Possible new system, feedback requested

[Ignatious]

Hi all.

I really like this forum, but have never posted here before. I wanted to get your feedback on a system I plan to build with in the next few months. I built it with upgradeability in mind. I'll give you a quick reason I chose the part I did, and hopefully someone could point out anything I missed or a part that would better suit my needs.
Item #'s are from newegg. Too lazy to link right now. 🙁

Rosewill R5604-BK 0.8mm SECC Screw-less Dual 120mm Fans ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail
Model #: R5604-BK
Item #: N82E16811147037 (Just a cheap case. Looks don't matter much to me at this point.)

EVGA 132-CK-NF78-A1 LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 780i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
Model #: 132-CK-NF78-A1
Item #: N82E16813188024 (Has 780i northbridge, will take the new 45nm chips and 3 video cards. Still uses the cheaper DDR2)

XFX PVT88PYDF4 GeForce 8800GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail
Model #: PVT88PYDF4
Item #: N82E16814150252 (Best bang for buck videocard on the market today, amirite? At least one more of these is on the upgrade path for this guy.

hec Zephyr750 ATX12V / EPS12V 750W Power Supply - Retail
Model #: Zephyr750
Item #: N82E16817339002 (SLI compliant 750w PS. Cheapish, too.)

Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 Conroe 2.66GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Model BX80557E6750 - Retail
Model #: BX80557E6750
Item #: N82E16819115029 (Originally, I was gonna go with a Q6600, but on refection I think I'll wait for his big brothers. The 45nm chips that are coming up look really exciting, plus I'll save $90. I'm thinking a E6750 will over clock enough to keep me happy until the chips I want come out. Am I wrong?

CORSAIR XMS2 4GB(2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TWIN2X4096-6400C5DHX - Retail
Model #: TWIN2X4096-6400C5DHX
Item #: N82E16820145176 (Just cheap ram.)

HITACHI Deskstar P7K500 HDP725050GLA360 (0A35415) 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
Model #: HDP725050GLA360
Item #: N82E16822145215 (Half a Terrabyte for $100.00. None of the reviews I read said that it exploded. Adding a second one to be able to use RAID 0 would be on the upgrade path.

LITE-ON 20X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe Black SATA Model LH-20A1L-06 - Retail
Model #: LH-20A1L-06
Item #: N82E16827106072 (Cheap burner)

LINKSYS WMP54G 32bit PCI2.2 Wireless-G Adapter - Retail
Model #: WMP54G
Item #: N82E16833124115 (Use wireless networking in the house.)

Total as of today per my newegg wishlist : $1142.92 + shipping
My primary use will be gaming/tinkering, with all the utility stuff like web surfing, email etc.
I'll use Vista, but I don't want to shell out $300 for Ultimate.
The upgrade path I see goes like this.

Second Hdd, use Raid 0.

Second Gt8800 (Take that Crysis.)

Third Hdd. I'm thinking a smaller, faster spin hdd and run the OS off of it.

By now there should be a 45nm quad core I can grab reasonably inexpensively.

What do you think? I think I should be able to keep this a viable gaming rig for a long time with just those simple upgrades. So I think I found my best bang for the buck.

Please let me know if I missed something.

Iggy

 

[CmdPT]

Since you're going all out on a new gaming rig whats another $50-60 for a better case like the Antec P180 or something.

Another thing that 750W PSU is overkill man, 500-600W should be plenty enough. Go for a Corsair HX 520W, OCZ GameXstream 600W or something.

The E8400 is what everyone is after because it can easily overclock to 4GHZ on a air cooler but since you're not going to overclock then maybe you're E6750 would be enough.

 

[Mousemonkey]

hec Zephyr750 ATX12V / EPS12V 750W Power Supply - Retail
Model #: Zephyr750
Item #: N82E16817339002 (SLI compliant 750w PS. Cheapish, too.)

I've never heard of this brand, but as I'm running 2 8800GT Alpha dogs on a Corsair 620HX I have to conclude that 750 watts is not needed.

 

[Ignatious]

If I could find a cheaper case that didn't look like it would cut me to shreds while I was working on it, I would buy it in a heartbeat.

Really. I have a hard $1200 budget (I can scrape up the shipping, but thats about it. )

Could I really run 2 8800s plus fans (I'm assuming I'll need to add some cooling with 2 cards), and three or so Hdds on 500w? The board is SLI 780i, so I could cram three of those suckers on there if I really wanted to. I though 750 just to be safe. I'll look into it though.

I am planning to get a better chip for it. Just not yet. I think I can live with it for the next 8 mos. or so. Let's see what intel comes up with.

And when 64bit isn't so much of a pain in the butt, I'm going to drop another 4gb of ram into it.

BTW: Do you know if the cards have to be exactly the same for SLI to work? Do they have to be from the same manufacturer? How about if one was 512mb and one was 768mb? Just curious.....

