Building A High End System - Help Me Decide

[neoxblu1]

Hello,

I am building my very own high end system for christmas. I will mainly use this pc for gaming, so I only want the best of the best, or atleast good. My budget is around $3,500 (USA) a fair price for a high end system.I will not be overclocking. But I am here because I am building for the first time and I need help choosing the right components for my needs, mainly if my motherboard can handle everything I would like to put on it. One factor is that I am going to be using dual graphic cards, and I need PCI slots for a sound card, bigfoot killer card, and mayb agiea physx card. Please tell me which parts dont go together and how I can make my pc better. Thank you, here I go:

I need help deciding which motherboard I should get, please tell me which one I should get that mainly could support everything on the bottom list:


Processor
Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6850 LGA 775 Quad-Core Processor



Video Card
Dual BFG NVIDIA GeForce 8800GTS OC2 PCI-E Video Card



Sound Card
Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer Fatal1ty Professional



Power Supply
Thermaltake Toughpower 1200W



Case
Thermaltake Armor Series VA8003SWA Silver ATX Full Tower Computer Case



Hard Drive
Western Digital Raptor 150GB SATA Hard Drive WD1500ADFD, 10000RPM, 16MB Cache



Motherboard
- Gigabyte GA-N680SLI-DQ6
- Asus Striekr Extreme
- DFI LanParty UT NF680i LT
- eVGA 122-CK-NF68-T1
- eVGA 122-CK-NF68-A1



Memory
Corsair Dominator 2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR2 SDRAM Desktop Memory TWIN2X2048-8500C5D, DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500), 240-Pin



Network Card
BigFoot Killer NIC M1 Gigabit PCI Network Card, w/ 64MB DDR Memory



PhysX Graphic Accelerater
Asus AGEIA PhysX Physics Accelerator Card



Operating System
Microsoft Windows XP Professional x64 Edition 64-Bit Operation System Software



Thats my pc, but can my mobo handle everything I want to put on it, dual graphic cards, and 3 spare pci slots for sound card, Bigfoot killer NIC, and Agiea PhysX. As mentioned before I will not be overclocking. Please give me your reviews on how well built this system is and what i could do to brign the most out of it, what components to change (but i think got everything mostly covered but the mobo). So which mobo do I mostly need?


THANK YOU

 

[Scaj]

Well it's similar to what I just built but waiting on the Silverstone TJ09 case to have it fully assembled lol. Anyhow, the QX6850 CPU runs at a 1333 FSB so I would recommend going for DDR3 at the same frequency to avoid any bottlenecks in performance. I went with the Asus P5E3 Deluxe for that very reason and a single GTX, no SLI on that board though. A second raptor for raid 0 wouldn't hurt either hehe.

 

[slicessoul]

Ditch GTS. Get 8800GT 2x.
Ditch Physx card, save yourself for another 2GB RAM. Or get 2x 2GB RAM.
Get Striker extreme.

 

[kuniskos]

Going 2 x 8800GT, as mentioned, seems like a good idea.
Personally, I would go for the QX9650 over the QX6850, though it probably won't make much difference if you never overclock, and I guess the latter costs one or two hundred less.
I have the last MB in your list, the EVGA A1 680i, and it's been great, so I'd recommend it, if you're determined to go SLI.
I'd probably try to improve on the Intel HSF, too. I got the Zalman 9700 for the above board and an e6850, and this really improved cooling, but there are lots of good options, and stock may be adequate with no overclocking.

 

[maverick7]

ok ill re make your system for you

asus striker extreme
2 gig corsair ram (spend about $200)
western digital raptor 150 gig
western digital 500 caviar 500 gig (for storage)
Thermaltake armor
BFG 8800 GT (i highly suggest you wait because a new high end card should be coming around December-January)
BFG 8800 GT
700 watt ocz power supply
q6700 (the qx6800 is a total waste and would take me 30 seconds to overclock a 6700 to 6800 speeds...)

anyways i suggest you wait to junuary

also dont get the physics card and dont get xp get vista.. would be stupid to not get vista which has dx10

 

[kaeota]

agree with maverick except for the CPU. yes, if your going to OC, the Q6700 is great, if your not, you may prefer the Q6850. the extreme version is only (really) useful to over clockers, the little extra cache will not make up for the extra money if you don't OC.

