Upgrading, is this a solid machine?

[TherabidDeer]

So, looking into getting a new HIGH end computer that I will be buying to both upgrade and to establish credit. So, I want something that will last a solid 2-3 years (duration of payments) for games. I absolutely hate slowdown or inconsistant framerates, I am fine with 30 FPS in some games, but would rather have higher. This is what I have come up with so far:
2 WD 500GB 7200RPM 3GB/s in raid0
2 EVGA 8800GTX cideo cards (is it worth it to have 2, or would 1 be fine?)
Cooler Master 1000 watt PSU (might drop this down to a 700 watt if only 1 vid card)
2GB OCZ Gold DDR2 1000 (PC2 8000) memory (would 4GB help at all?)
nForce 680i SLI mobo
Core 2 Extreme x6800 Conroe CPU
Zalman Resperator2 fanless water cooling (read some bad reviews, any suggestions?)
For a grand total of a ridiculously high $3806.91

Is this a solid system? Would there be any bottlenecking? Any suggestions for downgrading to save money but keep most of the performance?

Thanks in advance for the help

 

[bamacre]

Drop RAID 0. Go with a single drive.

Go with one 8800GTX, save the rest of your money to replace this when the single loses its luster. Don't ever go SLI. Unless you game at > 1600x1200.

You are going WAY overboard with the PSU. With one 8800 GTX, I'd recommend the Enermax Liberty 500W, or for two 8800 GTX's, the Corsair 620W. Even here, you have more wattage than you need.

Personally, (if you take my advice and ditch SLI) I'd go with board that has an Intel chipset over an Nvidia. P35 maybe, or stick with 965P.

As for cpu, you are really spending a LOT of money for an X6800. I'd go with a Q6600 and OC if you want to spend that much.

Whatever you do, don't spend $3800 on a computer. Please. You'd be better off spending $1500 now, then another $1500 in 2 years for a whole new system.

 

[PurdueRy]

Originally posted by: bamacre
Drop RAID 0. Go with a single drive.

Go with one 8800GTX, save the rest of your money to replace this when the single loses its luster. Don't ever go SLI. Unless you game at > 1600x1200.

You are going WAY overboard with the PSU. With one 8800 GTX, I'd recommend the Enermax Liberty 500W, or for two 8800 GTX's, the Corsair 620W. Even here, you have more wattage than you need.

Personally, (if you take my advice and ditch SLI) I'd go with board that has an Intel chipset over an Nvidia. P35 maybe, or stick with 965P.

As for cpu, you are really spending a LOT of money for an X6800. I'd go with a Q6600 and OC if you want to spend that much.

Whatever you do, don't spend $3800 on a computer. Please. You'd be better off spending $1500 now, then another $1500 in 2 years for a whole new system.

^ Exactly what I would have said...in addition, screw water cooling

 

[aCynic2]

Originally posted by: bamacre
Drop RAID 0. Go with a single drive.

Go with one 8800GTX, save the rest of your money to replace this when the single loses its luster. Don't ever go SLI. Unless you game at > 1600x1200.

You are going WAY overboard with the PSU. With one 8800 GTX, I'd recommend the Enermax Liberty 500W, or for two 8800 GTX's, the Corsair 620W. Even here, you have more wattage than you need.

I agree with the GPU recommendation. I have one BFGtech BFG 8800GTX. I play Oblivion, IL-2 and was playing F.E.A.R. and it works just fine on ultra high quality settings on a 22" WS 1680x1050 LCD. In fact, it's beautiful.

I did go with a 600W psu as a factor of safety for when I experiment with OCing, but I hear 520 is fine for 90% of rigs.

I bought two 320gig drives, but I didn't raid them at all. They are 100g windows and program and the remaining are data (I store music and porn).

Personally, (if you take my advice and ditch SLI) I'd go with board that has an Intel chipset over an Nvidia. P35 maybe, or stick with 965P.

