Final Computer Build: Please Rate/Advise

[ThaMahstah]

So yeah:


LG 22X DVD±R DVD Burner Black IDE Model GH22NP20

Antec Twelve Hundred Black ATX Full Tower Computer Case

Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

Acer P243WAid Black-Silver 24" 2ms(GTG) HDMI Widescreen LCD Monitor with HDCP Support

SAPPHIRE 100251SR Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB 512-bit (256-bit x 2) GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card

PC Power & Cooling S75QB 750W ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply

Logitech X-540 70 watts 5.1 Speakers

G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1000 (PC2 8000) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-8000CL5D-4GBPQ

ASUS RAMPAGE FORMULA LGA 775 Intel X48 ATX Intel Motherboard

Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 Wolfdale 3.16GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Model BX80570E8500

Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-bit English for System Builders 1pk DSP OEI DVD


How' is that? I want to last at least a year and a half for top-notch gaming (Or close to it.)

 

[Proximon]

Are you just going to run the one 4870X2?

If so, you would likely be better served by a P45 chipset.

If you wanted to add another X2 in the future, you would need more PSU... although of course that one is top notch, it's just not enough juice.

 

[ThaMahstah]

Yep, was aware of that. I was thinking of Overclocking just a bit, or maybe CFing with another single 4870 in the future, though I'm not sure if the jump in performance is worth the price. Anyway that's why the motherboard and PSU choice. It's still a nice motherboard to have anyway.

 

[bdollar]

wd 640gb is about $5 or $10 more. well worth it. best price per gb

have you listened to those logitech speakers? i would recommend spending the same amount on 2.1. 70 watts for 5.1 just isn't enough for it to sound good. i would recommend waiting on 5.1 until you can afford good 5.1 speakers (at least 200watts total).

are you purposely going IDE on the dvd rom? I would go SATA unless you have a specific reason for it.

rest of it looks good. +1 to proximon's comment. great psu but not enough if you plan to crossfire. build looks very good.

 

[Proximon]

That's all I have then, Looks to be a good build. Some will argue you want a quad core, but I'm not really seeing that yet. I think I would only recommend that for heavy RTS play.

Oh ya SATA for sure, usually like a buck more.

 

[ThaMahstah]

Would this work for speakers?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16836121012


Also I know to take reviews with a grain of salt, especially ones on newegg, but the 70 watt 5.1 Speakers have very favorable reviews.

By the way RTS like...World in Conflict? Total War series?

 

[bdollar]

yeah that is much better. be careful though. if you like to go loud even those can blow. but at a normal sound they will sound good. and you may want to not take my word for it on the others. go to a store and try them out. if you like them then save yourself some money. just like monitors what some like others don't. on speaks when the wattage is lower just be careful on turning them up to loud. so if you go with the 70 watts i would be even more cared. those above are good and will defintitely work. but you may want to test them at a store to be sure of what you want.

 

[ThaMahstah]

The 70 watt and the 155 watt are both good?

 

[pcgamer12]

Those speakers are good.
If you want great speakers:

THX Certified Logitech Z-2300 2.1
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16836121122&Tpk=z-2300

Logitech Z-5500 5.1
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16836121120&Tpk=z-5500

My friend has the Z-2300, I listened to it plugged into his iPod. It sounds unbelievable, especially the bass and clarity. It's the speakers I'm going to be upgrading to. For 5.1 speakers, you have to go to the >$200 range to get good quality speakers. For your needs, I think the Logitech Z-2300 is a great choice. If you are going to get quality speakers, pair it with a good dedicated sound card. By the way, Creative released a new driver for their newest model X-Fi Titanium series. Latest update for all cards was the 1st of this month, August.

For hard drives, you can find WD6400AAKS [640GB] for about $84.99 with free shipping on Newegg. More performance and 140GB more for $5.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136218&Tpk=wd6400aaks

 

[ThaMahstah]

Believe it or not, I've already been referenced to those speakers. Guess they have a rep.

Anyway, yeah, $300 for speakers? No thanks. Sorry but I don't need to serenaded by the celestial choir of heaven through my sound box.

If I wanted STANDARD sound, what would you suggest?

Also, I believe the ASUS RAMPAGE FORMULA I am buying comes with a SupremeFX II sound card.

 

[bdollar]

i would suggest you go to a store and listen for yourself and make up your mind. i personally wouldn't get the 70watt ones but i am not you and you may like their sound. when checking them out try them at various volumes that you think you will use and then decide what is worth it price wise. i know i am a broken record but with speaks and monitors i really think you need to see/hear them unless you can automatically get top of the line. mid range and low range in both categories are going to have ones that appeal to some and not to others.

i also wouldn't bother getting a sound card until you have tried the onboard. onboard used to be a no no but recently it is much improved and there have been many issues with the x-fi cards, especially with vista. so i would try onboard and see what you think. if you feel it is lacking then go after a soundcard.

