My Dream PC (help needed plz)

[Ronyx]

--- Post Edited with updated info ---

Here is what i was thinking of getting:

CPU: Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800
Motherboard: nVIDIA nForce 590 SLI chipset mobo for Intel (Maybe ASUS P5N32 SLI Se Deluxe)
Memory: Corsair - TWIN2XP2048-6400C4 2GB <<< 800 (4-4-4-12)
Video Card: XFX XXX Edition GeForce 7950GX2
Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda - ST3320620AS - 320 GB
Power supply: PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750
Case: XG Dragon Black
Monitor: 19" Viewsonic VX922

That is so far what i have researched and found to be "good".

Any arguments for or against this current setup plz reply. If you think that something on this list could be improved or know problems which may occur with this setup when put together then plz do tell me.

Suggestions for improvement are very welcome =]

[sirkillalot617]

r u sure about the amd proccesor because intels new one beats it in every thing except need for speed buy a measly 1fps also get a x-fi sound card once you hear it you will know why you bought it

[qoou]

instead of that case get this one:
asus vento (http://www.xoxide.com/asus-vento-3600-pc-case-black.html)

[Silenced_Coyote]

I would go with a Conroe (Core 2 Duo) processor. You can get an E6300 for cheap and overclock (on stock Intel cooler) and it beats the FX-62.

Don't get the XG Dragon. Long time ago, I thought of getting it. But it is overpriced and really not that good.

You can get way better things and still keep it under 3G (I hope you are talking in US Dollar).

Only get the X-fi if you plan on getting some good speakers.

One thing to note: Just because you want to keep it under 3G, it doesn't mean you have to get as close to that budget as possible without going over. I think it would be great if you ended up saving more (if that is what you want). But if you want to spend all of it, you can get way better stuff.

If you don't like the Asus Vento, you can go to a place like Newegg and browse their PC cases. Some good brands are Antec, Lian-Li, Thermaltake, Cooler Master, Silverstone, etc. Once you find one or a few, go look for some reviews about them to see the pros and cons. Then buy your case.

[Ronyx]

r u sure about the amd proccesor because intels new one beats it in every thing except need for speed buy a measly 1fps also get a x-fi sound card once you hear it you will know why you bought it

hmm which Intel CPU r u talking about? could you maybe put the name in more detail?

P.S. Thanks for the reply's guys, i'm glad that i joined this community now =] Oh and i am planning on getting some major good speakers. Zalman seems like my brand of choice unless anyone can advice against it.

[.Maleficus.]

He's talking about the new line of Conroe processors. I was thinking about getting a new system with an AMD processor, but once I saw the benchmarks and comparisons so far, I decided to go with a Conroe (once they come out). If you want to have the computer now, then if you go Conroe that won't happen, but trust me, it will be worth the wait. Prices for them are looking nice too. You can get a pretty decent one in the $300-$400 range, which is sure better than $700 for the FX-57 (or at least that's what it was last time I checked). If you do want a Conroe, look for a motherboard that says "Conroe ready" or something to that effect. Hope that helped ya!

[Ronyx]

it did thxs =]

[.Maleficus.]

No problem, if you have any more questions, just ask! I'm sure someone here can answer any question you have.

[Ronyx]

great... it seems like Intel have come and completley smashed any "set in stone" items i wanted to buy. Now i will pretty much need to base everything around the Intel Core Duo 2 X6800 Extreme.

Just a quick question, the setup which was used when Benchmarking the Intel X6800 Extreme was like this:


CONROE - Test System Setup

Processor(s): X6800 Extreme, E6700 and E6600 (Conroe 65nm - 4MB L2 cache)
Motherboard(s): Gigabyte GA-965P-DQ6 (Intel P965 Chipset)
Memory(s): Corsair CM2X1024 8500C5 2GB
Graphics Card(s): nVidia GeForce 7800GTX 256MB
Hard Disk(s): Seagate Barracuda 250GB SATA 7,200 RPM
Operating System Used: Microsoft Windows XP Professional SP2
Drivers Used: DX9c, nVidia ForceWare 81.95 and Intel 7.3.3.1013

is there anything which can be improved or edited to this setup so that is is more updated? or could i just go ahead and safely say that this would be the setup of my choice? Also do these items conflict or not exactly warm to each other? It is like the ASUS mother board was really intended for the FX CPU's is there something like thsat going on in this setup?

[qoou]

yay! he went Nvidia!

[Ronyx]

hmm it seems like there is nothing about Power supplies, OCZ GameXStream 600?

also cooling, i've never tried water cooling because there is always a little voice in the back of my head going "it'll spill IT'LL SPILL!" should i listen to the little voice or not? oh and if i do go watercooling do i have to keep refilling the liquid or is it just a one off fill up?

