Building new comp- Tell me what you think

C

christoph80

New Member
I'm giving a go at building a new computer that is a good for high end games, but also one that can be upgraded in the future as needed. The following is what I've picked out after some in depth research. Let me know what you think I should change or if something may give me more bang for the buck.

Case- Cooler Master Stacker 830 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119103

CPU- Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4 ghz (comes with fan)

Mobo-ASUS P5N-E SLI LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI ATX
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131142

PSU- OCZ GameXStream 700W 100-240V http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341002

HDD- Seagate Barracuda 7200 RPM 16MB SATA 3.0
Considering the Wester Digital 10,000 RPM Raptor possibly, and at some point will get two for RAID
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148262

VC- Looks like 8800 is in and scrapping the 8500s XFX GeForce 8800GT Extreme 512MB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146565

EVGA GeForce 8500GT 512MB 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16
I will get two of these to run SLI, or may get one 8800 GT and then get another one at a later time
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130285

Memory- Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146565

Opticals: ASUS 20x DVD+R SATA and a ASUS SATA 16X DVD ROM drive

The CPU and Video card come with fans. No plans of OC'ing at the time. These fans should be good enough right? The 700 W PSU should be adequate to run SLI 8800 GT if I go that route?

OS- Currently have Windows XP Media Edition, not sure if going to get Vista at this point. I know if I get Vista 64 I'll have to go up to 4 gb ram. Advice on the OS is also appreciated
 
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Keep the stock CPU HSF, but I'd scrape off the crappy Thermal pad that comes with it and grab a tube of AS-5 - it will keep things much cooler.

I noticed the case came with a rear fan, but does it also have a front fan? If not, I'd grab 1 (or more for those side-panels (wow!)) go get a nice airflow.
 
Forget about the P5N-e, get an Asus P5K-e or Gigabyte P35-DS3R
Already, you'll save some money there. With that money, scrap the 8500GT, it won't do u any good even in SLI. Either get the 8800GT or the 8800GTS 512mb. Then forget about SLI, just upgrade to the next good card when your no longer gives u what you need. It will perform better and cost you less.

The case is a little pricy, but that is more of a personnal choice.

Edit: what is your budget and what games are you thinking of playing ?
 
Get that 8800GT because it is one of the best performing cards on the market for the price. Benchmarks, FPS, and GPU clock are really good. And forget about SLI. It is not worth it unless it your doing some intesive 3D CAD applications.
 
Get the Gigabyte X38...

8800GT or the 8800GTS G92...

And Patriot Extreme Performance 2GB DDR2-800 for $38 after rebates @ Newegg...
 
er to keep the same price at about 200$ go with the 3850 512MB version. lots more power then two 8500's
 
You could also consider the HD3870 which performs very close to the 8800GT which is its Nvidia competitor. Last time I checked they one in Besbuy for ~$215 I believe.
 
Thanks for the recommendations thus far. It seems 8800 GT 512 MB is the way to go, just not positive which brand I'm going with yet.

Several saying SLI isn't really worth it, so I'm considering the motherboard change atm.

I guess right now Crysis like graphix (games that will use CryEngine2) is a game I'd like to be able to play comfortably, although max settings is not a requirement.

The case is a tad expensive, but I've really started to like it after looking it over and seems to offer the space for expandability and upgrade when needed. (comes down to $109 with $60 rebate though)

Budget is 1000-1200 dollars. With what I got set right now, Total with shipping-mail in rebates= 1,025.45 at current prices (thats with the 8800 GT that I just exchanged for the two 8500s.)
 
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the 8800GT will run crysis with high and medium settings, its the resolution that gets ya, thats where the bigger cards come in handy and the more memory, with my rig i play crysis on high with textures at very high, water quality on very high, and shadows i beleive on very high and i average about 20 - 50 fps the higher frames rates are indoors, and thats runnin Oc'd q6600 to almost 3.1Ghz. so if u plan on running at higher resolutions get a better card or get a cheap 130 dollar card and save some money then get a 9800GTX when it come out. but remember, crysis is only the frist game to use the cryengine2 they are still learning about it which means the games are only going to get better looking, even im startin to look into another 8800gtx or the new 9800 cards.. because its startin to show its age with crysis... just my .02
 
Crysis cannot max out even with a GTX, which leads me to think that probably all GeForce 8 series cards will not max it out. Probably the GeForce 9s...
 
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