build time finally here

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vector2005

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Feb 27, 2006
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back around march i had posted upgrade parts that i was looking at, but because of events out of my control i was unable to order the parts at that time. So several months later I'm back looking to finally do the upgrade. With thanksgiving being this week i'll be waiting until monday to start placing the order.

The main purpose of the system will be for gaming, with limited photo/video editing. Budget is ~$1500. I currently have a 24" widescreen monitor from dell so I'm needing something that will be able to run the games at 1920X1200. Thats why i originally went the SLI route, but because of recent news about the 680i boards not supporting the new intel processors I've decided to go the single card route.. There will probably be some overclocking, but I have purposely left the cpu cooler and will consider one at a later time.

Other than a monitor this will be a new build and no parts will be reused from my current system.


COOLER MASTER RC-690-KKN1-GP $49.99 before $30 MIR

LITE-ON Black 20X DVD+R $28.99

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3250410AS 250GB $69.99

G.SKILL 4GB(2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) $109.99

Corsair HX Series CMPSU-620HX 620W Power Supply $139 before $20 MIR

Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L $87.98

Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 $194.99

Microsoft Windows Vista 64-Bit Home Premium $111.99

EVGA 768-P2-N831-A3 GeForce 8800GTX 768MB $509.99 before $50 MIR

Thermalright Ultima 90 $45.95
Panaflo M1A-Z 92x92x25mm case fan $3

I'll add the new total up later but should still be under the $1500 budget.

I also plan on looking at other resellers when i go to place the order to try to get the price down some, but that will be determined by how much extra shipping will be via ordering from more than one place.

Thanks of the help.

Items below have been removed based on suggestions and research from other posts
PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750 Quad (Black) EPS12V 750W $179.99
Microsoft Windows Vista 64-Bit Ultimate for System Builders $179.99
EVGA 122-CK-NF67-T1 LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 680i LT SL $169
 
are you thinking of the 8800GTS or the 8800GT? couldn't make it out from your post...Go with the GT models if you can find them.
 
Yes i meant the 8800gt. sorry about the confusion i have edited the original post to correct the mistype, seems no matter how many times I proofread I always seem to miss something.

Thanks
 
Don't go for Vista Ultimate unless you actually need the backup and encryption features. Go for Home Premium instead and it'll save you $68:
Windows Vista Home Premium 64bit OEM - $112

You may not even need a 750W PSU. The Corsair 650W or 620W PSU can easily power two 8800GTs in SLI. It's cheaper as well. Here are some other good quality PSUs that can easily power your rig:
Corsair TX650 650W PSU - $138
Corsair HX620 620W PSU - $144
Silverstone SST-ST75ZF Zeus 750W Power Supply - $160
Corsair TX750 750W PSU - $160
 
Don't forget to look for some deals this BLACK FRIDAY! Best buy has the 8800GT for $250, btw.

I agree with Danny, ditch Ultimate if you don't need it and you don't need a 750W PSU for GT cards in SLI. Here are more PSU suggestions:

http://forums.extremeoverclocking.com/showpost.php?p=1590883&postcount=193
http://www.jonnyguru.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1460
http://www.jonnyguru.com/forums/showthread.php?t=103
PSU FAQ: http://www.jonnyguru.net/forums/showthread.php?t=1036

Also, here are some cooler suggestions:
$35 - Scythe SCNJ-1100P Ninja Plus Rev.B CPU HSF (optional $7 Thermalright LGA775 Bolt-Thru-Kit; recommended if using w/ quadcore)
$45 - Tuniq Tower 120 CPU HSF
$46 - Thermalright Ultima 90 CPU HS + FBA09A12M - Z ($3)
$55 - Thermalright Ultra 120 eXtreme CPU HS + Scythe S-Flex Fan SFF21E ($15)
 
The only reason i was considering Vista Ultimate was for the remote desktop function that is not included in Home premium, though in retrospec I'm not sure the one feature is worth ~$68. I hadn't really looked at the prices of the other versions.

The power supply choice was made by looking on nvidia's website at what they had said was certified for a praticular setup.

Also, there was only a 10 price difference between the pc&c psu compared to the corsair 620, at least on newegg, so i figured the extra power might be better, but once i get home from work i'll look over the links provided.

As far as the cpu cooler goes i'm leaning towards the Tuniq, but need to double check that it will fit on this board and in the case i've chosen.

I'm heading camping tomorrow after work for the rest of the week so will be missing the Black Friday deals.