 

[ThaMahstah]

It comes WITH the SupremeFX II soundcard, so I wouldn't exactly be "buying" a sound card, though I'm sure it's factored into the price.

 

[bdollar]

sorry that was in response to the post above talking about x-fi. lose nothing if you try the one it comes with. except any up to the price in the first place. sorry for the confustion.

 

[ThaMahstah]

Okay, new, updated build:


ASUS 20X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe Black SATA Model DRW-2014L1T

Antec Twelve Hundred Black ATX Full Tower Computer Case

Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD6400AAKS 640GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

Acer P243WAid Black-Silver 24" 2ms(GTG) HDMI Widescreen LCD Monitor with HDCP Support

SAPPHIRE 100251SR Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB 512-bit (256-bit x 2) GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card

CORSAIR CMPSU-1000HX 1000W ATX12V 2.2 / EPS12V 2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Modular Cabling Active PFC Power Supply

Logitech X-540 70 watts 5.1 Speaker

G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1000 (PC2 8000) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-8000CL5D-4GBPQ

ASUS RAMPAGE FORMULA LGA 775 Intel X48 ATX Intel Motherboard

Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 Wolfdale 3.16GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Model BX80570E8500

Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-bit English for System Builders 1pk DSP OEI DVD


How's that? Everything compatible and all?

 

[Proximon]

Looks good.

 

[fruees]

yeah but to reply to what you said about Xfiring earlier on : YOU CAN'T CROSSFIRE A 4870X2 WITH A SINGLE 4870. GPUs need to be the same, so remember that when getting your board. However, I think you’re right – although you’ve opted for probably the most savage card available and won’t need extra for a long time, you will in the future and it’s nice to have the option of an upgrade. Prices for GPUs fall ridiculously fast anyway, so you’ll probably get your hands on a 2nd 4870x2 for £150 in a year’s time. That would give you some beastly performance…; )

 

[fruees]

BTW the Antec1200 is a Beast Lord

 

[ThaMahstah]

yeah but to reply to what you said about Xfiring earlier on : YOU CAN'T CROSSFIRE A 4870X2 WITH A SINGLE 4870.

It's been done though, but like I said the performance boost is not worth the price unless you have a mountain of money.

 

[ThaMahstah]

By the way, is the E8600 worth the extra $100 over the E8500?

I've been going over it, and which is the best for gaming?

E8600, E8500, Q9550, Q6600?


The Q6600 and the E8500 are both the same price on Newegg, so in that regard it's just a matter of which is superior, for gaming I mean.

The E8600 is a $100 more than those two, and the Q9550 $50 more than that, and I can't decide

 

[ThaMahstah]

Any further advice 'be appreciated. I'm posting on four different tech forums trying to gather a number of opinions.

 

[Proximon]

That would depend how much $100.00 is worth to you. Wouldn't be worth the performance gain to me.

Q9550 is really the CPU to buy. It's plenty fast at single core speeds, while multi-tasking and future games/programs will make more use of the extra cores.

All CPUs are becoming multi-core. There is no risk in the statement that you will need quad or more cores soon.

 

[ThaMahstah]

Is the Q9550 faster than the E8600? Someone else said that getting a quad now is rubbish, because games dont use four threads simulatanously yet, and they barely use TWO, so with any quad core two of the cores will be sound asleep whilst gaming, and quads should only be bought if I'm working with video/sound processing on pro level. Also that even the E8400 gets more usual speed for gaming than the Q6600.

 

[Proximon]

http://www.hardwaregeeks.com/board/showthread.php?t=32483

Generally, a quad core is not going to be "faster" than a similarly priced dual core. It can execute more simultaneous threads however, which makes it faster when the program running allows for multi-threading.

As the technology for multi-threading has to be included at low levels and understood by programmers, utilization of quad cores in gaming increases gradually.

So, to answer your question directly... most current games won't care if the CPU has two, three, or four cores. They also won't play differently on a 2.6 or 3.2Ghz Intel CPU. You may notice some difference on benchmarks.

A handful of current games use quad core CPUs well. These games all run just fine on dual core CPUs as well. This will change in the future.

If you have money to burn, get an E8600 today and a quad core CPU in 6 months.

 

[ThaMahstah]

Indeed I've come to a conclusion. I'll buy the E8500. It's good enough to give me good gaming performance and cheap enough that when, say, Nehelam comes out or quads become more useful, it can be easilly replaced. How's that?

 

[Proximon]

Ok by me