Build check - High Budget, around 2k

EagleTwelve12

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Aug 19, 2007
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Hello, Although this is my first ga....com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16813131593
Processor - AMD X2 6000+ http://www.newegg.com/product/Product.asp?item=N82E16819103773

Video - PNY 8800GTS http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16814133188
RAM - Patriot Xtreme 4GB DDR2 800 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16820220227
Storage - Western Digital 500GB http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16822136073

Case - Cooler Master Cosmos http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16811119138
CPU Fan - Zalman 110mm http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16835118020
PSU - Thermaltake 700W http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16817153039

Included will also be Vista 32-bit, CD/DVD drive, and an ethernet card. My goal is pretty much to stick fairly close to these parts, while creating a powerful gaming rig to last. So far this will cost around 1.8k. Any ideas for improvements appreciated!
 

fletch420

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Intel currently has a very superior product, not that the part you selected is particularly bad but if you are going to throw down hard earned loot may as well buy the best you can with your money.
Also if you are looking for speed get the 500G drive for storage and a raptor for running SW for much faster access times. If you are going to be running vista 32 be aware it has a hard time recognizing more than 2G right now, you will need 64 bit for it to recognize 4G.
look at the Q6600
look at the WD raptor 150G
best of luck.
 

EagleTwelve12

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Shoot, I suppose you're right. I've stuck with AMD for so long, but I'll mix it up this time since I keep hearing Intel has it covered for gaming. HOWEVER, I'm even more noobish with Intel.

- If money was not a factor (but within reason), what MOBO should I go for? Looking for Nvidia SLI capable...
- You mentioned the Q6600. I noticed the E6850 isn't much more, but it doesn't appear to be quad performance. Should I spend the money for the E6850 if I have it? Or is the Q6600 the best for that price range?
- And note taken on needing Vista 64. Will move to 64 for the purchase!
- Lastly, would it alright to just get a Raptor 150G as my HD, and nothing else? I don't use more than 100gb's usually, and if I go over I would just uninstall the games I don't play. Is a data drive absolutely needed?

This is all assuming that the rest of the setup would plug right in, which I think is correct...
AND THANKS for the valuable input Fletch, it's much appreciated. Got me some more reading to do tommarow!
 

fletch420

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NP
The Q is the quad and the E is the dual- as of the last price drop i believe that the quad is a good value.
On the Mobo ?- not too sure on the sli boards just off the top the asus striker is very good and very popular....if I was going sli i would likley buy from EVGA- mainly due to the quality of their products and solid warranty.
And yes a 150 raptor is fine for your only drive (thats what im using) I just assumed you were going for 500G for a reason.
 

wingsofzion

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Try the Asus P5N32-E SLI: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131073



The E6850 and Q6600 are two great chips. It's been said through Tom's Hardware test and AndTech test that the Q6600 perfoms better when doing such task like rendering movies, audio and video. The E6850 perfoms better than the Q6600 in games. Look at the benchmarks for yourself where these two chips went head to head:
http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/07/16/cpu_charts_2007/page14.html
http://anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/intel/showdoc.aspx?i=3038&p=8
http://anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/intel/showdoc.aspx?i=3038&p=15


I hear ya. My old gamer was built upon a 74GB Raptor and 2years later is still have about 20GB left unused. Now is a data drive nessesary? I would say yes only for back up purposes. HDD's these days are very cheap. I mean a 500GB drive cost only $107 bucks. Here is what i suggest. Get your 150GB raptor and also a 250GB Western Digital Cavier drive. It's only $65 bucks (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822144701). Use your 150GB drive for the OS and game files and use the 250GB drive purely for storage/back up purposes. You can never be to carefull with your data and having a place to back up files in case you need to go and do a reformat is invaluable. My current gamer rig is set up as so.

HDD #1: 150GB Raptor
C: drive 30GB big for Vista
G: drive 120GB big for Game Files/Programs

HDD #2: 250GB Cavier
B: drive 250GB big for back up and storage.

I basically partitioned off my C drive on the Raptor to just be big enough to hold the OS and partioned off the rest of the space for my game files. In case I ever have to do a dredded reformat i can just wipe the C drive clean and still have my game files intact since they are in a different partition. My B drive on the 250GB is purely for storage and back up location for my raptor. You can try a similar set up if you find this usefull.

