Complete Final Build...Let Me Know How I Did

Thanks again to everyone for all of their advice. Here is, finally, my build:


Case: Antec 900 $79.99 at Microcenter, just today. Missed the Newegg deal 1st time around.

Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3P LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail $136.99, but just got the new $20 mail-in rebate.

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 Wolfdale 3.16GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Model BX80570E8500 - Retail $174.99

Memory: G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ - Retail $39.99

GPU: EVGA 896-P3-1267-AR GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 Superclocked Edition 896MB 448-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail $259.99

HDD: Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM $84.99

PSU: PC Power & Cooling S75QB 750W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI NVIDIA SLI Certified (Dual 8800 GTX and below) CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply - Retail $79.99 after rebate

OS: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-bit English for System Builders 1pk DSP OEI DVD - OEM $79.99

I will also be getting the Xigmatek heatsink to overclock, but probably not for a couple weeks. Already have a monitor and DVD/CD drives, though will think about upgrading those a little later.

So...how does it look?

yummy

I built the exact same combo, except since the UD3P is a Crossfire board I went with a Powercolor 4870 1gig.

I also put in a Corsair 750W PSU, and 2x 2gb (4gig) of Crucial Ballistix DDR2 800 memory.

Everything else is completely identical, and I'm running a good solid 3.8ghz OC no issues, and runs really cool.

ya, this generation of cards ATI has the upper hand on nvidia. 4870 over anyting from the nvidia lineup for now.

Just to respond to shortstuff.

I am not avoiding ATI cards. In fact I deliberated long and hard on the 4870 vs. the GTX 260. When it came down to it I liked the things I had heard about the performance of the Core 216 overclocked cards. I settled on going for the single most expensive card i could afford strategy. Free Farcry 2 from EVGA ain't bad either.

I realize my board has X-Fire capability, but I did not want to go for the dual card solution, and don't intend to in the future. I mainly got the UD3P based on numerous glowing reviews of its capabilities, and with the rebate now I got it for around what i would have paid for the UD3R

Daniel,


I would like to see those. Mine won't be built till next week.

Finished it last night at 1am, so I don't have too many benchmarks ATM, but I do have one for Left 4 Dead. I get a steady 60FPS with everything at max settings at 1680x1050. This is with the old drivers, supposedly the new ones increase it even more. Everything is at stock, no overclocking yet. I'll try to come up with more benchmarks this afternoon.

Also, it gets a 5.9 in the Vista performance thing on everything except the calculations per second, where it still gets a good 5.6. That can easily be fixed by slightly overclocking it though