[.Maleficus.]

I've never watercooled myself, but if you're very careful and take your time setting it up, it shouldn't spill.

[Ronyx]

i'll just stick to fans i guess =] unless i feel like everything is way too hot after i put it all together =|

[Silenced_Coyote]

You really are inching closer to your 3g budget aren't you? lol

I wouldn't get the Gigabyte motherboard. I would go with Asus or DFI. You should wait until there is a nForce 590 SLI chipset (I heard is should come out sometime in August). If you want to buy now, here is a good guide about the current motherboards (http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2797).

You won't need that RAM unless you overclock. Otherwise it would just run at DDR-667 instead of 1067 and you would just be wasting money.

I would rather get a 7900 series graphics card if you buy now. Or wait till the cards that support Direct X 10 comes out which I think are the 8000 series. But that is more waiting. You could even go SLI if you wanted.

I would get the Seagate Barracuda 320 GB with Perpindicular Recording. More if you need more hard drive space.

You don't have to (because the Conroes run fine with the Intel stock coolers) but you can get an aftermarket cooler. With that budget, you can even get water cooling. If you don't want to, you could buy a Zalman CPU cooler. Trust me, it should not get that hot unless your PC case is air tight.

What about your case? Are you still going to stick with the XG Dragon?

Do you need to buy a monitor, mouse, or keyboard?

[sirkillalot617]

hmm which Intel CPU r u talking about? could you maybe put the name in more detail?

P.S. Thanks for the reply's guys, i'm glad that i joined this community now =] Oh and i am planning on getting some major good speakers. Zalman seems like my brand of choice unless anyone can advice against it.

you could get the new core due extreme if you plan to play games but it very pricy or the one Silenced_Coyote advised also if you plan on buying all this top notch technology shouldnt you spend a bit more money on your case

[DaveW]

Getting a SATAII hard drive would double your transfer rate. Other than that, unless you want to get a better graphics card, the system looks good.

-Dave

[Ronyx]

You really are inching closer to your 3g budget aren't you? lol

I wouldn't get the Gigabyte motherboard. I would go with Asus or DFI. You should wait until there is a nForce 590 SLI chipset (I heard is should come out sometime in August). If you want to buy now, here is a good guide about the current motherboards (http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2797).

You won't need that memor unless you overclock. Otherwise it would just run at DDR-667 instead of 1067 and you would just be wasting money.

I would rather get a 7900 series graphics card if you buy now. Or wait till the cards that support Direct X 10 comes out which I think are the 8000 series. But that is more waiting. You could even go SLI if you wanted.

I would get the Seagate Barracuda 320 GB with Perpindicular Recording. More if you need more hard drive space.

You don't have to (because the Conroes run fine with the Intel stock coolers) but you can get an aftermarket cooler. With that budget, you can even get water cooling. If you don't want to, you could buy a Zalman CPU cooler. Trust me, it should not get that hot unless your PC case is air tight.

What about your case? Are you still going to stick with the XG Dragon?

Do you need to buy a monitor, mouse, or keyboard?

thxs a lot man that link really haelped me heaps =]

I am still sticking with the XG Dragon case because to me it is the most beautiful case i have laid eyes on.

I won't rush into getting extra cooling as of just yet (except for fans) but if when i finally buy everything i feel like it is a bit worrying then i will look into it further.

320 GB should be all i need, i mean after all how many games do you think i'm going to be playing :D

I would feel better if i got myself 1 gig memory sitting inside my case. I mean it's common sence to know that a powerfull CPU like that would atleast want some RAM =]

I was actually thinking of getting the ASUS *something here* Premium (lolz forgot the name), it outperformed the Gigabyte in almost all of the test which were ran against it. But will the Asus mother board feel snug with an Intel CPU? It's like putting a snake in your hampster's cage. You know he's not gonna love you for it :rolleyes:

Oh and one last thing (before this reply turns into a report) i am just geting all the data together now so that when i do buy (somewhere around February next year) i am more then ready for it. I'd be a fool to just walk into a store with 3G and listen to some "computer expert" droning on about how i really don't need Dual core and that i really would be fine with 128MB of RAM. And that Windows ME is the very latest in operating systems :eek:

[Ronyx]

one more thing, i have jsut finished reading that article and it has really brought up some interesting things. Now i am wondering whether i should get the ASUS P5N32-SLI SE Mother board instead of the Gigabyte. It outbenched it in all the tests (well nearly all) and it seems affordable.

So should i switch to the ASUS P5N32-SLI SE instead of the Gigabyte?

[Silenced_Coyote]

I would personally go with Asus.

