new build, amature needs help.

[bvet4dog]

hello folks, how's it going? In a few weeks to a month i'll have some greens to spend which is what im planning on to do. As of now this will be my 2nd build, i'm not book smart so, please bear with me. Any flaws/mistakes you see or have any suggestion, please.... jump in.

note i pretty much want to stick with intel/nvidia stuff. And my budget is fairly high as you can see, but NOT too high at first it was 1700$ in hardwares including case.... but just now since i have gotten a new job, i decided to get a monitor or a HDTV and that obviously bumped up my budget.

q9450
evga 750i mobo (http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16813188026)
8800gts g92 KO superclocked (http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16814130337)
8 gig ram quad channel kit (unsure what yet, pretty sure its something like 150$)
2x 250gb hdd (http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16822148309)
coolermaster stacker with 1000w psu (http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16811119139)

As of now, i'm considering 2x 8800gts to do SLI and get something like a 32" HDTV as a monitor, however im unsure yet. Because i do have few questions.
1. Will a single card that i choosed, handle a 32" HDTV at normal resolution or high res?
2. How well will a single and/or 2x 8800gts handle a high resolution at 32" ?
3. is this build good? any ideas/suggestions or what not

other than that, please help... guide me toward a better decision before i spend so much on stuff that i may wouldnt be satisfied with. Oh if you want lil info about me, i'm a college student and i work for GIS. I'm a heavy multitasker and a big gamer. So yeah, i'm hoping to get a large HDTV and have a sweet rig. Any help will be much appreciated, thanks!

- nick

 

[dhc014]

I can't comment on anything relating to SLI other than that if your HDTV is 1080p and you plan to game at the max resolution, then SLI would be good. If it's not 1080p, then a single 8800GTS would be sufficient.

 

[engiNURD]

Even if it is 1080P, the 8800GTS 512MB would be fine for most games except Crysis, IMO. Though, an 8800GX2 would, of course, be better.

Check vidcard reviews at anandtech.com and here, hardocp.com.

 

[bvet4dog]

hmm i'm not even sure if i will do "MAX" resolution just yet but i will i hope. So basically 1 card would do it good with no sweat right? In that case i think i'll go with that for now and find a 32" hdtv, Then within a month or two i'll get 2nd card.

OH yeah before i forget, i dont plan on doing any overclocking. Maybe i will end of this year or so once i learn it .

I guess nothing is wrong with my build? no flaws or what not? Thanks guys, i appreciate it.

 

[tiraides]

I guess nothing is wrong with my build? no flaws or what not? Thanks guys, i appreciate it.

There are no "flaws" with your build... however, I do have a few questions... namely:

Why do you need SLI? As enginurd mentioned, an 8800GTS (G92) is all you need for a 32" HDTV -- especially if the HDTV is only capable of a 720p resolution. You may be better off finding a P35-based motherboard with the features that you want.

Why do you need 8GB of RAM? You only need that much for heavy Photoshop use, heavy video/graphics/3D editing, and/or for use with multiple VMs. (Even 4GB is overkill for most users, but at its current prices, it's a relatively cheap indulgence.)

Two hard drives... are you considering a RAID configuration?

The only true suggestion that I would make is unless you're attempting to use two 9800GX2 cards in SLI, get a different (cheaper, yet efficient) power supply. (You may also find a better deal if you buy the case separately.) For example, the Corsair TX750 is currently available for under $120 shipped.

 

[engiNURD]

tiraides saved me some typing once again. please answer his questions.

 

[bvet4dog]

so really single 8800gts g92 (what i posted) would do good on a 32" HDTV at 1080p ? hmmph i thought it was "too weak" or something. I wont do SLI if i dont have to, however i choose evga board and video card due to the step up thing that they have and i have fairly good experiences with their products. Plus future proofing with that evga board reason why i choose 8 gig of ram, is because i wanted to max it out and get full performance. i plan on doing 64 bit xp and i pretty much wanted to max out the memory. Another thing to my reasoning of choosing 8 gig, is that some reason almost every time i get ram either 4 or 6 gig, one or two stick will fail on me. i mean the last 2 years of my 2 builds including laptop, either one or two sticks failed on me. it bugs the crap out of me, right now im stuck with 512 mb of ram on this laptop meantime my other tower is completely dead and i cant even do nothing to it. And oh before i forget, i do work at GIS and ESRI. I will be taking home alot of work so i can do overtime and such, their computers 4 gig, still to slow/laggy because of large sum of maping, pin point, excel, spread sheet data comes up at same time and such, it takes a while before it loads before we can do any work. Not to mention i love doing photoshoping and massive multitasking between games, web, chat, mirc and such.

why you suggested a p35 board? what kind of features were you talking about, i'm not clear what you ment by that.

did you recommend me to get a 9800GX2 ???? wasnt sure what you were saying ahaha. i thought 9800 series arent that much better than a 8800gts g92. maybe i'm wrong and i'd like to know why and what, if you dont mind .

thanks

- nick

 

[tiraides]

tiraides saved me some typing once again.

