Please help me in building my first machine.

[neocon]

Hello all. This is my first time building a computer, so bare with me if I ask dumb questions or have picked out the wrong parts. Any input at all is appreciated.
I have budgeted about $2500.00. It will be used mainly for gaming. I will be using these old parts from a friend: 3 raptor hard drives, a usb tv tuner, dual layer dvd burner, and a Dell 24 inch wide screen monitor.
The new parts are these:

1. Cooler Master Cosmos case.
2. Two EVGA 9800 gx2 ssc video cards.
3. EVGA 790i Ultra SLI DDR3 motherboard
4. Kingston Hyperx 2GB DDR3 1800 memory.
5. Q9450 Quad Yorkfield 2.66 Ghz cpu.

I could use some help on the power supply and the sound card. Do you think I will have to water cool the video cards? Various kinds of games will be played on this machine. I will be buying parts from the USA. I have no brand preference. I plan to build soon and I am too paranoid to overclock. Thanks.

 

[DSF]

DDR3 is a waste of money. So is SLIed GX2's if you're only running a 24" monitor, not to mention that new video cards are due out in a month or so anyhow.

 

[neocon]

Originally posted by: DSF
DDR3 is a waste of money. So is SLIed GX2's if you're only running a 24" monitor, not to mention that new video cards are due out in a month or so anyhow.

Thanks for responding, but I don't understand your statement. Common sense (which apparently does not apply to computers) tells me that newer memory technology is better or faster than old (DDR2). Also would not games run or look better no matter what monitor you use in SLI?
Anybody have a suggestion for a power supply and sound card?

 

[DSF]

DDR3 doesn't actually provide much performance improvement over DDR2 at all. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 1-5%. What it does do is put a big hole in your wallet. 2x2GB of DDR2-1000 is all you need for a great computer, assuming you use the Q9450.

24" is a fairly big monitor, but not so huge that it needs the power of two 9800GX2's in tandem. Since a 9800GX2 is essentially two 8800GTs put together, it should have enough oomph by itself for a 24" monitor. SLi also doesn't scale perfectly - it doesn't give you twice the graphics power. It's closer to 1.3-1.5 times the processing power, but it varies from game to game. By the time you count in the extra expense of an SLi motherboard and a beefier PSU you're paying 2.5 times as much for 1.3 to 1.5 times the performance.

The other thing is that Nvidia and ATi are both releasing new graphics cards soon which should outperform the 9800GX2.

Just to give you an idea, I built a computer six months ago for $1000, which is what you would pay for two 9800GX2s alone, never mind the rest of the components. That computer plays Crysis on High settings with some AA. You're much better off spending about $1000-1500 of your budget to get a solid base now. Spend $1000 on upgrades in a year or two. No matter how much you spend now, it will be slower than your average gaming PC two years from now.

Since you have plenty of money available I would actually wait a bit if I were you and see how the new video card market shakes down. If you absolutely, positively cannot wait, then I would probably buy EVGA graphics cards to take advantage of their step-up program. Whatever you buy now, there will be something better in about a month.

 

[neocon]

Originally posted by: DSF
DDR3 doesn't actually provide much performance improvement over DDR2 at all. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 1-5%. What it does do is put a big hole in your wallet. 2x2GB of DDR2-1000 is all you need for a great computer, assuming you use the Q9450.

24" is a fairly big monitor, but not so huge that it needs the power of two 9800GX2's in tandem. Since a 9800GX2 is essentially two 8800GTs put together, it should have enough oomph by itself for a 24" monitor. SLi also doesn't scale perfectly - it doesn't give you twice the graphics power. It's closer to 1.3-1.5 times the processing power, but it varies from game to game. By the time you count in the extra expense of an SLi motherboard and a beefier PSU you're paying 2.5 times as much for 1.3 to 1.5 times the performance.

The other thing is that Nvidia and ATi are both releasing new graphics cards soon which should outperform the 9800GX2.

Just to give you an idea, I built a computer six months ago for $1000, which is what you would pay for two 9800GX2s alone, never mind the rest of the components. That computer plays Crysis on High settings with some AA. You're much better off spending about $1000-1500 of your budget to get a solid base now. Spend $1000 on upgrades in a year or two. No matter how much you spend now, it will be slower than your average gaming PC two years from now.

Since you have plenty of money available I would actually wait a bit if I were you and see how the new video card market shakes down. If you absolutely, positively cannot wait, then I would probably buy EVGA graphics cards to take advantage of their step-up program. Whatever you buy now, there will be something better in about a month.