Also, I wasn't telling you to get less than 2 GB of RAM. I was saying that the RAM you picked out runs at a speed that isn't supported by the motherboard. It would only be worth it if you overclocked so that the RAM can run at that high speed. The Corsair modules you picked runs at DDR2-1067 but the motherboard will run it at DDR2-667. But if you overclock, you can get the Asus board to run at DDR2-1067.

[Ronyx]

hmm so why would the best motherboard for a really outstanding system hold back on the speed of RAM? Why doesn't it pump it to what it's meant to be run at? If i would have to pick a DDR2-667 i would either go with Wintec AMPX 3AXD2675-1G2S-R or AData Vitesta ELJKD1A16K. They're both around the 150$ mark and perform really well. Otherwise i could go with any of the following three: Mushkin PC-8000 Redline, Corsair PC2-8500C5 or OCZ PC2-8000 Platinum EL. If i were to go with DDR2-1067. So i guess my question is "why would the best motherboard for a really outstanding system hold back on the speed of RAM?"

[Ronyx]

i just had another look at motherboards, benchmarks with the nForce 590 SLI and the Asus P5WD2-E Premium were really very close. I have to say that i'll most likley be going with the Asus P5N32-SLI SE becasue in other tests it outperformed the Asus Premium board and looks very promising (not to mention it's SLI =P)

[slaveofconvention]

Personally I'd hold off on buying the CPU, Video card and any Hard disks until the PC is ready to be built. Those are the items where you tend to see most power/size for money changes with time. Especially if you're planning to mod the case - with the time that passes while you do that, you might well find yourself getting a faster CPU and VGA and a bigger hard disk, for the same money as you'll pay now

[Ronyx]

i know, that's why i am gathering information now, reading up on upcoming releases of hardware and such and then around February next year when i'm all ready all i have to do is check which items have come out, which haven't, check the prices, check back here (great forum guys =]) and then in one shot get everything together and then most likley post pics of my creation =P

[Silenced_Coyote]

I think it is because Conroe officially supports DDR2-667. So manufacturers set the memory controller to DDR2-667 as the default setting. But the motherboard is capable of running the memory a lot higher. That is where overclocking comes in.

[Ronyx]

so should i try to overclock or just buy a 667 DDR2 RAM? the question is will it significantly increase my speed and such and will it have to have extra cooling?

[Silenced_Coyote]

Take a look at this page. You can see the frames per second differences at each speed. This is to give you an idea of what increasing the speed should do. You won't get exactly these numbers when you do it yourself. Oh, the RAM won't need extra cooling.

http://www.anandtech.com/memory/showdoc.aspx?i=2800&p=7

The questions are:

1. Do you want to overclock or not?

2. Would you rather save money by going with a few less frames or spend it since you got 3 grand?

[overdosedelusion]

- CPU: Intel Core Duo 2 X6800 Extreme (Conroe 65nm - 4MB L2 cache)

mighty expensive choice, but if youve got the money, why not, if you havent, then id personally buy the E6600 or E6400 for a few hundred quid less.

- Motherboard: Asus P5N32-SLI SE

can't argue, asus have the best mobo's around. ^^

- Memory: Corsair CM2X1024 8500C5 2GB <<< 1067 | 667 >>> (Corsair VS2GBKIT667D2 (Elpida)?)

with the first, you could actually get 4GB of the 5400 version (667), and overclock it, at about &#163;50 cheaper. but when it comes to memory matched with boards im no genius.

- Video Card: nVidia GeForce 7800GTX 256MB (8000 series???)

no complaints here ;) (hm im yet to research what progress has been made into the GeForce8 series :P)

- Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 320 GB (with Perpindicular Recording)

no arguments, Seagate have always had more reliable drives.

- Power supply: OCZ GameXStream 600

no arguments once again. a fine choice

- Case: XG Dragon Black

take into consideration your somewhat high spec system will be protected by a measily 2 80mm fan mounts with possible room for a 3rd fan.. it might get a little it hot in there. so invest in either water cooling. or a case with more cooling options.

if you like the design, try looking at the nzxt Lexa, the XG dragon just rminded me about it.

nzxt lexa review (http://www.techgage.com/article/nzxt_lexa)

it will give your system a slightly more stable cooling system, with 3x120mm fans and 1x80mm fan. looks spiffing too.

other than that i only ever stick with either silverstonetek, or coolermaster cases.

