Extreme Overclocking / Gamer's Build

[b1shank]

All,

I am just getting ready to pull the trigger and buy all the components for my new machine. I am aiming for something that will scream and allow me to upgrade as necessary. Please give this build a sanity check and let me know if there are going to be any major compatibility issues/limitations. I play mainly online game - BF2, Planetside, etc.

Thermaltake Kandalf LCS Liquid Cooling Case (VD4000BWS)

Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800 Conroe 1066MHz FSB 4M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor

ASUS P5N32-SLI Premium/WiFi-AP Socket T (LGA 775) NVIDIA nForce 590 SLI ATX Intel Motherboard

OCZ Titanium Alpha VX2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1000 (PC2 8000) Dual Channel Kit System Memory OCZ2TA1000VX22GK

2 x XFX GeForce 7900 GTX / 512MB GDDR3 / SLI / PCI Express / Dual DVI / HDTV / RoHS / Video Card PVH71FYDP9

2 x Western Digital Raptor WD740ADFD 74GB 10,000 RPM 16MB Cache Serial ATA150 Hard Drive

1 x Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD3200KS 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer Fatal1ty Professional Series 70SB046A00000 7.1 Channels PCI Interface Sound Card

Tagan Noise-free TG-900-U95 900 Watt Quad-SLI Ready Power Supply

Thanks in advance
B1shank

 

[tool_462]

It's your money, but I would (since you want to OC) buy an E6600 and overclock. But with the X6800 you will OC higher, but for gaming the gains won't be on par with the extra price you will pay.

Just my personal opinion, but it appears you have money to spend!

 

[melarcky]

also with your budget, you should just wait like 3 weeks and get the gf 8800GTO or gf8800GTX,they will be DX10 and will leave any mordern card in the dust

 

[althaz]

It's your money, but I would (since you want to OC) buy an E6600 and overclock. But with the X6800 you will OC higher, but for gaming the gains won't be on par with the extra price you will pay.

Just my personal opinion, but it appears you have money to spend!

You can't OC far if you want to SLI (unless you get a multiplier unlocked X6800, which he has ).

That said, to the OP: I'd wait a few weeks for the 8800GTX which should blow everything out of the water. Hell, SLI those motherf'rs! :: drools ::

 

[Ycon]

You should wait until details on the new nForce 680i start to show. It might be the first overclockable nForce chipset!
And you should SLi some 8800 GTS if you dont mind having to get a higher W power supply.

 

[b1shank]

I'm definitely staying with the X6800. I want the most flexibility for OCing.

It sounds like waiting for the 8800s to come out is a good idea...but three weeks...I think I can wait Any idea on cost? ~$500?

Ycon, you say that will require a higher W power supply. More than 900W...Wow. What do you recommend?

Thanks for the advice.

 

[rwaritsdario]

The biggest problem for OCing I see there its the motherboard. The current nForce chipsets only go up to 300Mhz FSB. Check out the Asus P5B Deluxe, Gigabyte DQ6, Abit AW9D-MAX. Those three are the best mobos for C2D right now.

But if youre willing to wait. I saw wait for the DX10 cards from nVidia, The nForce 680i chipsets, RD600 chipsets, and the Intel BadAxe2. Once this three have gone to the market youll make a much better buy thatll last alot longer.

 

[Anoobis]

The ABIT AW9D-MAX can do both Crossfire and SLI (with the right drivers) And the Foxconn 975X7AB-8EKRS2H only supports Crossfire (No SLI) but appears to have possibly legendary overclocking potential.

 

[rwaritsdario]

Real nice find on that review for the Foxconn mobo!
Any chipset can run SLI with this.

 

[kgbstudly]

Jesus that system is gonna blaze through benchies :-D

But dang, you couldn't have waited 30 days for dx10 cards :roll:

That would have been my thought, but then again, we have no clue how they will perform either, 2 gtx's ....the source of much envy

 

[rwaritsdario]

Well okay, seems like youll spend alot of money so I cant let you waste some of it:

The Alpha modules from OZ are good but you might wanna look into Gskill and Mushkins DDR2 1000 CL4 modules. Research about the three of them and go for the one that OCs the best.

Definetly wait for the DX10 cards from nVidia coming out really soon. SLI isnt worth it at all unless your monitor can do over 16x12 (and youll game at those resolutions).

Get a single Raptor X for the same price. Same storage for $100 less. Even that RAID 0 would give you some 14% improvement, but youre already getting a a 10k performance so ild rather the space.

Barracuda 7200.10, fastest drive for 7.2k spins.

Nice choice on the PSU.

For the water cooling system, a custom system from dangerden.com or swiftech.com will outperform any of this "kits". But if you seriously mean breaking benchmarks and records you shoul get into phase cooling and all those fancy/expesive sub-zero cooling solutions.

Youve already got your mobo choices.

