Need memory and mobo advise for this system please!

[nlraley]

Having a hard time deciding on a mobo and memory for the new system I'll be building rather shortly. What I was looking for is having a nice setup that I can easily oc. This will be my first system build so still a little wet behind the ears, but trying to get the most info/research/tips before I go ahead and dump this much cash on a new system.

What I was possibly looking at is going with 4GB of RAM, was still wanting the option to go 8GB later on, but I've noticed most of the highly recommended gaming RAM only comes in the 4X1GB sticks which will prevent me from going up to 8GB later on down the road.

As far as mobo's, I'm wanting one that will allow me to go SLI, for if I choose to later on when I get a little more cash, and is pretty easily to oc.

What would you guys recommend? Also how does the rest of the system build look so far?

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 G0 Stepping Kentsfield 2.40GHz 8MB L2 LGA 775 Processor Retail BX80562Q6600 SLACR
- $288.00 (important that it's G0 stepping)

Western Digital Raptor X WD1500AHFD 150GB 10,000 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive - OEM
- $199.99

Creative 70SB046A00003 7.1 Channels PCI Interface Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum Fatal1ty Champion Series Sound Card - Retail
- $174.99

PC Power & Cooling / Silencer / 750-Watt / Quad PCI-Express / SATA-Ready / Black Power Supply
- $179.99

EVGA 768-P2-N835-AR GeForce 8800GTX 768MB 384-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail
- $569.99

Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
-$119.99

 

[chookman]

Id ditch the Raptor and just get a perpendicular drive they arent much slower and you get more space.

I dont like SLI, but if you have your mind set on it Asus P5N32-E SLI or Giga GA-N680SLI-DQ6

Without a 64bit OS it will be pointless to have 8gb ram and some would suggest that 4gb is still overkill for 32bit OS

 

[nlraley]

I do plan on going 64 bit Vista once I finish building the machine.

 

[anders_w]

You're not telling us what it's supposed to do, nor your choice of OS, that makes a lot of difference when selecting components.
I'll assume windows XP and general home/game system ....

I'd say quad CPU is over the top on a desktop system, few applications or games are able to make good use of it.

Western Digital Raptor X WD1500AHFD 150GB 10,000 RPM Serial ATA150
Disk performance is vastly underrated, keep this, maybe even get one more for a stripe.

sound whatever, unless you work with very specific things I very much doubt you'd notice any difference.

PC Power & Cooling - (I'm not experienced enough here)

EVGA 768-P2-N835-AR GeForce 8800GTX 768MB 384-bit
Might be over the top, it's an expensive card in comparison to performance, but if you need it ...

 

[nlraley]

Well I'm going into programming and csi so will be doing quite a bit of compiling as well, but wanting something that can pretty much handle anything I can throw at it and not have to worry about upgrading too much for quite some time down the road.

Will be running 64-bit Vista more than likely for my os, although many people have been saying that XP is better for gaming on, so might have to do a dual OS to run my games, but doubt Vista could kill my performance too much on this machine.

I will be oc'ing. Heard of people pushing the quad 6600 to almost 4GHz, but will probably be satisfied with around 3.7GHz b/c as far from what I've read its pretty easy to get it to that and its pretty stable. Having never oc'ed before I don't want to overdo anything too much.

I was looking at doing the trade in evga offers on video cards, because as far as I can tell if I order sometime next month I should be able to just meet the requirements for their new line of card, and only paying the difference it seems to be worth it.

I was looking at possibly the
EVGA 122-CK-NF68-A1 LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
-$219.99
people seem to be pretty satisfied with it, has the SLI if I want that later on down the road, and seems to be pretty easily oc'able.

Still clueless as to if this is a good choice or not and still have no idea what RAM will give me the best bang.

 

[arif_shol]

High comp spec only needed for gaming and CAD software or 3D design, otherwise i think you should choose spec only what u need, see ==> http://comparemb.tripod.com/