Im building a Gaming PC Any suggestions?

[justinxtreme]

Hey anyone reading this post can you help me choose which one I should use for my Gaming PC.
Don't post the get the GTX 280 or the Intel C2 Extreme QX9650 because I got this stuff for free and im trying to see which one is for which.

Power Supply Unit:
Rocketfish RF-700 700W SLi Power Supply
Processor:
Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 2.66GHz Quad Core 65nm LGA775
-OR-
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3.0GHz Dual Core 45nm LGA775

Memory:
3GB PC2-6400 DDR2 800MHz (2x1GB + 1x1GB)
-OR-
8GB PC2-6400 DDR2 800MHz (2x4GB)
Note:If 8GB I will have to use 64 bit version of Vista or XP since 32 bit only detects up to 3.5GB of RAM,I researched all about 64bit and they said it has a little bit of bad driver support.

Motherboard:
MSI P7N Platinium nFORCE 750i 3 Way SLi LGA775 Motherboard (3x PCIe Slots,2xPCI Slots,4x S-ATA 3.0GB/s)


Graphics Card:
eVGA GeFORCE 9800 GX2 1GB GDDR3 PCIe 2.0
-OR-
2x GeFORCE 8800 GTX 768MB GDDR3(1.eVGA 2.BFG OC Edition) SLI
-OR-
2x Radeon HD 3870 512MB GDDR3 (1.ATI 2.Sapphire VaporX Edition3.Asus)+Radeon HD 3850 512MB GDDR4 CrossFireX
Note:Can I connect 2 HD 3870 with 1 HD 3850 in CrossFireX Mode?I researched and found that they have the same chipset.

Audio/Sound Card:
Creative X-Fi XtremeAudio 7.1 HD PCIe 1x Sound
-OR-
Creative X-Fi XtremeGamer 7.1 HD PCI Sound
Noteo I get better sound when having a PCIe sound card rather than a PCI Sound Card.

Optical Drive:
16x Dual Layer DVD+RW Burner E-IDE



Wireless Networking Solution:
Cisco Linksys Wireless-N PCI Adapter MIMO

Wired Networking Solution:
Intergrated Gigabit LAN Adapter

TV Tuner:
Avertec AverTV HDTV 780 Tuner PCIe 4x

Modem:
D-Link 56K PCI Modem

IEEE 1394(FireWire):
Intergrated VIA VT6308P FireWire (2x 1394a ports @ 400Mbps Speed)

USB:
Intergrated 8x USB 2.0 Ports


Software:
Microsoft Office 2007 Enterprise
Norton 360 v2.0 -OR- Avast Professional Antivirus -OR- Mcafee Total Protection

Operating System:
Windows Vista Ultimate SP1 64 Bit*
-OR-
Windows Vista Ultimate 64 Bit
-OR-
Windows Vista Ultimate SP1 32 Bit
-OR-
Windows Vista Ultimate 32 Bit
-OR-
Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 32 Bit
-OR-
Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64 Bit
-OR-
Windows Vista Home Premium 32 Bit
-OR-
Windows Vista Home Premum 64 Bit
-OR-
Windows Vista Home Basic SP1 32 Bit
-OR-
Windows Vista Home Basic SP1 64 Bit
-OR-
Windows Vista Home Basic 32 Bit
-OR-
Windows Vista Home Basic 64 Bit
-OR-
Windows Vista Business SP1 32 Bit
-OR-
Windows Vista Business SP1 64 Bit
-OR-
Windows Vista Business 32 Bit
-OR-
Windows Vista Business 64 Bit
-OR-
Windows XP Home Edition SP3 32 Bit
-OR-
Windows XP Home Edition SP2 32 Bit
-OR-
Windows XP Professional SP3 32 Bit
-OR-
Windows XP Professional SP2 32 Bit
-OR-
Windows XP Professional SP1 64 Bit
-OR-
Windows XP Professional 64 Bit
-OR-
Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 SP3 32 Bit
-OR-
Windows 7 Milestone 1 32 Bit
-OR-
Windows 7 Milestone 2 32 Bit
-OR-
Windows 7 Milestone 1 64 Bit
-OR-
Windows 7 Milestone 2 64 Bit*

