Help a Bro out, New Gaming Rig Idea Ver. 2

[DeepSeaDoc]

Ok first thing first. I want to say thank you to everyone who has helped me in my new rig endeavor. You guys are really great. My first post I was taken to school and with good purpose. So I have taken all the input and reanalyzed everything and this is what I have come up with.

For the CPU I am torn between going Quad or Dual. My thought process is that maybe the new GPU will somehow take advantage of the Quads. Not sure but it is down to these. I here so many different reviews and opinions between these two.

Quad:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115017
Dual:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115037

For Motherboard since I don’t want anything to do with SLI it made this choice easy. This motherboard is a favorite for allot of people and with great reviews, and very stable.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128336

My Cooling solution has changed a couple of times but I think I have settle with this. This should keep everything nice and cool. I chose MX-2 thermal compound over AS5 only because the MX-2 supposedly last like 6 years and dries immediately.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233003 and
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835186020
With 3 of these to help my case out…….
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835185005

Speaking of cases I really wanted this one but after some good points on price vs. blah blah I will chose the second one. If I weren’t married I would chose the first for sure LOL!
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119122
The 900 is a very popular case with amazing reviews and for 89 bones kinda hard to pass up. It’s my choice. But damn that Evo looks nice!!
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129021

Next for RAM there were numerous front-runners. It came down to compatibility and performance. Come to find out this particular RAM works amazingly well with the MOBO choice I made. So here it is. Also like the best reviews of all of them. 4 GB for $133 and you get the 3Dmark08 Vantage advanced version for free.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146785

For my PSU, I know allot of people love PC power & cooling and there is no denying there good to go. One problem I had with them was NO modular cabling. So I will stick with my original choice. Only because 3 guys from work have them and Love them and the great reviews and price with Modular cabling!
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817815002

For my hard drive I originally had like 3 total for raid blah blah. After a little schooling from http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/forum-31.html and some enlightenment I will go with just one.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148302

My all in one optical drive choice was a Fan favorite and award winner x 4.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151154

My monitor solution was not as easy for there is allot of choices and good choices out there. First thing first I will be running standard 1920x1200 resolution. So I will need a minimum 24’’. That being said it narrowed the choices down to about 23 total monitors. Then money became a factor. I wanted to stay under $500 and it had to have great color like 16.7 million display colors, which is about standard now. It also had to have good brightness like 400cd/m2. Which is above average. It also had to have contrast ration and response time like 1000/1 and 5 ms. Upon reading reviews the last big one had to be verified that is NO black light bleeding and no dead pixels (which dead pixels can be hit and miss I know). The bonus feature to this monitor is the 178°(H) / 178°(V) viewing angle. Only one that had that under $500. So that is why I went with this one over the second one. Oh it had to have HDMI inputs as well for my PS3. It also had the highest customer satisfaction rating @ 90% with 5 stars.
My choice http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824002359
Runner Up http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236033

Ok the only thing I have left out of this equation is my GPU. I originally was going to go with one 9800GX2 but started thinking and reading others reviews and decided to wait the 2 weeks for the next Gen ATI 4870 and Nvidia GT200 Series cards. So it will be one of those for my GPU. I check everyday to find any info on them that will help me in finalizing my system. With everything above w/out a GPU I am sitting at $1,497.87. So wont be a bad little system under 2k. Lets hope the wife sings off on it hehehehe.

Again this wouldn’t be possible if it wasn’t for you guys and all the help you have given me. I am currently In Afghanistan so the waiting for the next Gen cards to come out will be easy lol. But I will be prepared once I return to the states the good Lord willing!!

Thanks,

DeepSeaDoc

 

[amdfangirl]

Based on price I'd go with the Q6600... its more expensive but future-proof
I reckon the 640GB drive with 2 320GB platters is cool...

Anyways alot of new stuff is coming out so I'd recommend you sit tight and wait for new stuff to push the prices down.

 

[modode]

Looks great overall.

 

[DeepSeaDoc]

Yes I am very excited about all the new stuff coming out. I can hardly wait for benchmarks and reviews on the 2 new Gens cards. By what has leaked so far it seems that ATI may be makeing a come back?
Yea the good thing is I have a little time to think this over....like 1 million times lol!

Thanks,

DeepSeaDoc

 

[WR2]

Antec 900 case - with 3 120mm fans and the top 200mm fan you can easily do without the 3 extra case fans.