 

[enforcer22]

Definetly wait for the DX10 cards from nVidia coming out really soon. SLI isnt worth it at all unless your monitor can do over 16x12 (and youll game at those resolutions).

Youve already got your mobo choices.

Hell i wouldnt even game at such low ressolutions with a single card i think $500 for a new top of the line dx10 card is almost dreaming but we will see if ATI and Nvidia can ship quantity if not expect it on ebay for $1200 lol Your going to pay a nice premium for waiting for hte new hardware coming out really soon. But your going to have one bad ass system.

 

[rwaritsdario]

You just have to have the cash on hand and hunting it down on froogle 24/7 hehe

 

[angry_ducky]

Suggestions:

1) Quad-core CPUs are coming out soon; I wouldn't drop ~$850 on a dual-core CPU. If anything, save a couple hundred bucks by switching it to an E6600 and overclocking it beyond X6800 speeds.

2) Forget dual 7900GTX; change the video card to the 256MB X9000XT, which is $215 after a $40 MIR. This card will play any game out there at high settings; if anything, wait for G80 and R600, then upgrade to a DX10 cards.

3) Forget the Raptor; get two Seagate 7200.10 320GB drives (perpindicular recording w/16MB buffer) and put them in RAID. Or a single Raptor X (150GB) and a 320GB 7200.10 for storage.

4) Change the case to anything Lian-Li.

The rest looks good.

 

[enforcer22]

quad core is going to about as usless as dx10.

 

[rwaritsdario]

quad core is going to about as usless as dx10.

And youre saying this based on??

 

[b1shank]

Thanks guys. The advice has been great. I think I can wait a couple weeks for the new Asus MB w/ nForce 680i and the new GeForce 8800gtx. As for the quad core, I'm not sure I want to go that route.


Thanks again...I'll build it up and post the benchmarks ASAP.

Cheers!

 

[rwaritsdario]

Dont forget to start another endless research on sophisticated sub zero cooling since youve got the money.

 

[enforcer22]

quad core is going to about as usless as dx10.

And youre saying this based on??

Im saying it based on applications made for either and the time it will take for people to do it. Hell dual threaded has been around forever but not alot takes advantage of that.

 

[rwaritsdario]

Games wise Quad-cores are a completle waste. But they can take on alot more applications than dual cores.
Even that no games will b DX10 compatible until 2008, these high end card will definetly make all the current games run completly seamless at the highest setting.
Not completly useless, but not worth the premiun IMO, its about waiting for software to catch up.

 

[enforcer22]

Yeah but i said about not compleatly i should have said what i ment almost usless. Give it another year and i bet DX10, Dual and quad cores have alot to do in games and such. Hell i cant wait for what can be done to be done just now? its pretty much a waste now if he did it say 6 months from now there would be emergine software already and i would say do it easy.

 

[chuckshissle]

I would get the E6600 and wait for the 8800GTX next month. If you can't then get a 7900GT or equivalent for now till your next upgrade.

 

[rwaritsdario]

ASUS P5N32-SLI Premium/WiFi-AP

Cool, so they started shipping those junk already?

$220 of black PBC

 

[chuckshissle]

Well it looks like Core 2 SLI platform is not close to maturity yet, I suppose. That's a very good thing for me to upgrade next year when everything would be in order as I hope.

 

[blade47]

All,

I am just getting ready to pull the trigger and buy all the components for my new machine. I am aiming for something that will scream and allow me to upgrade as necessary. Please give this build a sanity check and let me know if there are going to be any major compatibility issues/limitations. I play mainly online game - BF2, Planetside, etc.

Thermaltake Kandalf LCS Liquid Cooling Case (VD4000BWS)

Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800 Conroe 1066MHz FSB 4M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor

ASUS P5N32-SLI Premium/WiFi-AP Socket T (LGA 775) NVIDIA nForce 590 SLI ATX Intel Motherboard

OCZ Titanium Alpha VX2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1000 (PC2 8000) Dual Channel Kit System Memory OCZ2TA1000VX22GK

2 x XFX GeForce 7900 GTX / 512MB GDDR3 / SLI / PCI Express / Dual DVI / HDTV / RoHS / Video Card PVH71FYDP9

2 x Western Digital Raptor WD740ADFD 74GB 10,000 RPM 16MB Cache Serial ATA150 Hard Drive

1 x Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD3200KS 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer Fatal1ty Professional Series 70SB046A00000 7.1 Channels PCI Interface Sound Card

Tagan Noise-free TG-900-U95 900 Watt Quad-SLI Ready Power Supply

Thanks in advance
B1shank

First of all
dont go for the Core 2 Extreme x6800 go for the E6600 and overclock it.
It seems you are bent on overclocking so go for the Intel® Desktop Board D975XBX .
One more thing, before you take the plunge wait for the DirectX10 cards to be released.
Since you are building a high performance system you shouldnt skimp on the Graphics card.
Connect the 2 RAPTOR drives in Raid 0 .