2008 MMO gaming PC

[kwake]

I plan on building a new gaming PC for this summer and this is what I've come up with so far. I want this PC to last at least 3-4 years with some minor upgrades along the way. The only parts I'm not 100% sure about are the memory, and power supply.

Case: Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - 99$
Mobo: EVGA LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 780i SLI - 259$
Video Cards: EVGA 512-P3-N841-A3 GeForce 8800GTS (G92) 512MB (x2)- 599$
Memory: DDR2 - 800,1066, or 1200 ?
Power Supply: Thermaltake W0131RU ATX12V / EPS12V 850W - 229$ I think it might be to much power.
CPU: Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9650 1059$ I plan on OCing this to around 3.8ghz on air if thats possible.
Heatsink: ZALMAN CNPS9700 LED 110mm

I already have my hard drives picked so i don't think i need to post them.

I'm trying to decide if i should go with 2gigs of DDR2 1200, or 4gigs of DRR2 800,1066. I also saw some DDR2 1000 4gig for like 100$. I'm not sure about the DDR2 - 1000..

Give me some advice so I put together a great PC for upcoming MMO's like Age of Conan, Warhammer, and Aion.

 

[Saedeas]

If I may suggest, get a q6600. You will save like $800 and be able to overclock nearly as high as the qx9650. If you do get the q6600, all you need for 3.6ghz is a good cooler, and ddr2 800 RAM, which will save you more money over the more expensive RAM. You can upgrade the other parts now with the $800 or you can save it and upgrade when Nehalem comes out.

 

[kwake]

Ya even though I posted the QX9650 I've been thinking about going with the q6600. Would the Zalman i posted be enough to get to 3.6ghz (saying my CPU will allow me to get there. I've seen many posts where the q6600 usually reaches 3.2-3.4 then starts to give problems.) As far as anything else to upgrade there really isn't anything else I'm going to need. So you think the DDR2 - 800 would be my best bet instead of 1066 or 1200? With the power supply i posted do you think it's over kill or do you think that it's just what i need.

 

[massih]

yes.... overclocking q6600 is easy! just you need a little better cooler.Fsb=1333 is in your hand then.(3.0 GHZ)

Be carefull about choosing MOBO.Many have problem with SATA controller while overclock.780i is a good choice.Be sure the M/B you buy support 45n CPUs.Specially in nVidia based systems this should checked.
DDr2 800 is enough... While the chipset frequensy cannot go over 800 (FSB =1600)...

Buying a good and powerfull Powersupply will help you for next upgrades though... Choose as much as budget you have!

 

[kwake]

are you saying that the Zalman heatsink won't be good enough to oc my cpu to 3.6ghz?

 

[kwake]

Here is an idea i just thought of. instead of using the 780i, would it be better to go with the new 790i mobo and use DDR3 memory with a Q6600? the extra money i would save from the QX9560 would go toward the DDR3 and the new mobo.. give me your thoughts. Only reason i mention this is because eventually DDR3 is going to be the mainstream and DDR2 is going to become less popular even though it's really good now..

 

[Waspy]

Dude it's a bummer with the QX9650 situation...and quad cores in general!

I'm stuck on this too...the Q6600 is old tech., yuck! And the quad core problem is big...some games/apps will run better on a quad core...others won't, and in order to safe-guard against all the games/apps which are NOT programmed to take advantage of quad core, you need a highly clocked quad core which puts the price through the roof! Grrrrr.