Critique this system please

[ViRaLRuSh]

Going from an e4400 system which I generally just play WoW and some FPS games on. I am looking to get more into FRAPS and video editing at some point, and figure this system would be rock solid for a good while. I know the hard drive might be overkill considering I'd need a controller for it and probably extra cooling, but do you feel it's a good idea? Also, are the other parts good choices? Keep in mind I'm an NVIDIA fanboy and probably won't accept any ATi recommedations.



Newegg.com - EVGA 896-P3-1255-AR GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 896MB 448-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards

Newegg.com - Intel Core i7 920 Nehalem 2.66GHz 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor - Processors - Desktops

Newegg.com - ASUS P6T Deluxe LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard - Intel Motherboards

Newegg.com - Fujitsu MBA3300RC 300GB 15000 RPM 16MB Cache Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) Hard Drive - Internal Hard Drives

Newegg.com - LITE-ON Black 20X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 20X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache IDE 20X DVD±R DVD Burner - CD / DVD Burners

Newegg.com - Patriot Viper 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory - Desktop Memory

Newegg.com - PC Power & Cooling S61EPS 610W Continuous @ 40°C EPS12V SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply - Power Supplies

 

[Blain]

 

[ViRaLRuSh]

Forgot to add a case!

Thermaltake Armor+MX VH8000BWS Black Aluminum / Steel ATX Mid Tower

or

Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower

 

[DSF]

Given the newness of i7 and the fact that you haven't really started your video editing yet, I'd actually consider this a bad idea at the moment. The E4400 you have should be highly overclockable. It clearly won't match the performance of a quad core chip in video encoding, but it's definitely powerful enough to let you get a taste of that hobby.

I would try things out on your current computer. If it all turns out to be fun and interesting for you and you want to speed up editing time, then upgrade. As it stands, there's nowhere for i7 prices to go but down, so I don't see any wisdom in jumping on the boat early unless you know for sure this is something worth sinking $1000+ into.

 

[ViRaLRuSh]

The money isn't really an issue if it means having something ready for the next generation of games and being able to FRAPS/do video editing of it. I was planning to spend around $1300 or so and this comes out to be that.

I like being able to have multiple browsers open while playing games, listening to music and such without any performance issues as well. Even multi-boxing characters in WoW would benefit from this too, I assume.

Edit: forgot to ask, what kind of cooling do you think would be nice for this? I'm looking to OC as well, as I heard from friends that they were able to OC without any issues on air cooling.

 

[krnmastersgt]

Most games can't utilize quads, and probably won't for at least a few more years. Companies don't like making games that force people to upgrade a lot of their hardware, and most people game on duals, so the transition to quad core optimized gaming is still quite a while to come. As far as I can see, of the reasons you listed, only the multi-boxing from WoW would benefit from a quad, the others are purely RAM based.

If you have the money for a system like this, I'd rather suggest a Q9550, a P45 based mobo, 4-8gb of ram, and whatever video card you see fit, should save you around $3-400 which you can put towards a watercooling rig or nice monitor.

As far as overclocking that i7 system, look for the TRUE 120 (Thermalright Ultra Extreme 120mm), one the most preferred and efficient coolers around.

 

[Denithor]

Intel X25-M $500

Don't know what motherboard you currently have but it may support 45nm quads already (with a BIOS update, most likely). Then all you need is the chip (Q9400/Q9550) and maybe some additional memory to crank up the editing performance.

Grab the Intel drive above if you really want to supercharge your system.