New rig, $1200 + LCD

[mtbhrd]

Man I'm glad to see there's a section dedicated to this, as I'm sure this would be annoying elsewhere. (priced off newegg, after mail in rebates)

I'm looking to create a do it all pc - Running crysis 1920 X 1200 high/veryhigh settings, but also running 3d cad/cam as well as CS3 (hence the quad). Will probably run vista ult. 64 bit.

Asus Rampage Formula x48 ----------- 280
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 ---------------195

Asus HD 4850 ---------------------------- 160
Asus HD 4850 + Silverstone 750w ---- 310 (combo deal)
Antec Nine Hundred Mid-Tower -------- 80


G Skill 4gb (2x 2gb) ----------------------105
Samsung Spinpoint F1 500GB --------- 70

Westinghourse 24" (8ms _ 500 cd/m2 _ 1000:1) -------- 400


Future - Swiftech H20-220 Water Cooling (2x 120mm radiator fans)
Some sorta blueray player at some point.



My main Questions:


PSU - Is it powerful enough with a good margin for more hdd's?
Is the Antec 900 mid-tower big enough for a crossfire setup / water cooling kit?
Will stock cooling suffice at factory clocks, until I go water cooled?
Any general comments/ suggestions? I'm open to anything.

 

[aevm]

Corsair 750TX + HD 4850 might be cheaper than that great combo deal.

Or maybe an Antec TPQ-850, if you need lots of disks and water cooling.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371009&Tpk=TPQ-850

The Asus P5E Deluxe X48 is $60 less than the Rampage.

Yes, the Antec 900's cooling will be plenty.

The Antec 900 is big enough for those video cards. I have no idea how it works with the water cooling or if that Swiftech product fits in it. TBH, since the Antec 900 can handle cooling just fine, I'd forget the water cooling and use the cash to upgrade to HD 4870.

 

[dirtmountain]

1. Yes that PSU will be fine with overclocking and 2 HD4850s (even 4870s)
2. Yes, but it's gonna be cramped. I'd look for a full tower if you can. Check measurements, some full towers aren't much bigger than mid towers and some mid towers are on steroids.
3. Yes, stock cooling if not OCed is fine
Make sure the HD and DVD burner are SATA

 

[mtbhrd]

aevm, Do I sence some saracasm about the combo deal ? I guess nothing's ever quite as good as it seems. Thanks, that Antec 850 is a much better deal.

I'll also go with the P5E now.

Do you guys think its worth the extra $200 right now to go 2x 4870's instead of 2x 4850's? I also don't really care about ati or nvidia, ati recently seems to have better price/performance.

What are your thoughts on westinghouse? The reviews I've seen seem to be pretty good.


New rundown:
Asus P5E Deluxe x48 ------------------------- 220
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 ---------------------195

Asus HD 4850 ------------------------------ 160
Asus HD 4850 ------------------------------ 160
Antec Nine Hundred Mid-Tower -------------- 80
Antec TPQ-850 ------------------------------150

G Skill 4gb (2x 2gb) -------------------------105
Samsung Spinpoint F1 500GB --------------- 70

Westinghourse 24" (8ms _ 500 cd/m2 _ 1000:1) -- 400

 

[aevm]

Yeah, I was making fun of the combo, I guess. Some of these combos seem designed to confuse people. I got burned a few times myself

Worth the extra $200? Not for everybody. In your case, with your 1920x1200 monitor, probably yes. At that resolution you do need as much GPU power as you can get.
If gaming is the PC's main purpose, I'd do it. $1700 instead of $1500 is not really that big a difference after all.

 

[Shadow703793]

^+1. If looking to OC get a XIGMATEK S1283 (+ bolt in kit) instead of a water cooled set up.

 

[mtbhrd]

Finally took the time to look at some 4850, 4870 single and CF benchmarks, I can't really justify the 4870 CF for 200 more than the 4850 CF setup. I'll get the 4850's now, then maybe the 4870 x2 later on.

How about the 2.4 ghz q6600? Should I instead go with a duo, say, a E8500 at 3.1ghz?

In other words, is 2.4ghz going to bottle neck the two 4850's? Because I realize the 4 cores aren't utilized at well as they could be while gaming.

 

[Ic3man36O]

Are you going to add a cd/dvd drive and the operating system? It'd be hard to build a comp w/o those... ;P

 

[mtbhrd]

Yes, thanks - I've got a load of them laying around. They're old, they're ide, most of them are just readers - but they'll work. (I'll grab some round ide cable)

I can work out anything else I didn't post myself - I won't waste your guy's time with those.

 

[aevm]

Finally took the time to look at some 4850, 4870 single and CF benchmarks, I can't really justify the 4870 CF for 200 more than the 4850 CF setup. I'll get the 4850's now, then maybe the 4870 x2 later on.

How about the 2.4 ghz q6600? Should I instead go with a duo, say, a E8500 at 3.1ghz?

In other words, is 2.4ghz going to bottle neck the two 4850's? Because I realize the 4 cores aren't utilized at well as they could be while gaming.

I don't think a Q6600 will bottleneck anything. Mine reaches 100% only very rarely, and I even turned it back to stock clocks. If you play FSX or run other things in the background when playing get the quad. If not, the E8500 is probably better.

 

[mtbhrd]

Alright, I'm still obviously to flip-floppy to commit to anything right now, as I changed my mind again:

The lastest toms midrange system build used the nzxt tempest, they seemed to have good luck with it, and its a bit larger than the antec 900. Also changed to the duo instead of quad.


Asus P5E Deluxe x48 --------------------------- 220
Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 (3.1ghz)--------------195

Asus HD 4850 ------------------------------------ 160
Asus HD 4850 ------------------------------------ 160
NZXT Tempest mid-tower------------------------ 80
Antec TPQ-850 -------------------------------------150

G Skill 4gb (ddr2 1066) --------------------------105
Samsung Spinpoint F1 500GB ----------------- 70

Westinghourse 24" (8ms, 500 cd, 1000:1) -- 400



Now, what about ram - is 4gb of ddr2 1066 about right for this build? I'll be going 64 bit, so it'll all get used.

 

[aevm]

Yeah, 4GB is perfect. I'm assuming you want Vista (for DirectX 10), so allow 2 GB for Vista and 2 GB for the game, it's a good match. Don't get XP 64-bit, that's not really suitable for a gaming box.

 

[Shadow703793]

Really? Why no XP x64? I use it and I haven't had problems with it. I use XP x64 on video/photo editing rigs and CAD rigs. I personally use it for gaming but I don't Install it on gaming builds unless the people want XP x64 instead of Vista.

 

[mtbhrd]

Ya, I'm going Vista ultimate 64. Never really had a problem with vista after they got the drivers, ect. sorted out.

 

[aevm]

@shadow:
Good for you... My experience with XP 64 was not that nice. It's a very good system for work, stable and all, but I hit some major backward compatibility issues last year when I upgraded to it at work. A bunch of my apps refused to install. Others installed and worked, but not so well. For example in winrar and winzip I can't just right-click a file in Windows Explorer to compress it, like I could in XP 32.

Anyway, with those two powerful video cards it would be weird to be restricted to DX9, so I'd pick Vista just for that.

 

[Shadow703793]

Yup. Nothing wrong with Vista after the SP1 updates.