$1200 SLI, wolfdale,Raptor system, opinions?

[dhrumstix]

Hi Guys, This is my first build and I was wondering what you all would change and why.

Case: Antec P182
Mobo: MSI P7N 750i SLI
Proc: E8400 Wolfdale
RAM: Corsair 4GB DDR2 800 Cas 5
Video: 2x Nvidia 9600GT 512mb
Power: PC Power & Cooling S75QB EPS12V 750W Power Supply**
Hard Drive: Western Digital Raptor 150gb**
DVD: who cares

I can get all of this shipped from Newegg, after rebates for $1211.

**Is this power supply too much? Is it a good PSU?
**Is Raptor performance only seen in RAID, in which case what HD should I get?

Thanks

 

[boonality]

Ok my personal opinion is this

Case - fine
Mobo - I would go with an X38 or 780i
Proc - fine
RAM - fine
Video - If X38 get 9800GTX, if 780i get 8800GT SLI
PSU - excellent choice
HDD - dump the raptor, they are loud and you will only see a real world difference in loading maps and how fast windows boots... whoopdee. Go with a 7200.11 from seagate.

 

[akhilles]

Yup, the PSU is overkill for dual 9600GTs, BUT it will give you headroom for gpu upgrades. You won't have to worry about power for a while.

Raptors are falling behind in terms of performance cuz the regular SATA drives are gaining on. You can have a dual SATA setup in RAID 0 for less.

 

[RPAaggieDude]

That system looks pretty good.

Case - Great cooling and spacious enough to put whatever you want in it.

Mobo - I generally try to stay away from MSI (I've had bad luck with every MSI product I've used in the past, so I don't buy MSI anymore)

Processor - Even though I love AMD, this is still a great processor

Ram - I only use 3 brands of ram: Corsair, Crucial, and Team Xtreem, so its looking great there.

Video - I've had all kinds of video cards and I currently have a 6600GT (128mb). Its colors are not as good as the ATI's. So i might suggest to you to wait a week or two till the 4870's come out, or do 2 3870's.

Power - Excellent power supply, and its only 119.99 on newegg with free ship right now.

HD : Get raptors if you want rediculous load times for windows. If you wanna save some money I'd get 2 smaller WD RE2's and run them in raid 0.

DVD : Exactely

Good luck on your build!

 

[Topcover]

I have the msi 750i mobo and I love it currently though it isn't the best over clocking board though i currently got my q6600 to 2.8 and it runs great i wish it would oc better. I personally think the high priced mobo are a waist of money unless you are dropping several grand into a system. The other components look good good. luck with your system.

For a 750i mobo that overclocks great go with the evga version of 750i

 

[lunyone]

Okay here's a couple of thoughts that I have about your build:
* nVidia based mobo's right now have had some issues, so I've shied away from them right now. This doesn't mean that they will be fixed, but that is where I'm coming from.
* Get a p35 or x38 based mobo's. This all depends on what resolution that your running your games at (I'm assuming your building this for gaming). If your at 16x12 resolutions, I'd just stick with a 8800gts (g92) or wait for the AMD 48xx's to come out and see what they have to offer.
* The PSU you selected is very nice and reliable, BUTTT it only has 4 x 6pin PCI-e power connectors. More and more GPU's are requireing 8 pin PCI-e power connectors. I'd recommend getting a Corsair tx750w PSU. It's the same price (after $10 MIR) and has 4 x 6+2 pin PCI-e power connectors. This way you are covered if in the future you want to power up a SLI/Xfire rig.
* Now if you are only at 16x12 or less on the resolution, you would save some $ on the mobo/PSU for the system. This savings and be put aside for other upgrades later or put into other upgrades on this system. It's up to you.
* I'm not all that impressed with the Raptor series, so I'd prefer to have more storage space and 95% of the performance of a Raptor drive. That is me, but it's up to you.

 

[lunyone]

Okay here's a couple of thoughts that I have about your build:
* nVidia based mobo's right now have had some issues, so I've shied away from them right now. This doesn't mean that they will be fixed, but that is where I'm coming from.
* Get a p35 or x38 based mobo's. This all depends on what resolution that your running your games at (I'm assuming your building this for gaming). If your at 16x12 resolutions, I'd just stick with a 8800gts (g92) or wait for the AMD 48xx's to come out and see what they have to offer.
* The PSU you selected is very nice and reliable, BUTTT it only has 4 x 6pin PCI-e power connectors. More and more GPU's are requireing 8 pin PCI-e power connectors. I'd recommend getting a Corsair tx750w PSU. It's the same price (after $10 MIR) and has 4 x 6+2 pin PCI-e power connectors. This way you are covered if in the future you want to power up a SLI/Xfire rig.
* Now if you are only at 16x12 or less on the resolution, you would save some $ on the mobo/PSU for the system. This savings and be put aside for other upgrades later or put into other upgrades on this system. It's up to you.
* I'm not all that impressed with the Raptor series, so I'd prefer to have more storage space and 95% of the performance of a Raptor drive. That is me, but it's up to you.

 

[runswindows95]

<agrees with lunyone as well.