Future-Proof, SLI, Gaming Rig for <$1150..criticisms?

[dhrumstix]

Alright guys,

After doing my research, I believe I have come up with the final specs for my build. The goal of this machine is to be future proof in that it has PCI-E 2.0, SLI, and supports 45nm processors. At the time I receive the machine, I don't plan on overclocking. Due to the nature of its components, I'd be stupid NOT to but I plan on doing that later. Here are the specs and thanks in advance for your opinions.

Keep in mind, all of this will cost $1117.02 after shipping and mail-in rebates.

Also note: The monitor I use is a 17" LCD at 1280x1024 and I play mostly FPS (i.e. Crysis, CoD4, UT3, HL2, etc)

Processor: Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale
Motherboard: MSI P7N 750i SLI Platinum LGA775
Ram: 4GB (5-4-4-15) OCZ SLI-Ready Edition DDR2 800 (I know the "SLI-ready" is hype, but its $65 after MIR)
Power: PC Power & Cooling S75QB 750Watt
Video: 2x Asus EN9600GT 512M in SLI
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 500GB
Case: Antec P182
DVD: Some 30 dollar thing
OS: Vista Ultimate x64 ($20 from my university )

I feel that this system represents some of the best price/quality/performance products on the market right now and I welcome all criticism and suggestions. Later on, I will get an after-market cooling solution like a Zalman9500 and do more research on overclocking as I've never done it before.

 

[Lord Gornak]

Looks good, the only thing I would change if I were ordering this system is your video card choice. I'd either wait for the ATI 4 series, or get two 8800 GTS 512s instead of the 9600s.

 

[joewho]

Great PSU, I would recommend a 780I motherboard. I would also go with 1ea GPU to start with. Like this one.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814134037

You could save a little and go with a E7200 and just change the FSB to 333 and you would have a E8500.

Here are some other options.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817703009

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146755

 

[iluvgillgill]

remember in the IT world nothing is future proof.today you bought it the next day the new gen will arrive.

but for your rig,if you can find cheaper brand 9600GT is better because its all reference design nothing is different from each other apart from the brand.

and get the ThermalRight Ultra 120 Extreme now if you save some on shipping.thats the best air cooler out there and garranteed to last well.

im not so sure about the 750i chipset for overclocking as nvidia chipset are known for not OC well.think twice.

 

[Guest]

FYI SLI will never make a system future proof. There will always be a single card solution out thats better than (2) cheaper cards in SLI.

The same time the 8800GTS 512 begins to show its age in games, 9600GTs in SLI will also show their age. At this point, neither will be an effective solution to whatever games are out.

I wouldn't even agree that the PCI-E 2.0 slot is 'future proof' because it still has the Core 2 socket which will be phased out in a year. That being said, games these days require more GPU power than CPU.

Quad core CPUs are more 'future proof' than dual core CPUs as well.

Everything considered, that system should run really well for you. I would save some money and just go for a P35 board and an 8800GTS, becuase SLI only helps with gaming on 24" or bigger monitors.

Kudos on the good PSU, memory cant go wrong for $65. Like the HDD, love the case, nice deal on your OS. I tend to stay away from anything MSI, just heard bad things about their products.

Anyway thats my 2 cents on your build. Hope it helped.