- Monitor: 19" LCD

without question, the viewsonic VX922. best monitor ive seen. 2ms response time, for avid gamers :P

[Ronyx]

sorry but the case is something i will not change my mind on... it's what really got me started on this whole Dream Machine. Now there are pretty much only two things i am unsure about... and that is cooling and RAM. I just can't decide will i go 1067 or 667... and also the cooling... will fans be enough, should i go water cooling, should i do this or this or that. So many "should"s... I am inching closer to going 1067 but am totally on a knife edge still.


also is there some sort of formula for calculating how many fans you need to activley cool a certain size case to a certain temperature. Something which i can use to calculate for example that i need 2 80mm fans to cool a 10 000 qubic cm case from 40C to 25C or something similar? anyone heard of such a formula?

[overdosedelusion]

well i settled on 1066 over 667, i dont know why :S just a hunch really, my system runs sweet as a nut and never has mem problems so i say go on what you think.

cooling could be an issue, my old system operated at around 35-40C on an average day, and it was cooled by 1x80mm and 1x120mm fans. and this was with a Radeon x850XT and an AMD3800+ winchester core.

with the case you have, i would advise watercooling, it will probably have to be an external radiator also, as the case looks kindah small. you could probably save a few pennies if you just cooled the VGA and chipset. as the intel cooler is apparently rather good.

[mnms238]

I hear a lot of talk about water cooling, but I can safely make one assertion:

Unless you are overclocking, don't!

Water cooling is great. It's much more efficient than air cooling, and results in far lower temperatures, as well as higher stable overclocks. If you aren't overclocking, though, this isn't going to amount to much. Why's that? Well, consider that the parts you are buying have been engineered with air cooling in mind. Never once have I encountered a stock system running at stock speeds that wasn't covered by a stock cooling solution. Even if the case is a bit tight, and the parts a bit hot, you won't notice either an appreciable gain in working life or stability if you opt for replacing your out-of-the-box cooling units with water blocks. Also, it's worth noting that water cooling is far, far more expensive than air, runs the risk of leaking (small though that risk may be), and is kinda a pain to set up. Not to mention that most water cooling systems recommend periodic flushing of the system.

So, if you aren't OC'ing, just stick with fans. You'll thank yourself for it down the line.

[overdosedelusion]

runs the risk of leaking (small though that risk may be).

well cant you buy noconductive and non corrosive fluids? if they leak they wont ruin your prized posessions :P

[Ronyx]

how much CFM (what does CFM stand for) would i need covered so that i could cool my system. Iv'e seen fans which can do 30CFM at around 23 decibels. Would that be quiet or loud? Considering that the case will hold 2 80mm fans and if i get both of them to do around 25CFM each (or maybe get some loud ones but then control them to lower their speed, reduce their CFM and decibel amount but only have to crank them up to a fast and loud setting when i feel like the system is getting a bit too hot) would that be enough or should i go with the loud but controlled alternative?

[overdosedelusion]

Iv'e seen fans which can do 30CFM at around 23 decibels. Would that be quiet or loud?

that would be fairly noisy, get some AKASA amber series fans, they run at only 18DB


Considering that the case will hold 2 80mm fans and if i get both of them to do around 25CFM each (or maybe get some loud ones but then control them to lower their speed, reduce their CFM and decibel amount but only have to crank them up to a fast and loud setting when i feel like the system is getting a bit too hot) would that be enough or should i go with the loud but controlled alternative?

Get some 30CFM fans and buy a fan controller (preferably one with a temperature sensor thingy - you can buy this seperately also), this way you can run them at lower speed and when the indicator starts to read a high temp, you can turn up your fans.

[Silenced_Coyote]

Don't worry about cooling the RAM. I got a friend that doesn't even have heat spreaders on his RAM and they run perfectly fine.

If you do want to get more airflow in your case, you could make the front bottom fan into a 120mm fan by cutting a bigger hole. It has enough room for that size fan (I orginally wanted this case too and was figuring out ways to maximize cooling). But you shouldn't have any problems.

If your video card starts to get too hot, you could buy a PCI slot fan cooler.

CFM stands for Cubic Feet per Minute. So it is a rating that tells you how much air goes through (or pushed through) a 80 mm hole (size of the fan hole) in 1 minute.

[Ronyx]

also one more question:

nVidia SLI (dual layer, liek two video cards joined?)
or nVidia GeForce 8000 (whenever it comes out)

because the motherboard is SLI compatible so should i go SLI and if i should how much better graphis would the be?

[Silenced_Coyote]

When you go SLI, the 2 cards go in to seperate PCIe slots. That is unless you get the nVidia 7950 GTX, which is 2 cards joined together that go in one slot.

I would advise getting one card and then getting the another if you really need it. Graphics will be better but you would have to stop (in game) and really look at it. Like if you were playing through Call of Duty 2, you probably woulnd't notice the improvement of Anti-Aliasing on a tree.

