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Need suggestions on these parts for new build

B

Bookcase14

Member
Ok guys,
Here's the deal. I was thinking about buying pre-built, but I realized I could get more with my money if I built the system myself. It's been a while since I have done so, and my last one turned me off from the idea of building for a while because I had so many bad parts/trouble shooting issues. Anyway. I am a gamer, and I also enjoy running multiple programs at once, including Cubase, because I do record music. Anyway, here is the list:

Case: COOLER MASTER RC-690-KKN1-GP Black SECC/ ABS ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail $85
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16811119137
PSU: PC Power & Cooling PPCT860 860W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply $244
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16817703013
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 Yorkfield 2.66GHz 12MB L2 Cache LGA 775 95W $320http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115042
CPU HSF: Rosewill RCX-Z775-EX 92mm 2 Ball CPU Cooler $50
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16835200026
Motherboard: ASUS Maximus II Formula LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard $265
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813131319
RAM: mushkin 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory $89
Videocard/GPU: VisionTek 900244 Radeon HD 4870 512MB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CF ready $285

Total Price: $1338

Basically, my question is, are all of those good parts? And could I get similar performance with cheaper parts? I plan on going Cross Fire in the future. Thanks.

Edit: Sorry for the sloppy post...I got three hours of sleep last night.
 
Don't apologise for asking for help, it's better that you come get advice than buy something that's a waste of cash (or worse, doesn't all work together). If the General Hardware forum was tired of "rate my rig" threads we'd go out of business 😛.

Gamer = buy the E8400. "Multiple programs at once" isn't enough to fully utilize a quad-core. I bet most of the time you'd have three cores sitting idle. Get yourself a high clocked dual-core instead. I doubt you play games while mixing music at the same time, too 🙂.

Power supply is overkill, look at the Corsair 750TX if you're sure you want to go crossfire in the future (see below) and something nice like the modular 520HX if you decide otherwise.

Crossfire is not a good upgrade path. Get a decent single card now and save the money wasted on buying a special motherboard, then finding another identical (now mediocre) card later on, and buy yourself a single even better card a year and a half from now that will outperform what is by then a mid-range crossfire setup. Plus it'll be cheaper to run (lower power) and create less noise. Crossfire is a good thing if you absolutely must have the best performance right now, and are using two of them to power a large monitor. Otherwise you're better off sticking to single-card upgrades.

That RAM is nice enough but there is some DDR2-800 G.Skill for $80 at the moment IIRC.

If you decide against Crossfire then you don't have to burn a truckload of money on that overpriced motherboard; you could get yourself something stable and overclockable like the Gigabyte P35 DS3R instead. It's practically half the price.

I'd personally get the Xigmatec Rifle 120mm cooler instead. If I recall correctly it's cheaper too.

The Cooler Master 690 is pretty nice.

You going to need a hard drive? They're fairly important. Get yourself a WD 640GB if you do.
 
Thanks for all the input. I am just going to transfer my current hard drives into the new setup. They are SATA II I believe, so I should be ok.

I'm not just a gamer, like I said, Cubase is a resource hog, and so are some other programs that I run as well. So I guess, just to reiterate, are you sure I will not need a Quad core? Wouldn't that at least be a better step for "future proofing" a bit down the road? (I don't want to upgrade in 1-2 years)

My thoughts on the crossfire were that in the future, it would be a cheaper upgrade path to just get another 4870, which will surely be lower in price, rather than blowing another 300-400 on a new single-card unit. Although, I do see your point as well.

I refuse to buy another gigabyte motherboard, solely for the problems they gave me in my last build. Any other suggestions that are cross-fire capable would be nice. I want to at least have the option of going cross-fire if I wanted to.

Any specific timings you suggest for the RAM to best match CPU/motherboard?

Would that 120mm cooler fit, with the regards to the CPU i asked about?
 
The ASUS P5Q Pro is Crossfire capable. That said, I agree with Roguestar. If you're planning to add that second card after a year's time or more, you're going to be underwhelmed by the performance gain. It won't measure up to even a midrange card down the road. (An 8800GT beats two 7800GTs in SLi, for example.)

Don't worry about the timings. There's no such thing as them matching the CPU and motherboard, and they aren't of any real importance on an Intel system.

A Socket 775 CPU Cooler will fit any Socket 775 CPU. In terms of fitting, it's a question of your motherboard and case. You should be fine though.
 
Ok guys. Thank you for the advice.

DSF, do you have any opinion on the CPU? Quad or Dual? I know a great deal of people say go Dual, but Quad just seems like a better choice to me for a PC to last a little longer. Let me know if I'm wrong.
 
I understand you've had some problems with one of their products, that'll happen with a few from any manufacturer's batch, but Gigabyte are nonetheless considered one of the most reliable manufacturers around. Asus are a good choice too if you are set on avoiding Gigabyte. If in a year you think you need to upgrade the CPU you will probably be able to get a Q9300 or something like it for rather cheap, seeing as how the Core i7 is a few months away and will be using a different socket, if you need to boost your performance across another few cores (but which I doubt, really).
 
Roguestar,
Thanks for getting back to me quickly. However, despite your best efforts gentlemen, I still think I am going quad core. I put it this way, I am completely upgrading, so I might as well do so to the point that I will be prepared if I ever need to stress the system with apps. Also, I think I am going Vista 64, so that should benefit as well (I think). The Core i7 is out of the question, by the time that comes out and is at a reasonable price. I won't wanna update. Thanks for the advice on the other stuff though, guys.
 
I'm sure you'll be happy with it either way! Good luck with your system. Upon reading up some reviews and performance analyses of Cubase it seems that it is infact multithreaded so it may benefit you to go quad-core if you're doing a load of work with it. Good choice with Vista x64, you'll be able to add another 4GB later on if you like.
 
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