 

andrewsolid

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Check this out.....Great price/performance
AMD X2 5600+.....same cache as 6000+(2MB) and performs almost same
ASUS M2Nsli deluxe or anyone with NVidia 590 SLI chipset
RAM any one with 4-4-4-12 timings
2*320GB seagate (PMR) for RAID or 2*160
Graphic card: 8800GTS or 8800GTX(If u LUV really high resolution gaming)
Monitor: Samsung 226BW(excellent monitor for almost everything)

And all this doesn't exceed 1500 gubs(Inclusive of a good case with processor fan)

***Never liked INTEL(Have the capacity almost 10 times powerful than AMD but perform almost equal(Better right now) to AMD)*** Hats-off to AMD for their dedication and their radical and revolutionary projects(FUSION).
 

EagleTwelve12

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Aug 19, 2007
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First of all, many thanks for the replies! Incredibly helpful.

I do have a final picture in my head about how I will go about doing the build, but I have one last question - RAM.

I'm a bit unsure on the RAM. I see that the motherboards say they operate on DDR2 800 (PC2-6400) RAM, but then I see all the other new RAM on the market with higher numbers such as...
DDR2 1066 (PC2-8500) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145173
The reason I'm looking into this is because I keep reading that 4GB RAM is not the best idea with Vista, unless your running in 64-bit. I've read how 32-bit is better for gaming?

So basically, what is the best path here for gaming? Looking at 4GB DDR2 800 vs. 2GB DDR2 XXX (higher speeds)
Basically in the 200-300 price range, what's the best fit? I will stick with Vista 64-bit along with my original 4GB plan if it outperforms any 2GB within a reasonable price range.

Thanks again!
 

EagleTwelve12

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So 4GB of DDR2 800 will basically outperform any 2GB in the $250/$300 range?
I was looking at this - 2GB DDR2 1150 (PC2-9200). Does that outperform the 4GB DDR2 800?
And will it even run in a motherboard that says it runs on DDR2 800?

Moreso, 4GB in Vista 64-bit will outperform basically any 2GB in Vista 32-bit (for less than $300 dollars)?
I think I've read somewhere that 32-bit was better for gaming, but I could be making that up?

 

Dahak

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AMD still performs very well for games.so staying with AMD will hurt not one bit.Sure INTEL has a superior product right now,but things have a way of changing.You know what I mean.Stay AMD.Let's show AMD it can count on our support.C'mon man,INTEL is a multi-billion dollar company.If they don't have competition from someone like AMD,what do you think will happen to the price of cpus?Anyways,am just thinking out loud dude.Go with whomever you want.I,at least,do still believe in AMD.Goodluck.

Dahak

M2N32 SLI DELUXE MB
ATHLON64 X2-5600+
EVGA 7950GT KO
THERMALTAKE 850WATT PSU
2X1GIG DDR2 800 MEMORY
WD SATA2 80/250GIG HD
RAIDMAX SMILIDON GAMING CASE
XP MEDIA CENTER EDITION
 

wingsofzion

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Jun 24, 2006
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Don't get confused. If you go 4GB make sure your using a 64-bit OS. If your not go 2GB. A 32-bit OS WONT see 4GB. Get 2GB, your PC will run smooth. If you go DDr2 1066 make sure your mobo supports memory speeds that high. Some may say DDR2 800 Standard, meaning 800 is the highest it can go.
 

EagleTwelve12

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Aug 19, 2007
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Good to go guys, thanks a bunch.

Turns out I'll stick with the 4GB DDR2 800, possibly just cause it sounds so badass!
Here's my final product... drumroll please...

EVGA nForce 680i SLI
Intel E6850
4GB DDR2 800 RAM
PNY NVIDIA 8800 GTS
WD Raptor 150GB Hard drive
Vista 64-bit

Getting this case too - really into this look for some reason.. XCLIO Windtunnel http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16811103011

With the rest of the goods, the CD drive and ethernet card, the total comes to around 1.75k, after rebates. Not too fancy of a build, but should yield some great gaming times that I havn't enjoyed in some time. Thanks for all the help guys, definitly would have something far different if I didn't come to this site!
Take care


 

emp

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Dec 15, 2004
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Looks nice and all, but something that nobody has mentioned... where the hell is the PSU there? :) You need a high quality PC for a gaming system, especially for one as nice as the one you want. If you're shooting for SLI in the future, then I'd say go with a PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750W or an Antec TruePower Quattro 850W/1000W, that'll run you about $200, but it will provide you with the stability and current that you'll need. (unlike other 700W units worth $110)
 
A couple of thoughts here:

4 GB of RAM is still useful with a 32-bit system. I am doing that right now. You see only 3 or 3.5, true (depends on video card's amount of RAM) but then you'll rarely use even 2 GB. A 64-bit OS is a bit riskier because drivers tend to have more bugs. I really don't know which is better, Vista 32 or 64. I went with XP Media Center 32-bit to play it safe.