Thanks for the replies
 
I have both a Tuniq and the Ultima90. My Ultima90 is smaller, lighter, and easier to install -- and performs the same as my Tuniq.
 
Ok going to go with the Corsair 620 instead for the power supply, Price won over the extra power.

Also going to go with vist home premium, Ultimate is not worth the $68 price difference when you can find free software since that was the main reason i was looking at ultimate to begin with.

I'm going to edit my original post with the new items. Looks like with the new list I"m at $960 now before the video cards.

I"m also impressed by the Thermalright Ultima 90 that was mentioned and will be adding that also.

Thanks for the help so far
 
VolvoR said:
I recommend the Scythe Ninja...works great for me!
Click to expand...

The Ninja works great for me too~! but its harder to install than the Ultima90 and Tuniq. My Ninja is keeping an E6400 @ 3.6Ghz (1.5v) at 35°C idle, 57°C load, with an ambient room temp of 22°C.
 
Being busy at work may have its advantages. I never got the system ordered. So here we are several weeks later and it appears that the 680i won't support the upcoming processors from intel. Because of this i'm a little bit weary on going the SLI route and will most likely stick with a single card.

So keeping the main components i originally posted I'm going to change the motherboard to the Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L and the EVGA 768-P2-N831-A3 GeForce 8800GTX 768MB

I'll edit the list in the original post to reflect the change.
 
Hopefully you can step up to the revised GTS, which should outperform the old GTX. And if you're really lucky, the GTX replacement will come out within your 3mo step-up period.

Crossfire is also a good option with an x38 board and two HD 3850's or 3870's.
 
I had considered a crossfire solution but when i posted in the video card from about going either sli, crossfire, or a single highend card. the majority was recommending the high end card. There doesn't seem to be much price difference at the moment between the solutions though i've not fully priced the crossfire but appears to be close to the sli cost. The single card looks to be about $100 less than te SLI config

I do plan on getting an EVGA video card if I go with the GTX because of the step up program and knowing that there are newer cards due out.
 
If you want a single-card setup, then you should be buying an 8800GT instead of 8800GTX. The GT provides almost the same performance for half the money. You should also be planning to upgrade to a 9-series card once it gets released.
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3140&p=9

However, if you choose SLI route, you will get much better performance in certain situations.
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3140&p=12
http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTQxMCw0LCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA== (read the last chart)

With your budget, you can couple a Q6600 + SLI 8800GT's. Buying a Yorkfield is not worth it IMO, since the CPU will never form a bottleneck at 19x12. Also bear in mind that your planned setup will not overclock the Q9450 much beyond the Q6600, due to FSB limitations.
 
I agree, the GT would be a much better buy. The problem is, its so hard to find a GT in stock for a good price. The good thing is, eVGA Step-Up price difference is based on the amount you paid for your card! ;)

The added cost of a good crossfire board eliminates it as a good cost-effective solution, IMO.
 
@ his resolutions, I would stick with GTX, trust me on that. Asus p5k premium mobo that runs off p35 chipset is awesome ocier, that is what I have. I would also go with q6600 G0 instead.
 
aFive said:
@ his resolutions, I would stick with GTX, trust me on that. Asus p5k premium mobo that runs off p35 chipset is awesome ocier, that is what I have. I would also go with q6600 G0 instead.
Click to expand...

Have you seen the benchmarks? You'd rather pay nearly 90% more for less than 20% performance increase? or did I read the benchmarks wrong?

The P5K premium had SATA issues... have those been resolved?
 
Abu Som3a said:
If you want a single-card setup, then you should be buying an 8800GT instead of 8800GTX. The GT provides almost the same performance for half the money. You should also be planning to upgrade to a 9-series card once it gets released.
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3140&p=9

However, if you choose SLI route, you will get much better performance in certain situations.
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3140&p=12
http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTQxMCw0LCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA== (read the last chart)

With your budget, you can couple a Q6600 + SLI 8800GT's. Buying a Yorkfield is not worth it IMO, since the CPU will never form a bottleneck at 19x12. Also bear in mind that your planned setup will not overclock the Q9450 much beyond the Q6600, due to FSB limitations.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the benchmark links, I actually didn't realize that the 8800gt was that close to the gtx. I still haven't fully ruled out running SLI.

