Anyone see anything wrong with this build?

Jaeger

Well lads,

Read most of the stuff from the stickies, and have come across some really helpful information, but now I'm looking to run what I'm thinking by someone who's been down the road of building once or twice.

I'm looking to put together a machine that will play any absolutely any game currently out (Crysis, The Witcher, etc) at full throttle, and keep me going for the next couple of years. My ulterior motive is wanting to go back and play Oblivion with all the settings up to the very last and saying "oooooooh!".

Judging by the threads floating around, I guess Vista 64 is a mandatory? At least for the dx10 stuff anyway.

Board: ABIT IN9 32X-MAX WiFi
or
Board: XFX nForce 680i SLI

My problem here is a small one probably - the under the second one, it listed NVIDIA SLI Technology Support under a separate section, leading me to believe there was a chance the first one didn't support SLI. A chance I'm not willing to take when shelling out €€'s

Cooling: Scythe Mugen

Power: Hiper PSU 730W

CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz

RAM: OCZ Gold XTC DDR2 PC6400 4096MB KIT
or
RAM: OCZ DDR2 PC9600 2048MB KIT
I was looking to get 4GB of RAM, but just realised that I don't think either of those boards will support DDR3.... so go for board supporting DDR3 and get some DDR3 with room to add on later, or just get 4GB of DDR2? It's late now so I'll have to look at all this again tomorrow, hopefully I'll have some good advice on this.

GFX: 2x XFX GeForce 8800GTS
What sort of extra hardware is needed for running them together using SLI?

Case: Thermaltake Kandalf LCS
Suggestions on cases? Komplett's selection looks a little reserved, but I'm looking for a good combination of looks and quietness, erring on the side of quietness.

Hard drive: WD Raptor 74GB 10000RPM
My boot drive/partition has never gone over 30gb (XP tho) as I tend not to hang onto games for years after I play them. I have 550 mb of space in this pc, but the only reason I would get more is for storing movies/tv shows (completely legal...sort of ) Any point in going to 150?

Anti

I see a few problems with it.

1st, drop thw cpu cooler, and get a TR ultra 12 extreme, or a Tuniq tower.

2nd, Why are you going for that ram? Are you planning on a huuuger overclock? If not go with ddr6400

3rd, dont get the graphics cards yet. The new 8800gts is comming out in 2 weeks time and will be a hell of alot faster then the current versions.

4th, Hiper make nice psu's but are rather inefeccient. So go for a 620w Cordair psu.

5th, the case is up to you. find something you like the look of, then check out reviews for it to make sure the cooling is okay.

6th, No point going for raptors these days, the 500gb samsung spin points are just as quick, and quicker in some places. But if you do want a nice small fast drive for windows alone get the 36gb version. It will even hold vista64 ultimate with all extras and patched, and will havw 7gb space left over. Just dont install anything else on it apart from drivers.

And lastly. I would go for the abit board. As it has better cooling. The stock fan on the NB on the XFX is seriously loud, and prone to failure. But the ideal solution would be to hang on a few weeks and pick up the nvidia 780i when it gets released ( xmas time / Early january )

Sqaull20

Crysis full detail ehh

First off lose the fancy case and keep it towards a new video card in early febuary(9800gtx) the soon to be released 512mb 8800gts should run Crysis fine but not at ultra high quality...

Also with the money your spending,the below website works out way cheaper

http://www1.hardwareversand.de/6V-B_6Qk2bqKId/3/home.jsp?lid=2

It will do the job and it looks nice too

http://www1.hardwareversand.de/6V-B_6Qk2bqKId/3/articledetail.jsp?aid=7687&agid=632

I also wouldnt bother with Quad Core,it makes no difference at all in gaming and by the time it does it will be dated tech...

Go with a Core 2 Duo E6750 and overclock her good...

http://www1.hardwareversand.de/6V-B_6Qk2bqKId/3/articledetail.jsp?aid=10620&agid=398

Mobo is fine

http://www1.hardwareversand.de/6V-B_6Qk2bqKId/3/articledetail.jsp?aid=8734&agid=659

Tagan make good,quiet psu's

http://www1.hardwareversand.de/6V-B_6Qk2bqKId/3/articledetail.jsp?aid=17973&agid=240

Jaeger

Thanks for the replies.

Quad core is really not that worth it?

And have you ordered from that site yourself? Last time I ordered from germany (jes) I got damaged parts, had to wait weeks to get replacements then too.

TerrorFirmer

Quad is fine for games, though from a technical viewpoint a faster dual core will yield better performance in games. But it's nothing to worry about, as a Quad at 2.4Ghz, is plenty fast for anything right now, the differences would be undetectable so I'd probably just stick with the Quad, which will offer better future proofing and a much better multitasking capability.