This article is about quad SLI, but it kind of has the same point about image quality. You can see what increased AA and AF can do.
http://firingsquad.com/hardware/geforce_7900_7950_gx2_quad_sli_update/page2.asp

[Ronyx]

hmm well considering that i most likley won't be running a 19" LCD at resolutions over 2000x1000 (i guarantee it) then the GeForce 7900 GTX SLI should be a good choice. but this wouldn't be a forum if i walked out happy right now now would it? no, now i am asking another question (lolz i'm sure you're all tired but i want to learn so that i am prepared and am not ripped off when i buy).

Is there going to be a big difference between GeForce 7900 GTX SLI and the 8000 DirectX10 series graphics cards? and if anyone could tell me how i would setup the graphcis cards to run at what they recommended. the 4xAA 16xAF settings? do i have to access BIOS and configure it there? also what about the voltage timings for the memory. 4-4-4-5, 3-4-3-6, 2-2-3-4 do i set that in the BIOS as well and if so what exactly do these timings stand for?

[overdosedelusion]

well if you want the most power possible from a dual graphics card, get the eVga 7900 GT KO, its more powerful when put in SLI than any other cards. it has a core speed of 580MH and a mem of 1580MHZ. 2 of these puppies would seriously pwn.

I dont entirely know when the GeForce8 series will be marketed, because nVidia are now liscencing Their material to Intel (much like AMD have bought ATI) and both companies wish to have the GPU as part of the main CPU, or as a Second chip on the board. So we may well seee the GF8 series on the CPU itself. This has some bad consequences but i wont go into it, lets just say gaming pc's will become a niche.

If you would rather save some pennies mind, The get a single card first and the another later on down the road. The 7950GX2 will give you the power of 2 7900GT's in sli, it has a clock speed of 520mh and a mem of 1300MHZ. Its also about &#163;200($400+?) cheaper than 2 7900's in sli. Plus, the added benefit is, when you go sli with these you get qaud core ^^



Is there going to be a big difference between GeForce 7900 GTX SLI and the 8000 DirectX10 series graphics cards? and if anyone could tell me how i would setup the graphcis cards to run at what they recommended. the 4xAA 16xAF settings? do i have to access BIOS and configure it there?

Like i said before, there could be a huge difference. this all depends on how well the CPU/GPU works out.

You do not have to muck about with BIOS settings for the card, The card comes with forceware (a software that messes around with the hardware) and this is what you us to overclock, set your anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering, and a bunch of other stuff too. though most manufacturers recomend you leave it at the default "let the application decide", this way, you edit the aliasing etc in-game.

Don't ask me about memory though, i havent a ****ing clue what 4-4-4-5 stands for, i just got mine because it was well reviewed.

[Silenced_Coyote]

I never overclocked memory before so I am not sure when I say this... It isn't just going into the BIOS and changing the timings, I think you have to also play around with the voltages and the multipliers. Increase voltages by very small increments. Don't just jump straight to the highest voltage that someone else has it at. If you really want to overclock memory, you should do a Google search and/or start a new thread about "How to OC RAM".

The BIOS will tell you what 4-4-4-8 stands for, as in what each number stands for. I'll use the 4-4-4-8 timing as an example. I hope this is correct...:D
4 = DRAM CAS# Latency
4 = DRAM RAS# to CAS# Delay
4 = DRAM RAS# Precharge
8 = DRAM RAS# Activate to Precharge

This isn't an overclocking guide but it might help explain a few things:
http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/02/27/in_search_of_true_ddr2_bleeding_edge_memory/index.html
This might help too:
http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/03/31/tight_timings_vs_high_clock_frequencies/

The two links are to articles that are like an introduction to RAM. It is a good read. Tell me what you think and if it was helpful at all.

By the way, keep asking questions. It is better to ask and learn from your mistakes in the forum then to learn after killing a few PC components. ;)

[Ronyx]

ok thxs for the reply's =] and i will keep asking questions, although now i'm going to read everything you guys recommend and then ask questions =]

also what do u mean when u say "go SLI with it"? do you mean you can take any card and then switch it to SLI or somethin? i thought you buy SLI cards and non SLI cards. isn't that how it works?

[.Maleficus.]

He's saying that if you got one 7950 GX2 right now (instead of 2 7900 GT's), that if in the future, you decided to do SLI with another 7950 GX2, you would have 2 cards, each running there own SLI inside the SLI of the two cards (because the 7950 GX2 is already 2 GPU's running SLI in a one card package). So it would be like running 4 normal GPU's. I kinda worded that weird, but that's the best I could come up with.

And yes, you do have to buy cards that are made for the ability to do SLI, not just any card can be in an SLI setup.

