Upcoming gaming PC

[rathsach]

Alright.. This pc will mainly be used for gaming.. What little else I do with it should be more than covered for (watching divx and surfing the web)

Fanboy'isms: None
Peeves: Dislike bling bling cases
OC: Not hardcore.. I'll tune it a little ofcourse, but no speedrecords to be broken.
Location: Denmark.. So stuff has to be from Scandinavia, UK or Germany
OS: Vista x64 Home Premium (As a gamer I want DX10)

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-X48T-DQ6
I'm going the DDR3 route with this build, so I needed a good solid X48 chipset without spending a million

CPU: Intel E8500
Picking a dual core as it seems speed is king in games more than the amount of cores.. 2 should be enough for quite a while yet, and comparable Quad core cpu's are way too expensive.. The E8500 seems to be the sweetspot right now.

Memory: 4GB Corsair XMS3 DDR3 1600mhz
Mainly picked because of availiabity, price and the fact that Corsair is mentioned on Gigabytes site as "compatible" for the board. The price on these actually makes it viable to go 8GB not too long in the future..

GPU: 4870x2 (Probably the HIS one)
As I said, it's a gaming pc.. My monitor is a 24" Dell 2408w. I need all the gpu power I can squeeze into this, and I really don't think these 4870x2's are that expensive.. It beats the GTX280 in most benches, so I picked this..

HDD: Samsung F1 1TB
These have been recommended to me.. I have never owned a Samsung branded hdd, but I'm willing to try.. Good price too..

Sound: Onboard.. I have a X-FI Fatality in my old rig - but by GODS I'm NEVER getting a Creative soundcard again.. Trying onboard, and waiting for that new spiffy Razer headset to hit the market..

PSU: Totally in the dark here.. I want something quiet, efficient, not too pricey but still quality.. Preferably modular, but not a must have.. I'm considering: Corsair TX750, but I can see that it'll probably be too loaded with the GPU to stay silent (40db at 60%).. Then there's the Corsair 1kw one, which is very nice, but a little overkill.. Zalman HP-850 perhaps then?? I simply don't know.. The Corsair 1kw is pushing the budget limit a bit, so ideas are welcome.

DVD-R: Pioneer DVR-216
It's a DVD-R, and Pioneer has served me well before.. I have a silver one now, so only getting a new one if I get a black case..

Cooling: It's a toss between Thermalright Ultra-120 with a Noctua fan (expensive).. SilentX Iextrema Pro 120 or 92mm (anyone know these) or the Xigmatek S1283 or S1284.. Comments are welcome

Case: In the dark here.. Had picked a Silverstone KL-B02, but it seems like there's not enough room for my GPU, and perhaps not for a 120mm cpu cooler either.. Also looking at the CM HAF 932 and Antec 1200.. But they are both pushing the blingy side, are bit bigger than I really want AND they may be a little noisy as well.. But maybe I actually do need the airflow they bring.. I'd prefer a miditower, but I have a few friends with those running 9800gx2's, and they are overheating and have to have the sides off..

 

[Roguestar]

Case: Look at the Antec P182, it's exactly the opposite of bling bling; it's a stylish minimalistic case but with all the functionality of a more expensive "gamer" oriented one.

Hard drive: Samsung aren't the brand to buy at the moment as the Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB is a little more expensive but is simply the best 7200RPM desktop drive you can buy.

Motherboard & memory: Hah, DDR3. It's your money, but I'd not spend the massive price premium for the small performance gain. Assuming you're going to stick with DDR3 for whatever reasons, your board is fairly decent.

PSU: The 750TX is a good PSU, more than enough for the 4870X2.

Sound: onboard is good these days.

Cooling: Xigmatek s1283

 

[jae]

Go with DDR2-800 and put the extra cash to use somewhere else.

 

[rathsach]

I actually did put together a DD2 based rig also, and came to the conclusion that an 8GB DDR2 rig costs pretty much exactly the same as this one.. At least the price difference was so small that it wasn't really worth it.. DDR2 IS on the way out, and I'd rather pick the new tech today and have a slightly more futureproof chipset..

I can easily make the upgrade to 8GB DDR3 in a month or two anyway..

Has anyone actually tried the Corsair 750 with a 4870x2? I know it can handle it, I'm just worried about the load on it.. At the calculated wattage (approx.) the 750 will be at 40db, while the more powerfull 1000w will only be slightly above 20db..


I looked at the WD Caviar Black disks.. They sure look nice, but the price here is about 25% higher than the Samsungs :-S.. I'm not quite sure they are 25% nicer..