 

[neoxblu1]

thanks for the reviews, and do you think i'll need liquid cooling? i found a thermaltake armour series (just like the 1 i selected) but it has a builting thermaltake liquid cooling and its about $70 more

 

[neoxblu1]

Scaj wen you said "the QX6850 CPU runs at a 1333 FSB so I would recommend going for DDR3 at the same frequency to avoid any bottlenecks in performance." What does this mean? Is it good, bad? How can it hurt my system.

 

[neoxblu1]

I think this is what I'll change my ram to:

CORSAIR Dominator 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1800 (PC3 14400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145187

 

[slicessoul]

What's your choice on mainboard ? Is it the Striker ? if yes you need to check its specs because Striker doesn't support DDR3.

 

[neoxblu1]

Slicessoul, or anyone else:

Could you tell me a board that supports DDR3, SLI? If you could find one with 680i chipset.

Thanks

 

[neoxblu1]

I think ill go with this mobo,

GIGABYTE GA-X38T-DQ6 LGA 775 Intel X38 ATX Intel Motherboard

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128068

 

[neoxblu1]

NV that board dosent support SLI!

Please could someone find me a board that supports:

SLI

DDR3

Intel Core 2 Extreme

2 free PCI slots

 

[BrutalDawg1]

DO NOT get two 8800GTS.
Instead get 2x 8800GT

150GB hard drive might not be enough, so get an extra 500GB for storage

PSU is kind of overkill

QX6850 is a waste of money. Get a Q6600 and OC it to 3.0GHz speeds.

 

[BatCommander64]

NV that board dosent support SLI!

Please could someone find me a board that supports:

SLI

DDR3

Intel Core 2 Extreme

2 free PCI slots

Intel's new chipset for Penryn so far does not support SLI, so you might want to go with a 680i. I don't see why you would need DDR3 memory for a QX6850, I haven't seen any bottlenecks yet...

P.S. Why spend 500+ $ on DDR3 memory??!?! get 8GB of DDR2..

 

[johnyeah]

Some changes I would do to your list.

-Processor
Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9650 LGA 775 Quad-Core Processor

-Video Card
Dual DIAMOND ATI HD3870 PCI-E Video Card (Crossfire)
*Since no boards that are currently available that supports SLI and DDR3, I thought that going Crossfire would be a good option (the performance is more or less on par).

-Sound Card
Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer Fatal1ty Professional

-Power Supply
Thermaltake Toughpower 1200W

-Case
Thermaltake Armor Series VA8003SWA Silver ATX Full Tower Computer Case

-Hard Drive
Western Digital Raptor 150GB SATA Hard Drive WD1500ADFD, 10000RPM, 16MB Cache
*I'm not sure about this part, but if you want the fastest load times, you might as well get a SSD (for booting) and RAID it with a 1TB Drive.

-Motherboard
GIGABYTE GA-X38T-DQ6 LGA 775 Intel X38 ATX Intel Motherboard

-Memory
CORSAIR Dominator 4GB (4 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1800 (PC3 14400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory
*Since you want to run a 64 bit OS, why not go with more memory?

-Network Card
*Why not use onboard network adapter?

Operating System
Microsoft Windows XP Professional x64 Edition 64-Bit Operation System Software

 

[Shadow703793]

Ditch the 8800GT SLI and get a 8800GTX and OC the thing to hell.
Posibly change the OS to Vista since SP1 will be released shortly.

 

[Shadow703793]

Also add in a good CPU cooling. It never hurts to have your CPU cool

 

[neoxblu1]

thanks for your tips shadow, but can you give me a site that has Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9650 LGA 775 Quad-Core Processor in stock, its sodl out everywere i've checked.

and one for the ram also, im thinking it might be to expensive i dont want to pass $4000:

CORSAIR Dominator 4GB (4 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1800 (PC3 14400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory

 

[doghills]

In my oppinion, the ditching the 8800GTSs and going for 8800GT is a good idea.