[overdosedelusion]

also what do u mean when u say "go SLI with it"? do you mean you can take any card and then switch it to SLI or somethin? i thought you buy SLI cards and non SLI cards. isn't that how it works?

most all high end nforce mobos are what we call "Sli Ready" which means 2 identical nVidia cards are put together, you get a Dual Card or SLI system. This can be done with almost any mid-high end nVidia video card. Simply put;

High End Mobo + 7900GTX = SLI Ready
High End Mobo + 7900GTX + 7900GTX = SLI

or..

High End Mobo + 7950GX2 = Quad SLI Ready
(in theory this can be said as being SLI as it is really 2x7900GT Boards)
High End Mobo + 7950GX2 + 7950GX2 = Quad SLI


so when i say "go SLI with it", i mean add a duplicate card. It works slightly different however with Crossfire, as it requires you buy a "mastercard" and a "slave card".

[Ronyx]

so i pretty much need to buy 2 7900 GTX cards and put them into two slots correct? so whatever graphics card i choose, i should double that amount if i want SLI. I am definatley sure i will not need Quad SLI because i do not intend to run my games on a 30" screen. + it would cost 3G to get Quad SLI (i'm guessing but i wouldn't be surprised if it was)

Is it possible to get a 7900GTX SLI, meaning i get two cards already together so i would only need to use 1 slot and if not does the motherboard i chose (Asus P5N-32) have the correct amount of slots needed to create an SLI setup?

Speaking of the motherboard it says it's an SLI motherboard. Does that mean it's 2 motherboards in one or does that mean if i want it to be able to do SLI i would need to buy two of them just like the graphics cards?

[Silenced_Coyote]

The only way to get SLI and use only 1 PCIe slot is to get the 7950 GX2.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?DEPA=0&type=&Description=7950GX2&Submit=ENE&Ntk=all&N=0&minPrice=&maxPrice=

When a motherboard says that is is "SLI Ready", it means that it will support 2 nVidida graphics cards. You do not need to buy 2 motherboards. The slots you put them in should say on the video card, which is PCI Express x16.

[Ronyx]

in this article: GeForce Graphics Cards (http://firingsquad.com/hardware/geforce_7900_7950_gx2_quad_sli_update/page4.asp) recommended to me before on page 4 (thxs great read =])
in the configuration which i want to use the graphcis cards in the GeForce 7900GTX SLI card beat them all (except for one paramater where the Crossfire won). So does that mean that when they tested it they had 2 7900 GTX cards to make it SLI or did they have just one card?

also how could the 7900GTX2 lose to the 7900GTX SLI? isn't the GTX2 actually 2 7900GTX cards in one?

[.Maleficus.]

In that test, they had 2 7900 GTX's, because you need 2 to run in SLI.

In the article you mentioned, the 2 7900 GTX's only beat the 7950 GX2 by 1.2 FPS, but they were only using 1 7950 GX2. So, think about 2 of the 7950 GX2's. If one can score very close to 2 7900 GTX's in SLI, think about 2 7950 GX2's in SLI :P.

And to your other question. I don't know if this matters, but the name is 7900 GX2, not GTX2, so I don't think it is 2 7900 GTX's, rather 2 7900's of a different name. I'm not sure which 2, but I don't think it is the GTX.

[Silenced_Coyote]

I think in some cases the 7900GX2 loses to the 7900GTX SLI because of the difference in clock and memory speed.

These might help. I hope I am not overwhelming you with articles :D
Beginners Guide to Graphics Part 1:
http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/07/24/graphics_beginners/
Part 2:
http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/07/31/graphics_beginners_2/

They are pretty simple but you might learn a thing or two.

[Ronyx]

lolz pretty good articles, although i just read a bomb shell...

it's a 3mb PDF taken from a magazine which printed it's September 2006 copy and i got a bit off it on PDF. The bit which i got was an article published in every new issue and it talks about the best "dream machine" you can get. I read it and i was actually amazed to find myself on the right track =]. The 7900GTX graphics card was used (in SLI ofcourse) the nVidia 5900 mobo was used (a beta version but still kicked ass) and surprisingly enough a DDR2/800 Corsair memory. 2x1GB. It provided me with everything i need to get me going and i'll be sure to buy it when i'm ready to put it all together lolz.

surprising thing is that they used a DDR2 800 and not a DDR2 1067???
also they used a an overclocked 7900GTX graphics card. to be exact they used an XFX's GeForce 7900GTX XXX graphcis card in SLI. I was myself pushing towards the 7900GTX because really i don't intend to run a 30" LCD so i really don't need a GX2 am i right?

if anyone's interested then here is the: Dream Machine PDF (http://www.slizone.com/docs/IO/34515/MaxPC_Sept_DM.pdf)

really interesting stuff in there =] also it's got a diff powersupply then i picked? i picked the OCZ 600W but they have a 750W and NOT OCZ. Is it better?

