Revised Rig, Good/Bad? Any hardware conflicts?

[IInfernogd]

Apologies for making a new post, but I need a quick look over to see if theres any major flaws in this setup? Any and all critiques and criticism is welcome I'm open to ideas.
Aiming for: Capability to play games as advanced as Crysis with normal or decent settings, 1600+ resolution (granted Crysis may have to be toned down a bit) and get good performance. Also need to be able to handle heavy photoshop editing / video editing / other multimedia type stuff for my business (Web design).

Case: Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX
Motherboard: MSI P6N SLI Platinum LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI
Cooling: Scythe SCKC-1000 100mm Sleeve "KAMA CROSS"
Chip: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz
Graphics: GeForce 8800GT 512MB (x2)
Memory: G.SKILL 4GB(2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1000 (PC2 8000)
Power: Antec TPQ-850 ATX12V / EPS12V 850W Power Supply
Primary HD: Raptor 150GB 10,000 RPM 16MB Cache Serial ATA150
Secondary HD: Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3500320AS 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache
DvD/Burner: ASUS Black DVD Burner
Monitor Option a: Acer AL2216Wbd Black 22" 5ms DVI Widescreen LCD Monitor
Monitor Option b: LG L246WP-BN Black 24" 8ms(GTG) Widescreen HDMI LCD Monitor

Any thoughts?

Thanks for your time,
Happy Holidays!

 

[Dangman]

FYI, 650i SLI boards drop down to 8x PCI-e bandwidth in SLI mode. Though in reality, that won't affect performance too much I believe. Maybe 5% or so. Also do know that you won't be able to upgrade to the next generation of C2D CPUs since the 650i nor the 680i chipset will support them. Also, the 650i chipset does run a bit hotter than the Intel P35 chipset. So make sure you have adequate cooling.

If you go with 24" monitor, then stay with the SLI setup. If you go with the 22" monitor, go with an Intel P35 motherboard and a single 8800GTS 512MB since one of those can easily handle a 22" monitor with any game.

 

[IInfernogd]

FYI, 650i SLI boards drop down to 8x PCI-e bandwidth in SLI mode. Though in reality, that won't affect performance too much I believe. Maybe 5% or so. Also do know that you won't be able to upgrade to the next generation of C2D CPUs since the 650i nor the 680i chipset will support them. Also, the 650i chipset does run a bit hotter than the Intel P35 chipset. So make sure you have adequate cooling.

If you go with 24" monitor, then stay with the SLI setup. If you go with the 22" monitor, go with an Intel P35 motherboard and a single 8800GTS 512MB since one of those can easily handle a 22" monitor with any game.

C2D CPU's? Its late and I probably am not thinking straight but what is that and how bad of a trade off are we talking about? I probably won't be able to wait on the new 700+ versions of the chipsets because I have to order before the end of the year.

As for the 24" monitor I'd say that inevitably I will have one that is 24" so thats why I am somewhat leaning towards SLI. However if I'm signing myself up for a lifetime of hassles and problems by going SLI am I better off just biting the bullet on expansion capabilities and going with a single card and a P35?

As for cooling, I'm hoping the big ol Scythe should do the trick with a very good cooling case and Arctic Silver Ceramique Thermal Compound to do the heavy lifting in the cooling department. **edit** Forgot to add that I believe the MSI 650i comes with an additional fan that can be placed over the 650 chip, this is of course assuming my eyes haven't lied to me in the thread I was reading about it.

Thanks for your reply!

 

[Dangman]

C2D = Core 2 Duo. Most of Intel's CPUs today are part of the Core 2 Duo line. The Q6600 you chose is a Core 2 Duo CPU, though some want to call it Core 2 Quad instead. Anyway, the next generation of Core 2 Duo CPUs, codenamed Penyrn, are built on 45nm process making them very energy efficient and cooler running as well allowing for increased performance. While the new Penryn CPUs are about 10% to 15% faster than current Core 2 Duo CPUs at stock speeds, it looks like the new CPUs will allow for some crazy overclocks.

I say you are better off going with a single card solution and P35. There's usually a single card that outperform or perform as well as two cards in SLI while being significantly cheaper. While right now there is nothing that can beat two 8800GT or 8800GTS 512MB in SLI, I'm betting that sometime next year Nvidia or ATI will release a card that can outperform both cards while being cheaper.

Also, having two cards in SLI increases energy usage and may produce a large amount of heat.

As for the Scythe Kama cooler, it doesn't perform that much better than the stock Intel cooler:
http://www.anandtech.com/casecoolingpsus/showdoc.aspx?i=3113&p=7

Look at the CPU Temperature under Load chart. As you can see, the Kama Cross is only 1C cooler than the stock Intel HSF. So here are some other HSF recommendations:
Cooler Master GeminII RR-CCH-ANU2-GP HSF - $30 & 120mm Yate Loon D12SL-12 Case Fan - $3.50 x 2
Scythe SCNJ-1100P Ninja HSF - $36
Tuniq Tower 120 HSF - $45
Thermalright Ultima-90 HSF - $46 & Panaflo FBA09A12M 92mm Fan - $3
Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme HSF - $57 & Scythe S-Flex SFF21E 120MM Case Fan - $14

 

[engiNURD]

I have a 37" monitor at 1080p, and while I would like to keep SLI as an option, its less headache if I just wait for a better single card solution to come out (since the GTX is so old, in GPU years). While nForce chipsets are good, they tend to have issues... though, to be fair, every chipset has its share of issues. When it comes down to it all, I'd still rather have a single card setup than dealing SLI.

NForce chipsets run hotter than its Intel couterparts, which is another reason I'd like to stick with a single card setup. Another reason is the price of x38 boards (crossfire Intel-based-chipset boards) -- I just don't spending more than $125 on a mobo.

The Q6600 you chose is a Core 2 Duo CPU, though some want to call it Core 2 Quad instead.

Thats because Intel calls them "Core 2 Quad." But I see your reasoning... a Kentsfield is two Conroes on the same die.

 

[IInfernogd]

Ahh I haven't had a second to thank you guys for the replies lol. The graphics card I was going to buy went out of stock just as I was about to order, then I went to review 2 other ones that happened to be in stock. Just as I got done checking the ratings and reviews the things went out of stock like hot cakes! I clicked order and it was like invalid inventory amount

Soooo I've spent my afternoon tracking down a card hehe but managed to do so finally!

The Scythe scored so bad! Ya saved me big time on that one, so I went with the Ultima-90 because reviews of the extreme had said it came bent 90% of the time. Since I want to take the least amount of work needed just to install the cooling I'm hoping the Ultima will come in a decent shape and not all rough and jagged with machine marks all over it.

On to the rig, I took your reviews and the few I had received before into consideration as well as the big choice of SLI or no SLI. I came to the conclusion that if all hell breaks loose with SLI I can fix it fairly easily in one of two steps.

Sell my excess card and just stick with the motherboard (though it may be hotter than P35), and deal with slightly less performance till Q1 2008 or Q2 2008 for the next "big" graphics upgrade.

--or--

Shoot for a refund or sell the motherboard and extra card at a bit of a loss and a lesson learned and grab a P35 and again sit with a bit of a performance hit on owning a bit lesser card but still pretty content.

Hopefully I'm not proving to be too ignorant in the ways of the CPU world, but it seems that many folks here are pretty flexible with options when they run into an issue.

Happy holidays again =) Hope everyone enjoys their presents!