Your Opinions?

[JimiP]

Hi everyone, I'm going to start purchasing components for my new build in a couple weeks and I just wanted to run this by all you here. The main goal here is to build a good gaming machine while saving as much money as possible. Not only that but to have the option of upgrading in the next couple of years.

Antec 900 Case
PCP&C 750W Quad Silencer PSU
Foxconn 680i SLI ATX motherboard
Intel C2D E6750
2GB Patriot Extreme Performance DDR2-800
EVGA 8800GTS 640MB
320GB 16mb cache SATA HDD
Samsung Lightscribe DVD-RW SATA optical drive
Windows Vista Home Premium (32bit) OEM

I don't know about you guys but to me this sounds like a pretty solid system. Now, to save a little cash now, I am holding off on buying the 8800GTS. I will continue to use my 7600GS until I absolutely need it. That puts this system just under $1,000 (including shipping and MIR's from Newegg). When I need to, I will upgrade to DDR2-1066 and possibly a Quad CPU but at the moment, I don't see those as a necessity.

I would like to hear some thoughts on this. Thanks everyone,
-JimiP

 

[MarcVenice]

Current cpu's run at 1333fsb, qaudpumped, so that's 333mhz, thats still not equal to ddr 800, in fact, ddr 667 will give the same performance as ddr800 in a 1333fsb PC. So no reason at all to buy 1066ram, because ddr800 leaves PLENTY of headroom to overclock. How much does the patriot extreme cost btw? Less then 100$ AR? for 150$ 4gb of ram can be had, which might be worth looking into, you'll have to buy Vista 64x, but the drivers are up to par nowadays, so shouldn't have to worry about that.

The mobo, do you need SLI? Read a little further to find out why I would never go SLI. You can and should buy a p35 mobo btw, if you want to keep future upgradebility in mind, you simply need one if you want to throw a penryn in there. Asus P5k or so is a pretty decent option, so is the gigabyte dsr3, both come for 130$ or so. http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813127031 is a pretty cheap option as well, gotta be quick, no idea how long the rebate will last.

You could save a little to a lot of money on the PSU, it's a darn good PSU, but a 520hx from corsair will power your rig just fine, and costs a hell of a lot less. If you don't plan on sli-ing, the 520hx will be plenty, even with future upgrades in mind. SLI-ing is a waste of money anyways, unless we're talking about sli-ing 2 gtx's or ultra's, and when you can afford two of those, 50-100$ more on the PSU doesn't matter either 2 single cards aren't worth the trouble, 2 8800gts's might be near as fast as a 8800gtx, you are left at the mercy of SLI drivers, which are tricky with Vista, and how well a game puts both of those videocards to use. You are also going to be limited by the vram, whereas a gtx would simply have 768mb, and you need the more expensive PSU. If you would spend that money on a better single card, it will beat the SLI option anytime of the day. Btw, with a p35 mobo you can't go SLI anyways, it's not supported

The videocard option sounds like a good idea. The 7600gs didn't cut it for me anymore so I bought a 8800gts, I don't plan on upgrading it for at leat 1-1.5 years though, unless some amazing deal comes by. If you go with evga, you can also use the stepup program when the 9x00's series comes out in november/december.

As for the case, well that's all taste. I kinda like it myself, but 130$ on a case is pushing it if you ask me. There's cheaper options out there, that will still look pretty good, I'd be looking to spend 60-100$ TOPS at a case.

 

[JimiP]

Thank you for your response Marc. I appreciate it.

I was under the impression that the 680i motherboards support Penryn. Before I was going to do the SLI route, (which I might never do to be honest) was to get Gigabyte's P35-DQ6. That was more expensive but it allowed the support of the 45nm core Penryn. Now, I know that the P35 doesn't support SLI but it does happen to support Crossfire. I'm not entirely sure how the HD2900XT performs now or how it will in the future but I plan on sticking with Nvidia. That is unless AMD comes out with a killer card.