Add the XIGMATEK Retention Bracket $7 to the HDT S1283 and MX-2 (good choice - easier to apply than most, non-conductive too)

HDD; the SV 35-3 you chose is out of stock ATM. I can't say I know if the SV models have any advantages over the 7200.11 models.
Any of the 3 listed here are excellent choices. The WD-640 has a slight performance advantage.

The XIGMATEK is a new model and a bit of an unknown but its made by CWT so I don't feel it's a bad choice. It's a little louder than some other choices when pushed hard - but at the single GPU loads you're thinking about that shouldnt be a factor.

The ASUS MK241H monitor didn't impress me much and it's not only the TN panel / $539 price.

Be sure to take a last run at the forums just before you order - I'm guessing you'll drop the order so it arrives about the same time you do?
Better check THAT plan with the wife along with the budget! [:wr2:5] (jeezzzzzzzzz a DeepSeaDoc in Afghanistan - the worlds gone mad!)

 

[DeepSeaDoc]

Thanks for the reply WR2!

The 3 Xtra Scythe S-Flex were to replace the Antec Stock fans. I did some testing with those S-Flex fans and was impressed. They pull and push allot more air with allot less noise (low rpm).

I will deffinitly add XIGMATEK Retention Bracket $7 you mentioned thanks.

I will also do some more research on the HDD.

On paper the ASUS monitor was nice and had good reviews but it was also like $540. The NEC monitor I linked for the money cant be beat. I have heard nothing but GREAT things about them, and for $100 less.

I will keep checking back seeing how things change so much. Ohh from what I can tell from what I am seeing over here yes the world has gone mad? Muslims doing Jihad on Muslims for there 72 Virgins....and yes it happens daily!!

Ok off to the ocean in the middle of Afganistan.....lol

Thanks,

DeepSeaDoc

 

[houstonserenity]

It dose not seem like your are cutting any corners on your build looks great! Just have you looked at the 45nm Quads like the Q9450 the specs on them look great for 100 bucks more it’s really two Wolfdales put together.


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115042


and Micro Center has them for 299.00

http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0287628

 

[elbert]

I would suggest your choice be between the Q6600 or E7200. The E7200 has a massive OC as Xbit labs got to 4GHz on air and currently on newegg its $58 less than the E8400. On some benchmarks they matched the OC to and E8500 and it was even. Both OC'ed tho to 400FSB the E8500 over took it by a small margin.
http://www.legitreviews.com/article/690/12/

 

[DeepSeaDoc]

WoW, I just read this article ww.cpu3d.com/content/view/4210/16/1/0/
about the differance between Quad vs Dual Processors....MAN. My brain cant take much more!!

Oh and HoustonSerenity stop reading my mind....that was weird..lol

Now I have somemore researching to do. The Q9450 will have to be in consideration...Dear goD!! That messes up everything. If you havent checked that article out its a must!! Very good info. Maybe by the time I get back from this hell hole prices will come down on it.

Ohh....HoustonSerenity are you from H-Town?

DeepSea

 

[WR2]

Don't panic. Besides the Q6600/Q9450/E8400 you can also consider the $275 2.66Ghz Q6700 as an alternative to the Q9450.

With the 24" 1920x1200 resolution monitor you're going to noticing most of the games you choose are GPU bound - meaning the GPU becomes
the limiting factor before any of the other components of your PC. The Guru3D website did a recent article on CPU scaling in games with dual & quad core processors

It shows how a $60 Athlon X2 4850E CPU can perform nearly as well as a $1450 QX9770 CPU (in some games). The whole article should convince
you that any of the CPU's you're thinking about should do very well. Even a next gen GPU would just raise the bar a bit on when GPU bound
behavior begins and drop some of the lower power dual and quad cores out of the running to be your next CPU.

When you get right down to it the choice of CPU doesnt make all that much difference - at least in gaming.
If you made a living doing media creation (audio and video) the Quads would be the only way to go.
But for gaming and all around usages (including casual media creation) the dual cores do just fine. And so would a quad core.

 

[rockyjohn]

If you are not going with two processors, are you sure you want to pay exta for the DS4 mobo at $235 compared to only $90 for the DS3L?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128337

With the DS4, you also get PCIe 2.0 and 6 SATA ports compared to only 4 on the DS3L, but that is a large premium for those features.

Since you are not buying right away - you might watch the prices on the just announced P45 boards which have the PCIe 2.0 and which prices should start falling in a little bit.

 

[houstonserenity]

Yep Houston is home DeepSeaDoc,the land of opportunity.