First PC build

[711]

Heres the Specs...

Evga NVIDIA nForce 780i SLI ATX
Intel Q6600
GeForce 8800 GTX 768 MB
Western Digital Caviar RE2 750GB 7200 RPM
Cooler Master Stacker 830SE w/1000W Bundle
Cooler Master Sphere CPU Cooling Fan
PNY XLR8 2048MB Dual Channel DDR2 1173MHz
ASUS Black DVD-ROM Drive Model
Creative SB X-Fi Xtreme Audio 7.1 ChannelsSound Card
Microsoft Windows XP Professional With SP2C - OEM

Hows this look? Ill be using it mostly for gaming. I would like to try and overclock this system yet, I am new to all of this so I am not sure. Any suggestions or advice? Thanks in advance!

[Dave21]

Get the evga GTS (G92) over the GTX. Lower price, similar performance. Or get the 8800GT for the most bang for the buck.

Get the newer seagate 32 mb cache hard drives.

Get Corsair XMS2 ram DDR800.

You don't need the additional CPU cooling fan unless you do crazy overclocking.

You do not need a 1000 W power supply. For your system, try getting a 600 W PSU. Corsair is a good brand.

Asus is good for DVD drives, but you might want to look at lite-on.

Lastly, do if you do not go SLI, you might as well get a Asus P5K board. You can save a lot of money.

[711]

About the battery, I am getting a discounted price for buying the case and battery together so I think I will stand by the 1000 watt. For the ram, I read that the faster you can get, the better, is this true for the 1173 vs the 800? I was planning on overclocking the quad to around 3-3.4, would this require the heatsink?. Will I see a big performance drop from the gtx to the gts or gt? I will look into a hard drive with 32 mb cache. In the future I will possibly upgrade to SLI, and I would like the board to have the option. Thanks for the advice.

[Cricket]

Originally Posted by 711 About the battery, I am getting a discounted price for buying the case and battery together so I think I will stand by the 1000 watt.

Battery? What battery? The one on the motherboard?

Originally Posted by 711 For the ram, I read that the faster you can get, the better, is this true for the 1173 vs the 800?

Only if you're going to overclock.

Originally Posted by 711 I was planning on overclocking the quad to around 3-3.4, would this require the heatsink?.

If you're going to overclock then make sure you do your homework. Don't take overclocking lightly or you won't get the results you want. You probably will need a better heatsink than the stock one, but make sure the one you get performs better than the stock one. The only heatsink brand I would use if I were overclocking is Thermalright.

Originally Posted by 711 FWill I see a big performance drop from the gtx to the gts or gt?

Probably not.

Cricket

[Katreat]

Cooler Master makes the good list of CPU but it is a step below some of the best.. I personally recommend staying with the top brands like Antec, Corsair, Fortron Source, OCZ, PC Power & Cooling, and Seasonic. But if you have a good deal then it will probably be fine.

Faster ram is only necessary if you are OC’ing. Ram will step down to the speed of the processor. You have picked a 1000 FSB CPU 667 ram is already a step up for your processor. With 800 ram you would be fine for mild OC’ing. Faster ram would provide no benefit unless you really go for a major OC.

I gave up on OC’ing years ago, so cant really say how big an OC you are planning by your numbers. But I think you would be fine with 800 ram and you could save a bit.

Can not answer question about heat sink either. Not sure how fast you can OC the 6600 on the stock heatsink. If you are really building this for gaming you might look at the new E8400. Games don’t really benefit from quad core at this time and the new CPU is both faster and a better OC’er from everything I have read.

Not according to the charts. The new GTS 512 is just a hair under the GTX for substantially less money. The GT is just a hair under the GTS. The cost of the GTX is just not justified for the little performance increase it gives.

IMO SLI is a terrible upgrade path. It is really just a marketing gimmick. SLI is for making the best better. If you want the fastest computer possible then two cards are faster than one. But the cost for that small increase in speed is generally high. It also is very useful if you are using very large monitors (>28”) because of the high resolutions required. As an upgrade path it sucks, because by the time you get that second card a new generation video card will probably be out. If you look at history, each new generation of video card has beaten the performance of the last generation in SLI, so you are upgrading to less than you would if you just put in one newer card.

SLI is also not cheap. Not only do you need two top end video cards, you also need a very expensive MB and a very large PSU. You would be money ahead going with one card, selling it on ebay when you want to upgrade, and just buying a new top end card.

