New build....parts compatible?

riptide

June 23, 2008 7:13:23 PM

I'm upgrading my computer. I already have a case, hard drives and a power supply. I will be running XP, this will mostly be used for gaming. Playing TF2, hopefully crysis, cod4, starcraft 2. I don't necessarily need high settings on all of these, i have a CRT monitor anyways

this is my psu : a OCZ GameXStream 700W ATX12V 24PIN SLI Ready Active PFC ATX Power Supply 120MM Fan Black
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=18185&vpn=OC...

I was thinking of getting this mobo:
ASUS P5Q Pro ATX LGA775 P45 DDR2 2PCI-E16 Crossfire 3PCI-E1 2PCI SATA2 Sound GBLAN eSATA Motherboard

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=30418&vpn=P5...

this cpu:
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Dual Core Processor LGA775 3.0GHZ Wolfdale 1333FSB 6MB Retail

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=27784&vpn=BX...

this video card
XFX GeForce 8800GT COD4 512MB 600MHZ 1.8GHZ GDDR3 PCI-E Dual DVI-I HDCP DIRECTX10 Video Card

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=26780&vpn=PV...

and ram....would this work? i know very little about ram. and i know that XP wont recognize 4GB of ram but should i go for 4GB or just go with 2GB?
this is the ram
Corsair XMS2 TWIN2X2048-6400C4 2GB 2X1GB PC2-6400 DDR2-800 CL 4-4-4-12 240PIN Dual Channel Memory

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=18580&vpn=TW...

if anyone has any suggestions at all please feel free to post. I'm pretty amateur here I built my last system but my mobo just went and I want to overhaul the rest. I used to have:

p4c800-e deluxe mobo, 3.2ghz p4 cpu, 1gb ocz dual channel ram, 5900 ultra card.

Thanks!

More about : build parts compatible

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guanyu210379

June 23, 2008 7:46:08 PM

A 32 bit system can only use effectively a 2GB RAM. 32 bit Xp can read 'till 3.2-3.3GB but it can't use it effectively.
Only 64 bit system get the full advantage from more than 2 GB system(my 64 bit VISTA). btw your choice of memory is good.

IF you wanna play crysis with maximum setting than go for 2 GPUs.
Why 8800GT? your (P5Q) mobo is a crossfire mobo.
Get ATI if you wanna stick with your mobo. Let say 2x HD4850? or change your mobo to n-Vidias chipsets for SLI, only than you can use 2 8800GTs or any SLI GPUs.

PSU? I can't see any PSU? Suggestion : Corsair 450W for 1 GPU and 750W for 2 GPU.

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aevm

June 23, 2008 8:17:27 PM

Add &promoid=1060 at the end of your NCIX links, you will save $1 on the CPU and I haven't checked the others.

It would be polite to write the names of the parts, not just links - some of us are too lazy to click the links.

E8400 - OK

P5Q - OK, for a single HD 4850. Bad choice for two. For two, you want X38 or X48, not P45.

+1 for HD 4850

I got 2x2GB of RAM for my XP 32-bit. So I only see 3.25 GB, it's still better than 2 and prices are very low.
Yes, a game will only use 2GB max, but at least it does get all the 2GB because there's another 1.25 for other applications and Windows.

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riptide

June 23, 2008 10:53:36 PM

So I'm obviously way out of my league here. I'm a complete noob at this kind of thing. I mean I can put them together but I need a lot of help with choosing the parts. I don't know why I chose the P5Q I just read a lot of other threads with people having good things to say about the mobo.

As for the vid card. Well $ is a bit of an issue. I unexpectedly had my old mobo just go on my old system and $ is kind of tight for me. so of course I could get two vid cards but that would raise the price a lot and I don't have experience to set that up properly. I figured that one card would get the job done to run the games I listed in the first message and it would also leave it open to upgrade later.

So is this setup ready for the future? I know nothing really is but you know what I mean.

Btw I fixed the parts in the first post to include the description.

Thanks!

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aevm

June 24, 2008 1:39:01 AM

No worries, lots of people on this forum who are glad to help.

Tell you what, let's forget SLI/Crossfire here. You can just replace the video card later if you find yourself rich and owner of a huge monitor. For a single video card, the P5Q is a very good choice. The PSU is overkill, but there's nothing wrong with that and you already have it anyway.

The HD 4850 is better than the 8800GT, but $150 for an 8800GT plus CoD 4 is a great price. Since you won't buy two cards, it's OK to have an nVidia card on a Crossfire MB. OK, go for the 8800GT.

BTW, check out the GA-EP35-DS3L. With that promoid it's $93. If it has all the features you want you might as well get it and save $54+tax.
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=29705&vpn=GA%2DEP35%2DDS3L&manufacture=Gigabyte&promoid=1060

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