Would you check if my new build is decent?

[ecru]

Hi all, I am planning to build new computer. I've never built one before, so I really do not know much of it. I really really need your help and advice! My primary purpose is to play the latest games and do some graphic works. I think I want to have SLI, but if you don't think it's a good idea, you can tell me what changes I should make.

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz 6MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor

Power: ENERMAX MODU82+ EMD525AWT ATX12V Ver.2.3 525W Power Supply
or ENERMAX MODU82+ EMD625AWT ATX12V Ver.2.3 625W Power Supply

Motherboard: EVGA 122-CK-NF68-T1 LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI
or EVGA 132-CK-NF78-A1 LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 780i SLI

Ram: CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) TWIN2X2048-6400C4
or CORSAIR XMS2 DOMINATOR 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 TWIN2X2048-6400C4D

GPU: 2 x EVGA 512-P3-N801-AR GeForce 8800GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP

Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD7500AAKS 750GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s
and/or Western Digital Raptor WD1500ADFD 150GB 10000 RPM SATA 1.5Gb/s Hard Drive

Case: sub $100

Optical Drive: LG GH-20NS10

Cooler: Thermaltake Big typhoon
or APACHI dB-Zero 120-775
or Thermallight XP90C + 38T (depending on case)

My initial questions are...
1. Should I go with 780i mobo or 680i? I am only using two graphic cards. Or should I choose other mobos if I decide not to use SLI? Any suggestion?
2. Do I need one more hard drive if I choose 150GB one?
3. Is 2G of Ram enough or do I need 4G? I am planning to use vista 32, but I am not really sure vista 64 is better than 32... or better for gaming.
4. Is the power supply decent? Any recommendation for power supply?

Besides these questions above, I will take any advice/suggestion...
Please help me I really need tech guy's help!! :=D

 

[shadowduck]

If you want to get the most out of your SLI setup look for a chipset which supports PCI-E 2.0 like the video card does. I think the 780i does. I don't see reason to do SLI unless you want to play at resolutions greater than 1920x1200. Actually, look at 9800GX2 which is 2 video cards in one AND lets you still SLI if you wish. (4 total cards- 2GB video RAM).

Raptors are vastly overpriced for small speed gains- just go with the 750GB drive.

2GB of RAM is fine. 4GB is better but you need a 64bit OS to use it properly. 64bit OSes still have some rough edges.

 

[ecru]

If you want to get the most out of your SLI setup look for a chipset which supports PCI-E 2.0 like the video card does. I think the 780i does. I don't see reason to do SLI unless you want to play at resolutions greater than 1920x1200. Actually, look at 9800GX2 which is 2 video cards in one AND lets you still SLI if you wish. (4 total cards- 2GB video RAM).

So unless I want to play at high resolutions, I don't need SLI, is it correct? I thought SLI tech would make gaming performance faster and stable. Looking at other components, do you have any suggestion for motherboard? I picked 680i or 780i because they support SLI

 

[shadowduck]

What you said is correct. Look at HardOCP video card reviews which will back up my claim nicely.

SLI does not make gaming faster and it has nothing to do with stability. SLI lets you run higher resolutions with more eye candy on.

As for motherboard- look at the Asus P35 boards. They are a good value at ~100-150.

Example: Asus P35 board

Example 2: with 2 PCI-E slots for video cards: Asus P35 board 2.

 

[madaniel]

Using 2 x 8800GTs is a pretty safe bet. They may be a bit older cards then things out now, but they do offer great performance, specifically for the price they are dropping into. With new things popping up everyday, there may be however a better single card on the horizon for the same or near price.

As was stated however, SLI is "mostly" for higher resolutions, so take that into consideration.

 

[jevon]

Be careful about P35 boards if you want to use more than one video card: One of the PCI-E x16 slots will run at real x16 speed/electrical, but the second only runs at x4 speed/electrical, which will bottleneck your 2nd video card. Also, if going with an Intel motherboard (P35 or X38), you can only do CrossFire (ATI) and not SLI (nVidia). That said, I really prefer Intel boards' stability and performance to nVidia's, and Crossfire options (esp with the 4870 around the corner) seem to be as good as if not better for price/performance.

You may need to go higher up the PSU scale if you plan on going SLI/Crossfire; the more headroom your PSU has, the more efficiently it will run and the longer it will last. I think the sweet spot right now is the PC Power & Cooling 750W, seems to be on sale in quite a few places and is excellent quality.

For the best case at less than $100 look at the Coolermaster 690, awesome little case with lots of fan options and cable management. For CPU cooling, I like Noctua fans for a heatsink that doesn't come with one (ie Ultra-120) as high "static pressure" is a better thing to have on a heatsink fan than CFM. There's a Noctua heatsink for around ~$50ish that comes with one of their $20 high static pressure fans installed.

I'd get 4gb for DDR2-800 because it's so cheap, and by now pretty much anything and everything works with 64-bit OS (Vista). If you use any weird or unique programs you can do a quick search to make sure they're compatible, but really everything is going 64-bit and IMO they shouldn't have even released a 32-bit version of Vista

Good luck with the new system!!