CUSTOM Q6600 SYSTEM - Need your opinions and advice

[XLNUTS]

I'm building a new system for graphics/video editing and games, please take a look at the specs below and give me some feedback. I dont have the patience for waiting on new hardware releases or price cuts so I'm going with whatever is out there right now. I dont have any specific budget either but I'd like to keep things cost-effective


CASE - SST-TJ04W Black Aluminum with Window ATX Midi Tower
PSU - SilverStone Olympia OP1000 1000W ATX12V
CPU - Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
MOTHERBOARD - Gigabyte GA-N680SLI-DQ6 nVidia nForce 680i
RAM - G.Skill 2GB DDR2-800 (PC-6400) CL6-6-6-18
GRAPHICS CARD - Geforce 8800 GTS, 320MB
HARD DISKS - 1x WD Raptor 74gb 10000rpm, 2x WD Cavalier 500gb 16mb SATA2
OPTICAL DRIVE - Lightscribe DVD-RW Black 18 x DVD+-R / 8 x DL / 14x DVD-RAM


This will cost me around US$2650, I live in New Zealand so the pricing will probably be a little on the high side.

Thanks guys,
Vin

 

[xxsashixx]

Wait for July 22nd as the Q6600 price goes down to 266$ US, its worth the wait..

 

[bob4432]

are you 100% sure you software will take advantage of multi-cores?

 

[XLNUTS]

Originally posted by: bob4432
are you 100% sure you software will take advantage of multi-cores?

Yeah.. photoshop and premiere both take full advantage of the quad cores and the render times are rediculously faster than even highly oc'd dual core cpus

I'm more concerned about my graphics card and RAM setup though, I've read the 8800 GTS 320mb is very similar in performance to the 640mb but its only $90 more expensive. As far as RAM goes I have no idea what to choose so I just picked a random mid-high priced dual 2GB setup

 

[Roguestar]

There's no 'e' in ridiculous.

If you're trying to decide between the 640 and 320 flavours of 8800GTS, pick the 320 if you use resolutions of 1280*1024 or lower, the 640MB will come in handier for the bigger resolutions. That's with gaming, though. They'll likely make little difference in potatoshop and premiere.

 

[stogez]

Is there a website we can use to look up parts available to you and the prices? It will make suggesting parts a whole lot easier.

-That system doesn't need a 1000w PSU. Get a 500-600w quality PSU and you'll be fine.
-Why a SLI mobo? SLI is useless IMO. Get the Gigabyte DS3R and you won't be sorry.
-6-6-6-18 DDR2-800? Those timings seem awfully high. I'm sure you can easily find 5-5-5-12 for a reasonable price.
-WD Cavalier? Is this a new series from WD? Or did you mean Caviar 😉

 

[theYipster]

I Agree to drop the 680i in favor of a P35 board, as SLI isn't worth it unless you a) are gaming at a resolution of 1920x1200 and b) can afford to drop two GTX cards into the rig (for a cool ~$1000.)

If you're set on a 680i board, don't get the Gigabyte, as it's very $$$ and very few people have it. Get the EVGA NF68-A1 instead. It's the best of the bunch in the 680i world.

Mark.

 

[XLNUTS]

Originally posted by: stogez
Is there a website we can use to look up parts available to you and the prices? It will make suggesting parts a whole lot easier.

-That system doesn't need a 1000w PSU. Get a 500-600w quality PSU and you'll be fine.
-Why a SLI mobo? SLI is useless IMO. Get the Gigabyte DS3R and you won't be sorry.
-6-6-6-18 DDR2-800? Those timings seem awfully high. I'm sure you can easily find 5-5-5-12 for a reasonable price.
-WD Cavalier? Is this a new series from WD? Or did you mean Caviar 😉

Yeah sure I use http://www.pricespy.co.nz/

I thought a 1000w PSU would be a better option because I'd like to upgrade cheaply in the future and it would be 1 less thing to worry about

The SLI mobo is for the same reason, I figured 6months-1 year later I could just buy another 8800GTS and have them working together rather than shelling out for the latest brand new card

I took your advice with the RAM and found some Corsair PC2-6400 5-5-5-12

Thanks for the feedback mate, do you still recommend I change the PSU and MB?

 

[XLNUTS]

Originally posted by: theYipster
I Agree to drop the 680i in favor of a P35 board, as SLI isn't worth it unless you a) are gaming at a resolution of 1920x1200 and b) can afford to drop two GTX cards into the rig (for a cool ~$1000.)

If you're set on a 680i board, don't get the Gigabyte, as it's very $$$ and very few people have it. Get the EVGA NF68-A1 instead. It's the best of the bunch in the 680i world.

