NEW pc build for gaming HELP Greatly Aprecieated

[illuminatirex]

Hi, im planing to build a new pc(mostly for gaming, my first build) before the end of next month, i was wondering wheather the parts I selected would be able to play games like Crysis, Haze, Project Offset, Unreal Tournament 2007, Battlefield 2142 (with 64 players online)and the ones that will come out in the next year or so in max quality all visuals turned on (on a 17.1 inch monitor that suports max 1280 by 1024 resolution), in regards to cpu, and gpu I prefare to stay with ATI, and intel products(for now), or atleast mid to high quality(later on), I wanted the build to "enabel" me to not wory about the "min specs" on games for a while.

Here are the parts that im considering to get:

-motherboard: ASUS P5W DH Deluxe
-CPU : Core 2 Duo E6600 (2.4Ghz)

-RAM : 2 Gigs of DDR2 677 ram (probably kingston, or corsair)

-GPU : i have no idea, i need the cheapest one thats an pciexpress, then ill get a ATI's dx10 card (something for not more than $400, I asume that any midrange dx10 card will outpreform the 1900xt, so lets say for now that this pc will have that 1900xt or beter dx10 card in it ) but if i would be buing the card now i would get the ATI Radeon X1300 All-In-Wonder 2006 just to wait out till the dx10 cards come out (that was the cheepest one i could find)

-PSU : thermaltake purepower 480W(i rail, 18A on it, i know that his is not enough, thats why i was planing to get this, in addition oto the first psu:
-Thermaltake W0099RU 250 Watts (Peak Load: 300Watts) Graphic Card power supply (250W, (Peak Load: 300Watts), i think it supplies 21 Amps to the gpu alone)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817153037 )
so combined it would be 480+250 W=730W with (18+21A)=39Amps

- ATI Theatre 650 Tv Tuner (its not yet out , i think, might be wrong)

some of other parts that im curently using, and im planing to use later on:
- 2 Hard Drives (IDE)
- 2 optical drives (Pioneer dvd drive, Yamaha F1 CD-RW drive)
-hard canoo fan controler bay (its in my thermaltake Xaser x III series case, with 7 80mm fans)
-logitech wireles mouse and keyboard
-Windows XP Home Edition OEM (in about a year or 2 ill swich to vista, when it will be stable, and without bugs )


And here my questions in regards to the build, that im not shoor of:

-how long would i be able to play games with max visual setings(with the resolution given above) looking at the changes in the gaming industry, would it be around 2 years? 3, and then medium quality?

-Is the ASUS P5W DH Deluxe beter of the P5B Deluxe(im not planing to go xfire, but i might go with an aditional physix card)

-I heard that the P5W DH Deluxe does mpt work "out of the box" with the core 2 duo's , I do not have a 775 socket cpu, so I wil have problems with it, is there a way to get the bios flashed (i know i can use a flash drive, but i think i need a older cpu in the socket), i cant get a older cpu from anyone, nor buy one just to flash the mobo.

-Will the mentioned 480W psu be sufficient to power everything else except the gpu which im planing to supply power from the mini psu(250W, (Peak Load: 300Watts))

- or is it beter to get a new psu 650W or even a 700W one, im a bit budget presed, and the aditional 250W costs just $50, and i dont realy want to throw away my old psu, or will both of these psu's be insuficient?

- will i be able to use just my curent 480W psu for now with a "whatever" cheepest gpu, until i get a good gpu(and then the aditional psu)?

-will the P5w dh Deluxe be able to support new(er) cpus the quad core ones when they come out? so i could upgrade teh cpu itselfe in that 3 or 4 years or so? it states on the asus's site that the mobo is : "LGA775 socket for Intel Core2 Duo, Core2 Extreme and next generation Mulit-Core CPU"
so does that mean yes?

-which memory is beter ECC or nnon ECC does it really mater?

-will this build last me that atleast 4years of high/midrange "power" visual and procesing wise for gaming? (given that i wont get a new LCD monitor, and will use that max resolution or a bit less than the max resolution)considered ill get a shader model 4.0 , dx10 gpu, and that core 2 duo, which seams quite nice by toways standards, im interested in "plesently playable" framerates(averaging anything above that 30 or 40). I might add a second card (low end one) for physics in about a year or whenever that will be needed. I will certainly ad more ram along the way (the mobo suports max 4 gb for regular non 64 bit os and 8 gigs for 64bit), so in 2 years or so ill ad another 2 gigs.

