New System Build.

[Bad Yeti]

Hey all,

I am about to build a new system and need some advice on a few things, I'm aiming to spend around $3000.00 and will probably buy all parts from Newegg. I obviously want the best bang for the buck, but certain things have me confused mainly the motherboard and Graphics, the machine will be mainly used for Gaming, Music, Movies and Rendering (to a small degree).

So if any of you can spread a little light on the dark arts please do, what I was thinking of was the following:

Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 Conroe 3.0GHz LGA 775 Processor Model ( I can't really afford the Extreme)
DFI LP UT NF680I LT SLI-T2 LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 680i LT SLI ATX Intel Motherboard (Supposed to be very adjustable with the Bios)

Mushkin 1GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) ( Qty 4 don't know why I chose these but meh)

Foxconn FV-N88XMAD2-ONOC GeForce 8800GTX 768MB 384-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported OverClock Video Card (Qty 2 SLi Foxconn is $50 cheaper and I havn't seen any horrendous reviews)

Western Digital Raptor WD1500ADFD 150GB 10,000 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive (For OS and Progs)

Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD7500AAKS 750GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive ( Qty 2 for storage)

Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio VARPAK 7.1 Channels PCI Express (Never normally use a separate sound card just use onboard so it's just a treat)

XION Supernova XON-800R14N ATX12V / EPS12V 800W Power Supply (Seems Beefy Enough)

Then the usual case DVD drive etc

Any recomendations on coolers, i'd quite like to W/C it.

Some people are saying go for the 8800GT OC instead, others say go for one 8800 Ultra, others say just wait.

I did want to go for a Gigabyte board but the SLi ones seem cheap and don't have good reviews and some of the ASUS boards seem a little flakey.

Thanks in advance for any help rendered, the last system I built was an SLI 7800 AMD one 12 months ago, things seem to have changed alot since then.

P.S. Will be running Vista.

P.P.S. Can I run 2 Monitors (Samgung 22" LCD) off SLi?

 

[bobmundo123]

how much were those 750 gb hard drives?

 

[Bad Yeti]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16822136131

$174.99 each

 

[MarcVenice]

First things first, go q6600, especially if you are going to overclock, you'll have it running at 3.4ghz or so in no time. All you need for that is some decent ddr2 800mhz ram, or this ram which atm is pretty cheap: http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820231145 Then OC the heck out of the qaud and be happy.

If you are going to SLI, I'd much rather wait till 3rd of december for a 8800gts, which will beat the GTX, and cost less. I'd also get a corsair 620hx instead, better PSU as far as I know, and will have all the power you need. The raptor is USELESS, the 750gb you selected is equally fast, but in case you forgot, 5 times bigger. Are you going to watercool ? That's what you ment, with W/C ? Then head over to the cases & cooling forum and ask for a good watercooling kit. They'll most likely point you over to petratech/jabtech, but they know 100 times more then I do about watercooling.

Last but not least, meh, 680i chipsets aren't that good for oc-ing qauds, at least not as good as p35/x38. If you want dual videocards, consider 2 ATI HD3870's, for 210$ each. You can crossfire 2 videocards on p35/x38, and the chipset is a lot better for overclocking qauds, and will allow you to upgrade to Penryn later on, if you would want to. PS, you can run 2 monitors from 1 single videocard. You can not however, run both videocards in SLI, and have them put out the image on both screens, unless I'm severely mistaken, but that's how it works. If you want to play a game in SLI mode, you'll have to use one screen.