Here's a personal anecdote: I have an X-45 stick and throttle. It worked fine on my Win98 machine, but trying it on my nForce mobo (MSI P6N Platinum) it failed. The computer was suffering a 1-2 second delay in responding to anything from the stick. I guess it's a known problem, rare, but effects some people, like this poor schlep.

I had a choice: buy a PCI USB card, or buy a new stick. I decided to buy a new stick and throttle (X-52), w/ pedals.

It's good.

You decide for yourself if you want to try an nForce based board and what game HW you're going to use. I'm a WWII combat flight sim fan, so I need a stick and throttle, mouse is inconsequential.

As for cpu, you are really spending a LOT of money for an X6800. I'd go with a Q6600 and OC if you want to spend that much.

For gaming, I don't think you need that much CPU power, unless you are playing flight sims or similar.

My E6600 does fine in IL-2 w/o OCing.

 

[PurdueRy]

Originally posted by: aCynic2

I bought two 320gig drives, but I didn't raid them at all. They are 100g windows and program and the remaining are data (I store music and porn).

2 points for honesty

 

[TherabidDeer]

Originally posted by: bamacre
Drop RAID 0. Go with a single drive.

Go with one 8800GTX, save the rest of your money to replace this when the single loses its luster. Don't ever go SLI. Unless you game at > 1600x1200.

You are going WAY overboard with the PSU. With one 8800 GTX, I'd recommend the Enermax Liberty 500W, or for two 8800 GTX's, the Corsair 620W. Even here, you have more wattage than you need.

Personally, (if you take my advice and ditch SLI) I'd go with board that has an Intel chipset over an Nvidia. P35 maybe, or stick with 965P.

As for cpu, you are really spending a LOT of money for an X6800. I'd go with a Q6600 and OC if you want to spend that much.

Whatever you do, don't spend $3800 on a computer. Please. You'd be better off spending $1500 now, then another $1500 in 2 years for a whole new system.

Yea, I have been spending ~$1500 every year and a half, I was planning on going a bit more since this one will be being paid for over the course of about 3 years. And I want to get liquid cooling because I dont have AC at home, so it gets kinda hot, especially in the summer, and in the winter my computer can almost qualify as a heater (I have 4 fans in there, but it still gets pretty hot).

So, since I will be ditching SLI ($650 right there), would you recommend a mobo like
ASUS P5K LGA 775 Intel P35 Intel Motherboard

Also, I have read some more bad reviews for the water cooler that I picked, any suggestions? Would prefer one that is really quiet.

EDIT: I do like to record ingame (for like World of warcraft vids) so I need to be able to record at a reasonable rate

 

[PurdueRy]

Originally posted by: TherabidDeer

Originally posted by: bamacre
Drop RAID 0. Go with a single drive.

Go with one 8800GTX, save the rest of your money to replace this when the single loses its luster. Don't ever go SLI. Unless you game at > 1600x1200.

You are going WAY overboard with the PSU. With one 8800 GTX, I'd recommend the Enermax Liberty 500W, or for two 8800 GTX's, the Corsair 620W. Even here, you have more wattage than you need.

Personally, (if you take my advice and ditch SLI) I'd go with board that has an Intel chipset over an Nvidia. P35 maybe, or stick with 965P.

As for cpu, you are really spending a LOT of money for an X6800. I'd go with a Q6600 and OC if you want to spend that much.

Whatever you do, don't spend $3800 on a computer. Please. You'd be better off spending $1500 now, then another $1500 in 2 years for a whole new system.

Yea, I have been spending ~$1500 every year and a half, I was planning on going a bit more since this one will be being paid for over the course of about 3 years. And I want to get liquid cooling because I dont have AC at home, so it gets kinda hot, especially in the summer, and in the winter my computer can almost qualify as a heater (I have 4 fans in there, but it still gets pretty hot).

So, since I will be ditching SLI ($650 right there), would you recommend a mobo like
ASUS P5K LGA 775 Intel P35 Intel Motherboard

Also, I have read some more bad reviews for the water cooler that I picked, any suggestions? Would prefer one that is really quiet.

