If anyone out there could take a look at this new setup and let me know if everything is gonna work together properly it'd be much appreciated.

also any other suggestions about the build? Thanks to anyone who helps this noob out..



MOBO: EVGA 132-CK-NF78-A1 LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 780i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard

CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 Yorkfield 2.5GHz 6MB L2 Cache LGA 775 95W Quad-Core Processor

RAM: CORSAIR DOMINATOR 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory

GRAPHICS: EVGA 640-P2-N829-AR GeForce 8800GTS SSC 640MB 320-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card x 2

POWER: SILVERSTONE DA1000 1000W ATX 12V 2.2 & EPS 12V Power Supply

CPU HEATSINK: ZALMAN CNPS9500 AT 2 Ball CPU Cooling Fan/Heatsink

HARD DRIVE: Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST31000340AS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

Everything you have should work together. However, there will be people who say nVidia chipsets are flakey on their own. There will be others who will say you should only use one VGA card that SLI isn't worth it.

Do you have the latest BIOS?

I wasn't sure...was your computer flakey, or your friend?

Do you actually have these parts or are you planning to purchase them?

I haven't ordered anything yet.. I'm just double checking everything and getting some critiques right now

Have you already purchased everything? The 8800GTS (G92) 512MB cards are much better than the 640MB versions you have listed.

If you can wait, I'd wait until the ATI cards come out and decide then after you see some benchmarks.

I'd make a few changes, not so much for compatibility but to give you better bang for the buck.

eVGA 780i - OK
Q9300 - get a Q6600, Q6700 or Q9450 instead; the Q9300 is bad for OCing
RAM - DDR2-800 is cheaper and guaranteed to work
GPU: get the 8800GTS 512MB, not the 640MB. The 512MB is faster.
PSU - you don't need 1000W. Get a Silencer 750W for $120 at newegg.
Cooler: the Xigmatek HDT-S1283 is better
HDD: two WD6400AAKS are cheaper and offer more room than 1 TB Seagate, at about the same speed.

You should also think very carefully if you really want SLI. You may be better off with a GA-EP45-DS3R or P5Q and a single GTX 260 or HD 4870 (both soon to be released).

The 780i is bad for overclocking so get the cpu you want.


P45 and xfire would be the wise choice.

i dont plan on doing much if any over clocking.

sorry about the noob question but why/how is the 8800gts 512mb faster than the 640mb?

power supply is for upgrading a few things later - but noted and looked into


ok ya... looked into 2 hdd's.. How much will having 2 x 640gb hdd's at 16 cache versus 1tb at 32 hurt? if at all?

Missing:

Case
OS
CD/DVD
Monitor

OS will most likely be vista 64... DVD burner and rom are just standard sata that i already have

the case i think will be Tuniq 3 IC-TQ3-SVBK Black/ Silver Aluminum front bezel, 0.8mm SECC chassis ATX Mid Tower Computer Case because its so damn sexy.. but do you think i'll run into cooling problems and/or space?

lol.. monitor for now is my Xerox xg-91d.. it will have to wait

The 8800GTS 512MB has 128 stream processors and uses smaller transistors (65nm technology). The 640MB version has 96, at 80nm. Different card. Same name just for marketing idiotic reasons.

Two disks vs just one is a major advantage already when you do things like compressing a source video into a target video, if you do it properly with source and target on different disks. Apart from that scenario, both the Seagate 1 TB and the WD 640GB are very fast, and you won't notice the differences in real life. Each wins some benchmarks over the other.
The cache difference is a marketing gimmick, don't pay attention to it. If it really mattered, do you think anybody would still make disks with 16MB? Everybody would make disks with 1GB or more, since 1 GB of DDR2 is only $20 retail these days anyway

thx very helpful

hmmmmm you deffinition of sexy and mine are not the same!

I never liked doors on the front of the case, but to each his own!

Antec 900 or the 1200....now that's sexy

nice quagmire reference!

i've always loved sleek minimal electronics... i hate to say it but apple makes some good LOOKING products... crap to use... but anyways...

I'm thinking of switching to 8800gts but i have a quick question about PCIe 2.0... i believe i read as of yet theres no real performance gain from 1.0.. is this correct?

Wait a couple of weeks (if you can) see what happens with the new cards.
Too much BS getting flung about right now. Real results will follow those who actually have them up and runing.

From what I've seen at the moment there isn't a big advantage in using PCIe 2.0, but with a brand new build would you want to get stuck with 1.0 if things change?