Need thoughts on HTPC/flight sim Rig

[Caveman]

It's been 3 years since my last build and I'm a bit behind the times... Looking for some comments on the following:

One can never have too much CPU or graphics for flight simulation - much more demanding than games. That said, I typically try to stay near the top of the power curve at the point where the prices quickly drop in half. I'd like to try water cooling this time around after running the rig on air for a while so keep that in mind. I need something that OCs

A great flight sim rig is the main goal with some experimentation into HTPC a far secondary priority... My goal is fairly simple here... To be able to outut sound and video to a aud/vid system about 6 ft away from the rig.

After reading around and reducating myself, here are my picks.

CPU - Q9550 or 8500. I think I'll be happy with either. I think I can get the Q9550 for about $250 on Ebay. $250 is about my max.

Mobo - Probably P45... P5Q or some other Gigabyte board that OCers seem to like - not sure which one. Flight sims don't seem to work well with SLI so having a powerful single card is important.

Vid - 280GTX. Most of the sims I'll be playing seem to be better with nvidia based hardware/drivers.

Sound - totally clueless here. What's the best from Soundblaster these days? I've always used their cards but thought the drivers were bloated. The Razor Barracuda has me interested... I'd like to be able to have 5.1 sound going to a Kenwood Rx and at least headphone sound going for my flight sim. If that is possible?

Memory - 4 GB of PC1200, 8500??? I've never really understood RAM timings, though I'd guess the smaller the number the better? I need something that will OC well...

I can fend for myself on cases, cooling, etc...

 

[DSF]

DDR2-1200 is a waste of money. At most you'd want DDR2-1066, but even that's unnecessary if there's DDR2-1000 or high quality DDR2-800 for a lower price.

 

[Caveman]

Even for extreme OCing?

 

[zerocool84]

If you can get a Q9550 for $250 off ebay then that's a great deal. If not then go with the Q6600 or Q8200 and overclock those. Those are both $190.

For mobo I would go with GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3R
It's a great overclocker

For videocards, it gets a little more interesting. I would go for EVGA GTX260 192 and then step up to the newer stuff when they come out next month. I don't think it's worth it to get the 216 then to just step up to the newer stuff. Since EVGA and BFG offer step up those are the only ones I would recommend.

For sound I would just go with the onboard sound of most mobo's. They are good and save you some money.

 

[Caveman]

Thanks for info...

on Mobo, what does the Gigabyte offer that the P5Q doesn't? Is it a better OCer?

On video... For the foreseeable future, I'l only be outputting video to a 20" monitor at 1600 x 1200 via DVI and a 720P projector via HDMI. So... Perhaps a 280 GTX is overkill anyway for a such a "low" resolution?

 

[disports]

Lol yes, 280 GTX is overkill for the resolution you mentioned. As for the ram, even for extreme overclocking, as DSF mentioned, DDR2-1066 is the highest you'd go with ram.

 

[Blain]

Originally posted by: Caveman
Need thoughts on HTPC/flight sim Rig

After reading around and reducating myself, here are my picks.

CPU - Q9550 or 8500. I think I'll be happy with either. I think I can get the Q9550 for about $250 on Ebay. $250 is about my max.

Sound - totally clueless here. What's the best from Soundblaster these days? I've always used their cards but thought the drivers were bloated.

Memory - 4 GB of PC1200, 8500??? I've never really understood RAM timings, though I'd guess the smaller the number the better? I need something that will OC well...

I can fend for myself on cases, cooling, etc...

* Good job on actually reading and thinking about what you need. That's a lost art around here.
* $250 for an ebay Q9550...
I'd make 100% sure the seller had very high quality feedback as well as many many deals under their belt.
A good alternative for $60 less would be the E8500 or E8400 at $85 less.
* I say for a HTPC... Yes, you should have a good dedicated audio card.
* 4GB of DDR2-800 (6400) is fine. TWIN2X4096-6400C5 (DDR2-800, 1.9v) @ $25 AR
Focus more on 1.8-1.9v kits rather than worrying about timins. In the real world timings don't make much difference at all.
* HTPC? You'll want quiet cooling. Get an Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro and you're good to go.

 

[DSF]

Originally posted by: Caveman
Even for extreme OCing?

There isn't a whole lot of benefit to worrying about cranking up RAM speeds or ratcheting down timings. The extra bandwidth just isn't utilized on a Core2 system. As such, all fast RAM really does for you is provides overclocking headroom. DDR2-1000 has enough headroom to take your FSB to 500 MHz, which is enough to max out pretty much any Core2 chip and P45 motherboard.