EDIT: I do like to record ingame (for like World of warcraft vids) so I need to be able to record at a reasonable rate

Getting water cooling isn't going to stop your computer from being a heater...the same amount of heat is dissipated into the air as is when you air cool.

 

[aCynic2]

Originally posted by: TherabidDeer
and in the winter my computer can almost qualify as a heater (I have 4 fans in there, but it still gets pretty hot).

Imagine how much $$$ you'll save by being able to turn down your thermostat.

 

[jkresh]

watercooling is good for getting slightly higher overclocks then air, handling higher voltage, and better noise/oc ratios (in that a 3x120mm radiator is a lot bigger then a normal hsf so you can have slower fans and keep the noise down while still getting good overclcocks), it wont affect the room temperature and it wont allow for substantially better overclocking in most cases (phase is another story but quite a bit more expensive unless ocz gets there unit out but...)

As to establishing credit, you can establish credit without ever holding a large balance, spending a couple of hundred here and there and paying it off (meaning no interest) will build credit just as well (and save money since you don't pay interest). Do not spend more then you can just to hold a balance on your card for 2-3 years to pay it off, in fact if you spend $600 every 6 months at pay it off the month you spend it then you will have spent about the same after 3 years and probably built better credit.

 

[TherabidDeer]

Originally posted by: PurdueRy

Originally posted by: TherabidDeer

Originally posted by: bamacre
Drop RAID 0. Go with a single drive.

Go with one 8800GTX, save the rest of your money to replace this when the single loses its luster. Don't ever go SLI. Unless you game at > 1600x1200.

You are going WAY overboard with the PSU. With one 8800 GTX, I'd recommend the Enermax Liberty 500W, or for two 8800 GTX's, the Corsair 620W. Even here, you have more wattage than you need.

Personally, (if you take my advice and ditch SLI) I'd go with board that has an Intel chipset over an Nvidia. P35 maybe, or stick with 965P.

As for cpu, you are really spending a LOT of money for an X6800. I'd go with a Q6600 and OC if you want to spend that much.

Whatever you do, don't spend $3800 on a computer. Please. You'd be better off spending $1500 now, then another $1500 in 2 years for a whole new system.

Yea, I have been spending ~$1500 every year and a half, I was planning on going a bit more since this one will be being paid for over the course of about 3 years. And I want to get liquid cooling because I dont have AC at home, so it gets kinda hot, especially in the summer, and in the winter my computer can almost qualify as a heater (I have 4 fans in there, but it still gets pretty hot).

So, since I will be ditching SLI ($650 right there), would you recommend a mobo like
ASUS P5K LGA 775 Intel P35 Intel Motherboard

Also, I have read some more bad reviews for the water cooler that I picked, any suggestions? Would prefer one that is really quiet.

EDIT: I do like to record ingame (for like World of warcraft vids) so I need to be able to record at a reasonable rate

Getting water cooling isn't going to stop your computer from being a heater...the same amount of heat is dissipated into the air as is when you air cool.

Are you sure about that? It seems to me that if you were to keep the overall temperature down it would keep the amount of heat being dissipated into the air down. Right now my CPU runs at ~55-60C and the mobo is at ~50C, if I reduce that down to 20-30C it would mean that the heat being dissipated into the air would be 30C instead of 50C wouldnt it?

 

[PurdueRy]

Originally posted by: TherabidDeer

Originally posted by: PurdueRy

Originally posted by: TherabidDeer

Originally posted by: bamacre
Drop RAID 0. Go with a single drive.

Go with one 8800GTX, save the rest of your money to replace this when the single loses its luster. Don't ever go SLI. Unless you game at > 1600x1200.

You are going WAY overboard with the PSU. With one 8800 GTX, I'd recommend the Enermax Liberty 500W, or for two 8800 GTX's, the Corsair 620W. Even here, you have more wattage than you need.

