Need advice on Intel computer parts

[LeoMaxwell973]

ITEM BRAND/MODEL

Case: Thermaltake Eureka VC8000BWA, Black (with additional dual case fans 120mm)

PSU: Thermaltake Toughpower 1000w ATX

Mobo: ASUS Striker Extreme 680i

CPU: intel core 2 extrme quad QX6800

HDD: 150.0GB Western Digital Raptor 10,000RPM (with additional dual hard drive fan)

RAM: 8GB (4x2GB) PC6400 DDR2 800 Dual Channel

Pri Optical: Samsung LightScribe 18x SATA DVD Recorder

Sec Optical: none

Sound Card: onboard motherboard

Video Card: SLI Dual GeForce 8800GTX 768Mb PCI Express 16X

FDD: 3.5" floppy disk - 12 in 1 media card reader

Keyboard: G15 gamming keyboard (already bought)

Mouse: some crapy hp 4 button (already bought)

Modem: Creative Labs 56k V.92 Modem

Lan: onboard motherboard

Monitor: none, already have one.

Speakers: none, already have one.

OS: Windows Vist ultimate 64bit

Extras: USB 2.0 Adapter Card 4 port PCI




Sub Total $ 4643.90

Freight $ 49

Total $ 4692.90



ive never built my own computer and id like to have an awsome gaming computer and this is what ive come up with. id like to know if these parts will work well together, if they will fit in the tower, and if there will be any problems with cooling and power with this setup.
also i priced all of this with Micro One Computers, and they would only price the whole package. but i think they seem to have decent prices for what iam ordering but if thier ripping me off id like to know that too.

any help or advice etc. would be appreciated.

[perkster]

firstly welcome to PC mech forums!


i would get yoru parts from newegg.com if you are in the US.

SLI generally isnt recommended here much, the extra boost of the 2 cards in SLI isnt usually worth the money, they money is best to be kept aside for another graphic card upgrade when the next gen comes out 6 months to a year later. Usually 1 next gen card is better than 2 previous generation cards in SLI or xfire.

Im not a fan of samsung DVD burners, i personally would recommend a liteon retail version so you get the software too, good work on choosing a SATA one.

8GB is vastly overkill and you will likely not see any benefit on it as opossed to 2gb or 4gb. with Vista 4gb would probably be the way to go, i dont know of any home or gaming computer that uses over 4gb of ram and uses pagefile. save the extra money again for an upgrade later DDR3 is new and so far not cost effective but will be in time, and then you can upgrade to that.

if you do decide not to go SLI you wont need 1000W powersupply, i think the 620W HX corsair unit would be your best bet.

i would recommend the seagate 7200.10 320GB SATA HD rather than that raptor, they work almost as fast with the 16mb cashe and the sweet spot for $/gb right now, plus you will need decent size HD to install all games etc.

your MB should have about 12 or more USB ports you can use, do you really need the PCI USB card?

do you really need the features of vista ultimate? most people are just fine on vista home premium.

your cooling arrangements shoudl be fine, if not overclocking the HSF that comes with the processor should be good enough and to use 3rd party would void the warranty.

[Chazell29]

Its not worth it to spend almost $5,000 on a PC, you get get a top of the line PC for around $2,000.

[LeftyAce]

I agree with perkster on all points. I have 2GB ram and I disabled my page file, with no problems so far. Playing FEAR, HL2, BF2, full settings, no problems.

You also hopefully don't need a 56K modem. If you have high speed internet, there's no use for the modem, and adding pci cards restricts airflow around the video card. If you are using dialup, put some of the money you're saving on this build towards broadband :-)

The case you listed is a Full tower, so it's HUGE. And it's pretty heavy, so if you ever move the computer around, it'll be a pain. The Antec P182 is highly recommended around here. I'm using the Thermaltake Soprano, and it WILL fit an 8800GTX, barely. There's about 1mm to spare :-)

Lastly, for gaming the mouse is much more important than the keyboard (in my opinion). I really like the RAzer mouse I've got, as the high sensitivity allows me to do a complete 180 degree turn in FPSs by just turning my wrist. Nothing wrong with a gaming keyboard, but I'd upgrade the mouse too.

[Chazell29]

I just picked up a G15 last night (i have a crappy stock mouse to so I need to upgrade in the future lol) but its really nice. The backlite keys are amazing. Plus the keyboard is smaller than my old one, your hand feels a little cramped at first but after you get used to it its really nice. That is if you havn't started using it already.

[Cricket]

Originally Posted by Chazell29 Its not worth it to spend almost $5,000 on a PC, you get get a top of the line PC for around $2,000.

It is worth it to LeoMaxwell973 if he wants to spend that much on a computer. The builder's budget is entirely up to the builder, not us. If that is the amount LeoMaxwell973 has budgeted for this computer then who are we to tell him he shouldn't spend that much?

Cricket