Rate The Build

[scottoliver]

Hey everyone,

Could you guys please give me some advice of this build and help me out along the way to ironing out the problems I have. The computer will be used for games, hopefully running them on the highest settings at a very nice resolution, but most of all at a very smooth rate. I am a competitive gamer so could you guys please list products which they think suite my needs. The structure of the build is looking like this:

Processor - Intel E8400 $230
Graphics Card - EVGA 9800GTX (or should I wait for the 9900GTX) $380
Motherboard - MSI P7N Platinum 750i $240
Hard Drive - 500GB Seagate 32mb Cache $110
Case - Antec P182 $190
PSU - Antec NeoPower 650W $160
Memory - Patriot 2X2GB 4-4-4-12 DDRII $130
DVD/RW - Samsung 20X DVDRW $40
Monitor - Samsung 2243 (please help with a good monitor) $300

Seeing as though I am competitive should I invest in a good sound card and also are there any upgrades or downgrades I should be looking at. I am contemplating the DS3 motherboard for a cheaper solution. I am not overclocking.

Thanks in advance.

 

[wip99gt]

I don't know much about that motherboard. I've heard some questionable things about msi mobos. Other than that I'd get a 8800 gtx for that price instead of a 9800. The sound on motherboards is pretty good now so I'd say skip getting a sound card.

 

[dagger]

I don't know much about that motherboard. I've heard some questionable things about msi mobos. Other than that I'd get a 8800 gtx for that price instead of a 9800. The sound on motherboards is pretty good now so I'd say skip getting a sound card.

You can get a p35 at less than $100 for greater oc performance, but 750i is okay if you're on a budget and have to have sli. 600s nvidia chipsets is what you have to stay from. They have a large number of issues, and is known as "ram killers."

And yeah, 9800 only marginally outperform g92 8800gts. They use the same g92 gpu and 256bit memory bandwidth. It's not a good deal.