Gaming Build help

I'm looking to put together a good system that will last a good 3 years with just a few upgrades from time to time (ram, gfx card). I'd like any feedback/advice anyone has on how this looks. I'm willing to spend up to 1700 if I'll get the bang for my buck in longevity.

Here is what I am looking at right now.

http://secure.newegg.com/NewVersio [...] er=9507168

Edit: Forgot to mention I want to OC the processor to 3.0. If I'm going to need something other than the retail fan/heatsink please provide some suggestions, thanks.

It looks like a nice build. The only things I would change are more preference related then anything so keep that in mind when reading this.

Case: I am a huge antec fan because I do not use liquid cooling and these seem to do an outstanding job. I use the mid-tower 900 (more than enough room) but the one in the link is the full tower.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6811129043

MB: Keep in mind that the X48 chipset does not support SLI. While this may not matter mutch now it might before your 3 year period is up. It does support Crossfire and the new 48xx ATI cards are supposed to be (short for everyones guessing) very impressive. Also, you can save $50-$75 by ordering one of the "open box" boards. It is my understanding that they are all tested and have the same warranties.

CPU: I would recommend switching the CPU to the E8400/8500. Most applications do not take advantage of quad core. If you are doing video editing etc then the quad would be an excellent choice. If that is the case you might want to consider the Q9450, if you can find one.

HD: Your HD is perfectly fine but I prefer the Seagate. It is one of the fastest (only slightly behind the Raptor) HD on the market. This is purely personal preference and I am sure that you can find 50 people on this forum to argue for or against each of the major HD manufacturers.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6822148288

Audio Card: I have to agree with SuicideSilence, the XFI cards have been problematic with Vista. I only use my onboard audio and it sounds great. If you are going to get a complete speaker set to use and watch movies then go for it but if this is for gaming then just get a headset and enjoy the 5.1 channel onboard audio.


Last thing and if you are going to OC then it will be the most important. The standard cooling fans are typically lower quality. The one below adds
$50 to the tag but it is well worth the money.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6835118003
and
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6835100007

When games go multithreaded the quad will rear its ugly head and eat any dual core system alive. Also a quad @3.2 or a dual at the same clock is going to perform the same. A few weeks ago there was a good quad vs dual core discussion going in here, i asked if anyone had gone from dual to quad, and what the performance diffrence from a quad @3.2 compared to a e8400 was. Quite a few people who had gone this route said none. Nuff said.

I can't say Im a fan of the Open Box method of getting a discount. It's not so much because I know the MBs have all been tested for functionality.
It's more along the line of the missing accessory pack (SATA cables, chipset cooler, etc) and the rest of the Open Box policy.

I'd actually rather see you get an X38 motherboard for the same price as the X48 open box.

@ BLACKSCI;
What you say is true enough. As long as you're gaming at lower resolutions, lower graphics options and lower quality (AA/AF) settings.
On the other hand if you're an average gamer you care as much (or more) about graphics quality than flat out FPS performance.

Lost Planet: Extreme Condition is a game that uses multiple threads, as many as eight. In the benchmarkings below you'll notice a capture of
core activity as shown by Windows Task Manager.

The benchmarks were run at 1152x864 resolution with its default quality settings except texture filtering was set to trilinear, edge
antialiasing was disabled, and "Concurrent operations" was set to match the number of CPU cores available. The GPU was an 8800GTX.

In the Snow benchmark you'll see the game is already GPU bound at 1152x864 res and medium graphics settings. Not much evidence of quads
eating duals there.

In the Cave benchmark you'll see the quad core activity is higher and the quads pulling out good peformance gaps over dual cores - as you'd
expect to see in a non-GPU bound game. However once you run up the resolution to about 12x10 & above, add high graphics options and
add in some antialiasing you're back to being GPU bound. And it's not because the quads have lost any appetite.

(in the FiringSquad benchmarks above a HD3870 was the GPU in use)

BLACKSCI's "poll" about going from dual to quad and not finding any difference probably had more to due with GPU bound graphics than differences
in # or cores or levels of OC'ing.

I'm in favor of cinc going with the Q6600 for his goal of having components he doesn't have to upgrade over the next few years.
Just didnt want him to have to wonder why his new OC'd quad wasnt making a meal of the dual core CPUs.

Sorry bout the doublepost, i really hate this new toms ui, it just sucks.