I think Anti has covered everything I was going to say in his post, the Ram in particular would be a waste unless you were a champion overclocker, also don't get GTS Sli, at the current moment it'd be an extremely poor choice.

question for Anti actually, are the revised GTS having their prices revised in light of the GT or is the revision enough to justify the same cost?

Anti

The new 8800gts are meant to be from 300-400 US$ And will yeild far better performance then the current 8800gt and slightly better performance then the current 8800gtx. I feel so sorry for anyone who just bought one

Jaeger

Again, thanks for the tips, makes it easier (first complete build I'm doing myself)

On the gfx - good to know, I was going to be holding off on some of the build until after xmas anyway - I have a 250 quid gift card that I need to get rid of before the end of the year, so I'll probably get the bones now, and flesh it out fully in the new year.

Anti > I've read reviews of the 2 coolers, and to me, the thermalright extreme looks to be the best of the two. If you've already got one, where would you recommend getting it from? On the PSU, is this the one you meant?

Squall > Have you ordered from that site you posted links to before?


Board: ABIT IN9 32X-MAX WiFi
+
RAM: OCZ Platinum DDR2 PC6400 2048mb kit

Board + RAM + Postage = €249

Unless I've gone wrong with the RAM.

Anti

www.overclockers.co.uk have the cheapest TR ultra 120 around atm. And yep, thats the exact psu i meant. Its awesome.

Jaeger

And the RAM checks out OK? About the only item I could find that I wanted bringing me to the 250. Even if I choose to replace/upgrade it down the line, at least the board is good enough to support pretty much any DDR2 I go for.

Going to place the order for above with kompy now. Will have a scout about overclockers while I'm here.

lol. Just noticed the cooler in your sig. Hadn't read the fine print til now. The location btw, the IPv6 equivalent of 127.0.0.1 or ... ?

Sqaull20

Jaeger wrote: »

Squall > Have you ordered from that site you posted links to before?

Yeah many times,there very cheap,but delivery can be slow (2 weeks)...

Theres a thread about them on boards somewhere....

Archytas

Anti wrote: »

www.overclockers.co.uk have the cheapest TR ultra 120 around atm. And yep, thats the exact psu i meant. Its awesome.

Really good PSU - Folks around here should be paid by Corsair cause its all they recommend - luckily enough its brilliant!

TheThreeDegrees

for the ones on the GT waiting list:-)

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-reviews/3173-evga-8800gts-640mb-w-112sps-ssc-edition-review.html

Jaeger

Stupid gift card rejected, so I went shopping again.

Board: ABIT IN9 32X-MAX WiFi €172 from Komplett
Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 €234 from OCUK
Cooler: ThermalRight Ultra 120 Extreme €48 from OCUK
Power: Corsair HX 620W ATX2.2 Modular €110 from OCUK
RAM: OCZ 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-6400C4 800MHz ReaperX €178 from Komplett
Hard drive: Western Digital Raptor 74GB 10000RPM €105 from OCUK
Case: Thermaltake VA9003SWA Kandalf Aluminium Full Tower - Silver €156 from OCUK
OS: Vista Ultimate 64-bit OEM €141 from OCUK

Total + Vat: ~€1350

Think I'll be going for the single GPU to start. GTS it is.

white_falcon

Jaeger wrote: »

Stupid gift card rejected, so I went shopping again.

Board: ABIT IN9 32X-MAX WiFi
Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600
Cooler: ThermalRight Ultra 120 Extreme
Power: orsair HX 620W ATX2.2 Modular
RAM: OCZ 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-6400C4 800MHz ReaperX
Hard drive: Western Digital Raptor X 150GB 10000RPM
Case: Thermaltake VA9003SWA Kandalf Aluminium Full Tower - Silver
OS: Vista Ultimate 64-bit OEM

Total: ~€1328

Think I'll be going for the single GPU to start. GTS it is.

thats pretty much nearly exactly the same thing as my build - all works perfect. u will need to download the software for the wifi on the mobo from the ABIT site tho for Vista, so make sure u have a laptop or PC with an internet connection while building it. I have almost the same ram too. Can play any game at pretty much the highest settings with that PC

TheThreeDegrees

Hi.
I am one of those people who never modify cars.
If I do I always follow the manufacturer’s recommendations.
The reason being the manufacturers spend billions of £€$ on R&D and testing and I figure they ought to know better than me. And they do.

I am applying the same logic to my new pc upgrade.

For peace of mind take a look here http://www.slizone.com/object/slizone_build_psu.html and decide for yourself whether your choice of power supply is good enough for your choice of GPU.
And remember the newer GPU's are using their own processor for calculating whatever it is they calculate!


all the best.

Jaeger

Ta for that link, and cheers for everyone who's passed on their advice.

Going to save another couple of hundred and go for it. Will post some pics of her when she's built. (A solid month or two from now I'd reckon)