Need help building an Enthusiast Gaming System

[deathbydonut]

Hello everyone,
Ive read the forums here for quite some time and found my solutions to many computer building questions ive had from time to time, however now i got a bunch of questions cause im building a new rig for gaming for myself.

My budget is around $4k and i have the ridiculous flaw of always wanting the absolute best thing I can buy for gaming even if its more expensive and something that is slightly less expensive would give the same if not a little less performance. Not me i want the best performance possible If I can afford it :twisted:

Im going to be using this computer for gaming, Photoshop Graphics for my photography, and developing for websites and programming, as well as general web surfing and music listening. I already have a 22" Dell LCD and a Klipsch Promedia 5.1 so im set with those although if i have extra cash at the end i may double up my LCD's and get a second 22". I will be mainly using 1600x1200 res on most apps and games. I dont really plan to overclock too much, maybe a little depending on how my system runs initially and how the heat does on it. My computer room is very hot during the daytime so I need it all to be relativly cool, and preferably quite of course.

Anyways wihtout further ado, here is what im planning but i need a little help on my build (will it be compatible, is some of the parts im choosing not as good as others etc...)

CPU: E6800 Core 2 Extreme (all reviews ive seen dont favor the quad core processor so ill skip it for now unless im missing how this processor will react with DX10 games.)

Graphics: 8800 GTX x 2 running SLI (not sure which brand to go with, are there any brands who stand out to anyone for better components or running cooler or better warrenty? I was thinking BFG cause they used to be the best.)

Mobo: Asus P5N32-E SLI (im having a rather large conflict with this one. Should i go with the striker extreme, will spending the extra money for more bells change the performance? Are there any other good boards that do SLI and accept conroe processors? Should I wait till another quality gameing mobo comes out?)

RAM: 2 Gigs of DDR2 PC8000 Dominator Corsair memory w/ the little fan thingy on top (Are there any other sticks that are better than this in performance? Does the Airflow thingy cause alot more noise?)

Storage: WD 10k RPM Raptor HD's at 150g x 2 running Raid 0 or 1 (Anything better?)

Sound: Creative Soundblaster X-Fi Xtreme Gamer Fatality (any difference between this card and the cheaper X-Fi soundcard?)

Case: C80 Stacker or the Silverstone T7 something (will these cases fit this system? Which one is the case with better heat disapation and/or airflow? Any others that you think would be better picks? How noisy are these with full compliment of fans? Any chance of using a water cooling system with this case?)

PSU: Enermax galaxy 1kW (any PSU's that are better, cooler, less noisy?)

CPU Fan/Heatsink: No clue! (Need some help on best ones to choose for the E6800 Core 2 Extreme)

Case Fans: No clue! (Need some more help with a good brand for quite fans, maybe a little flashy too 8) )

Im planning on building the system between now and the end of January. Should I get Windows Vista when it comes out or just hang on to XP Media?

Sorry I know this is alot of questions, but any help, recommendations would be appreciated! Thanks ahead of time

 

[shata]

Graphics:
Well for your video card you want to go with asus, msi, BFG (i would perfer bfg there warrenty is amazing)

Storage:
Try going with 4x76gb 10,000 rpm drives. I dunno if that will effect the speed a little but i would perfer Raid 1+0 and you can only do this with 4 drives. I like the security of raid 1 thats why i would pick this.

PSU:
There is better, it doesnt get better then PC power & cooling look them up ;D

 

[deathbydonut]

Will the Silencer 750W work for 2 8800 GTX cards? or will i have to go with their turbo cool 1kwatt model?

That turbo cool PSU is pricey.

 

[deathbydonut]

*bumb*
Still need some help gang

 

[Doughbuy]

Sigh... too lazy to read these long help my whole build, but I'll do it this time...

Well, if you were going to pony up the money for an X6800, might as well just get the QX6700, it'd last you longer anyways.

For the gfx card, this article will help:

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2873

Get the eVGA card with ACS cooling. Won't be out for another week or so, but it seems to be the best.

Mobo, the striker extreme is fairly overpriced, and doesn't offer much better performance, so don't even bother. Haven't read many reviews on the P5N32-E, but the eVGA board works really well as a reference board. But probably can't go wrong with either. Yes, I definitly recommend waiting though, especially for RD600 and R600...

Uh.. no need for PC8000 ram, since I doubt you'd be able to OC anywhere that would utilize all that. A nice set of DDR2 PC800 ram will be fine, and those can OC over 1000mhz which corresponds to a FSB of around 500, which is pretty much the max you'd be able to hit...

If you want to waste money on 150 gig raptors, go ahead. Otherwise I'd get 2 74 gigs in raid, and use the extra money to buy some 750 gig hdd's for deep storage... You don't need 300 gigs of ultra-fast storage...

Hmmmm... double check to see if the 8800GTX in SLI will cover up all your PCI slots, otherwise a sound card is useless.

CM Stacker 830 or the Silverstone are both really nice cases. The TT Tai Chi is also another top quality ase. However, I like the Antec nine-hundred, and I'm probably going to move the included rear exhaust to the side and add a 190cfm delta fan as a rear exhaust.

Enermax Galaxy is fine enough for a PSU... should leave you with plenty of room, although an 850W PSU would work just as fine.

Man, I don't even want to touch CPU/Fan and heatsink... Best HSF, Tuniq Tower, Thermalright XP-120, Scythe Ninja or Infinity. I'd also consider the Titan Amanda, a peltier cooling. I don't even want to go into water-cooling or all the options that opens up.

Case fans, most of them come with your case. If you need more, depends on if you want quiet or not, but the best 120mm fan is the 190CFM Delta fan.

*done*

 

[deathbydonut]

I know it was a long post doughbuy but thank you very much for the response!

I will take you up on some of your reccommendations, the Evga card with that ACS cooling does look to be the strong contender, so ill probably go with a pair of those when they hit the shelves.

Im still failry confused on the processor though, from most of the reviews I see the E6800 still out performs the quad core. Why are so many still going with the QC6700?

I definately agree with the raptors drives after thinking about it, the performance hit is not too drastic either.

I do like that nine hundred antec case, but will there be enough room for that huge fan in the center and 2 8800 cards? That was one of the reasons why im hesitant on that case, but otherwise i like the nice fan arrangment on that case.