high end build - confused

[smokegfx]

ive been wanting to build a new computer for a while,
and after doing some research ive noticed there are no clearcut answers to what is good and what is not.
i have compiled a list, and recompiled several times.

here is the list of what im planning to get

Storage :

2x Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 750 GB in raid 0 for documents / music / video etc / games (2172 dkk - 431 usd)
2x Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 40 GB in raid 0 for vista ultima x64 (500 dkk - 100 usd)

Mainboard :

asus striker 2 formula (for NV 780i with tri-sli mostly) (2250 dkk - 447 usd)

CPU :

Intel Q6600 2.4 GHz socket 775 1066 mHz 8mb l2 (1604 dkk - 318 usd)
(might buy the e8400 if i can find one when i order the rest)


GFX Card :

1x EVGA 8800GTS HTDP 512mb ddr3 (2170 dkk - 430 usd total)

RAM :

Corsair XMS2 Xtreme Performance 4GB (2x2GB kit) - PC2-6400CL5 - 800 MHz (660 dkk - 130 usd)

PSU :

Thermaltake ToughPower Cable Management W0131 - 850 (1233 dkk - 244 usd)

Case :

Sunbeam acrylic AC-HUVB - atx - 5x3.5" Intern / 2x3.5" Ekstern / 4x5.25" Ekstern (allready ordered)
will add a 140mm front intake fan and 2 120mm back exhaust fans.

Optical Drive(s) :

Samsung WriteMaster SH-S203B (180 dkk - 35 usd)

Screen :

Samsung LE37M87BD 37" 1080i lcd tv 1920*1080 native real HD (7500 dkk - $1500 usd)

Other stuff :

3x revoltec casefan (yellow) 120mm (1x front intake / 2x back exhaust) (300 dkk - 60 usd total)

ZALMAN ZM MFC2 fan controller (300 dkk - 60 usd)

[strike]Sunbeam CHAMELEON light controller w/ 4 led laser beam lights (140 dkk - 28 usd)[/strike] will buy later

OS :

Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate OEM (1216 dkk - $240 usd)



TOTAL COST : 20000 dkk - $4000 usd without shipping costs.



i will use this rig for gaming / webdesign and some video editing (hence the adobe creative suite)

the questions i have are as followed

1 - [strike]will my ram be fast enough?[/strike] answered
2 - [strike]will 8 GB ram be overkill? [/strike] answered
3 - [strike]is there an alternative to the video card i selected (either different manufacturer or a whole new card altogether)[/strike] answered
4 - [strike]without overclocking will this system run hot with the stock cooling? [/strike] answered
5 - [strike]what type of case fans do you recommend? (good noise to cooling ratio)[/strike] answered
6 - will the sas card i selected be good enough for the sas drive and will it fit in with tri-sli?

all help is appreciated.


edit :
changed amount of ram to mike99 his suggestion.

changed videocard choice to leo2kp and mweidler.

changed hdd setup to yoosty his suggestions.

added the q6600 cpu as an option, suggested by bowriver and zenmaster.

added fans + controllers + lights
added prices in danish crowns and us dollar

changed screen from 24" to a bigass 37"
changed 2x 8800gts to 1x 8800 gts to hold me over until the 9x00 series comes out.
changed videocard from asus to evga because evga ships with Crysis
changes sas drive to 2x 40gb raid 0 because i cant find a raid/sas controller for my motherboard
added vista ultima x64

 

[mike99]

2 - will 8 GB ram be overkill?

You need a 64bit OS to use more than 4Gb(actually 3.25Gb) either XP/Vista or Linux. For gaming you are better with 32bit OS, install just 4Gb as you are video editing, games are fine with 2Gb.

Mike.

 

[smokegfx]

thanks for the reply, i will go with 4GB then.
i can always buy more later if needed.

 

[evongugg]

The speed of your system is 266 MHZ (2,933/11) and your memory speed is 400 (800/2) so you have plenty of overclocking room.

 

[mweidler]

you might want to look at the gts512<g92> you can probably get two of them for what the ultra will cost you. and the gts512 is pretty close in performance.
If you buy it from evga you can take advantage of there step up program. within 90 days turn it in for a credit towards the latest model.
look on newegg, I think its 300 after rebate.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130312

The scythe fans are pretty good

 

[evongugg]

For graphics cards look at this chart:

http://www.tomshardware.com/2008/01/03/the_best_gaming_graphics/page6.html#summary

Stick with Nvidia for SLI, otherwise either AMD or Nvidia will do.
Your power supply is sufficient for SLI.