Personally, (if you take my advice and ditch SLI) I'd go with board that has an Intel chipset over an Nvidia. P35 maybe, or stick with 965P.

As for cpu, you are really spending a LOT of money for an X6800. I'd go with a Q6600 and OC if you want to spend that much.

Whatever you do, don't spend $3800 on a computer. Please. You'd be better off spending $1500 now, then another $1500 in 2 years for a whole new system.

Yea, I have been spending ~$1500 every year and a half, I was planning on going a bit more since this one will be being paid for over the course of about 3 years. And I want to get liquid cooling because I dont have AC at home, so it gets kinda hot, especially in the summer, and in the winter my computer can almost qualify as a heater (I have 4 fans in there, but it still gets pretty hot).

So, since I will be ditching SLI ($650 right there), would you recommend a mobo like
ASUS P5K LGA 775 Intel P35 Intel Motherboard

Also, I have read some more bad reviews for the water cooler that I picked, any suggestions? Would prefer one that is really quiet.

EDIT: I do like to record ingame (for like World of warcraft vids) so I need to be able to record at a reasonable rate

Getting water cooling isn't going to stop your computer from being a heater...the same amount of heat is dissipated into the air as is when you air cool.

Are you sure about that? It seems to me that if you were to keep the overall temperature down it would keep the amount of heat being dissipated into the air down. Right now my CPU runs at ~55-60C and the mobo is at ~50C, if I reduce that down to 20-30C it would mean that the heat being dissipated into the air would be 30C instead of 50C wouldnt it?

How is water cooling keeping your CPU cool? It does this by transferring heat. One way to do this is via air. Air hits the metal, "picks up" some of the heat and ideally, leaves your case. Water cooling does the same with water which is better at transferring heat. The water hits the heatsink, takes some heat with it and is dissipated via a low speed fan.

Either way the same amount of heat is enterting your room, it just depends on which is more effect, i.e. puts heat into your room, faster. In this case, it is water.

So your room temps will not change with water cooling.

 

[TherabidDeer]

Hmm, alright, I think I understand that now. Thanks again for all the help everybody!

 

[aCynic2]

Originally posted by: TherabidDeer
Getting water cooling isn't going to stop your computer from being a heater...the same amount of heat is dissipated into the air as is when you air cool.

Are you sure about that? It seems to me that if you were to keep the overall temperature down it would keep the amount of heat being dissipated into the air down. Right now my CPU runs at ~55-60C and the mobo is at ~50C, if I reduce that down to 20-30C it would mean that the heat being dissipated into the air would be 30C instead of 50C wouldnt it?
[/quote]

On top of what Purdue said, think of it this way:

heat is energy. So, really, cooler states are simply a lack of energy. In physics, systems try to achieve equilibrium, so the energy of heat will transfer to where it is less, such is how heatsinks work. Then, radiation (another way heat transfers) allows the heat to go to the air, thus why a lot of heatsinks have fins, more surface area.

You're not transfering cold to the CPU, you're removing heat from the CPU. You're still going to get the same amount of heat energy from the CPU, water is just a better conduit. Still, aluminum and copper work well, which is why they make copper bottom and aluminum cookware.

In the case of water cooling, you have radiation transfering heat to the water, and convection transferring the heated water away from the CPU.

 

[TherabidDeer]

Alright, one more question for you all. For recording video using say... fraps... which piece of hardware would help keep my frame rate up while recording?

Also, which would be the better choice in RAM? The originally planned:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...p?item=N82E16820227086
or
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820145179

 

[aCynic2]

Originally posted by: TherabidDeer
Alright, one more question for you all. For recording video using say... fraps... which piece of hardware would help keep my frame rate up while recording?

I'll defer this to someone with more experience.

Also, which would be the better choice in RAM? The originally planned:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...p?item=N82E16820227086
or
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820145179

Wow! Ok, I went with a 650i nForce board that supported DDR2 800@ < 1/2 the price of what you're looking at. It's working just fine and I haven't even started OCing yet. Are you sure you need DDR2 1000? That's pretty expensive stuff.