Note:*I want to have the my memory to unleash its power so if you chose 8GB DDR2 I will pick the 64 Bit version(You just have to help me pick if I should use XP 64 bit SP2 or SP3 or Vista 64 Bit with no SP or SP1.
2.I will be using Crysis at DirectX 10 Full AA Full AF Ultra High (If you choose Windows XP I will try searching for the DirectX 10 Hack for Crysis on Windows XP)

 

[Guest]

PROCESSOR
For a Gaming PC and bearing in mind budget id go for the Ddo as most games will preform just as well with a duo rather than a quad plus the duo is cheaper and could prolly clock higher if u OC, as long as your motherboard can handle the high FSB

for the money the pentium dula E5200 will OC like crazy pushing 4 Ghz on a good rig and costing like£55, giving almost the same preformance as the duo

RAM
First if your gonn do 3 gig ram do 2 X1 gig and 1 x 512Mb this will mean your rams still in dual channel. personally id go for 2 x 2 gig as that will be dual channle and lets u upgrade to 8 later on if you like.
and ram speed is fine

Motherbaord
are you really going to do 3 way SLI as only obne of you selected cards even supports that, personally id just go for a dual SLI or even no SLI board, and spend more getting the highest FSB and ram speeds supported for upgrading, id not settle for less than 1333 FSB as on most CPU's its the FSB u need to increase to OC and the E8400 allready starts at 1333 so id aim for a 1600 FSB board if you wana overclock

Graphics card
im really not sure which one you should go for they are really all good personally i prefer the one card solution makes life simple

Software

unless u use summit like AUTO CAD then go for the 64 bit version
vista 64 supports like 99.9% 32 bit programs and only has problems with programs like auto cad

also a 64 bit will make the processor work faster

 

[Dacrath]

E8400
8gb Ram
eVGA GeFORCE 9800 Gx2
The sound cards should have identical sound unless one is screwed up. They are not bandwidth limited that I know of.
Windows Vista (Ultimate or Home Premium) SP1 64 Bit

A 64 bit operating system will not make your processor run faster, although the 8 gigs of ram should help with Vista and large programs. I would recommend a version of Vista 64 as Windows XP 64 can not be upgraded to Vista, you have to do a clean install. I always find that to be a pain even though quite a few people would recommend a clean install anyway. More and more games are making use of DirectX10 which is also a reason to use Vista. SP1 fixes quite a few of Vistas issues.

I suggest the e8400 as most games do not have sufficient threading to take advantage of 4 cores. This will likely start to change in the future as threading in CPU intensive programs is more of a focus and game publishers are always looking at pushing the technological envelope.

But thats just my opinion.

 

[justinxtreme]

Hey people don't forget
I already have this stuff plus dont say this and that is cheaper im not trying to offend you people but i already have all this stuff i just wanna kno which one i should use for configuration on my gaming pc

 

[aevm]

I'd use this combination:

Rocketfish RF-700 700W SLi Power Supply
Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 2.66GHz Quad Core 65nm LGA775
8GB PC2-6400 DDR2 800MHz (2x4GB)
MSI P7N Platinium nFORCE 750i 3 Way SLi LGA775 Motherboard (3x PCIe Slots,2xPCI Slots,4x S-ATA 3.0GB/s)
eVGA GeFORCE 9800 GX2 1GB GDDR3 PCIe 2.0
Creative X-Fi XtremeGamer 7.1 HD PCI Sound
16x Dual Layer DVD+RW Burner E-IDE
Cisco Linksys Wireless-N PCI Adapter MIMO
Avertec AverTV HDTV 780 Tuner PCIe 4x
D-Link 56K PCI Modem
Microsoft Office 2007 Enterprise
Mcafee Total Protection
Windows Vista Ultimate SP1 64 Bit*

 

[justinxtreme]

sorry had to give back dual core i will ask if he has anything else this guy owes me!!!!
\

 

[justinxtreme]

new option:

Processor:

