Please Someone Smart Review Build / Point Out Any Problems

[Jersey_Jay_Z]

Video Cards - (2) XFX GeForce 9800 GTX - 2x$280 = $560
CPU - Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 Processor BX80569Q9450 - 2.66GHz, 12MB Cache, 1333MHz FSB, Yorkfield, Quad-Core, Retail, Socket 775, Processor with Fan = $350
Hard Drive - (2) WD Raptor 150GB Hard Drive 10k 2x$170 = $340
Memory - Patriot 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory= $300
Power Supply - OCZ / GameXStream / 1010-Watt / ATX / 120mm Fan / SATA-Ready / SLI-Ready / Active PFC / Power Supply = $190
CD Drive - Sony - 8x Internal Blu-ray Disc/DVD-ROM/CD-ROM Drive = $200
Sound Card - Creative Labs X-FI Xtreme Gamer Fatality Sound Card = $130
Monitor - Sceptre x24wg-Naga 24" Widescreen LCD Monitor - 2ms, 4000:1, 1920x1200 (WUXGA), DVI, VGA, Black - $330
Case with Cooling in it! - Thermaltake Black Kandalf LCS Full-Tower ATX Case with Clear Side, Front USB, FireWire, Audio Ports and Built-In Liquid Cooling System = $270
Motherboard - ASUS P5E3 PREMIUM/WIFI-AP @n LGA 775 DDR3 Intel X48 ATX Intel Motherboard = $370

Total = $3040

Is that all compatable? What am I still missing? Is it a good value for the performance it'll make?

 

[Gravemind123]

It's not all compatible, and the value is terrible. If you want SLI you must have a motherboard based on an nVidia chipset, for that CPU you need 750i/780i or 790i SLI chipset. If you want to use Vista do not get a Creative soundcard, there are lots of driver issues still. The power supply is overkill, you can't make a gaming system that would draw over 750W full load(even tri-SLI 8800Ultras or dual 9800GX2s). I'd drop the power supply down to a Corsair TX750 or PC Power and Cooling Silencer 750. DDR3 at that low of a speed is not going to be a noticeable improvement over DDR2, to really benefit from DDR3 you would want at least DDR3-1600. You would be better off getting 4GB of high quality DDR2 and a 780i SLI motherboard.

 

[Jersey_Jay_Z]

Video Cards - (2) XFX GeForce 9800 GTX - 2x$280 = $560
CPU - Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 Processor BX80569Q9450 - 2.66GHz, 12MB Cache, 1333MHz FSB, Yorkfield, Quad-Core, Retail, Socket 775, Processor with Fan = $350
Hard Drive - (2) WD Raptor 150GB Hard Drive 10k 2x$170 = $340
Memory - Kingston HyperX 4GB (4 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Quad Kit Desktop Memory = $120
Power Supply - RAIDMAX QUANTUM RX-700 700W ATX12V V2.2 / EPS12V SLI Power Supply 100 - 240 V UL, CUL, FCC, TUV, CE, C-tick, CCC, CB = $110
CD Drive - Sony - 8x Internal Blu-ray Disc/DVD-ROM/CD-ROM Drive = $200
Sound Card - Creative Labs X-FI Xtreme Gamer Fatality Sound Card = $130
Monitor - Sceptre x24wg-Naga 24" Widescreen LCD Monitor - 2ms, 4000:1, 1920x1200 (WUXGA), DVI, VGA, Black - $330
Case with Cooling in it! - Thermaltake Black Kandalf LCS Full-Tower ATX Case with Clear Side, Front USB, FireWire, Audio Ports and Built-In Liquid Cooling System = $270
Motherboard - EVGA 132-CK-NF78-A1 LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 780i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard = $240

Total = $2680

Better?

 

[Jersey_Jay_Z]

Video Cards - (2) XFX GeForce 9800 GTX - 2x$280 = $560
CPU - Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 Processor BX80569Q9450 - 2.66GHz, 12MB Cache, 1333MHz FSB, Yorkfield, Quad-Core, Retail, Socket 775, Processor with Fan = $350
Hard Drive - (2) WD Raptor 150GB Hard Drive 10k 2x$170 = $340
Memory - Kingston HyperX 4GB (4 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Quad Kit Desktop Memory = $120
Power Supply - RAIDMAX QUANTUM RX-700 700W ATX12V V2.2 / EPS12V SLI Power Supply 100 - 240 V UL, CUL, FCC, TUV, CE, C-tick, CCC, CB = $110
CD Drive - Sony - 8x Internal Blu-ray Disc/DVD-ROM/CD-ROM Drive = $200
Sound Card - ASUS Xonar DX 7.1 Channels PCI Express Interface Sound Card = $90
Monitor - Sceptre x24wg-Naga 24" Widescreen LCD Monitor - 2ms, 4000:1, 1920x1200 (WUXGA), DVI, VGA, Black - $330
Case with Cooling in it! - Thermaltake Black Kandalf LCS Full-Tower ATX Case with Clear Side, Front USB, FireWire, Audio Ports and Built-In Liquid Cooling System = $270
Motherboard - EVGA 132-CK-NF78-A1 LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 780i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard = $240

Total = $2640

Sorry, forgot to change sound card

 

[Shadow703793]

^PSU is cr@p. Get a PP&C or a Corsair or better.
Drop the Raptors and wait for the new VelociRaptors.
Try and get good DDR2 800 RAM (ie Crucial Ballastix DDR2 800) becase RAM natively higher than DDR2 800 seems to have compatibility issues. Be careful with liquid cooling, make sure you know what you are doing and the cooling system is high quality, you DO NOT want a low quality liquid cooling system. If you are not OCing most (ie CPU/Motherboard) is an overkill.