This is what I went with:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...p?Item=N82E16820231114

In addition, I'm abit concerned about that mobo you're looking at. It has only 29 reviews, 10% of them are 1, less than 40% are 5.

This one is cheaper and has a better appeal:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813188019

I think I'd even go with this one, which is more, before that BFG:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813188013

Are you working off a review site for your decisions?

 

[TherabidDeer]

Originally posted by: aCynic2

Originally posted by: TherabidDeer
Alright, one more question for you all. For recording video using say... fraps... which piece of hardware would help keep my frame rate up while recording?

I'll defer this to someone with more experience.

Also, which would be the better choice in RAM? The originally planned:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...p?item=N82E16820227086
or
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820145179

Wow! Ok, I went with a 650i nForce board that supported DDR2 800@ < 1/2 the price of what you're looking at. It's working just fine and I haven't even started OCing yet. Are you sure you need DDR2 1000? That's pretty expensive stuff.


This is what I went with:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...p?Item=N82E16820231114

In addition, I'm abit concerned about that mobo you're looking at. It has only 29 reviews, 10% of them are 1, less than 40% are 5.

This one is cheaper and has a better appeal:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813188019

I think I'd even go with this one, which is more, before that BFG:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813188013

Are you working off a review site for your decisions?

Actually, I didnt look at the reviews for this mobo at all, one of the earlier posters suggested a P35 mobo, and I am a fan of ASUS (have had 2 ASUS mobo's and they both have worked nicely). Is there a sizeable difference between an intel chipset mobo and the nForce?

And I want to use pretty high quality memory, and I have had good experience with corsair in the past. Was looking at using:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...p?item=N82E16820145043

Its got extremely solid reviews and its a lot cheaper than my original plan with OCZ.

 

[aCynic2]

Originally posted by: TherabidDeer
Actually, I didnt look at the reviews for this mobo at all, one of the earlier posters suggested a P35 mobo, and I am a fan of ASUS (have had 2 ASUS mobo's and they both have worked nicely). Is there a sizeable difference between an intel chipset mobo and the nForce?

Ok, but the mobo you list above is a BFG. I use their 8800GTX and love it. It was on top for newegg reviews (I compare bad reviews, good reviews and most helpful reviews), but I would have some serious reservations on that mobo.

I'll defer the mem advice, as I'm new as well. I planned mine for 2-3 weeks, sat on it for another 3-4 weeks and finally built it two weeks ago. However, I try to find the best value, but also at a higher premium.

I just know that that memory is really expensive and you may not actually be getting a cost effective level of mem.

 

[Roguestar]

Don't RAID-0. JUST DON'T.
You don't need DDR2-1000. Get a cheap set of DDR2-800 on offer at newegg; your RAM will not be limiting you with a Q6600 until 3.6GHz and frankly if you got to there you're doing damn well.
SLI is a waste of money. Save the cash for a high-end card a year and a half from now. YOU'LL THANK ME LATER.
PSU is ultra-overkill. Get the Corsair 520W.

 

[tuteja1986]

Buddy don't get a X6800... it gets beaten easily by a OC Q6600. Games like surpreme commander , Half life 2 episode 1/2 , Alan Wake , UT2007.. will all use more than 3 threads. Alan wake uses 6 threads !!

I have owned or own QX6800/X6800/AMD FX57/AMD FX53

Having the fastest means crap all your CPU will be worthless next year when intel and AMD release true Quad core. Unless you have no responsiblty like home loan , Wife , Kids , Family or business then get it otherwise save the cash !!

Also if you really want an X6800 i can sell you mine for half price :! $490 ?

 

[tuteja1986]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813128037 stable 680i mobo !

 

[aCynic2]

Originally posted by: tuteja1986
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813128037 stable 680i mobo !

Hugely expensive mobo too.