Core 2 Duo build

[allburnintegrated]

Hi all.

I am planning to build myself a fairly high end computer in the near future. This will be my first Core 2 Duo build, so it’d be great if people could give their opinions on parts etc. My budget is ~$NZ3500.

Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 CPU, 2.13GHz
Gigabyte GA-965P-DQ6 Motherboard, Socket 775
Corsair XMS2, TWIN2X2048-6400, 2x1GB
Seagate ST3320620AS Barracuda Hard Disk Drive, 320GB
Lian Li PC-V1100B ATX Mid Tower Case
Asus DRW-1608P3S DVD Writer
Enermax EG701AX-VE-SFMA24P, 600W ATX PSU
XFX GeForce 7950 GT
Philips 109B75 Monitor, 19" CRT
Scythe Infinity CPU Cooler
Nexus Real Silent 120mm Case Fan Black/White Two of these for case fans, one for the CPU cooler.

My main concern is with the case. I need a computer which is as quiet as possible (hence the passively cooled GPU). However, I've heard that while the case is quiet, it has some issues with cooling in the motherboard/expansion card zone of the case. Can anyone who has used this case please let me know if that is true?

Also, will the PSU be sufficient? I plan to add another XFX 7950GT in three months or so, so I do need an SLI power supply.

Thanks in advance for your opinions =)

[newbuilder14]

Everything looks just fine. Is that motherboard SLI-compatible or just Crossfire? If it's not SLI compatible you may want an ATI Radeon x1900xt. That power supply is fine however if you are going Crossfire or SLI I'd highly recommend an OCZ GameXStream 700w if you can find one. If not, I think that should be enough for you. Also look at the Seasonic 600w. I'd also get a Liteon DVD burner, and look into some LCD monitors - they are the way to go now.

[786ARS]

if you dont plan on overclocking, you can downgrade to value select ram, and use the money saved to upgrae the proc to an E6600, which has double the cache. Also is that psu on the slist at slizone.com? if it isn't and you want an sli in the future, get one on the list, remember just because it has a high wattage, does not neccicarily mean it is sli compatible.

[glc]

That's not a SLI or Crossfire motherboard. It's simply a motherboard with 2 PCI-Ex16 slots for multiple displays. There are no Intel chipset SLI boards yet and there are only 2 Crossfire certified P965 boards - and that's not one of them.

[allburnintegrated]

I'd prefer to go SLI rather than Crossfire at this time, since it is near impossible to get hold of a Crossfire master card in New Zealand. Would a motherboard such as Asus P5N32-SLI SE Deluxe be a good choice? There is an Asus motherboard $200 less, but it only has support for 667MHz memory, rather than the 800MHz memory this one has. Will I see much performance increase from having 800MHz memory?

Would a power supply such as Thermaltake Toughpower 750W be a good choice? It is SLI certified for dual 7900s, according to the website.

Thanks for the help all, it's much appreciated.

[Mr.Ferrari]

No if you wanna go SLI wait until the nforce 680 chipsets come out mid november. Otherwise stay away from any intel nforce chipset.

Crossfire is ALOT of video power. I mean unless your prepared to shell out for ATLEAST a 24'' monitor or above to see any benefits at all.

Your choice, if you really want sli that bad, amd is the only stable way to go.

P.S I would trust 2x7950gt's with a decent 600w. Nvidia's tend to be very low power consumption (compared to ati rival). That toughpower is an awesome choice for brand.

[allburnintegrated]

Thanks for the info. I'll wait until November for the new chipsets. I'd like to go Crossfire, but it's not really an option over here.

[glc]

ATI just changed Crossfire over to an internal bridge like SLI.

What do you want multiple video cards for anyway? A strong single card will play anything out there at considerably less expense. All the second card will do (at TWICE the price) is let you run higher resolutions. If you are going high end, you might as well just wait for DX 10 anyway.