-How many years would i be able to use this system before i would have to look at the "minimum required specs" on game boxes?

-is there anything that i should change, any suggestions?

Sorry about the lenghty post, but i wanted to make shoor that all parts would be "compatible", and besides this will be my first build

Thank You very much for all thoughts, and suggestions on the build, greately aprecieated

 

[prozac26]

Pretty good rig, but next time, post this in the Homebuilt Section.

ECC RAM is for servers, and will suck for your rig, plus, your mobo doesn't support ECC (as far as I know). Get Non-ECC, and get the lowest timings you can afford/find.

 

[illuminatirex]

ok thx fot he info, sory for the placement, i placed it here because i had some ati questions, and it related to gaing but ill move it there then, sory about it , btw i looked up corsair and thy did not have any info on the p5W dh deluxe mobo at all (that is in regards to their memory2x1 gig)

 

[prozac26]

There shouldn't be any issues with the RAM. Go to Asus's site, and there should be a list of supported memory for that motherboard. But like I said, there shouldn't be any issues.

 

[Haggard]

Just about as good as it can get...

If you are going to spend that much on a computer you might as well through in a pair of Raptors and some 1337 low-latency ram. :lol:

 

[illuminatirex]

lol geting that aditional psu did get me already a bit over budget lol , i have 2 working ide hdrives so why waste them? lol they work fine and i think i have 280gb capacity (200 and 80) so that should last me a while

and in regards to the post before this one thx ill check out the site, what about my other questions? i was curious

 

[Haggard]

lol geting that aditional psu did get me already a bit over budget lol

If you are over the budget go for a E6400 insted.
It still kicks ass and with that mobo you can OC it to be as good as a E6600 or better!

 

[illuminatirex]

lol i know but the 6600 has a bit more catch(it doesnt do so much ...maby a 10% increade in most of the apps) but still, and i wanted the system to last me that 4 years atleast without any cpu upgrades , maby some aditional ram upgrades thats it , to be honest i would wait till the dx10 are out, then i wouldnt have to waste the 44 on a "just for now" card

 

[Haggard]

Are you planning on overclocking the CPU?

 

[illuminatirex]

not at the begingin, maby a year or 2 after i build the system, when i will find the cpu to be "slow" which im shoor will take a long while considering im using a 1.7 pIV at the moment which i got in 2001(cant oc it)

btw how many amps does the 1900xt use? and would the 480W psu with 18 amps be strong enough to support the rest of the system without supplying power to the gpu? just to the :mobo, cpu, ram, fans, hd's, and optical drives?

 

[Haggard]

We'll everything looks good.
You could always buy the computer when DX10 graphic cards come out.
Not only will the CPU be a bit cheeper then but they may have better mobos for overclocking Conroes.
But then again...

You SERIOUSLY need a new computer!!!

 

[illuminatirex]

tell me about it lol i have a 1.7 PIV , 512 ram, and a radeon 7500 all in wonder...so the build will be a huge step up for me but the psu i aded about 2 years ago or less, and i changed the case to a thermaltake xaser III series. Thats why i want to put together a system that would last me awhile whithout worrying wheather my pc would handle games or other software.

 

[Haggard]

I'm getting a new computer too.
Look here, here and here.

 

[prozac26]

lol i know but the 6600 has a bit more catch(it doesnt do so much ...maby a 10% increade in most of the apps)

On average, the increase is about 3-4%. The biggest difference was about 10% in only one program. I'll try to find the link for you to see.

 

[prozac26]

2mb vs. 4mb cache

3.5% average difference. Not worth it IMO.

 

[illuminatirex]

lol so i gues i looked on the bright side 2 much lol ....i knew there was that 10% somewhere ...but what about other games in dx10 ...maby then it might help...but yet again ur right, but what about that 0.3 increase ,

so its beter to gat the E4400 and put that $100 or so towards a gpu then?

 

[illuminatirex]

btw what about my plans in regards to the psu? will that work out nicely? or would i have some problems? will the "mini psu" be powerful enough for future cards? its 250W and 21A, and will the other( 480W 18A) be enough to power the rest of the system (im not planing to overclock)



actually in anand they wrote
"If you're the type to upgrade often, then the extra cache is not worth it as you're not getting enough of a present day increase in performance to justify the added cost. However, if this processor will be the basis for your system for the next several years, we'd strongly recommend picking a 4MB flavor of Core 2"

and to be honest i dont upgrade often, usualy i stay with one thing till its "unworkable" , so maby future apps might use it more(with more results)
thx