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 2.66GHz 45nm LGA775

 

[justinxtreme]

New Option:

Processor:
Intel Core 2 Quad QX6850 3.0GHz 65nm LGA775
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6700 2.6GHz 65nm LGA775
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 2.5GHz 45nm LGA775
Notes:I heard that the Intel Core 2 Extreme series have unlocked multipliers.
2.I might get a good heatsink and fan to overclock the processors(Maybe an Arctic Freezer 7 Pro)

Plus:
Any suggestions on which heatsink and fan i should use for my processor

 

[aevm]

Q9450 and QX6700 are not really that different. Without overclocking, the Q9450 wins by 5% or so depending on benchmark. With overclocking, the Q9450 has an advantage in the new 45nm technology but also a disadvantage in the locked multiplier (value 8, decent but not great IMO). Get the Q9450 if the price is the same and you do video work. The Q9450 has SSE4 which will help if you do multimedia work and have the right software.

 

[aevm]

New Option:

Processor:
Intel Core 2 Quad QX6850 3.0GHz 65nm LGA775
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6700 2.6GHz 65nm LGA775
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 2.5GHz 45nm LGA775
Notes:I heard that the Intel Core 2 Extreme series have unlocked multipliers.
2.I might get a good heatsink and fan to overclock the processors(Maybe an Arctic Freezer 7 Pro)

Plus:
Any suggestions on which heatsink and fan i should use for my processor

Can you get a Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme, Noctua NH-U12P, or Xigmatek HDT-S1283? They will beat the Freezer.

 

[justinxtreme]

New Option:
nFORCE 570i SLi Motherboard

 

[JAYDEEJOHN]

What aevm said, but use three cards, maybe 8800GTX in sli another for phsx

 

[justinxtreme]

New Option:
Motherboards:
eVGA nFORCE 590i SLi AM2+ Motherboard

Processor:
AMD Phenom X3 8450 2.1GHz AM2+
AMD Athlon X2 6400+ 3.0GHz AM2

 

[justinxtreme]

New Option:

CPU Fans:
Xigmatek HDT-RS1283 CPU Cooler Red Scorpion

 

[justinxtreme]

New Option:

Chipset Coolers:
Noctua NC-U6 Heatpipe Chipset Cooler

 

[JAYDEEJOHN]

Get a Mac

 

[justinxtreme]

option removed:

2x GeFORCE 8800 GTX 768MB GDDR3 PCIe
GeFORCE 9800 GX2 1GB GDDR3 PCIe 2.0

 

[justinxtreme]

option removed:

2x GeFORCE 8800 GTX 768MB GDDR3 PCIe
GeFORCE 9800 GX2 1GB GDDR3 PCIe 2.0

 

[justinxtreme]

New Option:
Graphics Card:
GeFORCe 8800 Ultra 768MB GDDR3 PCIe
GeFORCE 8800 GTS 320MB GDDR3 PCIe
Memory/RAM:
Patriot Viper Extreme DDR3 2GB PC3-10666 1366MHz

 

[justinxtreme]

New Option:

Graphics:
GeFORCE 9600 GT 512MB GDDR3 PCIe+eVGA GeFORCE 9600 GSO Dual Slot Edition 384MB GDDR3 PCIe 2.0= SLi 9600 GT+9600 GSO

 

[justinxtreme]

The GeFORCE 8800 GTS 320MB GDDR3 is an eVGA GeFORCE 8800 GTS 320MB GDDR3 KO ACS3 Edition PCIe 2.0

New Option:

Graphics:
BFG GeFORCE 8800 GT OC Edition 512MB GDDR3 PCIe 2.0

How far can I overclocked the Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 2.66GHz 45nm LGA775 w/ the Xigmatech CPU Heatsink and Fan. May be up to 3.4GHz

 

[JAYDEEJOHN]

Mac is good for YOU, theyll give you just what you need. No tough decisions to have to make. Trust Mac, youll see

 

[nachowarrior]

drop the sli board, get crossfire board. scales much better, and you can dump 1 or 2 4850's in it for a monster gaming machine.