 

[Jersey_Jay_Z]

Video Cards - (2) XFX GeForce 9800 GTX - 2x$280 = $560
CPU - Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 Processor BX80569Q9450 - 2.66GHz, 12MB Cache, 1333MHz FSB, Yorkfield, Quad-Core, Retail, Socket 775, Processor with Fan = $350
Hard Drive - (2) WD Raptor 150GB Hard Drive 10k 2x$170 = $340
Memory - CORSAIR XMS2 DHX 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory = $120
Power Supply - PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750 Quad (Crossfire Edition) 750W EPS12V Power Supply 100 - 240 V UL, CE, CB, RoHS - Retail = $120
CD Drive - Sony - 8x Internal Blu-ray Disc/DVD-ROM/CD-ROM Drive = $200
Sound Card - ASUS Xonar DX 7.1 Channels PCI Express Interface Sound Card = $90
Monitor - Sceptre x24wg-Naga 24" Widescreen LCD Monitor - 2ms, 4000:1, 1920x1200 (WUXGA), DVI, VGA, Black - $330
Case with Cooling in it! - Thermaltake Black Kandalf LCS Full-Tower ATX Case with Clear Side, Front USB, FireWire, Audio Ports and Built-In Liquid Cooling System = $270
Motherboard - EVGA 132-CK-NF78-A1 LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 780i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard = $240

Total = $2650

Am I getting close?

 

[Shadow703793]

^Good you fixed the PSU. Now you should do some work/research on if the liquid cooling system is good. A good liquid cooling system would be ~$250-350.

 

[Jersey_Jay_Z]

Do I need the liquid cooling or can I just buy a regular $100 case?

 

[skyguy]

Drop the Kandalf LCS.........A good air heatsink will beat that Thermaltake crap, and for alot less money too. Get something like a Noctua NF-U12P heatsink......very good, very quiet, easy to install, decent price.

That sound card is good. But just for the record, the X-Fi's do run on Vista, I'm on one now. They can have "issues", but so do Nvidia and ATI graphics cards, and so on. Point being is that while they had problems, the new drivers (and DanielK's if you want) actually work well. I'm not argue semantics though, the bottom line is they do work "fine". But that ASUS card is definitely a good alternative.

Do you need a Blu-Ray drive?

Do you need 2x150gb Raptors? Or can you wait just a little while for the Velociraptor to come out? It'll be the same capacity as 2 - 150's, be faster and cheaper. Something to consider..........

 

[Jersey_Jay_Z]

Video Cards - (2) XFX GeForce 9800 GTX - 2x$280 = $560
CPU - Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 Processor BX80569Q9450 - 2.66GHz, 12MB Cache, 1333MHz FSB, Yorkfield, Quad-Core, Retail, Socket 775, Processor with Fan = $350
Hard Drive - (2) WD Raptor 150GB Hard Drive 10k 2x$170 = $340
Memory - CORSAIR XMS2 DHX 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory = $120
Power Supply - PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750 Quad (Crossfire Edition) 750W EPS12V Power Supply 100 - 240 V UL, CE, CB, RoHS - Retail = $120
CD Drive - Sony - 8x Internal Blu-ray Disc/DVD-ROM/CD-ROM Drive = $200
Sound Card - ASUS Xonar DX 7.1 Channels PCI Express Interface Sound Card = $90
Monitor - Sceptre x24wg-Naga 24" Widescreen LCD Monitor - 2ms, 4000:1, 1920x1200 (WUXGA), DVI, VGA, Black - $330
Case - COOLER MASTER COSMOS 1000 RC-1000-KSN1-GP Black/ Silver Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case = $200
Motherboard - EVGA 132-CK-NF78-A1 LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 780i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard = $240

Total = $2580

Any final comments before I start clicking and shopping madly and sending off the fraud alerts on my credit card?

 

[Shadow703793]

^Looks good. If considering OCing get this: Xigmatek HDT-S1283
http://www.frostytech.com/top5heatsinks.cfm#INTELHEATSINK

That HSF can easily handle OCed Q6600 CPUs with less 1.55v.

 

[Jersey_Jay_Z]

Buying ... hope this crap works Also hope I don't turn it into a pile of goo while assembling!

 

[sason]

ASUS P5E3 Premium/WiFi-AP support Core 2 Quad Processor Q9450.


Product Description ASUS P5E3 Premium/WiFi-AP - ATX - iX48
Product Type Motherboard
Form Factor ATX
Dimensions (WxDxH) 30.5 cm x 24.4 cm
Chipset Type Intel X48 Express / Intel ICH9R
Multi-Core Support Dual-Core / QUAD-core