I am in the market for a new system, which I want to be pretty high end in terms of performance. I have been looking at the HP Blackbird series, but they are pretty pricey, especially when I know what the parts actually cost. I have built systems myself in the past, so this is not new to me. However, it has been quite a few years and I have not stayed on top of the hardware, so I would like some feedback on some of the pieces.
For the motherboard, ASUS was recommended to me and I have been looking at the Striker II Formula. Quad core and dual dvi are big requirements and while the Extreme looks nice, the cost of DDR3 is pretty steep.
For the processor, I think I am pretty well set on a Intel Q9550 as that appears to be where the price break is. Does anybody have an recommendations on a good fan with the potential of overclocking involved?
For the memory, I am looking at at least 4GB, maybe 8. I have done Crucial memory in the past although I saw a couple pretty good reviews of the Corsair Dominator. Any thoughts?
For the graphics, I am thinking about a single GeForce GTX 260 ... any recommendations on a specific card?. I don't really need SLI at the moment and I want to be able to drive my dual 20" LCDs with a split desktop. Hopefully in the not too distant future, I will be able to add a 30" LCD to the mix and will then need to add another card with dual dvi.
For the hard drives, I will probably drop in a couple of WD Raptors in a RAID 1 config for safety.
For a quad core, a couple of GPUs, and a couple of HDs, what size PSU is really needed? Do I need to go as high as a 1000W or would something smaller work? Any recommendations here?
So, with this plus a case, burner, and Windows Vista Ultimate 64, am I missing anything?
Thanks for the input.
-- Jeff
For the motherboard, ASUS was recommended to me and I have been looking at the Striker II Formula. Quad core and dual dvi are big requirements and while the Extreme looks nice, the cost of DDR3 is pretty steep.
For the processor, I think I am pretty well set on a Intel Q9550 as that appears to be where the price break is. Does anybody have an recommendations on a good fan with the potential of overclocking involved?
For the memory, I am looking at at least 4GB, maybe 8. I have done Crucial memory in the past although I saw a couple pretty good reviews of the Corsair Dominator. Any thoughts?
For the graphics, I am thinking about a single GeForce GTX 260 ... any recommendations on a specific card?. I don't really need SLI at the moment and I want to be able to drive my dual 20" LCDs with a split desktop. Hopefully in the not too distant future, I will be able to add a 30" LCD to the mix and will then need to add another card with dual dvi.
For the hard drives, I will probably drop in a couple of WD Raptors in a RAID 1 config for safety.
For a quad core, a couple of GPUs, and a couple of HDs, what size PSU is really needed? Do I need to go as high as a 1000W or would something smaller work? Any recommendations here?
So, with this plus a case, burner, and Windows Vista Ultimate 64, am I missing anything?
Thanks for the input.
-- Jeff
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