Excellent advice. Thanks.

 

[neocon]

Hello, anybody else out there. I sure could use some more opinions.

 

[Winterpool]

What else would you like to know? I share DSF's scepticism regarding DDR3 and even SLI (though you'll find plenty of happy SLI users here).

Frankly for most punters, 4 GB of DDR2 will result in much more satisfactory user experience than 2 GB of DDR3. On the other hand, if you're overclocking a Yorkfield, having fast memory is probably a good idea. That said, most Yorkies are going to hit a wall at 450 to 470 MHz, so DDR2 1066 would probably be sufficient anyhow.

If you've already got a monitor you're happy with, it's going to be somewhat difficult to spend $2500 effectively. See MrAK's thread in the CPU form for a lot of people trying to convince a user to spend less than $4500.

SLI only seems worthwhile (at the present moment) with, say, dual 8800 GTs. If you're going to be getting a 9800 GX2, I'd get one and be done with it. If you really want to spend the big bucks on video, wait for the GT200 and R400 cards this summer. Also coming this summer, $100+ price drops on Yorkfield cpus.

 

[neocon]

Originally posted by: Winterpool
What else would you like to know? I share DSF's scepticism regarding DDR3 and even SLI (though you'll find plenty of happy SLI users here).

Frankly for most punters, 4 GB of DDR2 will result in much more satisfactory user experience than 2 GB of DDR3. On the other hand, if you're overclocking a Yorkfield, having fast memory is probably a good idea. That said, most Yorkies are going to hit a wall at 450 to 470 MHz, so DDR2 1066 would probably be sufficient anyhow.

If you've already got a monitor you're happy with, it's going to be somewhat difficult to spend $2500 effectively. See MrAK's thread in the CPU form for a lot of people trying to convince a user to spend less than $4500.

SLI only seems worthwhile (at the present moment) with, say, dual 8800 GTs. If you're going to be getting a 9800 GX2, I'd get one and be done with it. If you really want to spend the big bucks on video, wait for the GT200 and R400 cards this summer. Also coming this summer, $100+ price drops on Yorkfield cpus.

What else would I like to know? Read my original post. Anyway I think I am at the wrong website. Thanks to the people who tried.

 

[themisfit610]

No need to be rude 🙂

Regarding the PSU and sound card:

1) What kind of speakers do you have? 🙂 The onboard sound on most computers is quite good these days. It's not audiophile quality, but its very good at surround sound for movies, gaming, etc... If you have a nice set of speakers, it's probably worth getting a reasonable sound card. HT-Omega, Auzentech and (sort of) ASUS are the darlings of the enthusiast community at the moment. It all depends on your speakers / headphones.

2) PSU - I would get something in the range of ~600w+, since you have a big budget and plan to run a quad. If you're seriously going to get 2 9800GX2s (silly idea IMO) you will need more than that, but not totally sure how much. Corsair, PC Power + Cooling, Enermax, Antec, Thermaltake are all good brands.

Personally, I would just get a single 8800gt or gts for now, or wait a month or so. Next gen cards tend to create a lot of buyer's remorse after they come out 😀

~MiSfit

 

[neocon]

Originally posted by: themisfit610
No need to be rude 🙂

Regarding the PSU and sound card:

1) What kind of speakers do you have? 🙂 The onboard sound on most computers is quite good these days. It's not audiophile quality, but its very good at surround sound for movies, gaming, etc... If you have a nice set of speakers, it's probably worth getting a reasonable sound card. HT-Omega, Auzentech and (sort of) ASUS are the darlings of the enthusiast community at the moment. It all depends on your speakers / headphones.

2) PSU - I would get something in the range of ~600w+, since you have a big budget and plan to run a quad. If you're seriously going to get 2 9800GX2s (silly idea IMO) you will need more than that, but not totally sure how much. Corsair, PC Power + Cooling, Enermax, Antec, Thermaltake are all good brands.

Personally, I would just get a single 8800gt or gts for now, or wait a month or so. Next gen cards tend to create a lot of buyer's remorse after they come out 😀

~MiSfit

Oh, yes the speakers. I have been given an old set of Logitech 5.1 speakers which are quite good. Looks like the smarter thing to do is wait for the next set of video cards to come out which is not too far away. I now understand with my monitor sli won't do much good. So one card for me.
Sorry for sounding rude. All the massive amount of info out there has me frustrated. Thanks for the information.🙂