The Patriot memory is around $112 before the $40.00 MIR. (http://www.newegg.com/product/...?item=N82E16820220144) If I choose to go the 4GB route, (which seems very likely) I will still have to purchase Vista x64. Now, I don't know much about the driver issues and things like that but how will my games perform in the x64-bit platform? Will it suffer? Will I notice a difference? Or will it actually perform better? These are some questions I have concerning 64-bit OS.

And about the case... One of the options that I had in mind was Cooler Masters Centurion 5 which is still a great case with enough room to handle dual GTX's. It also has good cooling. However, the 900 just seems so awesome. It has the MIR for it as well so it's under $100.

I don't know... The PCP&C is just so... LUSTWORTHY. (lol) My initial plan was to purchase the 620w Enermax Liberty but someone turned me off on that one. I still hear they are great PSU's though, what are your thoughts?

 

[Ika]

Games perform just fine under Vista x64. So far there doesn't seem to be much difference from XP anymore (especially after a new x64 reliability and such patch).

I think a 600w PSU would be more than enough for you. I have a Corsair HX520 in my system (E6400 @ 3.2, 8800GTS 320mb, 4gb ram, 1hdd, 1 optical drive) and I'd be surprised if my comp used more than 400w. If you want peace of mind, a 600w would be fine. I personally like the Corsair PSUs, but it's pretty much up to you. If you're lucky and hit a rebate on the Corsairs, you could get a 520HX for maybe $70-80 and a 620HX for around $100.

Currently, HD2900XTs perform about on-par with 8800GTS 640mbs and perform better in some games, but normally costs more.

IF you can get DDR2 with Micron D9 memory chips, you should be good to go on the memory. I'm running DD2-533 that has D9s in it; they can overclock to DDR2-1050 and beyond.

Since you plan on getting 4gb of RAM in the future, you might as well start off in the x64 arena anyway. It's not really that big of a deal now; there aren't many compatibility issues anymore (except with driver signing, but I think x86 has that problem too).

 

[JimiP]

OK, I have made a revised component list. This new one will actually cost a little less but I believe I will get near the same if not better performance out of it.

Cooler Master Centurion 5 Case
Enermax Liberty 620W PSU (I might consider Corsair equivalent)
ASUS P5K Deluxe/WiFi-AP P35 ATX motherboard
Intel C2D E6750 CPU
Patriot Extreme Performance 2GB DDR2-800 (add a second pair in a few months)
Seagate Barracuda 320GB 16mb cache SATA HDD
Samsum 18X DVD+-R DVD Burner with 12X DVD-RAM Write w/ Lightscribe SATA optical drive
Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit OEM

And then in the next couple of months add an 8800GTS or a GTX if the price happens to go down to the GTS's price tag by then. (One can only hope).

-Edit-

I have decided to go with the Corsair 620HX PSU. That seems like a really nice PSU.

 

[CrimsonChaos]

It'd be easier if you posted links and/or prices of the parts.

I wouldn't go with the Enermax Liberty line - there's been a lot of reports of failures with it. I'd go with Enermax Galaxy or Infiniti line instead. I like PC P&C too, check out this one if you want one that is cheaper and more appropriate for your build. But it isn't any better than the Enermax Galaxy/Inifiniti lines.

Which Seagate drive is it - the 7200.10 or the ES series? Regardless, both are good (I have the 7200.10), and I've heard good things about the Western Digital Caviar SE16 series too.

I believe video games rely heavily on the Video Card -- so I'm not sure it's smart to spend all this money on the system only to skimp the video card.

 

[JimiP]

Originally posted by: CrimsonChaos
I believe video games rely heavily on the Video Card -- so I'm not sure it's smart to spend all this money on the system only to skimp the video card.

I don't see how purchasing an 8800GTS 640MB is skimping out. I simply don't want to pay so much for a graphics card. $450-$550 is too much.

I'll put up links for my component choices in a few minutes.