Getting a new box - advice needed

[Bassa]

Hey,

It's finally time for me to purchase my new rig.

At this time, and after spending tons of time on various forums, I've put this little baby together.

What I want help with is to determine if any of the components are now slightly outdated, or if there might be some newer components that will completely out-do the ones listed.

Feel free to comment on anything, I'll greatly appreciate it.



LCD Monitor: Dell UltraSharp 24? 2407WFP Widescreen LCD

Cabinet: Silverstone TJ09 Black

Power Supply Unit: Silverstone Zeus ST85ZF 850W

Cooling (CPU): Thermalright 120 Ultra Extreme

Cooling, Fans (cabinet): Noctua NF-S12-1200

Motherboard: EVGA nForce 680i SLI

CPU: Intel Core 2 Extreme Processor QX6700

Memory: Crucial Ballistix - 4 x 1 GB (4 GB) / DUAL RAM / DDR II SDRAM / PC2-6400CL4 / 800 MHz

Optical Drives: Samsung SH-S182D - DVD±RW (±R DL) / DVD-RAM 2 MB / 110 ms (CD) / 130 ms (DVD) / 48x (CD) / 16x (DVD) (R) / 48x (CD) / 18x (DVD±R) / 8x (DVD±R DL) (W) / 32x (CD) / 6x (DVD-RW) / 8x (DVD+RW) / 12x (DVD-RAM) (RW)

Hard Drives (system): 1 x WD Raptor WD1500ADFD 150 GB - 150 GB / 10000 RPM / 16 MB / Serial ATA 150 4.6 ms

Hard Drives (backup): 2 x WD Caviar SE16 WD5000KS - 500 GB / 7200 rpm / 16 MB / Serial ATA-300 / 8.9 ms / 28 dBA / RAID 0

Video Cards: 1 x EVGA e-GeForce 8800 GTX ACS3

Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Fatal1ty FPS

Keyboard: Razer Tarantula

Mouse: Razer DeathAdder

OS: Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate 32-bit



Cheers,
Bassa

 

[PurdueRy]

Back off on the power supply, you don't need 850W. The Corsair HX620 or any other 600ish watt processor will be fine with a lot of headroom for future purposes. I also wouldn't recommend RAID 0. Not only does it kinda defeat the purpose of a "backup drive" but it also yields little to no improvement in a non-server environment. Don't pay extra for the "Fatal1ty" version of the X-fi. Get the basic(either the Xtrememusic or Xtremegamer(I believe). Lastly, the 8800 is a pretty quiet card as is. I wouldn't "upgrade" to the ACS3 unless you find that your fan is extremely loud(for some odd reason).

I should also mention that the processor is a bit of a waste...especially before the price drop. However, that's up to you. I suppose I could say the same for the SLI motherboard. It's simply not worth it.

 

[csmaster2005]

850 W is wack, you'll never need that.
Also, can you please list prices of each thing and budget?
thanks

Anyone know when the price drop should be on the cpus?

 

[Zepper]

As noted above, most people think they need a lot more power than they do. I question even the need for a 600W behemoth. And there is a lot of money wasted in the TJ09 - when you can get more than 90% of what is needed from a case for about $60. plus shipping, then where's the value in a TJ09?

.bh.

 

[ForumMaster]

i suggest you get a P35 based motherboard. they currently offer much better performance. true it doesn't offer SLI, but not many people implement it. as others have said, no need for that PSU. and don't get 4GB of ram if you can't use it. Vista 32bit still can't address 4GB so it would be a waste. get 2 for now.

 

[MarcVenice]

I'd go q6600 after the price drops. Do you really need qaudcore though, or do you think it sounds cool and might as well get one ? A higher clocked dualcore often suits the needs better of average pc users. Unless you encode a lot, and like encoding, gaming and such at the same time. To much power as mentioned, the EVGA e-GeForce 8800 GTX ACS3 is kind of overkill, can buy an ultra for that money.

But it looks like you got money to burn so whatever

@ Forummaster, who sais vista 32bit can't adress 4gb ? It can, it can in fact adress more then 2gb, up to 3gb, here's a clue for you http://www.vistaclues.com/read...-32-bit-windows-vista/

 

[Sinn707]

As others have mentioned you don't need 850w, Corsair 620HX is just fine.

For your 120 Ultra I'd recommend a quality fan, such as Scythe S-FLEX:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16835185005

While ACS3 GTX is a great card, with a recent price drop on 8800 Ultras it makes a little more sense to buy one now, you can get one for exactly the same price as ACS3 and yet it will be clocked noticeably higher. Here's the link:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814150236

I'd pick BenQ FP241W over Dell, I believe it is better overall, here's the review:
http://www.trustedreviews.com/...-Widescreen-Monitor/p1

Forget 680i and SLI and get the single card mobo with the newest P35 chipset and preferably DDR3 support so you wouldn't have to do any major upgrades anytime soon. GIGABYTE GA-P35C-DS3R looks fine, supports both DDR2 and DDR3 and new 1333mhz fsb.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813128048

As for the CPU... well, there isn't a way in hell I'd pay $1000 for a 1066mhz CPU right now. I'd personally go for 3Ghz E6850 on July 22 or if you really need quad core (even though it's not going to be fully utilized for quite some time) pick Q6600, both will cost you 1/4 of what u'd pay for QX6700.

Don't overpay for brand name and get an ExtremeGamer or XtremeMusic instead. I'd find XtremeMusic even though its already discontinued, it has windows bass and treble controls, XtremeAudio doesn't. (my brother just bought one)

As for the OS... it really is a tough question... but in the end I'd still buy 64bit vista home premium.

Good luck.

 

[drakore]

hmmm seems like mainly a gaming rig... i would ditch the quadcore totally, get a budget dual core then consider switching to a penryn..

personally i am a big fan of P35 boards, if you don't want SLI

Take a look at the Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R.

If you want to run a crossfire/SLI setup, you could consider a GA-P35-DQ6 or ASUS P5K Deluxe and get a 2900XT. With the new catalyst drivers the 2900XT is fairly close to the 8800GTX in performance. In crossfire they are quite good in vista... yes i realize nvidia needs to release drivers for SLI vista performance, and to increase performance in general. But the 2900XT CF or single is something to keep in mind.

For the monitor take a look at the BenQ 24". It is excellent.