Need some advice on a Gaming Build

[Nightblade]

Hello,

I a totally new to this... in fact this will be the first pc i'm assembling myself so ease of assembly is important
I'll be ordering parts on monday (6-02-08)

I hail from the land of beer and cheese Wisconsin (USA)

budget is $1300-$1500
usage is gaming
current monitor's native res is 1400x1050
I don't know for sure if i'll overclock or not but I'd like to have the option


Here's how it looks so far...

For Video card I want EVGA brand
8800 GT x2 in SLI mabe? I "had" an exact card picked out but its price went up $30 x2 this morning and it not as appealing now.

For MB I was thinking EVGA 123-YW-E175-A1 LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 750i FTW SLI ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813188026 )


no picks for case and power supply or cooling yet outside a that expensive ($380) coolmaster case with the 1000w psu which I only am even considering since it allows me to avoid psu installation which doesn't seem that hard anyway. I'm very open to suggestions here as I find power requirements very confusing at present. would like it to be easy to move since if passable I'd like to be able take it to work 3-4 days a week as my boss seems to upgrade his macs once a decade...

will need at least 4 gigs of ram for games and various professional adobe products

raid 0 setup if possible, since I read its great for gaming without the 10,000 rpm hdd , will also need a wirless networking card

I'm really getting obsessed with parts selection... I mean seriously its 5am here and all i've done since I got up this morning is research...

Apologies advance for anything important that may have been omitted due to sleep dep... goodnight

 

[DSF]

I would generally recommend against RAID 0 anyway, but on a first time build where you want ease of assembly just forget it. Especially since this will likely be handling some professional data. For your hard drive go with the Western Digital Caviar 640GB.

Same thing with SLI for a monitor that size. An 8800GT will handle that just fine. Get a solid P35 motherboard. If the IP35-Pro is still on sale for Newegg newsletter subscribers I would subscribe (free) and then jump on that. $129 is a deal for that board.

Coolermaster makes some good cases, but case isn't something you need to spend $380 on. If you want to be carrying this around all the time you may want to look at SFF (Small Form Factor) cases, but I would ask your boss about a computer upgrade. No reason to spend that much of your own money on something your company should be providing for you in my opinion. As far as the power supply you don't need more than 500W for that setup, and I would generally avoid PSUs that come with cases unless you know the exact model. Bundled PSUs are generally poor quality, and a bad PSU is a ticking time bomb that can damage your other parts without warning.

Unfortunately I don't have time to make any further comments, but if no one else does I'll be back later.

 

[Ike0069]

I agree with DSF, you don't want RAID 0.

Unless you plan on upgrading your monitor, SLI will be a waste for you. A single 8800GTS (G92) will be more than enough. Yes it's slightly more expensive than the 8800GT, but it's faster and comes with a better stock cooler.

For the case, that is just personal preference. I suggest you take some time, find a price range and style you want, then start looking at cases at Newegg. You don't have to buy it there, but they have a huge selection and good pictures of each case.

For the PSU, if you get one that comes with a case, be certain that it is a good quality PSU. Apevia and Raidmax for example are two brands that like to include a very cheap PSU with their case that I would suggest you never use. If you haven't already, read the stickies in the PSU forum to get an idea of what you want to look for in a PSU. A good quality 500W PSU will be plenty for a non-SLI setup.

DDR2 800 RAM @ 1.8v. Even if you decide to OC, this will give you some room.

CPU -- E8400 Wolfdale.

P35 MB -- There are many, many options here. You can get a nice one -non SLI- for ~$100. If you must have SLI, expect to spend around $150 or more. Again, unless you are planning on getting a bigger monitor soon, SLI is not something you will need.

HDD -- WD 640GB

 

[DSF]

Originally posted by: Ike0069
P35 MB -- There are many, many options here. You can get a nice one -non SLI- for ~$100. If you must have SLI, expect to spend around $150 or more. Again, unless you are planning on getting a bigger monitor soon, SLI is not something you will need.

Just to be clear, there is no such thing as an SLI P35 motherboard.

 

[Nightblade]

Another day sacrificed to the hardware gods... lol

this link should lead to parts I picked out NewEgg wishlist Ive also listed them below with some comments

Case... after hours of looking a cases this seemed like the best balance of size, cooling and noise... kind of boring looking but I can always mod it or paint it.
[*]LIAN LI Lancool PC-K7B Aluminum/ SECC ATX Mid Tower - Retail

Motherboard... wanted it sli compatible even if I wasn't going to use it immediately
[*]EVGA 123-YW-E175-A1 LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 750i FTW SLI ATX - Retail

Graphics Card... (must resist the urge to sli... must resist...) I'm waiting for the inevitable price drops on older tech that accompany next gen cards.
[*]EVGA 512-P3-N841-AR GeForce 8800GTS (G92) 512MB - Retail

CPU... (can afford the E8500 but didn't seem very cost efficient... Dual vs Quad was the hard choice)
[*]Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz - Retail

PSU... think its good enough for a dual 8800gts if I need more power later?
[*]Antec TPQ-850 850W ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply - Retail

[*]OCZ Reaper HPC 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 1066 - Retail

Dvd Reader + Burner for easier dvd duplication
[*]LITE-ON Black SATA DVD-ROM Drive Model DH-16D2S-08 - Retail
[*]SAMSUNG 20X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe Black SATA Model SH-S203N - OEM

Hard Drive... (want to ad a 10,000 rpm later)
[*]WD Caviar SE16 WD6400AAKS 640GB HDD - OEM

Cables & misc. (any thing missing)
[*]Rosewill 18" SATA Cable Model RC-18"-SA-90-BK - Retail (ordered 2)
xp home edition sp2 (from old pc) but I "might" give try vista a shot just out of curiosity, I think this is all compatible with Vista 64 .

This is what I wanted my first post to look like but... sh!t happens lol. Any way I will be ordering within 24 hours so i'm hoping someone more experienced will look this over before then in case I'm missing something, theres an incompatibility ect. In any case thanks for taking the time from your own projects to help me out.

 

[DSF]

SLI isn't an upgrade path. It's best used by putting two fast cards together at the time of purchase to give you processing power that no single card can give. If you just put in a second 8800GTS a year or two down the road you're likely to be disappointed with the results. At that point you're better off buying a single new card which will most likely perform better and run cooler than a pair of 8800s.

Anyhow, if you do go SLI 850W is more than enough. A quality 600W power supply would actually be enough.