New Machine Build (Need Advice)

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samops03

Gawd
Joined
Oct 18, 2007
Messages
809
First of all i would like to say hello to everyone on this board, i will be building a system within a week or so and i have a few questions that require your technical advice.

I plan to use this system for mostly gaming, leaving it stock for a year or so. After that i plan to overclock slightly.

SPECS:
Antec 900
Gigabyte Ga-p35-ds4 v 2.0
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800
EVGA GeForce 8800GTS 320MB
2 x wd800 (raid 0)
2 x wd250gb (raid 1)
1 x DVDRW Drive

*Will be installing Vista Ultimate x64

Now here are the questions that i have:

1) Which power supply will i need to power this system, considering i might add another 2Gb of memory and sligtly overclock in the future? I would like to have a modular psu if possible.

2) Will this system be able to handle games on a 720p 37" LCD?

3) I own a creative x-fi extreme gamer card, is this card better than the onboard audio? Will it improve performance by taking off the load from mb, cpu?

I would prefer not to buy the 640MB GTS because of the budget, but if I have problems playing games like crysis on my LCD i will be forced to buy it.

Thank you all in advance, and i will be waiting to see what you guys think.

Thanks:D
Sam
 
The corsair HX series are modular. Popular, good quality, and priced right after mail-in-rebates. zzf has great prices on them because of the mib and free ship.

If you go for the GTS 320, make sure your get the superclocked ones. They are only about $10 more than the regular clocked ones and perform much like the GTS 620.
 
1) The Corsair HX520W will be more than enough for that system, but if you've got a nice budget, get the 620W. DO NOT get them from newegg, since they're overpriced there. Check zipzoomfly, clubit, and buy.com.

2) Most likely, since it performs well on 1280x1024... and 720P is 1280x720. If you want the card to last a bit longer, you can get the 640MB or the HD 2900 Pro 512MB.

3) Yes, but it won't play well with Vista. The performance difference from using and not using onboard audio is negligible with today's CPUs. Use onboard until Creative gets their ass in gear with some good drivers for Vista and the X-Fi.


You don't need the Ballistix with a Q6600. The good thing about Ballistix is that they're highly overclockable. Since the Intel platform doesn't benefit from running the RAM higher than a 1:1 ratio with the CPU, there's really no point for super high speed RAM with a Q6600. So, you can just grab some 2GB DDR2-800 G.Skill NQ sticks and still get good performance. You won't notice the difference between CL4 and CL5, so don't pay a huge price premium for lower latency.

$66 - G.Skill 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2-800 F2-6400CL5D-2GBNQ
$170 - G.Skill 4GB(2x2GB) DDR2-800 F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ

You don't really need the DS4, since you won't be OC'ing to high FSB speeds. Even at 3.6Ghz, the base FSB is only 400, which won't heat up the chipsets all that much. So, if you don't need Firewire, drop down to the P35-DS3R instead. If you do need firewire, check out the Abit IP35 instead.

$130 - Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R LGA 775 Intel P35
$124 - abit IP35 LGA 775 Intel P35 ($25 MIR)
 
Thank You for your replies, i modified my list to look like this:

Antec 900
Corsair HX620
Abit IP35
(4) x G.Skill DDR2-800
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
EVGA GeForce 8800GTS 640MB (Supercloacked)
2 x wd800 (raid 0)
2 x wd250gb (raid 1)
1 x DVDRW Drive

I figured there is no point getting 2x 2gb memory chips since i will not be needing more than 4gb of memory in this system for as long as it lives. i will have to buy something new in 2-3 years anyway.

Why do you guys reccomend the ip35 over the gigabyte? is there really no difference besides the firewire?
 
samops03 said:
Why do you guys reccomend the ip35 over the gigabyte? is there really no difference besides the firewire?
Click to expand...

The only reason why I'd recommend the IP35 over the DS3R is due to that firewire port. However, the DS3R comes with legacy ports and two more SATA ports than the IP35. They're pretty much the same other than what's been mentioned above.
 
I just took a look at both gigabytes and abits sites. Seems like gigabyte has all the drivers for vista 64 but abit does not. Will this be a problem for me? or is it just not listed on abits site that the ip35's drivers are compatible with vista64?

Thanks Again
 
samops03 said:
Why do you guys reccomend the ip35 over the gigabyte? is there really no difference besides the firewire?
Click to expand...

I recommend the Abit if you need firewire. If you don't need firewire, I suggest the DS3R, especially if you're OCing. The DS3R is much more OC friendly than the IP35 vanilla because it saves your BIOS profiles, making it easier to OC.
 
enginurd said:
I recommend the Abit if you need firewire. If you don't need firewire, I suggest the DS3R, especially if you're OCing. The DS3R is much more OC friendly than the IP35 vanilla because it saves your BIOS profiles, making it easier to OC.
Click to expand...

I think im going to just spend a bit more and just get the p35-ds4, i really like that board, it has everything i need and want.

Thanks!!!:cool:
 
Make sure you can get more than one rebate, since you were planning on getting 4GB. But like I said earlier, you don't really need Ballistix for a Q6600.
 
enginurd said:
Make sure you can get more than one rebate, since you were planning on getting 4GB. But like I said earlier, you don't really need Ballistix for a Q6600.
Click to expand...

Yeah i agree, i may not need it, but for the same price whats the difference. Might as well have something cool also....:eek:

This thing will run me close to 1300.. not bad considering what I'm getting don't you think?
Compared to what i would get from say Dell??????
 
Yah, definately a good deal. I tend to avoid rebates when I can... and this would be an example of a good time to avoid a rebate.
 
Becareful tho if you are getting more than 1 set, I think the rebate is 1 per household.:( Might need to use/ship to 2 different addresses. :p
 
Anh N. said:
Becareful tho if you are getting more than 1 set, I think the rebate is 1 per household.:( Might need to use/ship to 2 different addresses. :p
Click to expand...

Yeah thanks guys, i had my friend order me a set so there is no problem.
 
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