new build

So after about 8 years, I finally started my first build. Money was the huge determining factor and now that I have a job I going to have a good pc up and running. I originally was going to build a budget I have a friend who hooked me up with some of his old parts. So right now I got:

Coolermaster Cosmos S : $40
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 : $150
Sony NEC 20X DVD IDE Writer : $10
Silverstone Modular 1000w: $100

So after getting these items for such a great deal, I decided to use the money I saved to buy better parts then my original intent.

So right now my biggest issue is motherboard. I'm very lost in the scene and the last motherboard I looked at was a Gigabyte P35 board back a few months ago. I seriously don't know what to look for now. What's stable or what not. Which SLI board if I go that route. I'm only overclocking the q9450 to 3.0GHz. Nothing higher.

Also a big issue is what GFX card I'm going to get. My friend is selling 2x 9800GT for about 170 but I don't know if I can get it in time.

Hard drive I'm trying to convince a friend to give a Raptor 74GB to me for 25 since he doesn't use it. If not a WD 640GB.

CPU cooler i was thinking about:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6835887011

I have a few 120mm Rosewill fans a friend will give me.

RAM will most likely be DDR2 PC2-8500 with two 1GB sticks. I'm not decisive over 32-bit or 64-bit. I don't know how much of a gain would be from 2GB to 4GB.



Im using it a multimedia pc, with some light gaming. any suggestion would be much appreciated

So he's gonna sell you two 9800GTs for $170? Sounds like a good deal to me. Anyway if you wanted to go crossfire I'd get this board

GIGABYTE GA-EP45-DS3R
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813128344

You can get a Radeon 4850 for now and then drop another one in latter. Two 4850s would definitely be much better than two 9800GTs.

If your friend hooks you up with the NVidia 9800 GT cards, you will need to go NVidia chipset MOBO IF you want to use two GPU's (one NVidia GPU on Intel chipset MOBO is fine, but cannot do SLI on Intel MOBO). The 780i would be your best bet. The 790i requires DDR3 memory unless I am missing something. The down side is that NVidia chipset MOBO's have a reputation as being "buggy". I do not, however, have personal experience with this.

The ATI 4870 and 4870x2 seems to be the "hot" top GPU right now. The X48 Chipset MOBO's are the ones I like. My favorite is the Asus P5E Deluxe and Rampage Formula. If you only go with one GPU, a P45 chipset would save some $$$. The main advantage of the X48 chipset is a slight performance gain with respect to Crossfire (PCi-E slots both run at x 16 as opposed to one x16 and one x8 with P45).

The Xigamtek S-1283 CPU cooler is very good and cheap.

HD....WD 640GB great choice

Memory: 2 x 2 gig DD2 800. I like Corsair.

PSU...go Corsair, PC Power and Cooling, or Antec (True Power Quattro). Make sure you get right level for the build. I like modular cables for a "clean" case build.

Fans: get some good 3rd party to switch out from OEM case fans. Sythe very good brand.

GL