 

[evongugg]

Stock cooling is okay if you don't overclock. Otherwise choose from here:

http://www.frostytech.com/top5heatsinks.cfm

 

[evongugg]

Silentpcreview did a roundup of the best fans. http://www.silentpcreview.com/article63-page2.html
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article739-page1.html
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article695-page1.html

 

[Yoosty]

Storage :2x Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 750 GB in raid 0 for documents / music / video etc / games
1x WD Raptor WD1500ADFD 150 GB for vista 64 ult / adobe creative suite 3

Only problem with your storage set-up is that you will have to run at the lowest HD throughput (1.5ghz of the Raptor) for all drives. There is a couple of ways you could offset this.

1) SAS drive: they come in to flavors, 10,000 rpm and 15,000 rpm. Cost almost double that of the Raptor if you go for higest rpm and you would need a add0n SAS controller/raid card. Example link below.

http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/default.aspx?EDC=1065317&cm_sp=Product-_-Overview-_-Main+Tab

2) SSD : which would really rock speed wise, but at this time very expensive and not to many brands that come in large capicty sizes above 32gb. Good review on them from link below.

http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3064

 

[smokegfx]

the reason i chose the 8800 ultra ($800 USD converted from danish crowns) is to (after a while) put an extra one or maybe even two more in my system.
also i found out (rumor?) that the new NV series will just be two 8800 (ultra?) cores on one card, making the difference neglectable.
and i live in denmark (europe) so i cant order at newegg and i havent found a step-up program for european residence yet.

please correct me if i am wrong.

ill be sure to pick my cooling needs from the links you posted, it is much appreciated thank you.

Storage :2x Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 750 GB in raid 0 for documents / music / video etc / games
1x WD Raptor WD1500ADFD 150 GB for vista 64 ult / adobe creative suite 3

Only problem with your ...

the raptor i listed is 10k rpm but if im understanding this right the raptor is limiting the speed of the other drives?

 

[Yoosty]

Yes the Raptor will limit the Sata II drives (which has 3.0ghz) to 1.5ghz. Since that is what the Raptor is rated at for throughput.

Since you live in Europe, I wonder if you can order your computer parts from the UK. Like Dabs, EBuyer or Scan sites.

i found out (rumor?) that the new NV series will just be two 8800 (ultra?) cores on one card, making the difference neglectable

That rumor is incorrect. The 8800 Ultra from nvidia uses the G80 chipset, where as the new 9800 series cards are using the G92 chipset. Plus nvidia did come out with the 2 new cards in the 8800 series for GT and GTS using the G92 chipset and EVGA has another OC version of the new 8800GT just been released, that has better fan cooling and is a dual slot card, plus is faster then the new 8800GTS. Plus it is getting harder to find (buy) the 8800 Ultra cards now, since most card manufacturers have started to switch over to the G92 chipset.

 

[smokegfx]

thanks for the info i will look into the drive setup further.

and i can get plenty of 8800 ultra's in denmark. (15 diff models)
anyway the 8800 gts 512mb is based on the g92 chip, i can get 3x ASUS EN8800GTS for the price of 1.5x 8800 ultra.

would this one be good or would you select a different manufacturer / model?

 

[smokegfx]

also what kind of controller would i have to buy with the Seagate Cheetah 15K.5 146.8 GB - 15k rpm drive?
would the Promise FastTrak TX2650 be good enough?

link : http://www.promise.com/product/product_detail_eng.asp?product_id=191

 

[leo2kp]

I agree, I would SLI two 8800GTS 512 SSC cards or wait for the 9800GX2. They use a completely different manufacturing process, run cooler, are more efficient, use less power, and are nearly the same speed. And two of those will cost the same as one Ultra (as you know), and two GTS 512s should kill an Ultra. If you're worried about SLI, wait for the 9800GX2 which will allow for quad-SLI and are rumored to be priced at around $450.

 

[smokegfx]

I agree, I would SLI two 8800GTS 512 SSC cards or wait for the 9800GX2. They use a completely different manufacturing process, run cooler, are more efficient, use less power, and are nearly the same speed. And two of those will cost the same as one Ultra (as you know), and two GTS 512s should kill an Ultra. If you're worried about SLI, wait for the 9800GX2 which will allow for quad-SLI and are rumored to be priced at around $450.

thanks for the info.
not worried about it at all, in fact i say the more the better.
so i will most likely go with 3 gts 512 for my build.

funny thing to see my build get cheaper but also better.

 

[mystoccowgod]

GTS cannot run in Triple SLI only the GTX and Ultra can

 

[smokegfx]

GTS cannot run in Triple SLI only the GTX and Ultra can

thanks, i already thought i was doing something wrong here.
looking over specs for hour after hour got me a little cross-eyed.

 

[zenmaster]

CPU :
Core 2 Extreme X6800 2.93 GHz

Swap that for E8400 or Q6600.
The E8400 is a light years ahead as a dual core processor.
The Q6600 is a quad core and may serve you better.

