First overclocking build - will it smoke and catch fire?

[HamRadio]

Thank you for having such a wonderful and informative site for novices to educate themselves. I wish I had known of this place 5 years ago.

After reading several proposed builds in this forum and then looking at what is on sale today, I came up with this Proposed Build. I would like to use it for writing games in directx and XNA (and maybe playing a few games as well) and would like to keep it under $2000 including the monitor. I have not included a keyboard or mouse yet as I was wondering if anyone could recommend something for those of us unfortunate enough to be left handed.

This will be my second build (last one was 5 years ago) and my first attempt at overclocking. I am extremely unsure of my choices and would guess some of them may not be wise or compatible. Does anyone have any feeling one way or the other about Vista 32 bit vs 64 bit? Any tips, suggestions, ideas or even words of encouragement would be much appreciated.

 

[aadamszc]

Well, if you are going for those 4GB or ram, you will want to get vista64. Viata32 isn't able to use 4GB and maxes out around 3GB.

Also, I would advise against the 8800GTS 640MB SSC. While it may be in stock, it is going to perform less than the 8800GT and 3870 for a lot more money. I mean, this is not even the one with the 112SP.

Other than that....your build looks very good.

Edit: While I am left-handed, I use a right handed mouse. So, I can't really give you any advice on that. And what are you talking about unfortunate? Left handed people are smarter.

 

[HamRadio]

Thank you so much! I had no idea 32-bit vista could only use 3gb of ram (2^32 is 4.2billion, i wonder why 32 bit caps out at 3gb?), so i swapped out the 32 for the 64 bit version.

no one seems to have the 8800GT in stock. Does anyone know what is the difference between the GT and the GTS is that makes the GT so much better (it must be better as it is out of stock everywhere ) ? with things being on sale today, perhaps i should buy everything but the video card for now, and be patient and wait for them to make more of the 8800GT? any other promising video cards on the horizon to be released over the next few months?

 

[frozenlead]

you could wait for the nvidia 9 series, but i'm not sure when they come out. the 8800gt doesn't have as much vram as the 8800gts 640, but it performs better. i don't remember all the tech specs offhand, but the 8800gt is on a smaller manufacturing technology, and therefore runs cooler too. if you simply must have the pc now, you can settle for an ati 3870, but it won't perform as well as the 8800gt will.

the reason the 8800gt is out of stock is because:
it's low priced
it performs almost as well as the 8800gtx
it hasn't been produced in large quantities

it's got GREAT performance for it's price. it's just they're all gone.

FYI: vista 32bit and windows xp 32bit don't support 4GB of ram because they don't have enough hardware addresses to assign to all that memory (and every other component).

 

[aadamszc]

Yeah, it is not like the 8800GTS 640MB SSC is bad, but...

-It does perform less than the 8800GT
-There are two version out. One with 96sp(the one you had/have in your wishlist), and one with 112sp.
-There will also be a new G92 8800GTS 640MB coming out ~Dec.3-Dec.14 that will have 128sp.

Then again, it is in stock.

As frozenlead said, you could "settle" for an ATI 3870, but everywhere you go....those are bound to be out of stock also. >.<

To recap...8800GTS 640MB w/ 96sp is not a bad card, but why pay ~$70-$100 more for something that will perform a little less.

As to why the GT performs better and why 32bit caps at ~3GB of ram...there would have to be a reason, but it is beyond me.

 

[ibleet]

8800GT = Low supply + High Demand = Higher price than MSRP = Out of Stock. Wait a few weeks.

 

[mack92]

Most mice have a program that comes with them to make them configurable for a lefty. I am also left handed but I am also ambedextrious (hope I spelled it right) so I have no problems with right handed mice. I woiuld also wait for the vid card, I am till after the new year.

 

[neoxblu1]

BFG Nvidia 8800 Ultra OC, thats what I'm getting in mine.

 

[neoxblu1]

You should check out my $4000 High End System Build,

I only accept the highest quality/ newest/ expensivest items =]

Like Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9650

I dont like the new 8800GT cards they look like crap, I said they look like crap not performe like crap.

Thats y im getting ultra, and when 780i comes out ill have ultra in SLI.

 

[ibleet]

LMFAO! You're an idiot wrapped in a moron!

 

[HamRadio]

LMFAO! You're an idiot wrapped in a moron!

Sigh.

I have a couple of CPU cooler questions. if anyone has an opinion it would be appreciated.

The Thermaltake Armor case has a 250mm fan on the side panel. Does anyone know if this will physically interfere with the CPU cooler? I see there are some lower profile CPU coolers for home theater systems (with little headroom) but they are out of stock.

CPU coolers - I picked the ninja since it seemed to have the least number of complaints about installation and it might be less noisy. The ultra-120 had great reviews for the cooling, but had a lot of complaints about the cheap paperclips that hold the fan in place (seems like superglue or epoxy would be the answer). The Zalman is reportedly loud. Some of them were reported to still move a little even after all the screws were in. Anyone have a suggestion for a CPU cooler for a gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R motherboard? Anyone have a favorite CPU cooler?

 

[vegie]

artic freazer 7 pro