Need input

[Kungfuhero]

Thinking of buying this computer here are the specs:

Case: Thermaltake Tsunami Black Aluminum
Powersupply: Thermaltake 500W W0093RU 12v
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe 2.4 Ghz LGA 775
Motherboard: ASUS P5NSLI LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 570 SLI Intel Addition
Memory: Corsair XMS2 2 GB (2 x 1GB) 240 Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar SE16 250 GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s
Video: 2 PNY GeForce 7900 GS 256 MB DDR3 PCI Express x16 (SLI configuriation)
Sound: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer 7.1 Channels PCI
Optical Drive: NEC 18x DVD/RW IDE
OS: Microsoft Widows XP Media Center 2005 SP2b w/upgrade Coupon for vista

Suggested Retail price: $1999.00

What do you guys think?

Thanks

 

[HaMMerHeD]

First, I think it's in the wrong forum.

Second, why go SLI from the outset if you aren't going high-end? You'd be better served spending the ~$400 or so on an 8800 GTS, rather than $350-$400 on a pair of 7900 GS-es.

 

[Wally]

Well, seeing as how this is a pretty redundant thread, i'm going to take the opportunity to inform you all of my displeasure at myself for having been waiting days for the arrival of a 4 pin to 6 pin PCI-E bridge cable thingy to power my spangly new 1950 Pro only to discover just now that my ancient PSU miraculously already has a sodding PCI-E cable, and i've been waiting the last 4 days for no fucking reason.

 

[kelbear]

Looks fine, just use Mark Warner's suggestion.

I personally cringe at the thought of spending money on an X-fi. It's justifiable if you already have a nice digital audio speaker setup. The performance boost in terms of sound positioning and fps can be had with a relatively ancient audigy 2 zs for 20 bucks or so. Most of the performance is achieved as soon as you switch away from integrated sound to any compatible soundcard.

 

[HaMMerHeD]

I personally cringe at the thought of spending money on an X-fi. It's justifiable if you already have a nice digital audio speaker setup. The performance boost in terms of sound positioning and fps can be had with a relatively ancient audigy 2 zs for 20 bucks or so. Most of the performance is achieved as soon as you switch away from integrated sound to any compatible soundcard.

Performance is one thing...Sound quality is another. The X-Fi sounds better than anything I've ever used before. I used to do a lot of music recording on my PC (with Cakewalk Studio Producer's Edition), and everything sounds better through the X-Fi than it did through the Audigy before it. The recording sound and the playback sound are both far superior to what was before it. I've not used a non-Creative sound card since the Hercules GameTheater XP, so I'm not really up with how good or bad other cards are these days, but I love the X-Fi.

 

[DrkSlash]

2 advices for you:

1 - Get a single 8800GTS (GTX if you can afford it) instead of 2 7900GS, like this you can later on put another 8800 and get a much better performance

2 - Get yourself a different psu, something in the 600W with high values on +12V line, something in the area of a Seasonic or a OCZ, this because ive heard cases of people having alot of problems with thermaltake power supplies and because i dont know if that 500W psu can actually withstand 7900GS SLI that well.

 

[HaMMerHeD]

I have a 550 W thermaltake PSU, and have had it for 8 or 9 months. No problems thus far.

 

[Darth Bobo]

One thing, apart form the "get an 8800gts sentiment, which I agree with, get the Asus P5N-E SLI mobo instead of the P5N SLI board, the -E version runs the new 650i chipset instead of the "older" 570i one...

 

[Kungfuhero]

Sorry about the wrong forum

Thanks all for the advice about the Gforce 8800.

However, this is a pre-built system and just kinda wondering if the price is right for something with this config shipped to my front door.

Thanks

 

[HaMMerHeD]

Well the price is about in-line with what you'd expect to pay, but you'd get better performance for the money with a different video card and motherboard.