Yet Another Config Thread

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Mooby

n00b
Joined
Mar 12, 2008
Messages
5
Hello everyone... I'm about to order my next machine and I wanted to run my build by everyone. Based on everything I've read, I'm pretty comfortable with my choices but there's a couple items I'm not sure about. Thanks in advance for your help!! :)

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Operating System
- Windows XP (64 bit)

Motherboard
- Asus Striker II Extreme 790i

CPU
- Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9650 3.0GHz 775 Quad-Core 1333MHz 12MB 45nm

RAM
- OCZ OCZ3N2000SR2GK 2GB PC3-16000 (DDR3-2000) DDR3

Primary Storage (OS only)
- Mtron MSD-SATA 3025 32GB SSD

Secondary Storage
- Seagate ST3750330NS 750GB SATA 7200 RPM 32MB

Graphics Card
- Asus EN8800GTS/HTDP/512M Geforce 8800 GTS 512MB GDDR3
Not totally sure about this. Thought about the 9800GTX, but I hear it's no better than this one. Also wasn't sure if I should get one from Asus. I picked them just because I've had good luck w/ their mobos.

TV Tuner
- Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-1800

Power Supply
- OCZ OCZ1010GXSSLI 1010W GameXStream
Another one I'm not completely sure about. I've read good things about the Corsair PSU. Any suggestions, thoughts, etc?

Liquid Cooling
- Swiftech Apogee GTX CPU Waterblock
- Swiftech MCW30 Chipset Waterblock
- Swiftech MCW60-R GPU Waterblock
- Swiftech MCP655 Pump
- Swiftech MCR220-QP Radiator Dual 120mm Integrated Reservoir
- Swiftech Hydrx Coolant
This is my first attempt at liquid cooling. I picked Swiftech because I've read things about them.

Case
Not sure about this just yet, but I'll probably grab one of the boxes from MountainMods.
 
That's a lot of money you're spending... which monitor are you using/buying (and its resolution), and which programs/games are you going to use with it?

If you are only going to use one 8800GTS card, then you don't need the 790i board. A P35 board and DDR2 RAM would get the job done just as well for much less. And if you really need SLI (which, unless you plan on gaming at a 1920x1200 or greater resolution, you don't), go with the EVGA 750i FTW.

Don't buy the Extreme Edition QX9650; you could easily reach the same OC threshold with the Q9450. Also consider DDR2 1000 RAM for your setup... DDR3 doesn't offer much of a performance boost (if any) for the money you're spending.

While I understand that you want a fast OS drive, the price and capacity of the SSD concerns me. You may want to consider the WD3200AAKS, WD6400AAKS, or Samsung SpinPoint F1 HDDs instead.

Avoid the GameXStream PSU; it can cause out-of-spec fluctuations (or ripple) that could damage or kill your system over time. Corsair, PC Power & Cooling, Seasonic, and Thermaltake (ToughPower only) are some good brands to consider instead.
 
Tiraides, thanks for the input! Sounds like I should go with the Corsair PSU. That was my first choice, but I ended up switching it for an SLI certified model just because I thought it'd be better (for no reason in particular).

I've got the SSD drive already. I'd read a number of good reviews when, coincidentally, one of my RAID 0 disks died. What can I say? My gadget lust got the best of me. :D

At the moment, I'm running 2x Dell 24" panels at 1920x1200 but I'll be swapping out one for a Dell 3008WFP (2560x1600) in the near future.

I'll mostly be running Word and Excel... LOL Actually, I'm usually playing CoD or a combo of WoW and a movie/TV.

Thanks again...
 
Mooby said:
Tiraides, thanks for the input! Sounds like I should go with the Corsair PSU. That was my first choice, but I ended up switching it for an SLI certified model just because I thought it'd be better (for no reason in particular).

At the moment, I'm running 2x Dell 24" panels at 1920x1200 but I'll be swapping out one for a Dell 3008WFP (2560x1600) in the near future.
Click to expand...
Yeah that'll require SLI to drive it, how far down is the 30"? If it's a few months down, maybe consider not going all out (2×8800GTS G92) and hold off until the product refresh next month? You can still get away with a single card at 19×12.

As for the power supply, the SLI certified thing doesn't really mean much. As long as it has enough amps on the 12v rail, you'll be fine. Probably want 35+ combined.
 
