Rumble Rumble? Oh hi ^_^ (New build, plz rate)

[clumsypyro]

So I'm making my first build, I want a rating and input. System will be used for gaming. Ideally I want to be able to run Mirror's Edge and FEAR 2 PO at relatively high settings. Yes, I know the sys req's aren't out yet.

Here are the specs of the system:

CPU: E8500
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115036

Mobo: EVGA 780i FTW
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813188027

GPU: 260GTX-216 core or 280GTX
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130400
or
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130365

RAM: Mushkin DDR2-1066 4GB (2x2GB)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146785

HDD: 150 GB WD Velociraptor and 500 GB WD Caviar
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136296
and
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136320

PSU: 750W Silencer
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817703009

Sound Card: Auzentech X-Fi 7.1
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829156005

Blue-Ray/DVD-/+R: Pioneer
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827129016

CPU Heat Sink: XIGMATEK
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233003
with
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233019

Monitor: Hanns G
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824254026&Tpk=Hanns%20G%2028

I already have the monitor so that is a definite 100%. The rest I have yet to buy. I did have a question about it, will it all fit in the Antec 900 or NZXT Tempest (any reccs?) and if not what's a good Full ATX tower (i.e. good air flow) that I can get for around 100 to 120-ish (Max)? And is it worth the extra 100~ish bucks to go for the 280GTX over the 260GTX-216 core?

Thanks in advance ^_^

 

[rjoker]

If you are not Overclocking there's really no need for the heat sink (although I have a Zalmann for an E6850 in a 900 case (hey, it looked nice! )

The 900 is a really good choice, although the 260/280/9800 boards are really (really) long. I cannot place a hard drive in front of where the cards sit and must route the cables in a goofy fashion to get from the bottom to the top. That aside, I managed to fit 3 heard drives in (2x1TB, 1x300GB) as well as 2xSATA DVD's (liteon's, they are good+cheap... but pioneer makes good stuff too!).

As for hard drives, the velociraptor is good, but I would also get a really high capacity drive (1-1.5TB...they are dirt cheap now) instead of the 500GB drive.

CPU is good
Motherboard is basically what I have (also good)
RAM... I have GSkill (much cheaper but I don't Overclock, so once again, what are you going for?)

Sound card... I can't really tell you, I have the motherboard sound piped to an Onkyo Amp to a pair of Cerwin Vegas (AL1000) for when I don't use my Headphones... I also have a sound card from a Plantronics Headset (USB) that feeds sound to my headphones (Sennheiser HD555)... and I also have a TC Electronics Konnect8 Firewire interface for when I want to record stuff (electronic music mostly from a Roland Juno G). If you want to talk sound, we could go on forever but I don't bother having a neat sound card because I don't see any difference in the games and I do not have surround sound in my room.

Power is good for the setup yopu are proposing. I'm running an Antec 850W but my usual draw (from the wall) is around 350W.

Last but not least (and sorry for the out of order ramblings...) the video card. I have 2x9800 and they are great for anything I've thrown at them (Fallout 3, Supreme Commander, Empire at War, Oblivion). Are you gonna go sli? If so you can easily go for the 260, save yourself a few pennies up front and in electricity later, otherwise you could go for a 280. However, if you never, ever (EVER) plan on a second card (for this build) you could go for the faster ATI (me thinks the 4870x2 works on an nVidia board, I don't really know.)

Tell me if I missed on anything! Sorry for the excessive rambling!

 

[kurtyboh]

yeah the 4870x2 will work just never be able to crossfire thats all. otherwise rjoker had a lot of good info.

 

[rjoker]

Forgot the rating: Excellent build (8-10/10)

Also, I run at two resolutions 2560x1600 and 1280x800. I had problems with stability in Fallout 3 at 2560x1600 but I think it was a driver issue, and while it ran everything was smooth (already finished it and have yet to look back and see if the new nvidia driver resolves the stability issue). My desktop is at 1280x800 cause even in a 30" Dell the letters tend to get really tiny at full res (but everthing else looks incredible!).

Anyways, if you;re at 1900x1200 you should be fairly good with any card above the 260(sli) 280 or 4870 (I also read here that the 4830 or 4850 was a screamer, so you might want to check it out before you buy.)

Thanks for reading!