocking)

You will be able to get a pretty awesome rig for less than 2K.

Personally, I haven't tried SLI, so I'm probably not the one to ask. At this time, I fully agree with that statement...but hell...it might be the best thing since sliced bread. Since I am usually very impressed with the third or fourth level of cards in a series, I'm sure that I will continue to feel that SLI and Crossfire are both curios.

As far as raw speed, you would see little or no difference between the dual and quad....though with both you will definitely see a difference from what you have now. Deciding what to buy is always a gamble, and moreso at this very time. Will the quad be obsolete before the software guys catch up with it? Keep in mind that a little over two years ago, everyone was saying the exact same thing about the duals compared with upper end single core CPUs. And we are pretty much talking about the same games or game engines. Food for thought.

To be honest, I have had my Quad only a week, and have been so busy I have yet to play a single game on it. It did take me over an hour to figure out how to get 100% to get load temps. I ran four benchmark programs at the same time that would max even the baddest single core rigs, and still only got like 80% load.

As far as optical drives, I buy cheap...but I burn very few CDs and no DVDs, and am not worried about burning at 1million X. I have two Liteon drives I've had for five years that I still use daily. I would buy SATA though.

[PTROTH]

As someone else noted, DVD drives are pretty cheap and common these days. That being said I've had several recommendations for Liteon.

In terms of assembly, how much time is good to budget for putting everything together?

Are there any recommendations / guides out there about assembly? What goes in first, second, etc?

[gvblake22]

The last three optical drive I've purchased have been Samsung drives and they are great (two out of the three are SATA). Very quiet and reasonably priced. I've owned a couple of older Lite-On drives and I will definitely choose Samsung over Lite-On from now on.

[Dread]

I've not seen any specific guides anywhere, but I'm sure they exist.

This is the sequence I normally follow when building a system, of course
the case and other parts will dictate in what specific order things go in.

Install order:

RAM/CPU/HSF Unit on motherboard
PSU into case
Rear I/O Panel into case
Motherboard into case
Optical drives
HDD's
any other bay devices

I like to put the PSU in first, this way I can route the power cables for maximum airflow, and to see right away if there will be any issues with the power lines reaching the other components.

Installing the actual parts will all be a little bit different, depending of course on the parts you end up buying. Socket 775 CPU's install differently than socket 939 etc. Your motherboard selection can also affect sequence and other items and how they are installed. It can also dictate the case (ATX vs. BTX / heatpiped boards vs. non-heatpipe boards), RAM and PSU selection.

Once you've decided on the parts, we can help guide you in the actual assembly.

TIPS: Take your time, never force anything and most importantly, read the manuals and booklets that come with your parts. Assemble your system in a clean, well lit area and have the basic tools required before you even start.
Don't panic if the system doesn't start the first try, or gives you error beeps if it does. 99% of the time there was a small step you overlooked and with a little thought and double checking the connections, can be resolved easily.

EDIT: I've never owned any Samsung ODD's, but if they are like any of their other electronic devices, I am sure they are good.

[gvblake22]

Actually we do have a guide for assembling your computer here...

[fstroupe]

I think that my first time took about 3 hours including installing Windows. Now it takes me longer to open the boxes and take inventory than it does to put it together.

I usually put the motherboard in last, to keep from bumping the usually large cooler so much, but other than that, I pretty much follow Dread's order.

[halutzparilla]

it only took my 3 minutes to unpack everything when the UPS delivered my first build parts...

[Elysium]

Originally Posted by halutzparilla

it only took my 3 minutes to unpack everything when the UPS delivered my first build parts...

Same! I rip open all the boxes and have them all laying around the living room... Packing peanuts all over, takes to weeks to find them all and clean up after the build.The most fun that way! But not recommended...

[Stormcrow]

To be honest, SLI and Crossfire are mostly marketing gimmicks aimed at the enthusiast who wants the best 3DMark scores and the largest bill. Unless you have a huge 30-something inch monitor that needs the power, a single 8800GTX backed by a good Core2 can give you nice framerates even up to around 1980x1200. If you have 2560x1600 or higher then SLI/Crossfire comes more into the picture. The most use I see with SLI and Crossfire is that you get an 8800GTX now, next year when the 9800 or whatevers come out you can pick up another 8800 for around 150 and speed up your system on the cheap for only a sacrifice to power consumption. Also remember that SLI/Crossfire don't always offer an improvement to performance, sometimes giving lower results depending on the game, drivers, and OS. Also in SLI you're limited to the RAM of the card with the least amount, as in:
two 8800GTS 640mbs have a total of 640 megabytes of RAM, not 1280
One 8800GTS 320 and one 8800GTS 640 have only 320 megabytes of memory
So while you get the horsepower of two G80 GPU's, you're limited to memory capacity which is one of the biggest factors with resolutions. Same as with Crossfire.
Also factor in that while two G80/R600 GPU's may haul ass, your processor may end up becoming a bottleneck as well. My X2 3800+ bottlenecks a single 8800 despite being an overall nice CPU.
There are a few pros to having a multi-GPU system, like high AA/AF levels, more details enabled at higher resolutions (if the RAM can handle it), adding another card later on to upgrade the exisiting system cheaply; but overall it's not worth it when a single 8800/2900 can handle the job and the next round of new architectures are going to be more powerful anyway without the bugginess/cons of multiple cards.