[overdosedelusion]

surprising thing is that they used a DDR2 800 and not a DDR2 1067???

well, it depends what motherboard i guess. i read somewhere that DDR21066 is actually geared toward the nforce 5 mobos WITH an AM2 processor. so when they go with DDR2800 they are just opstimizing.


also they used a an overclocked 7900GTX graphics card. to be exact they used an XFX's GeForce 7900GTX XXX graphcis card in SLI. I was myself pushing towards the 7900GTX because really i don't intend to run a 30" LCD so i really don't need a GX2 am i right?

imo i wouldnt bother going SLI since the 7950GX2 will do the same buisness for &#163;200 cheaper.

7900GTX SLI (2x7900GTX) = &#163;600 roughly
7950GX2 = &#163;400 roughly

the SLI combo slightly outperforms the 7950, but if you dont plan on using a 30" monitor then no biggie right ;)

i would get the 7950GX2 if i were you, it takes only one PCI-e slot and is noweher near as power hungry as SLI, and its pretty much future proof.

which is why the dream machine requies a 750W PSU.

EDIT: whatever card you decided to buy, always buy either an XFX extreme version or an eVGA superclocked version. They always get the best results in benchmarks :)

[Ronyx]

about the graphics cards... what i meant was that the 7900 in SLI outperform the 7950 on a small LCD screen (like a 19"), but when it comes to bigger LCD's and higher resolutions (like 2000ish x 1000ish) then the 7950 kicks ass. That's why i've been pushing towards the 7900.

also when i checked out slizone.com they had a list of "compatible hardware" for SLI mobo's and stuff like that. and surprisingly enough the OCZ 600W wasn't really on there. It was lower down the list where all the other PSU's go that really aren't worth mentioning at the top.

even though the 7950 uses one PCI-e slot what would i need the other one for?

P.S. It's my Birthday today =] Yay =P (<<< lolz random)

[.Maleficus.]

even though the 7950 uses one PCI-e slot what would i need the other one for?

You wouldn't need the other one at all. It would just kinda be there I guess. If I were you, I would get 1 7950 GX2. Cheaper than the SLI, less power consumption, and what no one else mentioned, though it may be bigger, you will have more room in your case.

About the PSU, if the one you want is on the list, then it will work. It probably wasn't at the top because now-a-days, 600W isn't all that amazing. I'm guessing ones like 700W and up were at the top? Those are just the best ones money can buy for SLI.

But before you buy a PSU, think of this. What all are you going to have in the case? A lot of stuff? Because if you're only having the stuff necessary to run a computer, you may want a modular PSU. Just a thought.

[Slatter]

anyone got any idea when the new NVidia card might be coming out?

[Silenced_Coyote]

Here is basically your two options concerning graphics cards:
1. 7900GTX in SLI that has a few more frames/second but costs more money.
OR
2. 7950GX2 that is a few frames/second slower but save a few hundred dollars.

.Maleficus brought up a good point, you should do that right away before you pick a PSU. Also the list is not ordered in a way that the top is the best. The ones listed at the top are for quad SLI, then next is 7900GTX in SLI, and so on. So pick one from the category you belong in and make sure it is enough wattage to power up your other stuff.

[Ronyx]

hmm i guess i'll have to go with 7950GX2 then. It may be slower then the 7900 in SLI but it's still capable of great graphics =]. + i do need free space to give my case more airflow. If i were to go with 7900 in SLI i would need atleast 2 120mm fans to cool it down. Speaking of cooling does anyone know how hot the 7950GX2 can get? Will it be a big issue of i have 2 80mm fans cooling it?

What's a modular PSU?

[Silenced_Coyote]

A modular PSU has connectable cables. For instance, think of a PSU that has 4 SATA connectors. A non-modular will always have the 4 SATA cables connected to the PSU. But with a modular PSU, you can have as many as you need connected. So if you had one hard drive, you can have one SATA cable connected to your PSU instead of all 4. The good thing about modular PSUs is that is reduces cable clutter. But as with all things, there are pros and cons...

I actually don't know what the temperatures of the 7950GX2 are. But with the XG Dragon case, you could drill a 120 mm hole in the front of the case (there is more than enough room) where the 80 mm fan is.
http://www.overclockersonline.com/images/articles/mge/dragon/small/interior-13.jpg
Add a 80mm fan to the side panel too.

