Critique my up-coming build.

[Luzah]

Hey everyone!!

I'm doing a major overhaul on my computer, and I would highly appreciate some advice and thoughts on my new build. I have about $5k to spend on my components. I won't be replacing the monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers or case. Everything else is being swapped. Here's what i'm leaning towards:

CPU - Intel q6600
Ram - Corsair Dominator DDR 1100 PC2-8888 ....4x1gb sticks.
Mobo - Asus Striker Extreme ....although i'm seeing good review on the new p35 boards.
Vid - 2 XFX 8800Ultra XXX's for a solid sli setup.
PSU - TT Toughpower 1200watt
HDD - I already have 2 Raptor 150gb for the main OS ...plan on doing raid with those. I also will be getting 2 1TB Hitachis.
OS - Vista Ultimate 64

Now, when recommending things on this build please keep in mind that somehow i am going to fit all this in the TT Tai Chi w/ watercooling case One concern i do have is that i've been reading -alot- of reviews on the striker mobo not being memory friendly and/or dying a week or two after people have recieved it. I just want to make sure i won't have to do a serious upgrade for another 2 years or so Any input is high appreciated! Thank you for looking!

Edit: I will be using this rig (like all my others) for serious gaming. Mostly crysis *when it comes out* and some nice FPS's.

 

[jpeyton]

CPU: Good choice.
RAM: Just grab some Kingston DDR2 800; 4GB (4x1GB) for $140.
Mobo: P35 (Asus or Gigabyte)
Video: 8800GTX XXX (Ultra's are a poor value).
PSU: Corsair 620HX
HDD: RAID 0 is risky. 1TB Hitachi's are a poor value. 500GB drives are the sweet spot.

 

[Luzah]

Thanks for the advice JP .....some questions i want to ask you.

Why the kingston DDR2-800 over the Corsair Dom. ram? The price of any of these components are not of concern for me. So is it value?
The motherboard recommendation is actually what i'm thinking of going with. I just feel a little uneasy about the striker board with all the reviews i've seen.
Why are the ultras a poor value compared to the GTXs? I already have one GTX ....
The PSU .....why a lower wattage model? Overkill? I just want -more- than enough watts to keep this baby pumping flawlessly and not have to worry about "damn..i'll need another PSU cause i want to add such and such device"
As far as the HDs are concerned ....the risk factor of raid0 is of no concern to me. I do not have anything on my computer that is critical, plus i've used ti before for a few years before i upgraded my HDs ....and what makes the 1tb drives a poor value? Personally, i think it's more logical to have 4 drives...including the OS drives, than to have 6 ....not even sure if i have the space for all those..hehe thanks again for the reply!

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: Luzah
Thanks for the advice JP .....some questions i want to ask you.

Why the kingston DDR2-800 over the Corsair Dom. ram? The price of any of these components are not of concern for me. So is it value?
The motherboard recommendation is actually what i'm thinking of going with. I just feel a little uneasy about the striker board with all the reviews i've seen.
Why are the ultras a poor value compared to the GTXs? I already have one GTX ....
The PSU .....why a lower wattage model? Overkill? I just want -more- than enough watts to keep this baby pumping flawlessly and not have to worry about "damn..i'll need another PSU cause i want to add such and such device"
As far as the HDs are concerned ....the risk factor of raid0 is of no concern to me. I do not have anything on my computer that is critical, plus i've used ti before for a few years before i upgraded my HDs ....and what makes the 1tb drives a poor value? Personally, i think it's more logical to have 4 drives...including the OS drives, than to have 6 ....not even sure if i have the space for all those..hehe thanks again for the reply!

Bear in mind you might use 300W or so of that 1200W (Edit: Saw 2 GTXs - call it 450W then), so you're probably overspending by quite a lot on that. I run the following on a 300W LiteOn PS:

Q6600
4GB 4x1
4x500GB HDD
Hauppauge PVR-500 dual tuner
nVidia/eVGA 8800GTS/320
DVDRW
Acer 965 / E700 board

No problems. It's my server (VMWare host for 2 servers) plus my media center. I also have 2 external HDTV tuners it uses, for a total of four.

In 300W.

 

[Luzah]

I have decided against that 1200 watt. I looked on another forum, and found someone running a very very nice system on a PCP&C Silencer 750 Quad ....at a fraction of the cost of that TT 1200watt. So the PSU is etched in stone now. NOW comes the rest of the parts. Instead of doing the 2TB Hitachis ....i may run 2 WD 750gb ...good choice over those Hitachis??? Also, I checked out the ASUS P5K3-Deluxe ....looks like an awesome board, and with 4gb of Corsair DDR3 1333. I'm not quite sure if i want to jump to DDR3 yet, but maybe someone can show me the upside to it? But it's also about 450-500 cheaper to stick with high-end DDR2 ...so i'm not sure. I also decided to beef up the cpu since i re-did my list..and will most likely go with a x6800 ......so with all that in mind, what do you guys think????

 

[Sinn707]

I personally suggest you save your money and build a fast system today, not an extreme one. Why? Well first, no P35 chipsets support SLI. Second, DDR3 is just starting it's way and currently costs way too much to even consider. In December or Q1 of 2008 many new things are gonna be out, X38 chipset (which WILL support SLI), new 45nm intel CPU's (promise to be considerably faster) or even AMD Phenom might make a comeback, PCI-E 2.0 and Nvidia 9 series cards (drool). That's the time when you should spend a fortune on a PC. With that being said, you need something fast to last you 6 months or so. Here's what I'd suggest:

ASUS P5K DELUXE
Q6600
4GB of Corsair XMS2 DDR2 1066 (on the mobo qualified memory list)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820145033
Corsair 620HX
MSI 8800 Ultra (660Mhz/2300Mhz)
500GB Seagate or Samsung
X-fi XtremeMusic from ebay,

Note: I suggest ordering Q6600 from Tankguys, they will make sure you get the G0 stepping which is so much better than the old B3 one, it overclocks like a true champion and runs a lot cooler.
http://www.tankguys.biz/produc...1a77ce218afea6194712bc

You've mentioned you have water cooling so you should expect a stable frequency of at least 3.4Ghz with the G0 Q6600, most likely higher, which will be plenty of power for your Ultra. For 6 months you'll have a killer system and when December or Q1 comes you can sell it and use all the money you have + the cash from this rig to build an absolute monster, X38 chipset, new intel CPU, 9 series in SLI, 4GB of DDR3 ram e.t.c...

Good luck.