New Gaming Rig

[gtucker329]

Hey all,

The time has come for a new rig since I sold mine off to a buddy. Here is what I have so far:

ASUS Striker Extreme
Intel E6850
Corsair Dominator DDR2 1066 (4GB)
WD Raptor 150 GB
Seagate 500 GB
Dual EVGA 8800GT SSC Edition
Phillips DVD Burner
Antec P182 SE Super Mid Tower
Vista Ultimate 64bit

And now the hard choice. I usually prefer Enermax PSU's and due to the case choice I can't get a oversized PSU like the 850 watt Galaxy without some modding. The below link is for the Enermax Infinity 720 watt which will fit in the case fine. My concern is power consumption from 8800GT SLI setup.

http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16817194021

The Infiniti has 3 12v rails and the dedicated PCI-E rail is rated at 30A which give me 360 watts on the rail. From what I've read the Max 8800GT consumption is ~130watts so 2 should run around 300 on the overclocked version.

Any criticisms? The only other PSU's I've looked at so far is the Antec Trupower 850 which I've heard has some issues with the Striker MB.

[mwhaha]

I would get the pk5... since its half the price of the striker

You might want to go with a quad core - Q6660 is an option for £160 since more games will probably be more demanding.
You also may want to think about getting a sound card such as the X-Fi Xtreme Gamer which is around 75 quid in uk.

Raptors are loud - which could interfere with your gaming so I would also suggest a good headset.

Since the new nvidia graphics cards are coming out soon - you could wait for the 8880 gtx to go down in price or just get the new card.

Check a power supply that is compatable with sli and you may want some headroom for future graphics card upgrades;
http://www.slizone.com/object/slizone_build_psu.html

Some programs and stuff have compatabality issues with vista - I couldn 't get call of duty to work :\ and make sure all your stuff fits in the case lol

[mainiac]

Well i currently use; http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817189007

i love xclio psu's and the modular cabling really helps. I know the psu I use probably wouldn't fit your power needs but this one will: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817189017 It's also cheaper than the enermax psu and it has modular cabling, and it has 4 12v rails

[gtucker329]

Originally Posted by mwhaha I would get the pk5... since its half the price of the striker

I should have mentioned that I already have the MB on hand.

I chose the E6850 because of the 1333Mhz FSB. The Q6600 only has 1066. The benchmarks between the two are almost the same and so far as I know there is no game that utilizes 4 cores.

The Enermax Infinity is SLI approved. My main concern is that I did my math right on the power requirements. I typically don't upgrade my systems. Use them for awhile then sell them and build new ones.

[Devastator]

I think that'll be easily enough power

Get the 6850 now if your OK to upgrade in a year or less time when games start utilizing quad cores. Your choice.

I think you can overclock the FSB speed anyways?

EDIT: I just read up a bit, glc pointed out you can overclock a Q6600 to 1333FSB. Perhaps the way to go?

[mwhaha]

Techincally it may be slower, but since you can overclock it, apparently it runs well but not too sure. It will be a better long term investment anyhows.

I would go more than you need to, since nvidias 9 series come out soon.

May wanna get a fan if you oc.

[gtucker329]

Ok. So after careful thought I changed to the Q6600 and will overclock. Added the Zalman CNPS 9700 NT.

I'm going to stick with the eVGA 8800GT SSC. Since they have the 90 day upgrade feature I feel ok with it.