Hardware Approval

[Talon]

Hi all,

I am planning a complete new system and there are a few steps I need some help with. First of all the base hardware - I am creating a gaming and graphics beast so I need this hardware to work together. Can I get any suggestions/approval for the following list:

CPU: Intel CORE 2 Q6600/2.4Ghz/2x4MB/1066FSB/LGA77

MOBO: XFX N780-ISH9 nForce 780i MCP SLI FSB1333Mhz DDR2 GLan Intel Socket 775

RAM: DDR2 4(2x2G)PC6400 800Mhz HyperX Kingston(KHX6400D2K2/4G)

HDD: (2 off) Western Digital 750G SATAII 7200 rpm HDD(16Mb Cache)

VIDEO: (2 off) XFX GeForce 9600GT 512M DDR3 650Mhz Dual DVI HDTV SLI (PV-T94P-YHF4)

DVD: Pioneer DVR-215BK 20x Dual Black OEM with software- SATA

PSU: Powersupply Antec ATX TruePower 550W TRio

SOUND: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Platinum Fatal1ty Champion with I/O Drive & IR

I will be running Vista 64bit and I havent decided on a case yet. If I can get any thoughts first of all on this choice of hardware it would be appreciated - (the next step is cooling) I am trying to keep the hardware under $3k (AUD)

[Trace]

IMO, I would get 8800GT(S) G92. Basically the 9600 but better.

IMO I would go ATi. Crossfire scales much better then SLI

[Fuganater]

You have a good setup with the XFX board and the video cards. I do agree with Trace in the video aspect. 2 9600 GT's only barely clock better than a single 8800 GT. Go with 2 8800 GT's and youll be set.

Here is the best 8800 GT that XFX has to offer on Newegg.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150254

The board is good. You have to option to go with another video card if you choose to later. You cant go wrong with XFX products. They beat the competition price and their specs give them a run for their money too. I use all XFX boards in my PCS. (680i and 650i) Haven't got a 780i yet but I bet they give the same great performance.

Other than that the rest looks good.

EDIT: One more thing. You need a better PSU. Antec is what I use in mine. (lol we think alike) Here is the 650 on newegg. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371001 The True Power Trio give you the best power output with the best airflow.

Happy modding!


PS: Stay NVIDIA. You get alot more performance and compatibility with hardware than ATI crap.

[Drum Thumper]

IMO, I would get 8800GT(S) G92. Basically the 9600 but better.

IMO I would go ATi. Crossfire scales much better then SLI

I think he might run into a bit of a headache trying to run two SLI cards in Crossfire...

[Fuganater]

He would have to change mobos to run crossfire

[Talon]

Thanks guys,

I will have a look at the two 8800 instead - more than happy to change if they are up to the challenge :)

Just a query though on the PSU? That Antec one is not good enough? or is there just not enough power coming out of it? I have always used Antec PSU and I have never had any trouble with them.

[Fuganater]

As I said, I use Antec as well. Currently I use a Antec Tri-cool 650w and a 550w. You will need the 650w to get the power you want for your hardware, and so you can upgrade later.

Hope it helps!

-Fuga

[Remexx]

With everything you have listed, I would recommend atleast 700w.

[Fuganater]

Well, if your unsure of what you need. Use PSU lite and see what you get.

[jdbnsn]

I disagree with the anti-crossfire sentiment. Did you run Crossfire before and have problems? It is true that Crossfire is touchy and can take lots of fine tuning to get working properly, it is not as easy to set up as SLI from what I understand. But I run Crossfire and the graphics are amazing, better than my Xbox 360 by far. I have two older 1900's in X-fire and winXP, no DX10, and I am playing Crysis on mostly high settings. It has a magnificent picture, and very smooth. I was actually very surprised that Crysis would run at all on this outdated of a card much less run well. Crossfire and ATI aren't junk, they are just different than NVIDIA.

[crenn]

Whether you decide to go NVidia or ATI, either way it works, a single 8800GT has more FPS than any other ATI single GPU card (the 3870X2 will beat it) but ultimately it's your choice, personally I prefer NVidia, but that's just me. May I suggest silverstone PSUs? Little more expensive, but well worth it. Try to find a single 12v rail PSU instead of multiple rails.

[Talon]

Actually I have never had any experience with crossfire or SLI - I have loved my Nvidia cards in the past so I will be sticking with them, but i will drop down to the 8800's.

It seems I underestimated how much power this beast would need, so i will up that as well - but sorry I dont understand the 12v rail thing. I tried to do some reading but it didnt make sense - can you put that in "simple" terms crenn :)