... Only to be plagued with some more typing...

Plus future proofing with that evga board reason why i choose 8 gig of ram, is because i wanted to max it out and get full performance. i plan on doing 64 bit xp and i pretty much wanted to max out the memory. Another thing to my reasoning of choosing 8 gig, is that some reason almost every time i get ram either 4 or 6 gig, one or two stick will fail on me. i mean the last 2 years of my 2 builds including laptop, either one or two sticks failed on me. it bugs the crap out of me, right now im stuck with 512 mb of ram on this laptop meantime my other tower is completely dead and i cant even do nothing to it. And oh before i forget, i do work at GIS and ESRI. I will be taking home alot of work so i can do overtime and such, their computers 4 gig, still to slow/laggy because of large sum of maping, pin point, excel, spread sheet data comes up at same time and such, it takes a while before it loads before we can do any work. Not to mention i love doing photoshoping and massive multitasking between games, web, chat, mirc and such.

"Future-proofing" computer hardware is an oxymoron -- by the time you have the parts that you feel would last you several years, new parts come out that (often) outperform them for less. The best advice I could give you for building a new computer is wait (to buy/build) as long as you can, until you can wait no longer.

Expecting parts to fail is a horrible reason to get more than you need. (There is this wonderful service that helps you replace defective parts quickly and efficiently... you might have heard of it... it's called, I believe, RMA....)

But seriously, since you seem to be a heavy multitasker, go ahead and get the 8GB. You don't need anything fancy -- buying two 4GB kits like the G.Skill 4GB DDR2 800 kit would be enough for your needs. (If you plan on overclocking the Q9450, you may want to buy a 4GB DDR2 1000 kit instead.)

so really single 8800gts g92 (what i posted) would do good on a 32" HDTV at 1080p ? hmmph i thought it was "too weak" or something. I wont do SLI if i dont have to, however i choose evga board and video card due to the step up thing that they have and i have fairly good experiences with their products.

A single G92 8800GTS card is capable of powering a resolution of up to 1920x1200 (the equivalent to a 1080p resolution) effectively. There are a few games that would slow it down (Crysis and Supreme Commander are two of the more notable ones), but it would work well for most other games.

FYI, BFG now has a 100-day step-up policy as well. XFX has a "double lifetime" warranty that extends to the next person you sell your card to (if you decide to go that route).

did you recommend me to get a 9800GX2 ???? wasnt sure what you were saying ahaha. i thought 9800 series arent that much better than a 8800gts g92. maybe i'm wrong and i'd like to know why and what, if you dont mind .

Unless you're a die-hard Crysis fan, there's no way I could justify for you the added cost of getting a 9800GX2 right now. At their current prices, the 8800GTS is a more appealing choice than the 9800GTX -- they both use the same GPU (though the 9800GTX is slightly faster and more efficient), and the 8800GTS isn't that much slower (in most benchmarks) than the 9800GTX.

why you suggested a p35 board? what kind of features were you talking about, i'm not clear what you ment by that.

Here's what I'm talking about:

And here are some motherboard choices:
Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L Intel P35 Motherboard - $90
MSI P35 Neo2-FR Intel P35 Motherboard - $110
DFI BloodIron P35-T2RL Intel P35 Motherboard - $120
Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS3R Intel P35 Motherboard - $125
DFI LanParty DK P35-T2RS Intel P35 Motherboard - $140
Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS3P Intel P35 Motherboard - $144
Abit IP35 Pro Intel P35 Motherboard - $170
Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS4 Intel P35 Motherboard - $170
Gigabyte GA-EX38-DS4 Intel X38 Motherboard - $207

Just to help you out: If you don't need RAID, more than 4 SATA ports, check out the DS3L. If you need 5 SATA ports, 2 eSATA ports, and a second PCI-E x16 port, then get the Neo2-Fr. If you want heavy overclocking abilities and six SATA ports, check out the Blood Iron. If you like the BloodIron but want significantly better overclock stability, go for the LanParty. If you want 8 SATA ports, RAID, and legacy ports and high overclocks, than the DS3R is a good choice. If you want the DS3R but need Firewire and a second PCI-E x16 port, then go for the DS3P. If you want something that can overclock pretty damn high along with, RAID, eSATA ports and firewire connections, than the IP35 Pro. If you like the DS3P but want better cooling for overclocking, then go for the DS4.

