Just need some general advice

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solaris54

2[H]4U
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Jul 14, 2007
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I was going to do this before and then chickened out ended up buying someone else's homebuilt. This is good because it gave me something to play with and modify. Now I have more confidence where I feel that I could do it myself.

Anyway I want to try and build my own system again. I have already bought a MSI 750i mobo and EVGA 790i mobo. Im not sure which I will use but I am a fan of SLI so this is one of the reasons I bought them. So at this point I am looking for recommendations on which CPU to use? I could even use the old faithful Q6600 which I have on my other 2 systems.
Any suggestions are welcomed.
 
Your OP is vague. What is the primary use of the PC? gaming? media encoding? general applications? If gaming, what resolution you plan to game at? What size LCD do you have? What about the rest of the parts? HDD, DVD/CDROM, RAM, Video Card, Case/PSU and O/S, do you have these? What's the specs of your other 2 systems? Are these prebuilt systems?

BTW, since you mentioned you have 2 systems and one of them has a Q6600 cpu, and you bought 2 mobos based on Nvidia chipsets 750i and 790i, how many computers do you have or intend to build?
 
I have a Dell XPS 720 Q6600/SLI that I would like to sell.
Also have a Antec 900 ABit IN9 Max/Q6600/8800GTX SLI

I want to build this as a 2nd computer. I am using a Planar 26" LCD mainly for gaming.
I originally bought the MSI 750i mobo but have concerns about only 4 SATA ports. So I got the 790i for the extra SATA ports.
 
Hmm.. since you already bought the 790i mobo, I'd pop in a GTX 260 and maybe SLI those. Do you plan on toggling between these 2 pcs with that 26" Planar lcd? 2 pcs hooked up to that 26"?
 
HardwareGuru said:
Hmm.. since you already bought the 790i mobo, I'd pop in a GTX 260 and maybe SLI those. Do you plan on toggling between these 2 pcs with that 26" Planar lcd? 2 pcs hooked up to that 26"?
Click to expand...


I will have to do some reading on the GTX260. I have two 26" monitors so each computer is hooked up independently to each monitor.

Which CPU do you think would be best with this mobo?
 
790? DDR3? sell that board. Use the 750i w/ DDR2 instead -- much more cost effective. Then again, Crossfire would have been more cost effective, or even a single ATI X2 card, but whatever, you're obviously an NVIDIA kinda guy, so go with the GTX260. Keep in mind that while SLI is enabled and you're gaming, you'll only be able to use one monitor out of the two. ;)

For PURE gaming a higher clocked dual core is better, but the performance difference is negligible at those resolutions, so you might want to go with a quad to make the system last 3+ years.
 
The prices of DDR3 is a turnoff but, if you're going to stick with the 790i mobo, I would throw in 2 x GTX 260 in SLI. This video card setup should rival the Radeon HD4870X2. Seems like you are an nvidia fan as your mobos and current gpus are all nvidia. Also, I'm guessing you're sticking with the 790i mobo due to the fact that it has the extra SATA ports?

BTW, you did not specify a budget on the build. What are you looking at in terms of price. Looking at your 2 x 26" Planar lcds, you seem like you are not that tight on the budget.
 
Just get a SATA PCI-E card if you need more SATA ports. The high cost of DDR3 isn't worth the near zero performance improvement, nor the extra SATA ports, IMO.
 
You guys are bringing up exactly what I am concerned about. I only bought these 2 boards because I wasnt sure and they both came all of a sudden at good prices.

So are you saying that you have to use DDR3 on the 790i board?

So there is a card that will give me more sata ports with the 750i board?

I have 4 hard drives on the XPS720 and 2 optical so Im sure I need 6 total.

As far as SLI each monitor is on a independent computer so the SLI is in use all of the time........works great. Im not saying Im a Nvidia person but have had good luck with the Abit IN9-32X-MAX board and the Dell also has a 680i type board.
 
yes

yes

no need for sli in 2D desktop mode... waste of power.

nvidia on intel isn't exactly the greatest combination. :rolleyes:
 
Danny Bui said:
Yes the 790i ONLY uses DDR3 RAM. There has never been a 790i mobo that uses DDR2 RAM.

All you need is this for an additional 4 SATA II ports:
Promise SATA 300 TX4 PCI 4 Port SATA II Controller Card - $60
Click to expand...

I have never really looked at the price of DDR3 RAM. Is is really that more expensive?

Well anyway now Im not sure what to do. Which board will be the easiest to install and setup? I have the MSI 750i and the EVGA 790i.

Yes that SATA card looks like it would work great. Are there any problems with it?
 
Since you put it that way, forget that EVGA 790i mobo. Best to do what enginurd suggested earlier. Go with the 750i MSI board, pop in DDR2 800 RAM instead and go with an HD4870X2 video card. By the way, you have 2 x 8800GTX in SLI on your Abit IN9-32X-MAX board? This setup is pretty good already for running games on a 1920 x 1200 res. Which system will be the gaming rig? Both? Will the Abit IN9 setup be your primary gaming rig? Or, you want to build this second build and have it be the faster gaming system?
 
solaris54 said:
I have never really looked at the price of DDR3 RAM. Is is really that more expensive?

Well anyway now Im not sure what to do. Which board will be the easiest to install and setup? I have the MSI 750i and the EVGA 790i.

Yes that SATA card looks like it would work great. Are there any problems with it?
Click to expand...

Yes. DDR3 RAM is twice the price of DDR2 RAM. A 2GB set of DDR3 1066RAM will cost as much as a 4GB set of DDR2 1000 RAM.

Both mobos will about the same in terms of ease of install and setup.

Nope, no problems with the Promise case.
 
Promise case? card.

NVIDIA chipsets are not as good as Intel chipsets for the Intel platform. However, NVIDIA chipsets for the AMD platform are GREAT! Comparing them to the intel counterparts, Intels typically (until the 700 series FTW models) run cooler and therefore OC better, and their drivers are more mature. OC'ing on an NVIDIA based board with an Intel quadcore can be very troublesome. NVIDIA boards for Intel chips aren't as stable/reliable as their Intel based counterparts -- they're more finicky.
 
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