Is this a good build??

[zhakar]

I've done a bit of research and come to these parts: they won't be exactly these, as I might SLi 8800 GTs and get 2x the 2x2G memory kits and get a different but similar mob to support SLi and/or other mods. Anyway, this is what I've got. Low cost too, definitely under $1200 including a case I have yet to decide on (any suggestions? <$100) and an optical drive.

1. Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 Wolfdale 3.16GHz 6MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core

2. PNY GeForce 8800GTS (G92) 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP SLI Supported

3. CORSAIR CMPSU-550VX ATX12V V2.2 550W Power Supply 90

4. GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX All Solid Capacitor

5. G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit

6. Western Digital Raptor WD1500ADFD 150GB 10000 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 1.5Gb/s

7. XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler **or the** ZEROtherm Nirvana NV120 120mm

 

[aevm]

You can cut costs by replacing the E8500 with an E8400 and the Raptor with a WD6400AAKS. The Xigmatek is better than the Nirvana IMO - about the same performance and quieter. I'd prefer eVGA/BFG/XFX rather than PNY. There's also a MSI that comes cheap and includes the Witcher, at newegg.

Good PSU.

Good mobo, if you can live with only 4 HDD+burners in total. If not, get the DS3R.

Burner: I like the SH-S203B.
Case: RC-690.

 

[zhakar]

I agree that the 8400 is a lot easier on the wallet for not a lot less performance, I'll be overclocking too, so 0.16 of a GHz is not going to make much of a difference. I also heard the Nirvana was a little difficult to install, so I'll consider that. Is there any reason you prefer the other manufacturers over PNY? Thanks aevm, I appreciate the input.

 

[dagger]

You can cut costs by replacing the E8500 with an E8400 and the Raptor with a WD6400AAKS. The Xigmatek is better than the Nirvana IMO - about the same performance and quieter. I'd prefer eVGA/BFG/XFX rather than PNY. There's also a MSI that comes cheap and includes the Witcher, at newegg.

Good PSU.

Good mobo, if you can live with only 4 HDD+burners in total. If not, get the DS3R.

Burner: I like the SH-S203B.
Case: RC-690.

Faster hdd decrease load time, and does not increase in game fps.

Brands of video card do not matter. The cores are all made by Nvidia, and sold to different companies. They all come with warranty.

For high oc, e8500 has advantage over e8400 on your p35 motherboard, due to higher multiplier. P35 runs at 1333mhz fsb natively and oc reliably to 1600mhz. 1600mhz fsb = 3.6ghz for 8400. x38/48 eliminates fsb bottleneck.

 

[aevm]

I agree that the 8400 is a lot easier on the wallet for not a lot less performance, I'll be overclocking too, so 0.16 of a GHz is not going to make much of a difference. I also heard the Nirvana was a little difficult to install, so I'll consider that. Is there any reason you prefer the other manufacturers over PNY? Thanks aevm, I appreciate the input.

Well, it's just that I had some PNY products fail in the past. For all I know their 8800GTS is perfect, so don't take me too seriously. OK, I changed my mind after looking at the prices at newegg. I'd still prefer the BFG over PNY if they were the same price, but I wouldn't pay $40 or $50 more for the BFG. And the MSI deal with the Witcher is gone now, sorry, I should have checked. OK, go for the PNY.

Between the E8400 and the E8500 - yes the E8500 is faster and overclocks higher. But, the price difference is too much to be justified IMO. Besides, the hard drive will very often bottleneck everything anyway, so you wouldn't get 100% even from the E8400.

Have you read any of the "dual vs quad" threads? Maybe a Q6600 is actually the best thing for you in that price range.

 

[zhakar]

I read quite a few of the dual vs quad threads and check a few charts. The duals run quite a bit faster in the applications I'm running (mostly for gaming), and the quads can handle multiple applications far better than the dual cores, but that's not what I'm looking for. Also, the Q6600 only runs at 2.4 GHz (the only one I found at newegg does anyway), which makes a big difference overclocking I'd assume since I want to hit a lowpoint of at least 3.2GHz. I could be wrong about some of this, but based on what I've read a dual core will optimize better for the instances I'll be running it in.

 

[zhakar]

Actually, I know a Q6600 will OC at over 3.2, to 3.6 I think, but I'll still only be running 1 or 2 applications at a time. I guess a Q6600 would be a better future investment over the 8400/8500, but other than that, and the less significant price difference, everything I've studied says it really makes no difference at THIS point.

 

[aevm]

Yeah, you can get a Q6600 to 3.6 GHz, but if you don't play FSX or do video encoding then an E8500 at 4 GHz will beat it. All right, forget the quads.

 

[dagger]

Yeah, you can get a Q6600 to 3.6 GHz, but if you don't play FSX or do video encoding then an E8500 at 4 GHz will beat it. All right, forget the quads.

