Possible gaming PC setup

[jws305]

So I have been reading some articles on THG and trying to piece together a PC. I am building this PC for gaming, specifically Age of Conan. Any comments or suggestions are greatly appreciated.

CPU - Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Model BX80570E8400 ($195)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115037

MOBO - ASUS P5N72-T Premium LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 780i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard ($260)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131294

VIDEO - [2x SLI] XFX PVT88PUHF4 GeForce 8800 GT 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card ($260 for both)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150278

MEMORY - Patriot Extreme Performance 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model PDC24G6400LLK ($94)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820220269

PSU - Antec NeoPower 650 Blue 650W ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($120)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371010

HDD - Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3500320AS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive ($110)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148288

CASE - Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case ($110)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129021

CPU FAN - Cooler Master Hyper TX 2 CPU Cooler ($25)
http://stores.tomshardware.com/search_getprod.php/masterid=42297183/search=cpu%20cooler/st=product/sv=image

 

[evll_panda]

I would just spend 200 and get 1 8800GTS 512 and save yourself 60 bucks towards something else .

 

[chechnyan]

i would go with evll_panda advise
you're other system parts are greet for gaming

 

[jkamb]

Note that your 4GB RAM will be wasted in 32bit system. Only 3GB will work. Unless ofcourse you use 64bit XP or Vista where you will be OK

 

[ZOldDude]

Screw the Antec....get a real PSU.
The PC Power & Cooling 610 (49 Amp 12 V constant rated) is $109 with shipping on Neweggg this week (and 1 week each month so it seems).
4 GB of RAM is far mor than 99.999999999999% of people really ever need even if they use Vista.

2GB Ram with XP and running 4 security programs,6 torrent down/uploads while playing Frontlines:Fuel of War uses 49% of physical ram.
Vista with 4GB of RAM uses about the same amount to load just the OS.
Games and software are written to run on XP.
Screw Vista.

Corsair XMS2 DDR-800 2X1GB Twinpac's of RAM are $29 USD with email dicount and rebates at both Newegg and Tigerdirrect -right now- as well as 1 week each month for many months.

Best PSU = PC Power & Cooling
Best HS = Thermalright
Best 120mm fans =Silverston FM-121
Best case = Coolermaster Stacker TO-1 w/Crossflow Fan kit

 

[jws305]

I was reading up on the Age of Conan forums and they were saying that the game really didn't benefit much from the SLI setup so I am probably going to go with just one video card. I will probably also go with 2gb of ram. My biggest unknown in all of this is the motherboard and processor.

 

[Demonic Goldfish]

That CPU's good, it should clock to around 4GHz with safe temps and volts, if you plan to overclock, that is. I can't personally comment on this, but I hear it's best to avoid Nvidia chipsets unless you're going for SLI - something about them getting very hot. You might want to research that. As for the mobo, just find stuff from a reputable manufacturer (Asus, Abit, Gigabyte, etc) that has what you need and read a bunch of reviews on it. Also if you do plan to overclock, I personally found that with 4GB my RAM needed a lot of voltage and I couldn't OC it much, so it held my CPU back, but if you don't plan to OC then that won't matter.

 

[jws305]

I'm guessing it really depends on the card manufacturer as to how hot the GPU gets under load. They all have different heatsinks and fans. Does anyone have any recommendations as to what brand 8800GTS I should get?

Here is a list of all the ones Newegg has
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=40000048&Description=8800gts&name=Desktop+Graphics+%2f+Video+Cards

 

[jws305]

I am looking at this motherboard and video card now.

XFX MB-N780-ISH9 LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 780i SLI Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813141005

XFX PVT88GYDD4 GeForce 8800GTS (G92) 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150267

 

[MoeDaKilla]

I suggest staying away from 780i mobos. Plus, I have had bad experiences with Patriot Memory and ASUS mobos. Asus's memory controller has a hard time recognizing Patriot memory. Try this memory:

CORSAIR XMS2 DHX 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-...400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail

 

[jws305]

Why would you suggest staying away from 780i mobos?

 

[uguv]

If you're going for a single card solution I'd stick with an intel chipset over nvidia. They are generally better overclockers and more stable.

Get 4gb of ram. It's foolish not to since it's so cheap, plus it leaves room to upgrade to 8gb with a 64-bit OS. A 32-bit OS will still see about 3.2gb of it. Many games will grab up to 2gb of RAM by themselves, and those that are written correctly can use even more than 2gb.

Vista is fine if you choose to go with it. Newer games will be have more DX10 support as well. ZOldDude seems to have some kind of vendetta against it.

Make sure you get the 8800GTS (G92) version with 512mb of ram. The 320 and 640mb versions are older and are not as good. The card you picked is fine. I think there's an MSI one for a bit less as well.

 

[MoeDaKilla]

because nvidia 780i is not a reliable mobo. U are better off sticking to intel chipsets because a lot of time one great graphics card will do a lot more good for you than a dual card setup

 

[thorgen2]

I am in the process of building a pc for the same purpose, most of the components that I am looking at are similar other than graphics card. I was looking at getting the 9800 1GB G2, even though it is techincally a single video card but has 2 processors would it work better than sli with 2 separate cards? Also would it be over kill to get a 790i and use DDR 3 memory? BTW I will be using Vista 64 instead of 32 if that matters. Any advice?