Is this system a good choice for OC?

[Morideen]

I'm building a system with OC in mind:

Seagate - Barracuda 7200.11 SATA 3Gb/s 320-GB
Samsung - Samsung 22" TFT, SM226BW, Black 2ms 3000:1 300cd/m2 DVI RGB
DVD ROM/DVD-RW: LiteON - LiteON Black DVDRW LH-20A1S-15C, SATA, Ram 12x, +R 20x, -R 20x, +RW 8x, -RW 6x, DVD 16x, CDRWR 48x32x48
ZALMAN - ZALMAN ATX PowerSupply, 600W, noise-free, ZM600-HP
Codegen - Codegen ATX E6097-CА w/atx 480W CB CE V2.03 TUV PSU & 12cm FAN W/STEEL NET & 20+4PIN W/USB2.0 & AUDIO & 2*8cm LED FAN & PW1 & MESH SIDE PANEL & FOOT
ASUS - ASUS-EN8800GT/G/HTDP/512M, HDTV, HDCP, PCI-E
Corsair - D2 4G Kit, 800MHz,TWIN2X4096-6400C5DHX, DHX, XMS2
Intel - Intel Core 2 Duo E8400, 3GHz, LGA775, BOX
Gigabyte - Gigabyte GA-N650SLI-DS4L - s.LGA775, NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI, 4xDDRII 800/667/533, 2 PCI Express x16, 2 PCI Express x1, 2 PCI, 8 ch. HD Audio, Gigabit Lan, 1 IDE, 4 SATA 3Gb/s with RAID function, 4 USB 2.0/1.1, ATX



I'm planning to add the same GPU to enable SLI and that's the reason why I've chosen this particular MB.

My main concern though is whether the RAM modules will support the OC of the PCU and to what extend (e.g. does this RAM kit OC well enough with this CPU). I also wonder if the MB, CPU & RAM make a good combo for moderate-but-not-extreme OC.

 

[beurling]

you can hit 3.6Ghz without having to overclock your memory at all. Make sure that motherboard supports the E8400 without a bios update as well, it might, but double check.

 

[Evilonigiri]

Why get the older 650i when you can get the newer 7xxi?

The 6xxi aren't very compatible with Intel Quads, but I'm not sure about the newer E8xxx.

 

[hughyhunter]

I agree with Evilonigiri... why bother with old tech when there is new tech out right now?

If you want to overclock than an E8400 is the way to go... as it wont dissapoint and is easy to overclock.

I dont understand buying a GPU that is about mid-grade... well when the GX2 comes out it will be midgrade... and SLI them.

I bought an 8800GT on release day (top of the line GPU... couldnt get much better than that at the time) and bought another one when the prices dropped.

What I'm saying is if you want an SLI system than buy the best GPU that's out now and then when prices drop get another one. I would probably wait for the 9800 series cards to be out if I were you.

If you do decide to SLI get the 780i board. It's full 16x lanes on each pci-e slot for dual SLI and supports all new penryn without bios update. Also pci-e 2.0.

Make sure your memory is EPP for SLI.. it performs better than if it werent.

So bottom line is get an SLI mobo but a higher end GPU... like a 9800GTX when it comes out in a few weeks.

 

[Evilonigiri]

I dont understand buying a GPU that is about mid-grade... well when the GX2 comes out it will be midgrade... and SLI them.

I bought an 8800GT on release day (top of the line GPU... couldnt get much better than that at the time) and bought another one when the prices dropped.

What I'm saying is if you want an SLI system than buy the best GPU that's out now and then when prices drop get another one. I would probably wait for the 9800 series cards to be out if I were you.

Excellent point. The 8800GTs aren't as valuable in terms of performance now compared to before. While SLIing them does bring about excellent performance, it would be a smarter move to wait for the 9series to come out.

If you can't wait, it's better to buy the 8800GTS 512MB instead. The better cooling as well as better performance is well worth the extra money.

 

[Morideen]

Thank you so much guys.

I was so busy building the system (haven't been doing that in the last 2 years) I lost sight of the bigger picture.

Guess I'll wait for the 9800 series - makes pretty much sense really... And I might just stay with a single top of the market GPU when it's being released