Simulator rig

[dsmith6365]

Ok so this is my first post here.
Hi how are you? Nice to meet you!

Now down to business!

I am going to be building a new pc as my old P4 is not good enough,
has been a great 5 year (6 or how ever long) run.

Now these are the parts I have put onto my wish list.

Asus P5q Pro
Core 2 Quad Q8200
CORSAIR 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (x2 for 8GB)
HITACHI 0A38016 1TB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5 (firm on this)
Rosewill RP600V2-S-SL 600W (in current PC)
Case: XCLIO A380BK (firm on this too)

Now for the GPU I had the EVGA 512-P3-N871-AR GeForce 9800 GTX+ 512MB 256-bit GDDR3
in the list, but I read on the mobo specs it is X-fire ready, also my PSU is SLI ready.
does it really matter with the PSU if it is SLI or X-fire ready?

I will probably never get two GPU's but one never knows. I have been an avid Nvidia user and I am really apprehensive about using ATI since I would be a new user to them. but I always try things twice!

Games building for:
FS 9/X
X-Plane
City of Heroes
Silent hunter seiries
Sims 2 (Sims 3 pre-ordered)
Looking forward to Star Trek Online (P.S watched the movie tonight (may 7th) and I recommend it to any Trekkie out there ) and Jumpgate Evolution.

all prioritized in the order I play most.

About the Ram.

I will be running Win XP Home.
Can XP even use 8GB effectively or should I stick to just 4 GB?
I know 4GB doesn't register. Is this even a valid concern?

Biggest question is this: Is all this compatible? will it work well? is this build what I call "future ready" meaning I probabaly wont have to build for another 3 years min. I am on a fixed income so I will have to be buying these parts at one to two parts a month. CPU, GPU, Case is first to be bought as they are most expensive. the rest are cheap. Also since I am on a fixed income I will not OC. if I screw up I can't just buy new parts ya know!

Going to start buying parts this month too so the faster I get solid answers the better!

Thanks,
David

P.S As you can tell by the case I don't care if it is quiet or not.

 

[Proximon]

Your PSU will not run two cards of that level. The P5Q Pro is crossfire, yes. that means it will run two ATI cards, not Nvidia. When you use two Nvidia cards together that is called SLI. Two ATI, crossfire.

Based on your needs, you should probably not be going Intel at all. You'll get a faster system for the same price by using an AMD build.
AMD Phenom II X4 940 and Gigabyte 790X MB
G.skill 4GB 1066 RAM
Sunbeam CPU cooler


You cannot use 8GB of RAM. 32-bit XP won't even use all of the 4GB. You'll end up with perhaps 3.2 GB of available memory.

For video, the more you put into this the better. 4770, 4850, 4870 512MB, 4870 1GB, those are your options in ascending order. You may get away with not upgrading your PSU with the first two in crossfire, but before you added a second 4870 you would need a better PSU.

Your Rosewill PSU is not terribly good as they go. Very poor efficiency and known to be "temperature sensitive" whatever that actually means. (Probably efficiency and voltage regulation drop as the operating temp climbs.) I think it's probably fine for a single card.

 

[gkay09]

^+1
The Phenom build would offer better performance than the Q8200...And change the graphics card...

 

[evongugg]

You can get a AMD certified power supply:

Certified power supplies are recommended. Refer to http://ati.amd.com/certifiedPSU for a list of Certified products.

 

[evongugg]

The power supply is the heart of your system. A poor power supply blowing up can cost you your entire investment.

 

[Proximon]

The power supply is the heart of your system. A poor power supply blowing up can cost you your entire investment.

Yep. The RP series is actually listed as tier 3, so it's not a complete dog. One of them even got a very positive review over at jonnyguru. So, I'm not screaming "Throw it out" like I normally would, but Rosewill PSUs in general are junk.