You never answered my other question: Why are you buying two 250GB hard drives?

(Oh, and where's the DVD drive/burner?)

 

[bvet4dog]

"Future-proofing" computer hardware is an oxymoron -- by the time you have the parts that you feel would last you several years, new parts come out that (often) outperform them for less. The best advice I could give you for building a new computer is wait (to buy/build) as long as you can, until you can wait no longer.

lol, thats the position im in right now. my last build failed on me about 2 years ago, in case you havent noticed, i'm on a laptop since 2 years and i'm still unhappy. here's a pic of my setup.... Yes PS2 keyboard. http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b118/b00mer16/DSC00341.jpg

Expecting parts to fail is a horrible reason to get more than you need. (There is this wonderful service that helps you replace defective parts quickly and efficiently... you might have heard of it... it's called, I believe, RMA....)

i know what RMA is, infact newegg wasnt nice enough to replace my ram just because i didnt buy warranty. I figured i'd give it a try again with newegg on ram, apparently wasnt happy and i dont know what it is. Just some bad karma on me or something lol.

But seriously, since you seem to be a heavy multitasker, go ahead and get the 8GB. You don't need anything fancy -- buying two 4GB kits like the G.Skill 4GB DDR2 800 kit would be enough for your needs. (If you plan on overclocking the Q9450, you may want to buy a 4GB DDR2 1000 kit instead.)

yeah i thought about ddr2 1000's, i'll think about it on 4 gig, but would really prefer a 6 or 8.


A single G92 8800GTS card is capable of powering a resolution of up to 1920x1200 (the equivalent to a 1080p resolution) effectively. There are a few games that would slow it down (Crysis and Supreme Commander are two of the more notable ones), but it would work well for most other games.

FYI, BFG now has a 100-day step-up policy as well. XFX has a "double lifetime" warranty that extends to the next person you sell your card to (if you decide to go that route).



Unless you're a die-hard Crysis fan, there's no way I could justify for you the added cost of getting a 9800GX2 right now. At their current prices, the 8800GTS is a more appealing choice than the 9800GTX -- they both use the same GPU (though the 9800GTX is slightly faster and more efficient), and the 8800GTS isn't that much slower (in most benchmarks) than the 9800GTX.

i'm not really a die hard crysis fan as of now since my laptop isnt any good. i tried the demo, took long time to load and the fps in the game was like.... few fps lol. so yeah, i'll try crysis again but on the new build which is what im planning. I think i'll do single 8800gts g92 for now.

Here's what I'm talking about:

You never answered my other question: Why are you buying two 250GB hard drives?

doing raid0 or 1 depends when i decide when i start building.

(Oh, and where's the DVD drive/burner?)[/QUOTE]

already got one sitting in my desk.

 

[tiraides]

Regarding RMAs and warranties, most manufacturers have some sort of warranty that outlasts the retailers'. The general rule is that you try to RMA the item through the retailer if it fails soon after arrival (or, within the first 30-90 days after purchase), and to the actual manufacturer within the first year (or so) of failure.

I wasn't telling to buy just 4GB of RAM -- I was telling you to get two 4GB dual-channel kits.

 

[Dangman]

Expecting parts to fail is a horrible reason to get more than you need. (There is this wonderful service that helps you replace defective parts quickly and efficiently... you might have heard of it... it's called, I believe, RMA....)

i know what RMA is, infact newegg wasnt nice enough to replace my ram just because i didnt buy warranty. I figured i'd give it a try again with newegg on ram, apparently wasnt happy and i dont know what it is. Just some bad karma on me or something lol.

Like tiraides said, most products these days do have a manufacturer warranty. So you didn't need to RMA to newegg, just the manufacturer of that computer part. Many parts released today and within the last two years have at least a one year warranty. RAM often has a lifetime warranty, Hard drives have 1 to 5 year warranties, etc.

You never answered my other question: Why are you buying two 250GB hard drives?

doing raid0 or 1 depends when i decide when i start building.

I wouldn't bother with RAID 0'ing those drives. Too expensive for 250GB drives that aren't really that fast. If you're dead set on a RAID setup, I recommend getting this drive instead:
Western Digital WD3200AAKS 320GB 7200RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - $72

You might be lucky and get the new revisions of the drive above. The new revisions of that dirve are faster than many drives out there right now. Even if you get the old ones, they're still a better choice than the 250GB Seagate drives.

 

[tzk]

Newegg has the 320GB (3200AAKS) for $69.99 with free shipping...
Chiefvalue.com has the 640GB (6400AAKS) for $109.99 with $4 off with a coupon and free shipping I believe.