Tweak New VM Machine Order

A

ATITek

Limp Gawd
Joined
Aug 6, 2004
Messages
138
I am going to be ordering the following Velocity Micro machine / config. Please make suggestions. I am 200% set on Velocity Micro.

Questions:
1. Should I install 4GB of RAM or not? I want the RAM at MAX for a 32-bit.
2. Should I buy Corsair XMS2 RAM or Corsair Dominator?
3. Any benefit in adding the Q6700 instead of Q6600?
4. For future a future SLI upgrade, 850 Watt PS or 1200 Watt PS?
5. GeForce 8800GT a good card?


LX-W Black - Velocity Micro Signature Case - Pure Aluminum with side window, easily removable front door

Power Supply 850 Watt Velocity Micro® Power Supply - Nvidia® SLI™ Certified

Power Cable Standard Power Cable

Motherboard Asus® P5N-E SLI nForce 650i SLI, Socket 775, PCI-E, DDR2

Processor Intel® Core™ 2 Quad processor Q6600, quad 2.4GHz cores, 8MB L2 Cache

CPU Cooling Intel® Certified Oversized Solid Copper Heatsink/Dual Fans with Arctic Silver™ 5 Thermal Compound

DDR2 Memory 4096MB Corsair™ XMS2 DDR2-800 Low Latency CL4 Extreme Memory with Heat Spreader (4x1024)

PCX Video 512MB EVGA GeForce 8800GT DDR3 PCI-E w/HDCP

Video Cooling None

Audio Creative Labs SoundBlaster® X-Fi™ XtremeGamer

Hard Drive 1 320GB Hitachi 7200rpm 16MB Cache SATA 300 w/NCQ (+$35.00)


Optical Drive 1 20x Lite On® DVD+/-RW Dual Layer Burner with LightScribe Labeling Technology, Black (+$20.00)

Optical Drive 2 16x DVD/48x CD-RW Lite On® Combo Drive, Black Bezel

Floppy Drive 8-in-1 Floppy Drive & Media Reader Combo, Black Bezel (Not available on P35 or G33 motherboards)

Windows Vista Ultimate (I need Remote Desktop)
 
Since you say you are 200% sold on VM (is that even possible? heh), I won't go anywhere on that subject. First, your questions:

1) If you want the maximum amount of ram for 32-bit then yes you will need 4 gigs. You will not get to use all 4 gigs though, it'll be more like 3.5 or something thanks your your video card and the sound card and a few things your system naturally uses up. If you want the max though then yes you do need to install all 4 megs. Whether that is worthwhile cost-wise is up to you, but if you really want to make the most of vista I would probably recommend it. I'd see if I could talk them into using 64 bit vista instead though unless you have older peripherals/software you want to use.

2) I'd go with the XMS2 ram. Dominator's are extremely expensive and you aren't even getting it overclocked so it just isn't worth it in my opinion.

3) As for the Q6700 versus Q6600, the difference is 266mhz. For the VM price difference of $370, that isn't worth it (it isn't worth it buying the parts separately either). In general the Q6700 just seems like a poor choice of part for anybody right now. If they guarenteed perhaps a higher overclock on the Q6700 you might talk about it, but 1) there shouldn't be much difference if any in their o/c ability and 2) You aren't getting it overclocked/have the option anyway.

4) If you are only SLIing 8800GT's the 850 is fine. They aren't nearly as power hungry as say the 8800 GTX.

5) The 8800GT is a great value of a gaming card. I am assuming you are building out of the Gamer's Edge 1500 build. It will outperform the more expensive card on that list (the 2900XT) and for gaming it is many times better than the 8600GT (OC or not it doesn't compare to the 8800GT) and 2600XT. If your goal is to play games then get this card.

For my personal words on your build: I'm not a big fan of creative's sound cards and don't consider them very important. I am not an audiophile though and mostly play with a headset on. Honestly, onboard sound has come a long way in my opinion and since you are on somewhat of a budget I'd personally probably just stick with the onboard. Also performance wise there isn't that much improvement from X-Fi. Couple that with Vista and Creative's atrocious drivers and I'd be wary.

Overall, your build looks fine though.
 
Do you really need SLI and the hastles that seem to come along with it? It only really benefits monitors over 24". The future upgrade excuse doesn't hold water either, since by the time the 'future' rolls around there will be better/faster single card solutions available.
 
It's not so much that he needs or doesn't need SLI. VM's configurations are a bit limited, which is good in that it ensures compatability and simplicity but is bad in that well, it ensures simplicity. He can not choose a non sli board on this build, and I don't think they offer any P35's at all. If you mean just in general though I would agree, ATITek, if you do plan to upgrade chances are a new card will be out that is about twice as good as the GT, like the 65nm GTX replacement so I'd consider looking for that as an upgrade path instead of SLI, but I suppose you do have the option.
 
ATITek said:
I am going to be ordering the following Velocity Micro machine / config. Please make suggestions. I am 200% set on Velocity Micro.

Questions:
1. Should I install 4GB of RAM or not? I want the RAM at MAX for a 32-bit.
2. Should I buy Corsair XMS2 RAM or Corsair Dominator?
3. Any benefit in adding the Q6700 instead of Q6600?
4. For future a future SLI upgrade, 850 Watt PS or 1200 Watt PS?
5. GeForce 8800GT a good card?
Click to expand...

1. 2GB in nice for now, but 4GB of matched memory should serve you for a good while.
2. XMS2 is good stuff, Dominator is nicer, but I'd save the extra cash on XMS2 and go with a bigger hard drive or GTX.
3. Q6600 is plenty fine for the price diff.
4. 850w is perfect for this rig
5. 8800GT is a fabulous card for the money, but if you wanted to upgrade to the GTX, now is a fine time (especially with the dough you save on XMS2 and Q6600)

Nice system, and thanks for the confidence!
 
Isn't he(or she) forced to order the extended version of the case(the LX-e) just to fit in a GTX? It makes me wonder about the upgrade path for non LX-e cases from VM. Don't you think future top of the line cards will be at least as big as the GTX?
 
The latest version of the GTX we are now recieving from EVGA will fit fine in the standard LX. Good thought!
 
Anchen said:
It's not so much that he needs or doesn't need SLI. VM's configurations are a bit limited, which is good in that it ensures compatability and simplicity but is bad in that well, it ensures simplicity. He can not choose a non sli board on this build, and I don't think they offer any P35's at all. If you mean just in general though I would agree, ATITek, if you do plan to upgrade chances are a new card will be out that is about twice as good as the GT, like the 65nm GTX replacement so I'd consider looking for that as an upgrade path instead of SLI, but I suppose you do have the option.
Click to expand...

This touches on a sore point for me that has removed more than a few builders from my list of those I've considered for my next system.Why do so many of them feel compelled
to force SLI upon us.There are those of us who prefer the stability of Intel chipsets over the dubious benefits and numerous problems of Nvidia's boards.
 
michael.pa2 said:
This touches on a sore point for me that has removed more than a few builders from my list of those I've considered for my next system.Why do so many of them feel compelled
to force SLI upon us.There are those of us who prefer the stability of Intel chipsets over the dubious benefits and numerous problems of Nvidia's boards.
Click to expand...

Ya this is quite perplexing in that you don't see the true best motherboards of any manufacturer offered much less the P35's. The list really goes on in so far as the short sightedness of many OEM's, an as for SLI I think that's been (and is being) pushed hard by NV to the OEM's for mobo contracts and obviously video cards sales. But yeah, very few if any of the best mobos are offered it's just the same mix of SLI board everywhere.
 
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