New i7 Intel Build. - Open to suggestions

[rabidsheeep]

Going High Def with my video work and need a computer that can keep up. Very open to suggestions.

Anyway, here's the specs:

CPU:
Intel Core i7 920 Nehalem 2.66GHz - Seems like this is the new "best bang for your buck" out there. It of course dictated the rest of the computer.

Mobo:
ASUS P6T Deluxe - I know it's more of an overclockers motherboard, but it has great reviews and I'm an ASUS loyalist.

VGA Card:
SAPPHIRE 100245L Radeon HD 4850 512MB - I need your input on this. I know the 4870 is the new best thing out there, but is it worth it? Should I be looking at a 1 gig card? Throw out some suggestions.+

Ram:
CORSAIR DOMINATOR 6GB (3 x 2GB) - Corsair loyalist too.

HDD:
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3500320AS 500GB - This and another 500gb in a RAID 5. Might push that up to TB's and keep the 500 I have as a scratch.

PSU:
Antec TPQ-850 850W ATX12V - Worked with the PSU before and liked it.

Case:
LIAN LI PC-V2000BPIIWC Black Aluminum - I wanna treat myself to a Lian Li, whatevs.

Any suggestions/comments very very welcome. Thanks!

-Omar

[tmathews]

You need at least 3 drives to do RAID 5 -- do you mean RAID 0 or RAID1?

[Chris Linder]

how much money you plan on spending. You can cut back on that ram a little, All you need is 4Gigs. There isnt much that will take over 4Gigs. That and if your only getting one video card , Yes you should go with the 4870, 4850s are good when your doing a crossfire setup,
not that one 4850 wouldnt be good its just a big power jump for a little more $.

[dangun6]

i believe you need 6g on mem because of the triple channel memory on x58 board, correct me if I am wrong. I am building a similar system withe following parts:

same MOBO
same CPU
patriot memory extreme performance viper 6 gb pc-12800 ddr3 ( 3x 2gb ddr3 - 1600)
cooler master ucp 1100 watt atx eps/12v psu - need the power for my crossfire setup
ati radeon hd 4870 512mb GDDR5 X 2 in crossfire, GDDR5 is faster than GDDR3
Wester digital velociraptor 300gb 10k rpm - this is a gaming machine
WD Caviar 1 TB 7,200 rpm drive for storage
Thermaltake Xaser VI VG4000BWS BLACK/ RED ALUMINUM / STEEL ATX FULL TOWER CASE W/ ATI CROSSFIRE SPIDER LOGO ON THE SIDE

I am thinking of putting in a liqud cooling system to keep everything chilled when I play Crysis at full resolution with AA turned on.

since this expensive MOBO supports both SLI and Crossfire, why spend the money if you are no fully utilizing all the features you are paying for. if you are going with single gpu then get a cheaper board.

that's is my suggestion.

[alfie2]

triple channel memory DOES NOT mrean you have to have 3 memory sticks to get the motherboard going.
it just means that it will go into triple mode when there are 3 memory sticks, which is faster than say a 2 sticks.


you can get the computer running with just one stick of RAM in x58 motherboards; just that in this case it will not be in triple channel mode, thats all.


HTH.

[dangun6]

What would be optimal setup for playing high end games like Crysis at full resolution with AA turned on:

Dual SLI or Dual Crossfire with same amount of video ram?

which one would best with my config stated above?

any help from experts would be appreciated since this will be my first PC built from scratch.

thanks.

[shadowpr]

Unless getting the top of the line cards, it would probably make more sense to just get the best single card you can.

To say which is better is a toss up. Nvidia and ATI are passing the top spot to one another all the time. It's always changing.