$2000 budget - Gaming

+1 for the xigmatek cooler. Dropped my temps at least 10C with arctic silver.
the motherboard looks a bit overpriced, anyone want to give a suggestion here?

Other than that, everything looks awesome. I might add that you could consider a wolfdale core. They are a lot cooler and oc like mad.

@raidbunny... Agree with you on wolfies.. get the q9550 if u can stretch it, up the FSB to 400 and u got a 3.4Ghz quad monster!!
FYI, the q6600 can ALSO overclock to 3.4 or even 3.6, but the new batches have high VIDs.. U can bet that urs will be over 1.300.. These have trouble going past 3.4Ghz... Just a warning though, nothing is a guarantee while overclocking.

I'd recommend an MSI Neo2-FR motherboard with a Q9450 and just get 2 HD4850's in Crossfire.

edit: double post.

brich37, as long as the game supports crossfire, they should scale well...roam around on google and search for crossfire 4850 benchmarks and see what you find.

Stick with onboard tbh having a sound card is more a pain than a pleasure. I have the xfi-platinum (the one with the front panel thing) and while it works now I still dont get surround sound in movies (z5500 speakers). I was on my onboard for about 4 months while creative jerked off and didnt update the drivers for vista 64-bit, the sound quality is better for the xfi, but you dont get all its features as you would in windows xp, thus making it a near meaningless investment. I only had it because I carried it over to my current rig from my old rig. Nice thing about onboard is everything worked and some have a nifty program that uses your mic to make each speaker in your setup have the right volume for your position, pretty cool and worked for me without any issues (Xfi doesnt have this).

Think about going with the 640gb hdd, they perform nearly on par with raptors and cost only 99.99. http://www.memoryexpress.com/Produ [...] 7(ME).aspx
Theres some ram from Crucial that does 4-4-4-12 in 2x2gb modules, you should check these out. http://www.memoryexpress.com/Produ [...] 6(ME).aspx

Make those changes and I think you'll be sitting pretty.

You will see an increase in really demanding games (Crysis, Oblivion, ...) but that would be all. If you need a notch over the 4850, just wait for the 4870 and if you don't particularly care for Crossfire, a good P45 board would corst you nearly a 3rd of the Rampage Formula (100$-120$).

Hey Brich, great build!

For the case, the only one I generally ever recommend is the Coolermaster 690 for around $85 @ newegg, though it's $68 @ NCIX Has great airflow, esp with extra 120mm fans (I like Yate Loons). Good for hiding cables.

About fans: There's ball bearing and sleeve bearing. If you're looking for absolutely maximum goodness, then I'd recommend sleeve bearing fans for the ones you place vertically and ball bearing fans for the ones you place horizontally inside the case. For the CM 690, you don't need to worry about filling the bottle 80mm case fan. Will probably just get in the way. I would fill out the other fan places though that don't come with one!

If you think you can hold out, I'd wait until either tomorrow (June 25) or July 8 so the 4870 hits shelves. Might want to get one of those, then you can wait to add a second one down the road when they're on sale (Boxing week). Expected MSRP is going to be ~$299 for them.

You'll be fine for overclocking, you have everything you need. I would suggest that you could save a few bucks and go down to an X38 motherboard though. While the X48 does OC a bit better, it's not like you're going nuts with water cooling. The DDR2-800 will let you OC the 9450 up to 3.2Ghz without overclocking the memory. Should be fine on an X38, and still keep the two PCI-E 2.0 x16 graphic card slots.

Good luck!

No problem, I've gotten more than my share of help so I like to try and pay it forward!

For X38's, I'd start at whatever happens to cheapest at the time between ASUS P5E or Gigabyte's DS4. Give the specs a once-over to make sure all the features you want are there, which I'm sure they will be - you can go higher up the model/$ ladder for options like RAID etc., but you won't be needed them I dont think.

However, if you're 100% sure you won't add another 4870 down the road, the X38 may not be for you! The main difference from it and P45 is the X38 has two 2.0 x16 PCI-E lanes, P45 has two 2.0 x8 PCI-E lanes and until I see benchmarks/tests showing that a 2.0 x8 PCI-E lane won't hold back a 4870.. I'd rather get the X38 for Crossfire.

But for just one card, as long as you get a P45 board that has the primary/first PCI-E lane at 2.0 x16 electrical that should be fine. The way Crossfire performs now though, I'd likely get one 4870 now on an X38 and a second during Black Friday or Boxing Week sales.

Edit: Just for clarity, on P45 boards they will often have one PCI-E 2.0 x16 lane and a second 2.0 x8 lane. When using Crossfire, both cards will operate at the 2.0 x8 electrical speed. That's why I said the P45 has two x8 PCI-E, I meant in Crossfire. Hope that helps and doesn't actually make it more confusing

Cheers

Sorry I just realised I wrote the Horizontal and Vertical fan placement wrong!

Vertical = Sleeve Bearing
Horizontal = Ball Bearing

The case has included 120mm:

1 front
1 back
1 side

Optional 120mm places:

2 top (horizontal, ball bearing)
1 side (vertical, sleeve bearing)
1 bottom (beside PSU) (horizontal, ball bearing)

1 80mm BEHIND the cpu though I wouldn't bother unless getting into extreme overclocking.

I've always used Yate Loon fans as I find they're a good balance between noise and air movement (CFM). But now the Scythe Slip Stream Kaze fans seem to be better. Not sure which models are sleeve bearing and which are ball bearing though, you'd probably have to google that one.

@foxhound009 I have been reading on it, doesn't seem worth the wait for my needs IMO if anything I would just get two 4870 after the price dropped a bit.

IMO the price on the velociraptor is way to much for what your getting. And after reading many reviews it seems that most also agree. Like I previously stated I am going for the best bang for my buck don't really have money to waste. Thank you for the suggestion though!

Thanks preclude I had actually gone with the dominator in my original setup but swapped it out for the cheaper, but with the money I saved I am going to go ahead and go with the dominator.

With full respect to Jevon
There is Fluid Dynamic Bearing Fans
They are more quiet and have longer life 150 000 hours
http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/scsf63cfms12.html
Forget slipstreem and ball bearing fans

Your motherboard will come with SATA cables, no need to purchase seperately.

Nice build!

Ahh the fluid bearing fans, I've never used them personally because my other ones have always been tried tested and true, that sort of thing. But now that they're only $5 more maybe I will test them out in some new builds! Thanks Kad!

Though I can't agree with going with an X48 I can't see him using/needing the extra features since he's not going to be doing a hardcore overclock. Same goes for the Dominator 1066 memory... unless you want to try and overclock the Q9450 up to 4.2ghz on air... might as well get DDR2-800 at 4-4-4-12 timings and OC to 3.2Ghz.

I usually use Patriot Extreme Perf. 4gb kits (4-4-4-12). I can usually overclock the memory itself to 450ish (~DDR2-900) without having to increase the timings barely if at all. max would be to 5-5-5-15. At 450fsb, that gets a Q9450 (x8 multiplier) to 3.6Ghz. Which even that you'd be brave to do on air for the first time

Just trying to give you options, it's your money and if you think you're going to need or want the headroom, definitely still go for the X48, Dominator, etc., cuz there's nothing worse than post-purchase depression haha. BUT keep in mind those are places you can save some coin as well and still have a kick-ass, stable, overclockable system

Cheers

It has officially been ordered and hopefully will arrive by saturday! Total cost with HD 4870 is $1,746.72. Probably wont be able to sleep until it arrives List of components at the top is what the order consists of!