When you said that the Q6600 + SLI still fit in the budget were you dropping something from the list? i was just over the $1500 budget amount with the sli config the way it was configured. adding the evga motherboard back in and the 2 8800gt the total is $1523 before rebates. I'm not counting the rebates in the budget as you may or may not actually receive them. the last Time i checked the Q6600 was roughly $90 more than the E6750. On the other hand if i went the single card build i have posted now in the original post i could change the the q6600 without any problems especially if i drop down to the gt instead of the gtx.
 
Abu Som3a said:
For starters, you can buy the RAM from here.
Click to expand...

Well thats would be a small start and would bring it down to the 1500 budget, and would still leave about $50 to recover, I'll go over by a little, but would rather not go too far over. The $1523 i quoted before is about as far over as i would like to go over, and yes that is counting shipping.

.
 
As an alternative:

$190 - INTEL boxdx38bt intel x38 chipset atx form factor (not a good idea)
$246 - Palit ATI Radeon HD3870 512MB 2DVI/HDCP PCI-Express Video Card
$246 - Palit ATI Radeon HD3870 512MB 2DVI/HDCP PCI-Express Video Card
-------------------------
682(-$15MIR) +~29(S&H)
-------------------------

You can buy one stick for now, and another when you receive the rebates.
 
Instead of reediting the original post I've listed the three systems here now that i'm considering. The First is the original SLI config, The 2nd is the single card config, and the final is a crossfire config.

The following stays consistent between the three builds


Option 1

Option 2

Option 3
Option 1 Total = 1454.01
Option 2 Total = 1082.01
Option 3 Total = 1434.01

Prices do not include shipping and were current at the time of posting

With the prices being so close between the sli and crossfire, i would probably got the SLI route. And option 3 is a little lower end now and has room to increase some of the items.

After some thought the lack of support for the upcoming intel processors on the 680i no longer concerns me. I got thinking about my last couple of builds, and by the time i went to upgrade them things had changed enough that the motherboard and processor needed replaced anyways.
 
Abu Som3a said:
As an alternative:

$190 - INTEL boxdx38bt intel x38 chipset atx form factor
$246 - Palit ATI Radeon HD3870 512MB 2DVI/HDCP PCI-Express Video Card
$246 - Palit ATI Radeon HD3870 512MB 2DVI/HDCP PCI-Express Video Card
-------------------------
682(-$15MIR) +~29(S&H)
-------------------------

You can buy one stick for now, and another when you receive the rebates.
Click to expand...

Since i'm at work the last post took longer than expected to post and i didn't see this post. i'll look over the items when i get a chance and i may revise my option three.

Thats a thought about waiting till the rebates were received, though that could be 6-11 weeks later and there is still a chance they could be declined. I seem to have poor luck when it comes to rebates.
 
Assuming those are the prices yeah you should go with the SLI route. The LT 680i from EVGA seems to have less issues than the A1 also, and you are going with a dual core cpu which also helps on the 680i's. If you are set on the sli route then go for it.
 
I'd go with Option4, which is the same as Option1 minus one 8800GT. Then, when the updated GTS comes out, I'd step-up to that. By then, if I was still unhappy with performance, I'd grab another GTSv2 and a used Q6600 -- when I have more cash to play with, of course.

However, if you want to upgrade to Penryn, and have the cash to do so (probably by selling the E6750), the Crossfire route would be best.

Abu Som3a said:
As an alternative:

$190 - INTEL boxdx38bt intel x38 chipset atx form factor (not a good idea)

You can buy one stick for now, and another when you receive the rebates.
Click to expand...

Not an option. Bonetrail uses DDR3 only, which is still ridiculously expensive.
 
vector2005 said:
Instead of reediting the original post I've listed the three systems here now that i'm considering. The First is the original SLI config, The 2nd is the single card config, and the final is a crossfire config.

The following stays consistent between the three builds


Option 1

Option 2

Option 3
Option 1 Total = 1454.01
Option 2 Total = 1082.01
Option 3 Total = 1434.01

Prices do not include shipping and were current at the time of posting

With the prices being so close between the sli and crossfire, i would probably got the SLI route. And option 3 is a little lower end now and has room to increase some of the items.

After some thought the lack of support for the upcoming intel processors on the 680i no longer concerns me. I got thinking about my last couple of builds, and by the time i went to upgrade them things had changed enough that the motherboard and processor needed replaced anyways.
Click to expand...

If you are not going SLI, do not to with 680i, too many issues. You will be happier with P35 chipsets. X38's are nice, but do not offer anything that is really worth it, besides PCI-E2.0 over p35.
great board :) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131182
 
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