 

[CmdPT]

BTW: Do you know if the cards have to be exactly the same for SLI to work? Do they have to be from the same manufacturer? How about if one was 512mb and one was 768mb? Just curious.....

I'm not really too sure about this one since I never tried going SLI before. But I'm guessing that it has to be the same but I think it could work with a different manufacture too. As far as the 512MB to 768MB, I think they have to be the same.

Again I don't know since I never tried going SLI. If someone here could clarify this then that would be pretty helpful. I'm probably not much help in the SLI business.

 

[Mousemonkey]

Could I really run 2 8800s plus fans (I'm assuming I'll need to add some cooling with 2 cards), and three or so Hdds on 500w? The board is SLI 780i, so I could cram three of those suckers on there if I really wanted to. I though 750 just to be safe. I'll look into it though.

I don't know about a 500w but a 620HX should work.

BTW: Do you know if the cards have to be exactly the same for SLI to work? Do they have to be from the same manufacturer? How about if one was 512mb and one was 768mb? Just curious.....

A (G92) 512MB and (G80) 768MB will not SLI as they are different GPU's but an XFX G92 and eVGA G92 will so long as they are both GT's or GTS's

 

[Ignatious]

Another thing that 750W PSU is overkill man, 500-600W should be plenty enough. Go for a Corsair HX 520W, OCZ GameXstream 600W or something.

There is no such thing as overkill. There is only "run out of ammunition."

😉

Iggy

 

[CmdPT]

There is no such thing as overkill. There is only "run out of ammunition."

😉

Iggy

I guess so...

 

[chuckm]

I've used a few Rosewill cases, like them just as much, maybe alittle better than a Coolermaster Centurion, this is the same cost, I just like it better than the 5604;
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16811147083

 

[mlaporta]

Samsung SH-S203B SATA

(Get the "Retail" version of the optical drive in order to get software with it. This will include the decoder you'll need to watch movies on it.)

 

[Ignatious]

Thanks, chuckm

I'll switch to that case. It is a little nicer.

Part of the deal is I'm lazy. I'd really rather put the big PS in now when I'm building this thing, than in a year when I discover I need more juice.

Plus overclocking eats more w. I'd like to explore it a little more and I don't really know how much more juice OCing two VGA's and a CPU will be. And something tells me I'm going to have to put in a third VGA at some point.

Unless I'm missing something. Besides a little more noise and power use, are there any drawbacks to having more PS than you need? I've never had problems with having a little extra power under the hood waiting for upgrades.

Thank you all for your input.

So what I got so far was: ugly case, weak cpu, and too big a PS.

This counts as a win for someone who hasn't built a compy for a long time.

 

[ohiou_grad_06]

Main thing to check when looking at your PSU, don't look so much at the wattage rating, look at amps on the 12v+ rail/rails. Example, a 400 watt PSU with say 20 amps on the 12v+ rail will likely be more stable and provide more juice than one at 450 watts with say 16 amps.

 

[amd_fanboi]

no... gives you a lot more flexibility, and that's a good thing 😛

 

[Ignatious]

The price on the Q6600 just came down to $250. So that ones goin' in.

It's not the first time the price of one of the components has dropped since i've been specking this out. I should wait a few weeks, I bet I could get this sucker for under a grand.

 

[narutard]

If your are not getting a q6600 or better quadcore get the E8400(Wolfdale)

About your case, aesthetically its very ugly. But that is personal preference and I know you said you don't care but, the case is a big part of the make of a computer imho. You have to look at that thing everyday all day 24/7, and I cannot do that hehe.

Opt out to get the 8800gts(g92) for $260. Forget the 8800gt, unless you get the MSI OC one for $200. I hope you know that Tri-Sli doesn't work with 8800gt, or gts either. Even if you see 3slots, they are meant for GTX and ULTRA.

Your PSU again imho is not worth the money spent on it. Why? Because if you wanted to Tri-Sli you would need a 1100w psu that had enough six-pin and eight-pin connectors. Either plan for tri-sli or get a quality psu. The Corsair 620w is one of the best psu's out there for sli 2 8800gt or 8800gts(g92)

Good Luck!

Believe it!

 

[stoneeh]

256mb on your 8800 gt isnt even enough for a single system. i have a 256mb radeon 3850 and play everything on 1680x1050 quite fast enough but run out of memory often. it's not a good feeling when you have 30, 40 fps but the mouse lags half a screen behind because when you turn the system uses the system's ram that has about 1/8 bandwidth and will write and load slow as hell
i cant do anisotropic filtering in about any game. it just uses too much memory

if you do sli and want to use even better settings, 512 is already a minimum here. dont be cheap here. you will badly regret it

also, i dont agree with your upgrade path. there will be cards in 4 months that will be faster than any sli system currently. shell out min. 400€ now for a sli system that will be buggy and laggy in some cases in some games is not the ideal solution imo. buy a 512mb gt8800 now for 200, sell it for 100 in 6 months and buy another card for 200 or 300 that will have better performance than any sli system now
cheaper, huh?