Since you don't have that much experiance with computers (Or at least not enough to feel comfortable overclocking) I would say don't get liquid cooling. Liquid cooling is mainly for overclocking, and won't give you that much extra. If you want quiet you can get a heatsink for the processor that has an adjustable speed fan.

Aegia Phsx processor is a waste, if you look up reviews it doesn't add very much power. Any money spent on it would be better spent on RAM/GFX.

Also the network card is a waste. Here's a review for it. http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,2105487,00.asp (It actually has the lower priced one, but it compares both of them.) In some things the card actually decreases performance.

As far as hard drives go, will you need more space?

As far as the RAM/Motherboard go, don't spend money on DDR3. It hasn't matured yet. Here's a link for one DDR3 article. http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/08/30/the_new_arms_race_ddr3-1800_ram/page12.html It is really quite over priced and not worth it unless you overclock. As far as wasting FSB goes, you really aren't. FSB isn't as important as some people make it out to be. Sure you don't wast 400mhz FSB, but it doesn't matter to much above 1000. If I were in your place I would get 8gb of solid RAM. (Look for 2x2GB kits)

As far as the motherboards go, the 680i by EVGA is a good board. You don't really need the a1 unless you are overclocking. The Striker extreme is also proven to be good. The thing is though, the main reason why these boards are high end is because they have overclocking potential which will be lost on you. If I were you I would go with a lower end SLI board and spend the extra money on graphics.

 

[paq7512]

I would get a high end PC Power & Cooling or Seasonic PSU.

 

[neoxblu1]

doghills and shadow you both gave me excellent reviews, one reccemends DDR3 one dosent... I will check out the links you gave me and take one final though into this.

One again THANK YOU for your help.

 

[neoxblu1]

BTW Doghills I am not gettinghte Bigfoot Killer K1 im getting the M1 (much better than the k1)

 

[neoxblu1]

EDITED: How About This?



BUDGET: UNDER $4000



(Interface card) $250 [www.tigerdirect.com]
- Bigfoot Networks Killer Gaming NIC Card - Model M1 Gigabit LAN



(Video Card) $730 [www.tigerdirect.com]
- BFG GeForce 8800 Ultra OC / 768MB GDDR3 / SLI Ready / PCI Express / Dual Link Dual DVI / HDTV / Video Card



(Sound Card) $180 [www.tiger direct.com]
- Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Fatality Platinum



(Power Supply) $370 [www.directron.com]
- Thermaltake Toughpower 1200W ATX 12V and EPS 12V Computer Power Supply W0156RU, Active PFC, CrossFire and Quad GPU Ready, w/ 140mm Fan



(Processors) $1150 [www.tigerdirect.com]
- Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9650 Processor EU80569XJ080NL - 45nm, 3.0GHz, 12MB Cache, 1333MHz FSB, Yorkfield XE, Quad-Core, OEM, Socket 775, Processor



(Case) $200 [www.newegg.com]
- Thermaltake Armor Series VA8003SWA Silver ATX Full Tower Computer Case w/ 25CM Fan - Retail



(Hard Drive) $190($380) [www.directron.com]
- 2x Western Digital Raptor 150GB SATA Hard Drive WD1500ADFD, 10000RPM, Super Fast 16MB Cache. OEM



(Motherboard) $300 [www.newegg.com]
- GIGABYTE GA-X38T-DQ6 LGA 775 Intel X38 ATX Intel Motherboard



(Memory/ Ram) $574 [www.newegg.com]
- CORSAIR Dominator 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1800 (PC3 14400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory



(Operating System) $140 [www.directron.com]
- Microsoft Windows XP Professional x64 Edition 64-Bit Operation System Software, Model: ZAT-00094. 1 Pack. OEM


TOTAL: $4274 (aww man )

 

[nukchebi0]

How do you have such a large budget?

No to the Ultra. A new version of the 8800 GTS will be released on December 3. It will beat an Ultra. Wait for it.

Get Vista, as SP1 will make it fine.

Get 2x WD 750GB AAKS series, instead.