First build in 5 years and need advise.

PickledGopher

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Hello computer pros,

I've been wanting to build a new PC for awhile and a local sale has prompted action, it's been awhile and need some tips/suggestions. I realize there's tons of these threads, and I've read a lot of them... but wanted to start my own anyway. Thanks in advance for any comments.

So, this is mainly a gaming pc, budget minded. I will include local sale prices. (CDN)

Antec 900 case. $80
Hard drive - Barracuda 500 gb. $70 (would a second HD for the games help a lot with performance?)
EVGA 8800 GT superclocked. $160.
Intel 8400. $210. - plan to overclock, preferably just on stock cooling. I'm thinking 3.6 ghz.

I'm almost set on the above, good prices etc. The rest I'm pretty confused with just what direction to go towards... I'm thinking an SLI MB with the future possibility of a 2nd card?

I was looking at the eVGA nForce 750i SLI FTW w/ DualDDR2 1066, 7.1 Audio, Gigabit Lan, 1394, PCI-E x16 SLI for $195 - I'm open to suggestions here as I'm pretty confused with all the motherboards. (should I be looking at the gigabyte's or asus's? - (a good free game would be a plus too)

For PSU I was considering the Truepower 650w at 120. but they have the quattro 850 on for 150. (Is the latter too much)

Memory - 4 GB of Corsair 4GB XMS2-6400 DMX TWIN2X Dual Channel DDR2 Kit (2 x 2GB) price 105. Or Corsair 4GB XMS2-8500D Dominator TWIN2X Dual Channel DDR2 Kit (2 x 2GB) w/ Airflow Fan at 125.00


Ideally I'd like to fly Flight Simulator X and add on at really high detail and good fps. I'd also like to play Company of heroes and other strategy games with ease and all the detail.


Thanks for any tips, this is my first build in a long time and I'm very, very rusty. Also a link to a good build guide would be a huge help.

Cheers.



 

shadowduck

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Ok..

Forget nVidia chipset motherboards. They are not very good. Look for a board with the Intel P45 chipset. Look for MSI Neo-F or Asus P5Q Pro. Both are cheaper also.

CPU: Quad core, Q6600 or Q9450. Fight Simulator X will take advantage of it.

Video card is fine. 8800GT.
Case is fine.
Hard drive- go get em.
PSU- Antec PSUs are not that great. Look for Corsair, PC Power and Cooling or Seasonic- 550-650W is just fine.
 

shadowduck

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Yes they do, and I use one. But better can be had for around the same amount of money. Should of stated that better probably.
 

PickledGopher

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Okay, good stuff...

I found a p5q pro in Canada for 160 including shipping.

As far as the quad goes, the 6600 is $240 (not bad) and the 9450 is too much. Can the 6600 be overclocked safely with stock cooling? I'll have to check into this more as I was told the 2 core would be better as FS won't use more and to have the 2core at a high clock speed would be better?

How about the memory... are the XMS2-6400 a good pick with the overclocking? The 8500 dominators are just $20 more, would that be better?

thanks.

 

shadowduck

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To around 3.0 yes, after that is gets WAY too hot.

XMS2-6400 is fine because you wont be going to the max of DDR2-800 which is 3.6 on the stock cooler.

You won't get 3.6 on an 8400 on stock cooler either. The Intel stock cooler is garbage.
 


Break out a few dollars on a aftermarket heatsink. The stock Intel heatsinks suck big time. Your in Canada yes? Lets see what they have for cheap, yet decent.

Ok right there, and I beleive it comes pre applied with OCZ thermal paste. Now back to SLI...if you can help it, don't do it. SLI boards blow. The new P45 boards ftw!

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=10008660 $124.99
ASUS P5Q Intel P45 Core 2 Quad/Core 2 Extreme/Core 2 Duo/Dual-Core Celeron Socket 775 1600 MHz PC2-9600 (DDR2-1200) ATX Motherboard Retail

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=10007052 $19.99
OCZ Vanquisher OCZTVANQ CPU Cooler
 

PickledGopher

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Well after more research and your help my current thinking is...

Q6600 and will get some good cooling to try and take her to 3.6 (is this possible with say, the zalman9700/thermalright IFX-14/Xigmatek HDT-S1283?)

P5Q pro - I'm assuming this can handle the overclock alright.

4 gb. The 32bit vs. 64 still is a touch confusing. Can vista 32 use more than 3 gb... Should I be looking into 64 bit?

PSU - going to go with the Quattro 850w, I've decided after reading about the 4000 series to wait and pick up and ATI card. I can get the 850 for a good price, and that way if I ever crossfire I'll be okay. Perhaps 2x 4850.

Speaking of the video cards... could that be too much for the cpu, as in the cpu bottlenecking the cards?

already picked up the antec 900 case as it was a killer deal and they were selling fast.

(I'm still relearning, pardon any retarded questions)

edit: would the corsair hx 620 be able to handle 2 4850's?
 

shadowduck

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ZipZoomFly won't ship to Canada. So that won't help too much Why_me.

Q6600 is luck. Some do Some don't. The cooler does not really matter if it will get there or not.

P5Q Pro will handle it no problem.

4GB RAM = 64-bit OS

Ok on the PSU.

Not at all on the bottlenecking. The Q6600 won't bottleneck the video card.

It is SLI certified so it should not be a problem handling X-Fire.