New system!!! Rev 2

[Shaggywang]

:Edited once:
Okay this is what I have so far

CPU - E8400 with ZALMAN CNPS 9700 NT 110mm 2 Ball Ultra Quiet CPU Cooler

MEMORY - CORSAIR DOMINATOR with DHX Technology TWIN2X4096-8500C5DF 4GB PC2-8500 (DDR2-1066) DDR2 ($119 with rebate)

MOBO-EVGA 132-CK-NF78-A1 NVIDIA nForce 780i SLI (on newegg it says drr-800 however evga website says 1200mhz *shrugs*)


Graphic - EVGA 8800 gt 512mb
HDD - WESTERN DIGITAL WD7500AAKS 750GB SATA 7200 RPM 16MB

PSU- enermax galaxy 850 watt (or even 1000watt since I found one for the same price as 850 watt)

CASE - Thermaltake Armor Series VA8003BWS Black Full Tower Case w/ 25CM Fan (already have, This thing is a TANK!)

Sound Card - using an old audigy 2 pro zs (maybe upgrade to x-fi)

OS = Vista ultimate (I'm getting it from my school, 15 bucks is a steal =P)



Well that should be it.

Computer will be a gaming computer and will be overclocked but within reason because of only being air cooled.

So, what you think?

 

[beurling]

Even at 4Ghz your memory will only ever need 890Mhz to stay at 1:1, so why get 1066? There is no performance increase. Save yourself $300.

I say this often because it's true and a lot of people agree: One really good GPU > 2 GPU's

Not all games scale, and SLI doesn't scale well anyways... Unless you have a monster of a monitor, and I'm talking rediculous resolutions, SLI will not help you. I had an SLI rig and one card ALWAYS ran better. I would get an 8800 GT or GTS 512 which are better than the 9600GT, or you can get the 9800GX2 (When it's out) which is SLI on one card, which is more acceptable.

EVGA will also let you upgrade your 8800 (or any other card) to the 9800GX2 upon it's release within 90 days of purchase.

I'm not sure if that PSU is modular, but if you want your case to look nice you'll get a modular one to reduce the headaches.


This will be a nice computer, pretty similar to my own. If you have any problems overclocking when you get it dont hesitate to msg me or post on the overclocking page.

Beurling.

 

[bluekoala]

E8400 will definetly not be a bottleneck, don't really need to overclock it for now anyway.

WD 750gbs AAKS is FAST
I have one in my Linux box and it does 94MB/s with hdparm.

I also agree with Beurling that SLI is sub-optimal compared to a good performing single card solution.

The 8800gt 512 is 250$ on newegg without running to the mailbox.
Although I would personally recommend the 3870 Sapphire 512GDDR4 for 190$ instead.

 

[Shaggywang]

Even at 4Ghz your memory will only ever need 890Mhz to stay at 1:1, so why get 1066? There is no performance increase. Save yourself $300.

I'm assuming your talking about the 4 x 1 gig ($357) since compared to the 2 x 2 gig of ram which costs $112 seems to be a better deal anyhow.

Really though, my main reason for going 1066+ was because of the 112 price tag and that my mobo supports it.

Not all games scale, and SLI doesn't scale well anyways... Unless you have a monster of a monitor, and I'm talking rediculous resolutions, SLI will not help you. I had an SLI rig and one card ALWAYS ran better. I would get an 8800 GT or GTS 512 which are better than the 9600GT, or you can get the 9800GX2 (When it's out) which is SLI on one card, which is more acceptable.

EVGA will also let you upgrade your 8800 (or any other card) to the 9800GX2 upon it's release within 90 days of purchase.

then my next question is, when is the 9800gx2 coming out? lol. Also, should I then change my mobo to something else if I don't use SLI.

However, just the idea of having two vid cards in a computer is a cool idea even though I've been always against the idea. Since it is in my firm belief that a vid card company should just make a better single card to outperform the last generation instead of giving us poor computer geeks the option of adding another card to increase performance and steal our money =P.

But what can I say......I'm a hypocrite .

 

[HamRadio]

how did you come to choose that PSU?

I looked on the three PSU guides I know of (rec gaming, sub-$150, and the other one) and cooler master consistantly shows up in the tier 3/4 category.

maybe go with something from tier 1 or 2?

some suggestions: corsair 620 (quiet, modular), pcp&c silencer 610 (quiet, not modular), pcp&c 750 (quiet, not modular, slightly larger than a standard PSU)

your CPU cooler choice is ok, but according to this review you could do better.

I do not understand your answer above where you mention 4x1GB vs 2x2GB. However, I also suggest you save some cash and go with PC6400 800MHz memory. Worst case scenario is 890MHz with air cooling, and all decent 800MHz RAM can be OCed to 890 just like decent CPU chips can be OCed higher than stock. Here is the math from another post of mine in another thread:




pc2-8500 is ddr2-1066 - the point i am trying to make is that 1066 is overkill because you can push an E8400 to 4GHz with DDR2-800 that you OC to 890, or you can push it to 3.6GHz with DDR2-800 at 800. It does not hurt to buy 1066, but I would rather get 800 and use the money saved toward a CPU cooler or other goodies.

Stock:
Data Rate = 1333 MBytes/sec
FSB = 1333 / 4 = 333.25 MTransfers/sec (you divide by 4 since the FSB is quad pumped = 4 transfers per clock cycle)
CPU speed = 9 x FSB = 2999.25 GHz
RAM speed = 2 x FSB = 666.50 GHz

OC a little:
Data Rate = 1600 MBytes/sec
FSB = 1600 / 4 = 400 MTransfers/sec (you divide by 4 since the FSB is quad pumped = 4 transfers per clock cycle)
CPU speed = 9 x FSB = 3600 GHz
RAM speed = 2 x FSB = 800 GHz

OC a little more:
Data Rate = 1777.77 MBytes/sec
FSB = 1777.77 / 4 = 444.44 MTransfers/sec (you divide by 4 since the FSB is quad pumped = 4 transfers per clock cycle)
CPU speed = 9 x FSB = 4000 GHz
RAM speed = 2 x FSB = 888.88 GHz

Assuming 1:1 FSB:Memory Bus ratio.