With the new price drops.. my gaming rig... please help me with a critique.

[km23]

Thanks for taking the time.
I have this system setup to purchase within the next week. I have not purchased anything yet, so feel free to rip into anything you don't like. System total comes to about $1850, including shipping, taxes, etc.

On paper, the system sounds like a monster, but if you see any incompatabilities or issues, please let me know.

I'll use this system for gaming (mostly PC only games like Crysis), but I will also use it for work. Because of the work factor, stability is 100% more important than a faster gaming system.

Price IS a factor, but I don't mind spending a little more $ to get a higher quality system, with less issues.

Here it is:
Case: Lian Li PC-60BPLUSII Black Aluminum ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16811112100
129.99 + 15.99 + Tax = 156.05

PSU: PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750 Quad - Copper EPS12V 750W
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16817703008
199.99 + 9.63 + Tax = 225.14

Motherboard: MSI P6N Diamond LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI ATX Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813130080
269.99 + 7.14 + Tax = 298.05

Video Card: EVGA 640-P2-N821-AR GeForce 8800GTS 640MB HDCP Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...p?Item=N82E16814130071
319.99 + 6.13 + Tax = 351.39

Proc: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz 2 x 4MB L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16819115017
299.99 + 0 + Tax = 323.24

RAM: CORSAIR Dominator 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820145043
193.00 + 0 + Tax = 207.96

Hard Drive: Western Digital 150GB Raptor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16822136012
199.99 + 6 + Tax = 221.95

DVD Burner: SAMSUNG Black Lightscribe SATA Burner
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16827151141
39.99 + 5.64 + Tax = 45.00

Thermal Paste: Arctic Silver Compound 5
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...p?Item=N82E16835100007
5.89 + 4.99 + Tax = 11.24

Sound Card:
None. X-fi card on the motherboard.

Total: 1837

 

[MarcVenice]

Get 4gb ddr800 for the same price. Whatsup with the MEGA expensive mobo, and it's not even a p35 mobo, do you need the SLI function ? Buy a seperate soundcard if need be. Something like a asus p5k should do the trick, or a gigabyte ds3-r.

Overkill on the PSU, a 520w corsair for half the price will run this just fine, 620W if you want the headroom. Why only 1 150gb raptor ? I'd stick a 320-400gb HD in there for storage.

Do you need the qaudcore for work ? If stability is a must, which I guess means you don't want to OC * even though a good OC is rock solid*, you might wanna look into getting e6850. Maybe a aftermarket hsf, it will alow you to run the qaud at 2.66 or 2.8ghz, with only a FSB increase, no voltage increasements, no nothing, just up the FSB a little and you will still have a superstable rig, just quite a bit faster then stock.

If you can spend 1850$, you could consider swapping out the gts for a gtx. Especially since you can save money on the mobo/psu.

 

[PurdueRy]

Unless you are, for some crazy reason, ordering everything seperately from one another...shipping doesn't add like that.

I echo most of the above comments especially the overly expensive mobo and PSU. In addition why buy Artic silver if you don't have an aftermarket heatsink?

 

[Sinn707]

Here I fixed a couple of things for you:

LIAN LI PC-60BPLUSII $130
Q6600 $273 (mwave.com)
Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R $130
4GB Crucial ballistix DDR2 800 4-4-4-12 $240
or 4GB Corsair XMS2 DDR 800 4-4-4-12 $248 -$80 rebate (if you have any faith in these)
Corsair 620HX $130 (buy.com)
MSI 8800 GTX $480
500GB Samsung $110
X-fi XtremeGamer $91
Tuniq 120 Tower $60
MASSCOOL G751 Shin-Etsu Thermal Interface Material $5

Total: $1649

Much more balanced build.

Good luck.

 

[km23]

I went with a more expensive MB since it's harder to replace, than get a better Video Card now, where I can easily upgrade it later.

What advantages does the P35 MB have over what I have now?

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: Sinn707
Here I fixed a couple of things for you:

LIAN LI PC-60BPLUSII $130
Q6600 $273 (mwave.com)
Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R $130
4GB Crucial ballistix DDR2 800 4-4-4-12 $240
or 4GB Corsair XMS2 DDR 800 4-4-4-12 $248 -$80 rebate (if you have any faith in these)
Corsair 620HX $130 (buy.com)
MSI 8800 GTX $480
500GB Samsung $110
X-fi XtremeGamer $91
Tuniq 120 Tower $60
MASSCOOL G751 Shin-Etsu Thermal Interface Material $5

Total: $1649

Much more balanced build.

Good luck.

i would use AS5 until i see compelling evidence to use this other brand. AS5 has been a constant for quite a few years and would spend the small difference unless there is overwhelming info that this other material is better. any info on it Sinn707? as far as i know that until they start to use diamond dust AS5 along w/ other silver based thermal compounds are kind of at there limit. please correct me if i am incorrect.

i would go this rig but throw in a 150GB 16MB raptor or the 74GB 16MB version if you don't need that big of a system drive - i like a fast os/app/game hdds and all of my builds have a 10-15K main drive backed up w/ a larger hdd, some 15k, some 7.2k but either way i would run 2hdds. just imho.

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: km23
I went with a more expensive MB since it's harder to replace, than get a better Video Card now, where I can easily upgrade it later.

What advantages does the P35 MB have over what I have now?

i don't understand this logic. usually the next gen high end gpu will beat 2 of the current gens anyway, at least this has how it has been since the beginnig of sli and i think it still goes on - 1 8800gtx is better than 2x7900gtx.

figure both m/bs will last the same amount of time in regards to socket life...