need openion on new gaming system

[ewo]

hi so i'm building a new gaming pc here is the spec so far

NZXT Miditower Lexa Redline Edition
Corsair PowerSupply 650W TX ATX
Asus - Socket 775 - ATX Intel P45 (P5Q PRO)
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3.0GHz / 1333MHz / 6MB - Socket 775 (Boxed)
Corsair 2048MB DDR2 XMS2-6400 800MHz (TWIN2X2048-6400C4)
GeForce 9800GTX Dual-DVI 512MB
2x Samsung SpinPoint F1 HD103UJ 32MB 1TB

now what i'm wondering is, will the p45 give me any benefits at all or should i just get the p35?
also is the 9800gtx the best pick for someone like me who doesn't want the sli headache.

 

[jpdykes]

A few things:

- Go for 4Gb of RAM and Vista.
- Wait until the new graphics cards are released and benchmarked. NVidia was yesterday (and didn't perform that well for the price) and ATi should be next week.
- Do you really need 2Tb of storage?
- P45 should be a better chipset than P35. I believe it gives access to PCIe 2.0 - currently not a requirement but possibly useful.
- You could consider a quad core processor. Find some reviews. Generally Dual for gaming only, quad for gaming and general other stuff.
- If you are planning to overclock buy an aftermarket CPU cooler - try a Xigmatek one.

Hope that is good for a start.
Jeremy

 

[cobot]

I agree with jp, but also I think you'd be better off if you got 3 or more HD's and put them into raid 0.

If it is a gaming rig only, stay with the dual core cpus.

 

[Why_Me]

hi so i'm building a new gaming pc here is the spec so far

NZXT Miditower Lexa Redline Edition
Corsair PowerSupply 650W TX ATX
Asus - Socket 775 - ATX Intel P45 (P5Q PRO)
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3.0GHz / 1333MHz / 6MB - Socket 775 (Boxed)
Corsair 2048MB DDR2 XMS2-6400 800MHz (TWIN2X2048-6400C4)
GeForce 9800GTX Dual-DVI 512MB
2x Samsung SpinPoint F1 HD103UJ 32MB 1TB

now what i'm wondering is, will the p45 give me any benefits at all or should i just get the p35?
also is the 9800gtx the best pick for someone like me who doesn't want the sli headache.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233001 $24.99 ($14.99 after $10.00 Mail-In Rebate)
XIGMATEK HDT-S963 92mm Rifle CPU Cooler - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835186020&Tpk=mx-2 $6.99
ARCTIC COOLING MX-2 Thermal Compound - Retail

 

[pcgamer12]

AS5 is better. Get that, MX-2 is sold in really small quantities, not worth it. -10000000 on why_me.

 

[jpdykes]

I disagree with RAID'ing drives especcially if you are not up for mega faffing. The arrays are more likely to corrupt data and RAID 0 would produce an irritrivable loss. Buying 3 drives is also inefficient, you will not get as much capacity for the same money.

You only need the components suggested by why_me if you want to overclock your processor. If you aren't going to bother then temperatures will not be an issue.

 

[Why_Me]

AS5 is better. Get that, MX-2 is sold in really small quantities, not worth it. -10000000 on why_me.

Really now? MX-2 has no set up time...curring time, it brings your temps down even more so than Silver 5, it's non conductive, and it last for years...unlike Silver 5.

btw "PC Gamer", after reading your post on here I have discovered I wouldn't trust you to plug in a modem let alone build a PC.

 

[ewo]

A few things:

- Go for 4Gb of RAM and Vista.
- Wait until the new graphics cards are released and benchmarked. NVidia was yesterday (and didn't perform that well for the price) and ATi should be next week.
- Do you really need 2Tb of storage?
- P45 should be a better chipset than P35. I believe it gives access to PCIe 2.0 - currently not a requirement but possibly useful.
- You could consider a quad core processor. Find some reviews. Generally Dual for gaming only, quad for gaming and general other stuff.
- If you are planning to overclock buy an aftermarket CPU cooler - try a Xigmatek one.

Hope that is good for a start.
Jeremy

really? vista? with such a mix feeling about it online, its making me hesitate, but 4gb of ram would be nice (and still cheap)
about the new graphic cards i just don't think i will have the money for it being a poor ass student
and yeah this will be only be for gaming, the only thing i would have use for quad is the little video convertion i do for my psp, but that is already kinda fast even with my really old computer.

 

[jpdykes]

Generally the issues with Vista have been sorted out. I believe there are still a few problems with sound cards but you aren't going to need one of those. 64bit would be the way to go - enables 4+Gb of RAM.

The new ATi cards slipped onto the market at $200 recently. That was for the 4850 version. Even if you couldn't afford a new card the prices should drop across the current cards as the highest end ones are beaten by new cards. The best idea is to wait and see - it should all kick off next week when Ati release.

If it is only for gaming then probably stick with dual. Although just a few new games are starting to thread across 4 cores. At that point having a quad will be a major advantage.

 

[cobot]

I disagree with RAID'ing drives especcially if you are not up for mega faffing. The arrays are more likely to corrupt data and RAID 0 would produce an irritrivable loss. Buying 3 drives is also inefficient, you will not get as much capacity for the same money.

You only need the components suggested by why_me if you want to overclock your processor. If you aren't going to bother then temperatures will not be an issue.

Have used raid 0 for quite some time now and no problems so far. 1 tb hds cost a few bucks and if it's a gaming rig there's no point to having that much storage space and it's not like there's gonna be any very critical data on 'em.

I'm not talking about the crappy integrated stuff that most motherboards come with, get a real pci raid card.

 

[jpdykes]

From what I have read RAID seems inappropriate for this build. It would also incur the extra cost of a RAID card.

I agree that for a gaming rig even 1Tb of storage is excessive.