Rate my rig (please).

[Feendish]

Hey Guys,

Yeah another rate my build thread. Sorry but I didn't want to hijack one of the other folks' threads. I've put this off since last September waiting for new Intel CPUs and the new line of GFX cards to come out. If I keep waiting for the next big thing I'll never buy a new rig so I gotta sort this soon.

Anyways the intended specs are:

CPU - Intel E8500 (Would a Quad like the Q6600 be more advisable?)
GFX - 2x EVGA GeForce 8800GTS in SLi (Would a single 9800GX2 be better bang for buck?)
Mobo - EVGA nForce 780i SLI.
Case - Lian Li PC-A71B.
RAM - CORSAIR DOMINATOR 4GB(2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500)
PSU - Corsair CMPSU-620HX 620 watt PSU
HDD - Samsung Spinpoint F1 1TB Hard Drive (32MB Cache SATA-2)
Screen - Samsung SyncMaster 245B, 24", TCO03, 5ms, DVI

I left out the ancillary crap like kb, mouse, fans etc. I can sort them myself.

Any comments, recommendations, vitriol to fire my way ?

 

[random1283]

Thats good decsisions. With the CPU if you are playing games a majority of the time and not heavily multitasking then the 8500 wil have superior performance. But if opposite is true you are better of with the quad. Just so you know to keep similar performance in games for a quad you will most likely need a Q9550 or 9650. The GTS sli will have more performance and should be cheaper. but the 9800gx2 can be sli'ed later and will have better stability than dual card/pcb (sli cf) solutions ( excluding 3870x2) simply because of design

 

[Box Cutter]

Just a quick warning: The Corsair 620HX is a great PSU, but it is NOT rated for dual 8800 GTS systems. See this link for rated power supplies. The fact that the 620HX IS rated for SLI with less power-hungry cards makes me think that you might run into problems with it. Your call though.

 

[Az00123]

Honestly, don't even bother reading nvidia's articles on power supply usage, a hx620 will power that fine

Nvidia says you should have a 580w (something around there) psu if you're going to get a 9800gx2, however on toms it even showed 9800gx2 load with everything else was less than 400w

Everything looks good, however personally i'd go intel chipset like p35/x38, a 9800gx2 and a quad, although that's probably because i'm not a fan of nvidia boards. If you do get a quad i'd suggest you go q9450 (cooler/less power) or q6600 (hotter/slightly higher oc w/ most people). Also, a quad won't limit your system as much as people make it out to, most people clock their e8xxxs at 4.0ghz while most people with q6600 keep theirs at 3.2-3.6ghz, although the slower clock will affect games a little, the q6600 will soon come out king with newer games supporting multi core (like supcom)

HDD and Case look really good too

 

[Feendish]

Thanks for the replies. I'm tempted to swap the 780i for a 750i (I doubt I'll need tri-SLI), and to go with a single GX2 for the moment. I can stick in another one then next year at some stage. Does that mean I should pop for a higher rated PSU maybe 1KW range? That'll put a serious dent on my leccy bill. :lol:

 

[dobby]

i, persdonally, would go with the single 9800gtx, but that is becasue i could add one easily latter when my FPS in new FPS's isnt so spectacular and a new 9800gtx would be cheaper. but that is also becasue it is less faff.

however i would guess tha the duel 8800gts would get better FPS.

 

[iluvgillgill]

Thanks for the replies. I'm tempted to swap the 780i for a 750i (I doubt I'll need tri-SLI), and to go with a single GX2 for the moment. I can stick in another one then next year at some stage. Does that mean I should pop for a higher rated PSU maybe 1KW range? That'll put a serious dent on my leccy bill. :lol:

1kw PSU?are you planning to run your house on that as well?lol

it would better to a 850W PSU leave it to decade 10% a year so if you keep it for 2 years the this would be a good idea.and you may add extra storage or watercooling to it, you'll never know.

the 9800GX2 would be a better idea then SLI 2 cars together.BUT,in a dual card setup you wont run into heat problem like the DUAL GPU cards do!so you can achieve better overclock to further enhance your rig's performance.

IF you do go for a dual card setup then it would better better to get a pair of 9800GTX,because the current G92 card they all run on a 256bit bus.so a faster memory will somehow boost the bandwidth and offset disadvantage.the 9800GTX is using the faster memory which is rated for 2400mhz where as the 8800GTS/GT only using the 2000mhz chip but they can overclock to about 2200 max without voltmod.

but get the 9800GTX only if its at a similar price to the 8800GTS(which in UK here i can find),if not just get the 8800GTS.wait around another month or so there will be price cut since the new gen is coming out.

 

[Feendish]

I think I'll go with 2x9600GTs in SLI and then reevaluate next year when the 9900s are out. I'll probably wait to go Quad as well. Not enough games use it atm and I don't do much number crunching stuff like encoding.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

My 2c: The whole setup is a bit unbalanced imho. Getting top of line cpu and video card, but saving on mobo?
As much as I like EVGA as manufactures of cheap video card, I won't trust it with computers main component.
My suggested setup would be:
ASUS P5E Mobo, e8400 cpu , 2x CORSAIR XMS2 2GB DDR2 800 TWIN2X2048-6400C4 (4Gb total), Antec Nine Hundred Case, SILVERSTONE ZEUS SST-ST65ZF Power, XFX PVT80FSHE9 GeForce 8800GTX, 2x SAMSUNG Spinpoint F1 HD753LJ 750GB.

Screen /DVD/ others to your liking

 

[Feendish]

My 2c: The whole setup is a bit unbalanced imho. Getting top of line cpu and video card, but saving on mobo?
As much as I like EVGA as manufactures of cheap video card, I won't trust it with computers main component.
My suggested setup would be:
ASUS P5E Mobo, e8400 cpu , 2x CORSAIR XMS2 2GB DDR2 800 TWIN2X2048-6400C4 (4Gb total), Antec Nine Hundred Case, SILVERSTONE ZEUS SST-ST65ZF Power, XFX PVT80FSHE9 GeForce 8800GTX, 2x SAMSUNG Spinpoint F1 HD753LJ 750GB.

Screen /DVD/ others to your liking

Yeah I was thinking of going with an MSI P7N Platinum 750i board. 8800GTX is still overpriced for old hardware isn't it?

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

GTX is sold now at newegg for under $300 after rebates, but after I posted I realized you can't go dual nvidia video cards on X38 board. You can go with single/double 3870 instead. Maybe be top of line screaming performance in all games, but its better bang for a buck... plus crossfire scales better than SLI.