Recommendations for Top Line Gaming Rig

[subdivisions]

I have been building gaming rigs for years and im partaking on my latest and greatest for myself. This one is gonna be an over the top slobberknicker.. I mean no holes barred type thing.

I have started with the following two peices..

Motherboard:

Asus Striker Extreme.

Reason: I have researched, and after being scared off originaly by the bios bugs it seems this board has matured. I like the nvidia chipset and really want to try one. Plus since i am going to SLI, i figured Nvidia (after being an ati fan the last 5 years) is going to be the true way to go. I am going to be running a 1333 bus, SLI, and an Intel Chip.

CPU:

Intel Core 2 Duo E6850.

Reason: Latest and greatest core 2 available from Intel. I did not o Extreme or Quad cause right now there is no valid reason to do. Nothing takes advantage of Quad yet really, the core 2 is fine, and very oc'able. The CPU is going to be watercooled, as is the video and possibly the chipset.

Now here is where i am looking for recommendations and what i am looking at for the rest.

As i stated above, I am going to SLI this setup, as the motherboard has Dual X16 pcie slots. As of right now the Nvidia 8800 768mb are the best i would gather, but im not going to get the video cards until the very last item i need (to ensure good dx10 cards, drivers, etc... besides no need to buy a card and have it sit for 6 months then havie it replaced so fast..)

So please weigh in on what you would get for the following:

MEMORY
WATER COOLER (I like thermaltake but Im open to suggestion, I hear Zalman has nice stuff)
VIDEO CARDS (ATI OR NVIDIA)
POWERSUPPLY (LEANING PROB AT LEAST 1000W MAYBE PC PWER&COOLING NOW THAT OCZ BOUGHT THEM)
KILLER NIC? (I DONT THINK IT DOES JACK, BUT WHATEVER)
X-FI?

Lemme hear what you all think

thank you

 

[Maziar]

Get a Q6600 instead , :
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/intel/showdoc.aspx?i=3038&p=8

 

[Solariscs]

I'd loose the Striker and get something else for the money, they cost way too much and haven't proven to work as well as they should for the price.

Try: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130080

That board even comes with a Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme on board.

 

[GenericName]

The Extreme Striker vs the Asus P5n32-E Sli 680 Board: (read its worth saving some money)

http://www.legionhardware.com/document.php?id=616

Conclusion - No difference other then the LED readout - no speed increase - no benefits - only more cost

MotherBoard:

A SUS Striker Extreme LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI ATX The Ultimate Gaming Motherboard - $299.00

ASUS P5N32-E SLI LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard - $ 209.00

now you can afford better processor

Here's my Rig:

COOLER MASTER Stacker RC-832
(2) Dell 2407 UltraSharp 24" Wide DVI 6ms 9-in-2 Card Reader
Vista Ultimate 64Bit / Office Standard 2007
Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 Kentsfield 2.66GHz
ASUS P5N32-E SLI LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 680i - BIOS 1201 BETA
(2 SLI)- EVGA 768-P2-N835-AR GeForce 8800GTX 768MB SuperClocked
(4) Gigs RAM OCZ model # OCZ2T8002GK
Tagan TG1100-U96 ATX12V Power Supply
Seagate Barracuda 750GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb
ZEROtherm BTF90 92mm Silent UFO CPU Cooler
(4) Scythe S-FLEX SFF21F 120mm Case Fan
Sony NEC Optiarc Combo Drive Black IDE Model CRX320EE/B2S W/O SW
SUPER TALENT INT-AIN1-C All-in-one USB 2.0 Card Reader
ESET NOD32 Anti-Virus

 

[subdivisions]

thanks for the fast replys..

I already ordered the striker and the core 2 but i can easily return them and get the p5n32-sli and the fastest quad core the place i am gettin this stuff from has is the 2.6 1066 bus quad. Now realizing i can go quad at any time on the asus boards wouldnt the 1333 bus with the core 2 give me more right now (since the games are not going to benefit from quad cores)..

 

[LoopyChicken]

- If you want top of the line, wait for the x38 mobo this next month.

- If you're building a slobberknicker, you aught to get the qx6850. There may be few applications utilizing quad *now*, but they are literally just around the corner. For instance, the upcoming game Alan Wake. Someone recently posted a video of the developer doing a runthrough of the game and during the game they spend a considerable amount of talking about how the game utilizes all four cores. The games of next year should be using this technology.

What OS you going with?

 

[n8dogg]

don't listen to the striker naysayers, it's a great board and the new bios is great and oc's very well, I've had 3 different C2D chips and have been able to push all to over 3.5mhz. But beware on ram, I have Team Extreem ddr 800 running on mine and it works great but had some xms and it wouldn't boot so try to stay on the ram list asus has on the website.

 

[subdivisions]

Im gonna have to go Vista since XP wont have dx10. Besides if im building a system for the future gaming, vista is gonna have to be the way to go. I have vista ultimate already, but my main box is xp pro.

I will have to research this x38mb, but if i wait for new things to come out this system will never get built.. To me the only thing worth waiting for is video cards, since generations beyond improve games by leaps.

The quadcore vs. dualcore for the price right now is nil. I can get the quad, but my thinking is, by the time i need or want to upgrade, a 1333 quad will be down to $200.

Now the key is I am not paying for any of this (my company is) so the cost of upgrading is nil, but the cip is something I would but when upgrading is near.

 

[xela]

thanks for the fast replys..

I already ordered the striker and the core 2 but i can easily return them and get the p5n32-sli and the fastest quad core the place i am gettin this stuff from has is the 2.6 1066 bus quad. Now realizing i can go quad at any time on the asus boards wouldnt the 1333 bus with the core 2 give me more right now (since the games are not going to benefit from quad cores)..

It all depends on your upgrating cycle. If you can get a new rig in 6 month, go with the E6850. It does outpreform Quads like Q6600 and Q6700 in today's games but UT3, Crysis, Wake are all around the corner and all made promises to have an extensive support for multicore.

If you are not planning to upgrate any time soon, then getting a quad makes sence, if you can get a new CPU in 4 or 5 month.. just get an E6850, it will keep your rig on top of the food chain for a while in any case.

 

[subdivisions]

Xela thats my thinking exactly. I can upgrade at anytime, and with the SLI setup, dual 8800gtx or whatever is top of the line, plus the core 2 will have me playing games at the ut most res everything on max for a while.

 

[subdivisions]

As far as the ram goes I havent had any problems with any of OCZ's stuff. I would get them first.

 

[Maziar]

another vote for OCZ

 

[xela]

As far as the ram goes I havent had any problems with any of OCZ's stuff. I would get them first.

Ok, most of people in here have helped build countless systems and the most important factor is usually the budget.
So if you want the best value for your $ give us a number to work with, if you just want the best, get a high end Falcon Northwest high end gaming rig, witch I might add is an awesome but very expensive solution.

 

[xela]

As far as the ram goes I havent had any problems with any of OCZ's stuff. I would get them first.

As far as the RAM goes, Crucial has been voted to the top by most harware communities just for beeing the sales arm of Micron. OCZ is a fine brand in any case so just pick the one that sounds best to you

 

[Solariscs]

I've used a lot of Super Talent RAM after being a long time user of Corsair and have had no problems with them.