The problem is, cpu isn't the bottleneck right now. A e8500 at 4ghz may score higher on benchmarks, but if the graphics card is bottleneck, which it will be, the higher speed will translate to exactly 0 fps increase.

In 2+ years, when 2+ thread games become more common, e8400/8500/q6600 are past their prime and close to become bottlenecked, quad core will perform better.

Basically, dual cores perform better when it doesn't matter, quad perform better later on, when it does.

 

[aevm]

So, you're thinking he should get a quad, especially if it's a long-term thing? That's how I ended up with my Q6600

 

[zhakar]

So, you're thinking he should get a quad, especially if it's a long-term thing? That's how I ended up with my Q6600

Yeah, I'll probably get the quad, and I'm getting the WD3200AAKS 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s HDD. One question, will my DS3L support 2 8800GTS's in the future if I got one now? It has 3 PCI slots, yeah, but I'm not sure if it will slow with 4 RAM slots full with 8G and TWO 8800s.

 

[jaibot18]

agreed! q6600 ftw. The only thing is they get hot, so i would have to say that 3.4 would be more of realistic goal. the rest of the build looks great though, and please message me when you build it because i want to see how that ram runs, i want to get some. Great build though, well researched.

 

[zhakar]

Okay, final specs looks like this:

1. Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz 2 x 4MB L2 Cache LGA 775 Quad-Core

2. PNY GeForce 8800GTS (G92) 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 **possibly 2 of these**

3. GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX

4. G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) **possibly 2 of these**

5. Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD3200AAKS 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s

6. CORSAIR CMPSU-550VX ATX12V V2.2 550W Power Supply 90

7. XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler

 

[Shadow703793]

^Looks good. Nice choice on PSU, Motherboard, CPU and HSF. If intrested in OCing checkout:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/forum2.php?config=tomshardwareus.inc&cat=29&post=245679&page=1&p=1&sondage=0&owntopic=3&trash=0&trash_post=0&print=0&numreponse=0&quote_only=0&new=0&nojs=0

 

[zhakar]

Thanks guys ^^ I'll post benchmarks and let you know how this comes together. Thanks for all of your help.

 

[aevm]

Wait a second. You can't use two 8800GTS cards with a GA-P35-DS3L. It only has one PCI-E x16 slot. You'd have no slot where to put the second card. I wouldn't use a 550VX for this sort of setup either - it's a great PSU but not designed for this much effort.

You've got to decide now if you are serious about SLI. If you are, get an eVGA 780i or XFX 780i motherboard and replace the PSU with a Silencer 750W. This will add about $200 to your total cost.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813141005&Tpk=XFX+780i
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341011&Tpk=Silencer+750

 

[jaibot18]

just skip the extra card and keep the psu. looks great otherwise

 

[zhakar]

Yeah, I'm thinking I'll probably just keep the single 8800 and keep the mobo/psu. In the long run, I'll just upgrade the 8800. That way, I wont have any probelms in the future running SLi and i'll be safe using a single high-end card when it comes time to switch out, which hopefully wont be for another year and a half or so.

 

[zhakar]

Will my 550VX be able to handle an upgraded high-end card in the future though? I'd rather buy a more expensive unit now than have to buy a completely different setup in a few years.

 

[aevm]

Personally, I think that's a good idea. Even now there is a video card that you're not supposed to use with a 550W PSU. According to eVGA, the 9800GX2 needs a "minimum 600W power supply":
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130338

I suspect it would work with the 550VX anyway, but it's a bad idea to push a PSU too close to its max. A high-end video card released in 2010 will probably consume more than the 9800GX2, despite any die-shrinks. Just guessing, based on history.

 

[dagger]

Personally, I think that's a good idea. Even now there is a video card that you're not supposed to use with a 550W PSU. According to eVGA, the 9800GX2 needs a "minimum 600W power supply":
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130338

I suspect it would work with the 550VX anyway, but it's a bad idea to push a PSU too close to its max. A high-end video card released in 2010 will probably consume more than the 9800GX2, despite any die-shrinks. Just guessing, based on history.

Nvidia is just boasting, as many people would think power consumption equals performance. It shouldn't eat up that much juice.

 

[aevm]

Yeah, it's more like 200W for the video card alone, another 95W for the Q6600 (more if OC'd), etc. It's also about covering their a$$ - if their customers have better PSUs they get fewer support calls too.

 

[aevm]

Dagger, what kind of cooler are you using? Just curious, because Q6600 at 3.6 is very nice

 

[dagger]

Dagger, what kind of cooler are you using? Just curious, because Q6600 at 3.6 is very nice

Actually, it's a very typical oc for q6600. Not high at all. Most people get 3.6ghz easily. Some go higher. This is the cooler:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835887011
Core temps at full load, prime95 small fft: 70/70/68/68 at 4ghz, 57/57/55/55 at 3.6ghz.

 

[aevm]

Thanks!