THere are a million E8400 vs Q6600 threads so please read them.
To Summarize: The E8400 will clock higher and outperform the Q6600 for things not optimized for 4 cores. This applies to most games.

The Q6600 will rock on things that are optimized such as Video CReation.

In 1-2 years more and more things will be quad core optimized.

 

[smokegfx]

CPU :
Core 2 Extreme X6800 2.93 GHz

Swap that for E8400 or Q6600.
The E8400 is a light years ahead as a dual core processor.
The Q6600 is a quad core and may serve you better.

THere are a million E8400 vs Q6600 threads so please read them.
To Summarize: The E8400 will clock higher and outperform the Q6600 for things not optimized for 4 cores. This applies to most games.

The Q6600 will rock on things that are optimized such as Video CReation.

In 1-2 years more and more things will be quad core optimized.

i get what you are saying but wouldnt that bottleneck my sli 8800 gts's?

 

[BowRiver]

Any reason you're using the X6800 instead of the E8400? I hear Adobe CS3 really benefits from quad core so you might also consider the Q6600.

An 850W psu sounds awfully big for an 8800 Ultra and 3 hard drives. I'd be looking more to Thermaltake's 600W Toughpower unless you're sure about going SLi

I was never a fan of acrylic cases, they scratch, show dust, and the paranoid say metal is better for controlling EMI ...

 

[smokegfx]

Any reason you're using the X6800 instead of the E8400? I hear Adobe CS3 really benefits from quad core so you might also consider the Q6600.

An 850W psu sounds awfully big for an 8800 Ultra and 3 hard drives. I'd be looking more to Thermaltake's 600W Toughpower unless you're sure about going SLi

I was never a fan of acrylic cases, they scratch, show dust, and the paranoid say metal is better for controlling EMI ...

i am also starting to see the q6600 as a very good alternative, and a cheaper one for sure.
my only problem with it is heat, ive read that it gets quite hot.
the e8400 is not really a choice since i dont really feel like upgrading the cpu anytime soon, dont know if that makes sense to you.

i chose the psu because i knew i wanted to run sli, ive allready altered the first post accordingly.

and my last case was a fully self-built acrylic case and i liked it alot.
not just the appearance but also because it is easy to modify without ruining the case.
also in my experience the high gloss finishes on most cases can get just as statically charged as an acrylic case.
but with a good psu that shouldnt be too much of a problem

 

[zenmaster]

i get what you are saying but wouldnt that bottleneck my sli 8800 gts's?

I'm not sure what you mean by 'Bottleneck' your Video Cards.

Every system and job on that system will have a slowest point which is your bottleneck.
Some operations will be your CPU.
Some your GPU.
Some your HDD.
Some due to RAM.

Speeding up any one of those will not reduce performance in any way.
It may make a certain process run faster until it hits something else that slows itup.

 

[zenmaster]

i am also starting to see the q6600 as a very good alternative, and a cheaper one for sure.
my only problem with it is heat, ive read that it gets quite hot.
the e8400 is not really a choice since i dont really feel like upgrading the cpu anytime soon, dont know if that makes sense to you.

i chose the psu because i knew i wanted to run sli, ive allready altered the first post accordingly.

and my last case was a fully self-built acrylic case and i liked it alot.
not just the appearance but also because it is easy to modify without ruining the case.
also in my experience the high gloss finishes on most cases can get just as statically charged as an acrylic case.
but with a good psu that shouldnt be too much of a problem

The x6800 is much slower than the E8400 so its definitely not more future proof.
The question for upgrades may not be much different from the E8400 vs the Q6600.
Each will have its own advantages for quite a while.

Personally, I would lean to the Q6600 over the E8400 if they were priced the same.

 

[BowRiver]

i am also starting to see the q6600 as a very good alternative, and a cheaper one for sure.
my only problem with it is heat, ive read that it gets quite hot.
the e8400 is not really a choice since i dont really feel like upgrading the cpu anytime soon, dont know if that makes sense to you.

Well, here in Canada, the E8400 is just over $200 whereas the X6800 is over $1000. According to Intel's specs the 8400 clocks 70MHz faster and has a 10W lower TDP. Sure, the X6800 has a higher (and unlocked I believe) multiplier so if you're overclocking that's nice. But it's hard not to see E8400 as the superior choice. Oh, it has more cache too

 

[BowRiver]

Oh, and the 8400 is the new Wolfdale revision with the new radix-16 divider, the SSE4 instruction set etc. etc. etc.

Tom's CPU charts shows the Q6600 leading the X6800 in most benchmarks except Photoshop CS3, go figure ...