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phialexa

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Feb 28, 2008
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Hello all. I am an avid gamer and watch an arse load of movies on my 24" samsung monitor. I would like to ideally game at the highest resolution possible, and I am looking for a fairly future proof rig. I also plan on doing my first bit of Overclocking; primarily with the videocard and processor and not the RAM. I eventually plan on running SLI. Since I am too impatient to wait for the 9800gx2 to come out, this is what I am planning on buying as soon as I get everyone's thumbs up.

1. Motherboard and Processor @ tigerdirect
EVGA nForce 780i SLI Motherboard CPU Bundle - Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Processor 2.40GHz OEM
Item Number: MBM-780I-Q6600A
Availability: In Stock
Price: $509.99


2. Ram @ Newegg
2 X G.SKILL 4GB(2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory – Retail
$179.99

3. Case and PSU @ tigerdirect
Cooler Master CM Stacker 830 ATX Full-Tower Aluminum Case with Vented Side and 1000-Watt Power Supply
Item Number: C283-1171
Availability: Available While Supplies Last
Final Price: $314.99

4. Cooling @ Newegg
Tuniq Tower 120 P4 & K8 CPU Cooler - Retail
$39.99

5. Videocard @newegg
EVGA GeForce 8800 GTS Video Card - FREE Crysis PC Game, 512MB DDR3, PCI Express 2.0, SLI Ready, (Dual Link) Dual DVI, HDTV, Video Card
Item Number: E145-8828
Availability: In Stock
Final Price: $309.99*

6. Hard Drive @ newegg
Western Digital Raptor WD1500ADFD 150GB 10,000 RPM 16MB Cache SATA-150 Hard Drive - OEM
$169.99

6. Optical Drive @ newegg
SAMSUNG Black 20X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 12X DVD+R DL 20X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA 20X DVD±R DVD Burner - OEM
$27.99

I would ideally like to keep the total cost at or under 1,700.00. Thanks!

Best Wishes
 
Here are my suggestions:

1. MB
I am not a fan of Nvidia's chipset.
Unless you planto go SLI, I would go with Intel P35 (Abit IP35-Pro is great!)

2. 2x2GB G.Skill is good ram but $180 seems very expensive.
I paid $115 at NCIX.com for 2x2GB G.Skill DDR2-1000.

3. This is a good case.

4. I would go with Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme instead of Tuniq Tower 120.

5. I have the same card and it is a good choice.

6. I have the same hard disk and it is a good choice but 150GB is a bit small.
 
if your not getting sli now then dont bother getting it at all in future. may as well get the best card out right now then which is the hd3870x2 or stay with the 8800gts 512mb till the nvidia cards come out.

you seriously dont need 8gb of ram. some say 4gb is already alot :-/ make sure you have an 64bit os either way.

if your looking into a single card setup, get the p35 motherboard for around $120 range for the sata ports. if you still want to go sli, get a cheaper board like the 680i or something. tri sli is waste of money really. if you want to go crossfire, i would say get the asus maximus formula.

get the q6600 at clubit.com; they guarantee a G0 SLACR which runs less heat meaning better overclocking.

ditch the raptor. waste of money when you dont get that much of a performance difference. get a 500gb harddrive for $100 instead.

get the thermalright 120 extreme and attach a scythe s-flex fan on it. youll be able to oc to at least 3.0ghz

try keep away from cases with power supplies already with them. buy them separate because you want a good brand power supply. corsair and pc&power cooling are good brands. you really wont need 1kw btw. 750w should even be able to handle 2 3870x2.

look at more websites for deals. newegg, buy, zipzoomfly, clubit to name a few
 
in regards to the ram, it is not 2x2gb for 180, it is 2x2x2gb, totalling 8gigs of ram for 180. I do plan on running Vista. So in the future I plan on running a 9800gx2, which i believe is 2gpus. Will I need sli for this?

Secondly, do you think that I should ditch the coolermaster stacker 830 1000watt combo for a single psu and a single case? If so, any good recommendations?

Thirdly, I don't really care about the size of the internal hard drive. I currently have over 1 TiB in external hard drives. I am mainly interested in being able to play games as fast as possible which is why I was thinking it would be worth it to have the 10k RPMS.

Based on all of the comments so far I am definitely going to switch up the tuniq for the thermalright 120 extreme and also attach a scythe sflex fan on it.

Keep the advice coming!

Best Wishes
 
Raptors aren't worth anything -- it only reduces loading times. Not worth the price premium at all. The new WD 7200RPM and Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM drives are nearly as fast and 3-4x as big for the same price.

Do you really need a case as big as that Stacker? Do you really need a 1 KW PSU? It's not a bad price, but still. Tell us what you're looking for in a case.

Consider the ZeroTherm Nirvana NV120 instead of the Tuniq Tower.

As the others said, either pay up for two 8800 GTS 512MB cards or drop the 780i -- it simply isn't worth the potential headache if you aren't going SLI immediately.
 
the 9800x2 and hd3870x2 are two cards in one. making it one card with 2 gpu's in it. with the price reduction of the single 3870 though its cheaper to buy two of those and crossfire em then buy a single 3870x2.

+1 to silent-circuits comment
 
Most everyone has been on the money in this thread. SLI is absolutely not worth considering if a) you aren't gaming at a res of at least 1920x1200 and b) are planning to get that second card later (for reasons already explained.)

Note that you absolutely do not need an SLI motherboard for a single 9800GX2. That's the big plus with this card. As of now, SLI boards are less reliable and are harder to OC than comparable nForce boards, so unless SLI will directly provide benefit to your setup and you can afford to get two cards now, there is no reason to consider it.
 
Markyip1 said:
As of now, SLI boards are less reliable and are harder to OC than comparable Intel chipset boards, so unless SLI will directly provide benefit to your setup and you can afford to get two cards now, there is no reason to consider it.
Click to expand...

Fixed.
 
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