Hm... I didn't know about the product refresh. I can certainly wait a month for the monitor. I'll have to take a look at what's up with the product refresh. Definitely glad to hear about this! :D

The Corsair HX1000W specs mention having a 'combined 80A of power on +12V', so I should be OK. Not that it matters, but the web page has been updated since I last looked because it's now got the SLI certified logo.
 
Thats an extreme build you've got going there. Are you sure you want to deal with the headaches of OC'ing a quadcore on an NForce board? If so, by all means, go for it. Just know that the Extreme Edition chip can't OC much higher than your non-extreme options, but its unlocked multiplier will help (at a huge price premium).

2GB?!?!? Thats it?!? DDR3 is a waste of money right now, since you get no performance gains from it. Go for the 780i SLI board instead, and some DDR2 (go for 4GB). Go for a Q9450 instead and save even more cash. Put the saved money towards another MTron, as it will yield much more performance benefits than DDR3 and that extreme chip.

An extreme build deserves an extreme case, so a mountain mod fits nicely. Otherwise go for a Silverstone TJ-10 or similar.

The Corsair 1KW will be fine.
 
Can't you only use a single display when SLI is enabled? You'd have to choose between being able to power a massive 24" or 30" display at high resolutions in gaming or being able to drive two displays. I think I've read that enabling and disabling SLI requires a reboot.

It really sounds like you're overdoing it here. Your needs could be met and exceeded by a $1200 build.

If you want to use this for live TV, you could use some of the money you save to get a nice TV card and use Vista's Media Center or XP MCE.
 
In all honesty, I won't be doing any crazy OC'ing so I'll be sticking with the basic BIOS options that handle most (if not all) of the details.

I didn't include quantities, but I was planning on a total of 6GB RAM (3x of the 2GB kits). Of course, it just occurred to me that this mobo doesn't have enough sockets for this. It would've sucked to realize this when I was putting everything together. LOL

Based on everyone's feedback, I'm thinking about the following changes.
1) Grab a couple of these DRR2 kits (OCZ OCZ2N800SR4GK 4GB PC2-6400 DDR2-800) to give me 8GB RAM.
2) Switch to a Q9550 (Core 2 Duo Quad 2.83 GHz) rather than the QX9650.
3) Use an Asus 8800GTS or similar until next month's product refresh.
4) Go with the Corsair HX1000W PSU.

I picked the 790i for a specific reason from something I read. I just can't remember what is was or where I read it. Ha-ha! Oh well... thanks again guys!
 
You may want to wait for the new video cards to arrive, and then decide on whether you want NVIDIA or AMD/ATI. You then want to choose a board that either supports SLI (NVIDIA cards only), like the EVGA 750i FTW, or CrossFire (AMD/ATI cards only), like the Asus Rampage Formula.

As a warning, you can use multiple monitors with SLI (it will disable all non-primary monitors while active) and there's not enough information to determine how well or how poorly multiple monitors fare under CrossFire. Additionally, the Intel northbridge chipsets (P35/X38/X48) are much more stable than any of the NVIDIA SLI chipsets, though the 750i FTW is the best (read: most cooperative) SLI board out now.

Regardless of the board that you choose, swap the QX9650 out for the Q9450 and purchase a 4GB dual channel kit of either DDR2 800 RAM (if you're keeping everything at stock) or DDR2 1000/1066 RAM (if you're going to OC as much as you can). With the ease of overclocking the Intel Core 2 Quad processors, you won't need to overclock the RAM.

Purchase the Samsung F1 750GB HDD, which is much faster than the Seagate 750GB HDD.

I don't know enough about water cooling to properly comment on your choices.
 
Dhc014, you're correct. I am overdoing it, but I'm trying to make sure I have enough 'juice' to last me for a few years. I don't usually worry about this stuff until it's time to upgrade and I go all crazy trying to figure out what's new, what's interesting (hence my attempt at liquid cooling), and will last for the next generation or two of games.

Also, I didn't realize that SLI would only support a single monitor. Good catch! I did read that, with the correct driver version, a reboot isn't required to enable/disable SLI


Tiraides, I'll definitely wait for the next batch of cards, but I'm pretty much sold on Nvidia simply because I'm pissed off at ATI after having driver issues. Now I just need to check out the 750i... ;)
 
The 790i only supports DDR3, so if you get DDR2, switch to the 780i instead, or better yet, the 750i SLI FTW.
 
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