Game system (rather cheap, but futureproof)

[RDev]

hi all,

this is a list of how i had my system in mind.

■Motherboard: Asus P5N32-E SLI
■CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6850
■CPU cooling: Scythe SCINF-1000
■Memory: Geil Ultra series (2 x 1 GB) (maybe 4GB)
■GPU: MSI NX8800GT OC (2, in SLI)
■HDD: Samsung Spinpoint T133 (400GB) (2X)
■DVD: NEC AD7173A
■Case: Antec Nine Hundred
■PSU: Antec Neo HE 500W
■Speakerset: Logitech X-230
■Keyboard: Logitech G11

total price: €1445.59 (that's 2092.93 USD or £1006.24)

I already have a Samsung Syncmaster 206BW (20"). Since i'm going to game on this machine, it should be able to run new games at 1620*1050 (including Crysis ), at "very high" detail (0 x AA isnt a big problem). that's why i choose for the 2 8800GT cards, 2 of these cost a much as a GTX and should perform better (in SLI), i guess.

i choose the E6850 because it seems to be the best dual core cpu around at the moment. I'm not going for a quad core since they are still a litle bit to expensive.

The Geil memory is the cheapest (in the store where i plan buying my parts), and Geil seems to offer good quality.

is everything comatible?
all tips are welcome

thx in advance

 

[Guest]

Just so you know in order to run Crysis in 'very high' detail you must have DirectX 10. This means you must have Vista.

Not sure if you know that or not. Also, you might be pushing it with a 500W power supply. If you're going to have $500 in video cards SLI'd in your computer, don't you think its worth it to spend a few extra bucks on the PSU? I'd go with a good solid PSU, like a Seasonic with some more power capacity. Seasonic S12 650W PSU is around $160 and is one of the best you can buy at that price range. Very efficient and quiet, and notorious for being of the highest quality so you don't worry about it failing on you.

 

[RDev]

i thought the Antec NeoHe was powerfull enough to run everything, but it might not be a bad idea to take the one you offered, maybe just to be sure in the futere

i know i have to take Vista, i'm just not sure if i should go for the 64-bit or the 32-bit verion. does 64-bit offer more advantages? (appart from being able to address 4GB and more)?

 

[SEALBoy]

Yea, 2 8800GT's in SLi would be pushing a 500W PSU... get the one deuce mentioned.

Right now, Vista x64 offers no real performance benefit and bunch of incompatibilities... stick with x86.

 

[RDev]

thx
do the other components look good to u guys? no known compatiblity problems i hope...
is it worth waiting for a pci-e 2.0 motherbord, or will i have the same performace with a motherboard with pci-e 1.1, like the one i mentioned?

 

[rickpcnerd]

You need at least a 600w power supply to run this card on SLi.
How about this power supply:OCZ Technology StealthXStream 600W Power Supply$83.16

 

[ausch30]

This http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=10005611 is also an outstanding PSU and about the same price as the Seasonic.

Nvidia is supposed to release their 780i chipset very soon which is nothing more than a 680i with support for PCI-E 2.0 and an extra PCI-E controller so you might want to wait but I would say that it's not really worth it. It might push the prices of 680i boards down a little though so the choice is up to you.

I don't know what country in Europe your from but you might want to consider buying online. In the US online prices are significantly less and as long as there isn't a retail store in your state you don't have to pay tax which more than makes up for shipping costs. As I said I don't know where your from or the laws there but it's at least worth looking into.

 

[RDev]

ok thx for al the tips on the PSU
tomorrow i'll take a look at some reviews, to see wich is the best one.

since no one is saying anything about the other hardware, i can assume that it's all right and save to order?

 

[SEALBoy]

Ok, you say that you aren't going quad-core because their too expensive. However, the Q6600 is a whopping $5 more than you dual-core. Your choice which one to take - the E6850 will OC better and run single/dual-threaded apps faster (like all current games), but the quad-core will give you a boost in multi-threaded apps like video-encoding/future games.

 

[RDev]

yeah u're right about the Q6600.
how does the Q6600 overclock? will my Scythe SCINF-1000 be able to cool it proberly. the FSB of the Q6600 is a litle slower (1066MHz), will this make a big diffrence? (the E6850 FSB runs at 1333MHZ) the shop where i'll buy my hardware sells the Q9300 as well (2.50 GHz, FSB 1333MHZ, 6MB l2 cache) this one is only €27 more expensive than the Q6600, the Q6600 is only €1 more expensive than the E6850.
do games like Crysis, COD4, et:qw already benifit from quad core processors?

 

[aggiestudd07]

I overclocked my B3 Q6600 to 3.2 GHz on air easily

 

[SEALBoy]

yeah u're right about the Q6600.
how does the Q6600 overclock? will my Scythe SCINF-1000 be able to cool it proberly. the FSB of the Q6600 is a litle slower (1066MHz), will this make a big diffrence? (the E6850 FSB runs at 1333MHZ) the shop where i'll buy my hardware sells the Q9300 as well (2.50 GHz, FSB 1333MHZ, 6MB l2 cache) this one is only €27 more expensive than the Q6600, the Q6600 is only €1 more expensive than the E6850.
do games like Crysis, COD4, et:qw already benifit from quad core processors?

To be honest, if I were you I'd go with a cheaper dual-core like an E4400 or so. You can overclock it easily to E6850 speeds with your cooler, and then a few months down the road if you feel that the dual-core is holding back your system you can drop in a native quad core.

Crysis, COD4 (i think), etc WILL benefit from quad-core, but to be honest the difference won't be phenomenal - having a powerful GPU will weigh in much more than extra cores.