New build, any advice wanted!

[a63nt]

Have some money saved (£600!) & want a new PC. This is what I've come up with so far.

Core 2 Duo E8400 3GHz £120.10 inc VAT
Asus STRIKER EXTREME S775 NF680I-SLI £135.36 inc VAT
Patriot Extreme Performance DDR2(2 x 1GB)PC2-9600 Enhanced Latency Kit £79.02 inc VAT
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro £15.50 inc VAT
Antec P182 Advanced Super Mid Tower £86.66 inc VAT
DESKSTAR P7K500 250GB SATA-II 3.5IN 7200RPM 8MB £31.10 inc VAT
Optiarc AD-5200S DVD writer £14.56 inc VAT
Antec Quattro 850 (UK ver.) £97 inc VAT

I'll throw my 7900GTX into it initially but hope to upgrade to a DX10 card at some point in the future (I'm not playing any games at the moment that my 7900 can't handle). I will probably overclock the E8400 to somewhere near 4Ghz if I can.

I would also like to be able to support a SLI setup, say 2x 8800GTX's, I know the Antec Quattro can handle it, it's just a litttle on the expensive side, any suggestions on a PSU that could handle this system overclocked with 2x 8800GTX's & say a 500GB Hard Drive added to it for less than the Quattro? Also could I get away with a 700W supply? Any suggestions for which one? (I'm thinking the 8800GTX's would be pulling about 300W+ & the CPU about 220W (overclocked) at full load).

Thanks in advance for any responses & if there is anything else that you notice about the the parts I have chosen for this system, please feel free.

Colin.

 

[akhilles]

The Quattro is a top notch psu. It can handle 9800/8800 GTX SLI. The minimum for either setup is 750W. As for brands:

http://www.slizone.com/object/slizone_build_psu.html

 

[gadgetnerd]

anything that says SLI is good for sli it has to be passed and tested.

 

[jsc]

The ACF7P is an excellent budget HSF, but you will need something better to reach 4 GHz.

The CPU should pull nowhere near 220 watts - probably closer to 100 watts.

My Q6600 OC'd to 3.6 GHz loaded with Prime95 pulls just under 120 watts.

Hard drives will need about 20 watts each, DVD drives about 30 watts each.

You should be able to power your planned system with a 700 watt PSU.

 

[shadowduck]

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/252001-31-attention-computer-builders-ideal-build-updated

Read this post for a lot of information.

SLI is terrible idea especially right now. Don't fall prey to the marketing hype and games. Fact is if you don't game at 1920x1200 or higher you DO NOT NEED SLI. With 2xx series cards coming in a few week that will best an 8800GT SLI setup, it makes very little sense. Plus, nVidia chipset motherboards are buggy.

Go with P35/x38/x48- Visit our post for specific recommendations. You dont need that huge PSU without SLI either. Look at the Corsiar VX550.

 

[groo]

put the excess money you want to spend on the SLI mobo and the overblown PSU on upgrading your graphics too. or put it in an interest bearing acount and get a better graphics card when your ready to buy one.

like the Duck says, SLI isn't worth it.