I'm getting ready to order parts for a new build but before I do I'd like to hear your thoughts on these parts. My goal is to have a decent gaming machine with the ability to upgrade next year and the year after. Currently my main game is LOTRO and I'd like to be able to play on the highest settings at 1650x1080 with dx 10 graphics enabled (22" wide screen lcd monitor). I also play Oblivion and Neverwinter Knights and a few other rpg games. I want to be able to play dx10 games. I'd like to hear your comments on the parts I've chosen, whether they will work well together, whether I've chosen a highend part and paired it with a mid or low end part, i.e. the motherboard is great but why the hell did you pick that video card or cpu? Comments along those lines would be appreciated. Money is not a limiting factor but I don't want to spend top dollar for top line products. I'm looking for the most bang for the buck product but with the idea that I can upgrade for a year or two. I don't plan on overclocking now, but would like the ability to overclock in the future. No extreme overclocking, just what can be safely done with air cooling and then only moderate overclocking. Here are the parts I'm considering:
I like your choices, in general, apart from the cooler.
Get 4 GB of RAM, in 2x2GB sticks. It will help because Vista likes more RAM, and it will allow upgrading to 8 GB later.
I'd also recommend the 64-bit version of Vista. The only difference should be that the 64-bit version will see 4GB instead of 3.5 and will support 8 GB later if you add more.
The Zalman 9700 is expensive and gets noisy under load and it's overkill for moderate overclocks anyway. Get an Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro or nothing at all. Your CPU is retail, it comes with a good cooler already, use that.
Add $10 and get a WD6400AAKS instead of the Seagate 500GB. You get 140GB more and the WD is a bit faster too due to higher data density.
Thanks for the replies and suggestions. Added the power supply CORSAIR CMPSU-550VX ATX12V V2.2 550W Power Supply - Retail
Changed the cpu cooler to ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro 92mm CPU Cooler - Retail
Changed the hard drive to Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD6400AAKS 640GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
One more question. If as part of a future upgrade I wanted to sli another 8800 gts to the system will the motherboard and power supply be sufficient? I seem to have read that the 8800gts takes up at leat two slots? And if i did upgrade do I have two pcie x16 slots? Not sure I know what I'm talking about here and maybe I'm getting ahead of myself.
I've read that LOTRO is having some problems with systems that have 4 gigs of memory and thus I was reluctant to go with the 64 bit o/s with 4 gigs of memory. I'll check into that some more and reevaluate the o/s and memory. Thanks
With that setup, you should be more than able to play LOTRO with 1680x1050; I got something very similar and even Crysis is playable (~25FPS+) at that resolution with HIGH resolution with minimal tweaking.
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The capacity to learn is a gift; The ability to learn is a skill; The willingness to learn is a choice. - Rebec of Ginaz
For SLI you need a SLI capable motherboard (nvidia 750i/780i chipset).
At your resolution (1440x900) it's not really worth the trouble (nvidia chipsets are having another go at a difficult childhood - data corruption issues).
When your 8800GTS runs out of steam for new games (in about 12 to 18 months) just buy a new $200-$250 graphics card. That's my opinion.
Space is not really that much of a problem. 550W would probably not be enough for SLI either but you could risk it with 1HDD and 1ODD.
Although I see you want DX10, unless you know your preferred games and other apps are compatible with Vista, I would forsake DX10 to go with XP, a known quantity which works. Of course, if you know they work, game on!
I agree with evongugg, in particular on the PSU and cooler. He has used some very informative links.
I just built my new rig in that CM690 case, and I really like it; spacious, great airflow, and not as flashy as the Antec 900. Particularly in a non-windowed case, you can do better than the Zalman cooler.
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One thing that might help, for upgrade purposes, is getting a motherboard with PCI-E 2.0 slots. That is, two years from now, a high-end video card will probably still work in the GA-P35-DS3L, but it may not work at its maximum speed because of bandwidth restrictions imposed by the PCI-E 1 slot.
The problem with this is that a motherboard like that costs a lot more than the GA-P35-DS3L. For example the GA-EX38-DS4 is $207 instead of $90. I wouldn't do it just for the PCI-E 2.0. Do switch to the GA-EX38-DS4 if you want these advantages over the DS3L:
- RAID
- 2 more SATA cables + eSATA bracket
- FireWire
- ability to have 2 video cards (which would allow 3 or even 4 monitors)
- Crossfire (if your next upgrade is buying two ATI cards, in 2010 or so)
Thank you everyone for your comments and suggestions. You have been very helpful. I feel a lot more confident purchasing the components.
I will stick with the single graphics card solution and forget about sli for the next couple of years. Still deciding on Vista 64 and extra ram or Vista 32.