Mark.

I dont have access to an EVGA board.. is there anything in particular that makes that board better besides price?

Heres basically what I have to choose from:

http://www.pricespy.co.nz/cat_6.html#g175

EDIT: I found one for US$374 where as the Gigabyte is US$345, think I should pay the extra $29?

 

[drakore]

you do not need a 1K psu...

look at getting the corsair 620HX... dont forget that as newer products are released... power consumption usually decreases... especially since it is more of an issue than it used to be

 

[invidia]

Just wait 11 days for the Q6600 price cut. It'll be cutting the price by almost 40% from most retailers. The 1k PSU is a huge overkill. Go with the Corsair 620HX like drakore recommended. A 620HX is more enough to handle your needs, including SLI and 4 extra hard drives if you want.

 

[XLNUTS]

Originally posted by: drakore
you do not need a 1K psu...

look at getting the corsair 620HX... dont forget that as newer products are released... power consumption usually decreases... especially since it is more of an issue than it used to be

I dont understand, every new gaming/ graphics pc build I see online is using 850w+ PSU's and most of them are for lower spec PC's than mine. Can you describe what kind of system really does require a 1000w PSU?

I am going to add 2-3 more HD's into the system too and eventually have dual graphics cards - is 650w really going to be able to handle that?

 

[Cookie Monster]

Hello fellow new zealander 😀

Ok firstly, the highest power draw ive seen in a high end system (i.e AMD QUAD FX etc) consumes around 520~Watts at load. Now thats no where near 850Ws etc. The reason they combine it is because a) to rip you off, b) the PSU isn't very efficent i.e say a 850W PSU can only sustain 70% of that etc c) to get rid of old stock. I could actually put more reasons down but i think you understand my points. (hopefully)

Now quality/efficency of the PSU matters. The corsair HX series are simply seasonic's in disguise, and they boast a efficiency rating of 85% i think. I personally use the HX520W. The 620W version will be fine by your needs because you will NEVER use all the available W. Trust me on this one.

The build you have is alright i guess and to my knowledge and alot of ATers the 680i board you chose is actually better than the other 680i boards out there apart from lets say Asus P5N32-E SLi Plus.

Make sure your G.skill memory is HZ series (i.e the manufacturer code would read something along the lines of F2-6400PHU2-2GBHZ as they are the D9 micron chips aka very good OCers). Timings should be 4.0-4-4-12.

Um this is just personal taste but i find Samsung spinpoint drives better than other alternatives like seagates/WD because of noise/power consumption and perfomance. Only consider WDs for gaming. (Raptor series in raid0 maybe).

 

[theYipster]

If your thoughts on SLI is to buy an 8800 GTS later down the road because you expect it to be cheaper and simpler than getting a new card, then I strongly, strongly advise you to forget about SLI and a 680i mobo. The "later down the road" idea isn't worth it.

First, two cards in SLI == a complex and hot system. You want to avoid this, especially since you will receive very little to no advantage by putting in a second 8800 GTS 320 card. It's a bad idea and a waste of money.

As mentioned above, SLI isn't worth it unless you a) are gaming at a resolution of 1920x1200 and b) can afford to drop two GTX cards into the rig (for a cool ~$1000.) SLI's chief advantage is to push pixels at very high resolution when no other roadblocks are present. If you're gaming at a resolution lower than 1920x1200, then that second card will be twiddling its thumbs since you've hit a resolution road block. Furthermore, the 8800 GTS 320 has an addition roadblock in the amount of video memory it has--i.e. it's very little, especially for upcoming games. Adding a second card will not alleviate this cap, as having two cards with 320 Megs != having 640 megs. If textures can't fit in to one card, they can't fit into two since SLI won't split them in half in a way that is beneficial and will improve performance.

Second, one 8800 GTX card will outperform two 8800 GTS 320 in SLI for less money. A better idea than going SLI as an upgrade route is to buy a significantly cheaper P35 motherboard, such as the Gigabyte DS3R, and then get a GTS 640 or GTX card with the $100 or so saved (+- a bit of extra cash.)

If you want to buy the GTS 320 card now with an upgrade in mind later, the last thing you want to do is get another 320 card which will give you very little to no performance increase. Just replace the card with something newer and better for around the same price. Or, quite possibly, for something that's less than the cost of a GTS 320 now.

Also, as for the PSU, wattage alone does not tell you how well a PSU can handle components. The 620Watt Corsair is a very popular model due to how efficient it is with the wattage it provides. That Corsair can power a 8800 GTX SLI / Q6600 machine with four or more hard-drives. Getting anything else now is silly.

Good luck,

Mark.