If you are still set on SLI then check out this article. It sounds like the 780i might have missed the target and they are rushing the 790i to market to keep SLI current.

http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquir...-heels-unhappy

Kat

[711]

Originally Posted by Cricket Battery? What battery? The one on the motherboard?

Sorry I meant PSU

Also, If I were to go for the E8400, this oc'd would be more optimized more for TODAY's gaming, correct? I will Probably go with a thermalright 120 extreme cooler as well.

[shadowpr]

An oc'd e8400 would be nice. Might improve gaming, but games mainly depend on the video card.

[711]

Yeah, I found an 8800 GTX for 400 so I'm going to just bite the bullet and spend the extra cash...

[Katreat]

Originally Posted by 711 Yeah, I found an 8800 GTX for 400 so I'm going to just bite the bullet and spend the extra cash...

That is still like $100 more for very little performance gain. Check out chart at Toms Hardware:

http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphi...1057&chart=275

Kat

[711]

Would anyone be able to point me towards a good source for overclocking?

[Cricket]

Originally Posted by 711 Would anyone be able to point me towards a good source for overclocking?

Overclocking.

Cricket

[711]

Is this better ram compared to the $200 pny ram?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820227280

[Alaron]

DDR2-800 is really all you need. It's already going to let you overclock. DDR2-1000 is higher (and more expensive) then you need. Try these instead: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145184

[Mavrick813]

Just my 2 cents here.

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...N82E16819115037

Ram: Crucial Ballistix Tracer 2GB (2 x 1GB)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...N82E16820148070

CPU Cooler: ZALMAN CNPS9700 LED 110mm 2 Ball CPU Cooler
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...N82E16835118019

PSU: SILVERSTONE ST85ZF ATX 12V 2.2 & EPS12V 850W SLI Certified
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...N82E16817256007

Mobo: EVGA 132-CK-NF78-A1 LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 780i SLI ATX
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...N82E16813188024

Now since this is a fresh build I would go with the EVGA 8800 GTS (G92), Don't go any lower then 850W on your PSU if your going to have an SLI OC board. Your going to need that extra power.

Also the EVGA 8800GTX can be had for $359.00 at CompUSA
http://www.compusa.com/applications/...917&CatId=1839

Lastly Check out my ads in the Marketplace. QUITE Frankly you won't beat the deals in their. And everything in their is Brand NEW

Mike

[711]

Is this seagate 32 mb cache hard drive better?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148298

[Alaron]

Originally Posted by 711 Is this seagate 32 mb cache hard drive better? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148298

Yup, that is a good choice.

[amdalex]

If I were you I'd wait for the 9000 series cards and buy a 8800gt to use until they come out.

[joytime365]

I quite agree with the above opinion, you can now just get a good priced 8800gt and wait for the 9000 series, right now the pirce for the 8800gt looks good, the MSI NX8800GT-T2D512E GeForce 8800GT 512MB is only $185.

[711]

I ended up purchasing kingston 2 gb dual memory 1066, will this do?

Ive also bought the E8400 and the evga 780i...

Are the 9000 series near release? Or is it all rumor? If they really are around the corner, I think I will buy the 8800 gts over the gtx.

[Dave21]

Originally Posted by 711 I ended up purchasing kingston 2 gb dual memory 1066, will this do? Ive also bought the E8400 and the evga 780i... Are the 9000 series near release? Or is it all rumor? If they really are around the corner, I think I will buy the 8800 gts over the gtx.

9000 series are coming out in the coming weeks. If not months. Get the 8800 gts over the gtx, or like people said, get the 8800gt and wait a bit. No rush. You won't see much performance gain between gt/gts/gtx anyways.

[711]

If I get the gtx with the 90 day step-up program, do you think that will cover me for when the 9 series is unveiled?

[amdalex]

I don't know. But it would be nice to have a 8800gt laying around in case the 9000 series card dies. But I would buy a 8800gt to hold off until the 9000 series come out, then blow your money on the best. Otherwise with a GTX your left with an expensive outdated now not worth much card. Really there is not much of a difference between a GTX and a GT to justify the extra money.

[711]

Today I bought the 8800 Gt because 1) I'm holding off for the 9xxx series 2) Frys didnt have the gtx

All I have left to purchase is the Cooler Master 830 Stacker with 1000 Watt

And Windows Xp

And... I cant Wait