Sigh..so confused..

[Raxus]

Hey Gang,

Been mashing this build for over 2 months now. I have a budget of $2500 which has to include a monitor, keyboard, and OS. There are some things I know I will get and others that are giving me a migrain. I would really appreciate some advice on where to go. Especially if I should go SLI or Crossfire or not.

These I know for sure I will get:

Monitor: BenQ 24" http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16824014158

CPU: E8400 http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16819115037

Case : Antec 900 http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16811129021

GFX: EVGA 880 GTS (G92) - EVGA has step up http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16814130325

PSU: PC P&C 750 http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16817341011

HDD's: WD Raptor http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16822136012

Seagate 7200.11 http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16822148288

KB; Saitek http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16823175001

CDROM: Lite-On http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16827106100

Cooler: Artic Cooling http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16835186134

OS: Vista 64 Ultimate http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16832116493

*************************************************

Really need help with Mobo and Ram. I am not really into overclocking tho I might try a little bit..nothing major. This is a gamer rig that I want to use high resolution with. 1900x1280 native res. On Ram I think I narrowed it to 2 choices:

OCZ http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16820227267

Mushkin http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16820146726


For Mobo's I have no real clue, but these look good to me ..please let me know if I should get something else

Asus Maximus http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16813131227

Asus Rampage http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16813131284

Thanks for looking at this long list!

 

[ohiou_grad_06]

A lot of guys here will tell you that for the price of SLI you can get a single card that will perform as well or better. Also, SLI/Crossfire boards tend to be more money, so that's something to look at.

 

[ohiou_grad_06]

On motherboards, the 2 I've had luck with are Biostar and Gigabyte. Those are 2 of my favorite brands. Though Asus is supposed to be decent as well. Stay away from ECS.

 

[mexpedip]

Ok, all my recommendations are personal preference but...

changes:
CPU - the E8400 is a phenominal CPU but if I were building a comp today with your budget I would go with the Q9450. Not many/any games take advantage of the quad core but I would say it is a safe bet that they will be able to shortly. And, despite the many and varied rumors I would be surprised if intel released the nehalem (?) proc at an affordable level for several years. There is no need as the other company (I forgot their name) has not done anything to push them.
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16819115042

HD - raptors are great but if you are going in that direction you might as well get the new velociraptor.
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16822136260

mem - I am an OCZ junky. They have answered all my question (even the dumb ones) and been very responsive. The only change I made was moving your selection from PC6400 to PC8500. It is $15 more.
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16820227289

mobo - I chose the 780i chipset as ATI has yet to prove that their cards are as good as nvidias. There are rumors of upcoming cards but... The only reason I chose the XFX is because it has the highest customer rating.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813141005


Your video card looks good. I have one and love it. ;-) Also, don't forget that if you go with the X38/48 you can use crossfire, not SLI.

Grand total before shipping = $2347.87

 

[Raxus]

With my monitor should I be going SLI or Crossfire or should a single GFX card give me what I need for 1900x1280 res?

 

[San Pedro]

I'd skip the raptor hard drives and go with a 750gig hard drive with 32mb cache or one of WD's 640gig drives. You can also save some money if you get Vista Home Premium instead of Ultimate (not really sure the difference).

 

[neveremember]

it looks like you're on the right track with most of it, so here's a few things to ask that might make your decisions easier.
SLI or no? do you play games? do you want to play Crisis? if you want to play games at 1920 x 1280 then you're better off with sli/xfire or with 1 of the dual gpu cards. if you had a smaller monitor you could go with less, but if you're going to big league it, don't skimp on video processing. right now you can get 2 xfx or gigabyte 8800gt cards for about the price of the card you selected, but of course that means a different mobo w/ Nvidia chipset...

Asus & Gigabyte are my favorite mobo makers, that being said... if i were to buy a mobo right now, it would probably be the evga 750i ftw for about $200 if it's in stock and there is an Asus version of the 750i for about $150 which should have all the features you'll need.

the next thing i would do is forget vista ultimate, i can't figure out why everyone wants that? the extra $80 bucks doesn't make sense when you can replace all the bundled programs with other things anyway. go with vista 64 home premium or business, which ever is cheaper. oem of course.

for the ram, i have no idea why your agonizing. 4GB for $100 - $115 is an awsome price, both are fine, but i'd get the one in stock.

for the HDD's i'd forget about the raptor & separate 500gb and just go with a 1TB hard drive. you'll never notice the difference in speed, it's all about space. you'll need plenty of room for all the pron you'll be downloading, at least i did, my 500gb is already full. 8]

anyway, tmi. i think i overstayed my welcome, good luck with your rig.