The Q6600 is the best value for money these days, especially for a longer-term investment. The E6750 is probably the best choice if we're talking about a short-term solution. The E6850 is a great CPU but it should be cheaper to compete well.

The PC Power & Cooling Silencer has an 86% efficiency. Also, I can't even hear it :)

SLI is very rarely a good idea, and not with GTS cards. A 680i mobo is a great idea if you also get two 8800 GTX cards (or if you get one GTX now and plan another one for later). Otherwise, it's better to get a GTX card and a GA-P35-DS3R and forget SLI. What sort of resolution are we talking about here? SLI makes sense around 1920x1200 or more, I think.

The Raptor will work at its best if it's not full of 30000 small files and other junk. It's not teh Raptor's fault, it's the O/S. I would add a storage drive.

PNY, I don't know. BFG, eVGA, XFX are my favorites - good reputation, good warranties.

Totally off-topic: what sort of CD drive do you want? I got myself a LG-H62N, it's great, but it takes 25 minutes to backup a movie on the hard disk. A Plextor PX-810SA costs twice as much but does the job in 11 minutes... I'm not recommending you get the Plextor, just saying you're smart to do research BEFORE buying and not after :)




 

emp

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The only thing I disagree on is on the OS, that may have been true 2 years ago regarding the 64-Bit OS, but now the support is pretty good, and there are almost none (if any) incompatibilities with known companies, maybe some home-written app will not work, but that's really about it.

Driver problems? I didn't find any at all when I was on Vista 64 (Running on XP doing some troubleshooting with my torrent clients before I go back to Vista 64). I guess what I'm trying to say is that it's pretty stupid not to go for a 64-Bit OS in this day and age.
 
Well, yes, but there are lots of programs written some years ago and they were never tested on 64-bit systems. In theory they should work, but I didn't want to take the chance. I'm sure that programs written this year and in the future will support 64-bit Vista. Even the programs I'm working on are now tested on Vista 64. For me it was very important to be able to run Diablo 2 (yeah, I know it's silly, but I really want to know how it feels on an 8800 GTX) and I know for sure it works on XP 32-bit...
 

genored

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May 20, 2007
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Omg, Here is the thing you are a gamer right

Vista is crap and will be crap for another year. If you play games do it with XP.

More the 2GB ddr2 800ram will do you nothing(you only play games) and the faster speed ddr2 or the new ddr3 are not worth the money today.

If you can find a q6600 with the G0 stepping i would go for that. Future games will be able to utilize all the 4 cores. On the other hard you can get a e6750 and w8 for a Native quad that will come sometime q1 next year.

Personally i would wait 15-30 days for Intel's x38 that has pci 2.0 that you will need for all future graphics cards

I would get a gts 320mb, while w8ing for real D.X 10 cards. If you can find one that is OC at 550-575 that would be perfect.

If you can w8 get a gigabyte intel p35 mother board

Ah sorry if you CAN'T w8
 

emp

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Mind elaborating on why Vista is crap for gaming? Im very curious, if it's performance wise, those issues were maybe present 2-3 months ago, but with present drivers (nvidia at least) you get the same performance as you do under XP, I tested it myself.

Also getting DDR2 1066 ram may or may not be helpful, depending if your overclock is being limited by the ram, I would recommend any SERIOUS OC'er to get the DDR2 1066, however any stock user/mild OC'er get the DDR2 800.
 

The problem with the E6850 is even in games its already lossing its edge to a lower clocked Q6600.
http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/07/16/cpu_charts_2007/page16.html
Over time these dual cores are just going to keep looking worse and you'll be sitting pretty with a quad.
Then you have all those other programs that really kills the E6850 when its compared to the Q6600.

For a gaming rig a raptor would be nice but I would suggest you putting more money in the GPU first. Get a better priced 200GB HD and maybe an 8800GTX.

I also suggest not getting the vista 32bit OEM. Either get vista home premium retail or vista home premium 64bit OEM.
 

MagicPants

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My two cents on the ram issue:

On 32bit windows each individual application can only address 2 gigs of ram but the overall system can address 4 gigs. Half a gig is usually eaten by the video card memory. Meaning you can really only get around 3.5 gigs.

The advantage of having more than 2 gigs of ram is if you have more than one application running at a time which is almost always the case in windows. Even when running a game you may have background tasks.
 


No kidding!!! Right now I have 53 (fifty three) processes listed in Task Manager. All I'm really doing is listening to a French course in winamp and typing this junk. And by the way, the O/S is XP Media Center just installed last week, so it's still very clean. I bet in 6 months I'll have 100 processes. Yeah, trust me, you will have background tasks. :cry: