$2000 Gaming Build, How is it?

couple of quick comments, Raptor Harddrives are overrated. only extremely hardcore gamers will need the extra rpms just grab a quality 7200rpm drive and you'll save a bundle! no need to go bigger then your 20" monitor as long as its lcd and not a 20" crt. Dual core is obviously cheaper than quad but do you really need all that extra power when you can get a x2 64 6400+ at 3.2 for under $150? If size isnt an issue id go for a full tower case take a peek at thermaltake's cases id suggest the Armor+ one because it features a sliding motherboard tray which comes in super handy when upgrading and cleaning your rig. only do watercooling if you plan on overclocking, its just not worth your time and money if your not because most full atx cases have sufficient airflow for sli anyway. Sli 8800gtx or 8800 ultra is the preferred method on the video card side but the only drawback is these cards are more costly and harder to find than gt models but are defiantly worth the effort. ram clearly depends on your mobo which in the case of a amd processor it would serve you right to pick up one that is am2 and am2+ compatible in case you ever feel the need to upgrade from 64 x2 to x3 or x4 phenom.

1) That case was made for SLI rigs. It has great airflow..side vents... up to 7x120mm case fans, not to mention it was made with exta room inside for SLI rigs. And at that price it's a steal. Cooler Master makes quality cases.

2) That PSU is on sale right now, along with a rebate, and it's what you want to power your rig if your running SLI. Corsair makes great psu's.

3) That E8400 beats the quads seven ways to sunday when it comes to gaming. Not only that but if you move up the FSB to (8x400) you get a nice 3.6GHz out of that cpu without even upping the voltage. It's the easiest overclock you will ever do.

4) That heatsink is rated #1 on most review sites. Just make sure if you do decide to get it that you order that bolt up kit also, otherwise that heatsink is too heavy for the push pin set up it comes with...it's a HUGE heatsink.

5) That mobo is a good one for SLI...great cooling, and it's a good overclocker. Read the reviews on it.

6) The memory will overclock like a beast...low latency, great timings, etc.. not only that but it has nice heatsinks so you don't have to worry about frying.

7) The hardrive has 32mb cache up from the standard 16mb, and if you want to run it faster just run two of them together at "Raid 0".

8) those vid cards use aftermarket cooling...which is a good thing seeing how the 8800's are notorius for running HOT. Google "Riva Tuner" and overclock those baby's. Guru 3 D site has that riva tuner, and it's a great proggy for overclocking your Nvidea cards.

9) The MX-2 thermal compound has arctic silver 5 beat. It not only keeps your cpu temps down lower, but it's non conductive, and it has no set up/curring time. Also it last for years, and it's easy to work with.

10) Vista 64 home premium ftw! It utilizes DX10, it reads all 4 gigs of your memory, and it doesn't have half the bugs as XP 64 Pro.

11) Mouse: If your into gaming stay away from wireless is my opinion. Constant connection ftw!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6811119137 $84.99
COOLER MASTER RC-690-KKN1-GP Black SECC/ ABS ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817139006 $129.99 ($119.99 after $10.00 Mail-In Rebate)
CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply 100 - 240 V UL, CE, CB, TUV, FCC, CCC - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819115037 $189.99
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz 6MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6835233003 $36.99
XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6835233019 $6.99
XIGMATEK ACK-I7751 Retention Bracket - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813131294 $249.99
ASUS P5N72-T Premium LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 780i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814130359 $159.99 ($139.99 after $20.00 Mail-In Rebate)
EVGA 512-P3-N800-TR GeForce 8800 GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail
EVGA dual slot cooling design technology

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814130359 $159.99 ($139.99 after $20.00 Mail-In Rebate)
EVGA 512-P3-N800-TR GeForce 8800 GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail
EVGA dual slot cooling design technology

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820227267 $104.99 ($79.99 after $25.00 Mail-In Rebate)
OCZ Reaper HPC Edition 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6827106263 $23.99
LITE-ON Black 20X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 20X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA 20X DVD±R DVD Burner - OEM

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6822148309 $79.99
Seagate Barracuda ES.2 ST3250310NS 250GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 0&Tpk=mx-2 $6.99
ARCTIC COOLING MX-2 Thermal Compound - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6832116204 $94.99
Microsoft Windows Vista 64-Bit Home Premium for System Builders Single Pack DVD - OEM

Total
$1,329.87
$1254.87 w/mail in rebates

That's quite a budget and it's a nice one. My current setup was only 1000 but now I find myself upgrading to the stuff I really wanted now that the 1k is payed off.

Motherboard: For the motherboard I have a 780i from XFX which is an excellent board it overclocks extremely well. Plus it has loads of features. If you are going to have your kind of budget though I'd suggest the 790i. A little more expensive but you get DDR3, which although more expensive will be usable on the coming Nehalem platform. The extra expense you pay for the DDR3 and the 790i would be worth the re-usability. Also take into consideration X38/X48 motherboards for ATI Crossfire. ATI may be the graphics king again here shortly. I'd wait to build until the release of ATI's 4870. Otherwise you;ll be like me waiting for NVIDIA to initiate a price war so I can grab 3 GTX 280's for cheaper.

RAM: Like I said depending on the direction you go with motherboard support, choose DDR2 or DDR3. You should also choose the RAM speed based on how far you intend to run your FSB. You want to keep a 1:1 ratio between DRAM and FSB speed so consider your CPU too. If your CPU has a multiplier below 9 and you want something greater than 3.2 GHz, you'll want some RAM capable of overclocking. With all of that aside I would suggest using DDR2-1066 or DDR3-1800. These will provide you with adequate overclocking ability.

CPU: If you aren't an insane multi-tasker and just need dual core your best bet is the E8400 its 3.0 GHz on 1333 FSB (333) meaning it has a multiplier of 9 so you could potentially get 3.6 GHz out of this thing and if your overclock your RAM to, I'm sure 4.0 GHz is completely possible. If you have your heart set on quad core you won't be looking at speeds as high but you will see great multitaskng results. Here you'll want the Q6700. It doesn't have the 45nm tech but it does have 10x multiplier which means you should be able to get pretty damn close to 4.0 GHz if you are lucky. Good price too.

Graphics Card: Right now this is a toss up. I'd wait a few weeks for this. As an NVIDIA fan and 780i owner I want to say with the price drops and new 9800GTX coming out go with a couple of those or even three if you can work it in your budget but ATI's upcoming 4870 looks to be one hell of a performance card at a low price.

Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 Series. Close to RAptor performance for a great price.

OS: Depends on whether you hate Vista. Whether you go XP or Vista get 64-bit. You'll want it with more RAM later. I'm running 8GB of DDR2 on XP 64 and its awesome.

PSU: Get one off of NVIDIA's SLI recommendation's list and make sure its an 80 Plus Certified one.

I'm kinda tired so I might be missing some parts but you should get the jist. I'm currently upgrading my brand new rig to things I wish I got from the get go...like a better CPU etc.

For video 4850 is the way to go over 8800GT. 4850 beats 8800GT is about every game tested, and can get as high as beating 260 in some games.

What games do you play mostly?

E8400 for CPU for sure.
X48 chipset motherboard with DDR2 memory. Don't buy DDR3. I don't like the "if you have the money go for it" argument presented by another posted. DDR3 is a completely waste of money.

4 or 8GB of RAM
4850 or 4870s in Crossfire
VelicoRaptors are the best hard drives, and they are faster than normal drives. $1/GB though is a terrible value.

Let's do a $2000 build. $1950.45 Shipped

E8400 CPU
ASUS RAMPAGE FORMULA LGA 775 Intel X48 Motherboard
4GB of RAM G.Skill 4-4-4-12
500GB 7200.11 Seagate Hard Drive
Samsung 20X DVD burner
PC Power and Cooling Quad 750W PSU
Samsung 24" HDMI LCD monitor- 2493HM
Gigabyte 4850 Video Card x 2
COOLER MASTER RC-690-KKN1-GP Case
XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler
Logitech G5 mouse (best mouse ever made IMHO)

In CoD4 the 4850 BLASTS anything nVidia has to offer. It simply owns. I had not seen a benchmark on Dawn of War.

If you are going to overclock anyway, no. If you are not going to overclock no either because the speed increase would not be noticeable in benchmarks and not real world.

CoD4 with one 4850: http://www.anandtech.com/video/sho [...] i=3338&p=7

It finishes 4th, but remember all the cards above it for $400+.

Notice 9800GTX, 8800GTX, and 8800GT finish below it.

4850 CF in CoD:
http://www.anandtech.com/video/sho [...] =3338&p=14

$400 setup and blasts everything away. Also notice just how poor 2x0 series cards in are this test. 8800GT SLI beats both 2x0 cards. Any CF/SLI setup looks to beat the new 2x0 series cards. A real performance bust if you ask me.

You don't need DDR2-1066, especially if you aren't overclocking. Even DDR2-800 isn't actually necessary if you don't want to overclock at all! I'd still get the DDR2-800 just for the price of it now, but all the bus speed (800, 1066, etc) means is how high you can match your processor speed to before you need to start overclocking the memory's bus speed (800, 1066, etc).

Some P45 boards will support two ATI cards in Crossfire at x8 electrical on PCI-E 2.0. I believe that should be enough bandwidth for two 4850's, but for 4870's that's where I'd start questioning it and would make the jump up to X38 boards. They have two x16 electrical slots on PCI-E 2.0, so you'd definitely have no bottlenecking on the cards. This is something I wish review sites would take into consideration more often! I'd probably buy a 4870, and add a second one down the road during a sale.

keep in mind the power requirements of two 4870's at load. I'd give them 500W at least to be safe, so I'd probably buy a PC Power and Cooling 750W PSU (at least) for it's super strong 12v single rail. Antec Quattro 1000W units have been on sale lately though @ NCIX and other stores for around $180... would give lots of headroom and better efficiency. Worth considering I think.


The E8400 is a good choice, but I would HIGHLY recommend you at least do a little FAQ reading on a mild overclock to something like 3.2 or 3.4Ghz. It's not as hard as it used to be

My fav Hard Drive now is the Western Digital 640GB. It's new and really fast, can beat some RAID setups. Check out some reviews.

I think the Samsung 22" 2253 monitor is the best 'gaming' monitor as it's got fast refresh times. But if colour is your primary concern, you'll need to jump up in price to at least $500 to got a non-TN panel. But you'll get refresh times around 5ms/6ms, which should be okay in most cases. But some FPS, racing, fast games may show some ghosting/lag.

Good luck!!

Here are my primary concerns now:

Case(?):
I know many people have recommended the COOLER MASTER RC-690-KKN1-GP Black
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6811119137 $84.99

However, I personally don't like the aesthetic design of the case. I prefer the look of the NZXT TEMPEST http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6811146047 $109.99
But is the Tempest's airflow as great as the RC-690-KKN1-GP? Are there any other mid-towers that look cooler than the RC but have the same (or better) airflow (price isn't an issue)?

Like the Antec Nine Hundred?
http://www.provantage.com/antec-ni [...] NTG049.htm $87.80

RAM(?):
DDR2 800 or 1066?

Motherboard?:
ASUS RAMPAGE FORMULA LGA 775 Intel X48
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813131284 $289.99

or something else?

I'll wait to decide on the GPUs and HDD(s).

Oh, if I Crossfire then should I get a more heavy-duty PSU just to be safe?

Build so far-
Processor: E8400 ORDERED $180.49
RAM: Corsair XMS2 4GB DDR2 800 ORDERED $79.00
Mobo: ASUS Rampage Formula
Graphics: x1 Radeon 4870
Storage: x1 WD6400AAKS 640GB
Case: Cooler Master RC-690 ORDERED $77.69
PSU: Corsair 750w ORDERED $87.06
Cooling: XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 120mm + Retention Bracket + ARCTIC COOLING MX-2 Thermal Compound + x6 Scythe S-FLEX SFF21F 120mm Fans
DVD Drive: Samsung Black 20X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW
Other: Rosewill RTK-002 Anti-Static Wrist Strap
Keyboard: Logitech G15 ORDERED $45
Mouse: Logitech G9

Subtotal for now: $469.24

Okay, now for the big question: what are some good ~30" monitors? I'm looking for one that's below $1000, can double as a TV, and is above average for gaming.

I've looked at the ViewSonic VX2835WM 28"
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6824116084
and Samsung 305T 30"
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 8&Tpk=305T
but I'm not sure whether they can be used as TVs. Some feedback please!

Edit: Just looked at the Sharp LC-32GP3U 32" LCD
http://www.onecall.com/ProductDetails.aspx?id=89833 $979.77 FS
Good deal?