[isunktheship]

If you do buy the X-fi soundcard, get these speakers:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16836121121

For the price, they are amazing. THX quality, insane bass, the sound its crystal clear. I have these and an X-fi card. I really love my sound system, the two parts work together really well. If anyone says that these speakers don't kick it's because they don't have X-fi. 1337 sound system for 250 bucks.

Also, I was looking into this Soprano case from thermaltake:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811133147

It's sexy. But nowadays computer buttons are getting added onto the top of computer cases. The idea of having your power/reset switches on the top of a case is a great idea; way easy access.;)

[Silenced_Coyote]

No point trying to change his mind on the case. He is absolutely not going to buy any other case. I tried too. :p

Sound system for $250? I just posted a deal a few days back for the X-fi xtreme music for $60 after MIR. So with these speakers, it would be about $175 (S&H not included). Xtreme music is more than enough.

I have been looking at these speakers and I wasn't sure if I want to buy them. They look really good though.

[Ronyx]

yep the case is solid, the case stays =P

i will most likley mod it to fit a 120mm fan in the front or the back but i'm not really sure yet... Also it comes with a 500W power supply. That's probably why it's so pricey. Should i stick with the one it comes with or should i go with the 600W / 750W? also i could just add a duct but that would block air flow inside the case.

[Silenced_Coyote]

I would not risk my parts by using a PSU that was included in the case. I would always recommend using a PSU that is SLI Approved. Those PSUs have been through rigorous tests and have passed them. Don't only look at the wattage. There are other very important things to look for like stability and efficiency.

Oh yeah! I forgot that there is enough room in the back for another 120mm fan (or at least I think so from the pictures). Two 120mm fans and one 80mm would be great!

[Ronyx]

=] seems like ma pimp case is gonna be a pretty good cooling station after all eh =P

now i'm sorta indesicive with the motherboards (lolz here we go again) even though the P5N-32 SLI is great and is out now. What about nVidia 590 SLI Intel Edition chipset motherboards? like the M2M-something something something Asus mobo? would that be better then the P5N because it is sorta holding up at the top when it comes to testing. and wherever i see benchmarks i mainly see this mobo being tested along with others. just can't seem to find a benchmark for all the top end mobo's like the P5N and the M2M put through da tests together...

i'm guessing it's safe to say that the OCZ 600W should be stabel and efficient. It's on the recommended list in slizone.com and supports SLI ( i think =| )

[Durrthock]

Thats alot better then "good"

[jreffy]

Wow, how did I not find this thread earlier?? I'm going to be building a new rig myself, set up to be an ultimate gaming machine. I saw the first post by the OP and realized that his set-up was very similar to mine until I started doing some research. I'll lay out my rig here, and then give you a short explanation why I made that choice.


Overview; I'm making this computer to be an "Ultimate Gaming Machine". I have somewhat of an expansive budget (3000$), however, the cheaper I can make it, the better, and the quicker I can have it built. I plan on doing slight overclocking, but not really pushing my system enough where I'm risking frying something.


Case: Lian Li, PC-70 (http://www.lian-li.com/Product/Chassis/Server_Full_Tower/Classical/S_C_PC-70.htm) - ebay $91.61 (includes shipping)

**I found this gem on ebay from a guy who thought it was too big and was reselling it. I've already started modding it, putting in a couple windows, getting a vinyl decal made up, and a slick high-gloss paint job. This case gives me a TON of room to put whatever I want inside, not to mention all the drive bays on the front for various meters, drives, and cool fan controls.


CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo, E6700 (http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=80861) - $568

**I was thinking of the X6800 right off the bat, but at almost double the price, it's not worth it. These processors already blow everything else out of the water that's currently out there. Plus, with a little overclocking (nothing risky) you can up the performance even more. The difference in stock performance to me is not worth the extra $500-$600

Motherboard: ASUS, P5W DH Deluxe (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131025) - $269.99

**One of the motherboards out right now that supports the Core 2 Duo processors. On top of that, I do plan on doing a little bit of overclocking, so the DDR800 Memory support appealed to me. Not to mention the amount of PCIe slots and room for RAM.

Video Card; BFG Tech, Nvidia GeForce 7950 GX2 (http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=326043) - $600.00

**Honestly this is where I had my biggest hang up. I couldn't decide if I wanted to go with the top of the line, or get a single 7800 and wait for the Dx10 cards to come out. I finally decided to get the top single card I could. My reasoning is that Dx10 cards won't be out for a few more months, and it will be even more time until games start to utilize and take full advantage of Dx10. So I've got about a year before I probably will think about upgrading. In the meantime I get one of the best performing cards out there (comperable to 2x7900 in SLI, but a heck of a lot cheaper).

Sound Card; Creative Labs. Audigy 2 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16829102175) - $64

**I don't have a mind blowing, surround-sound set up for my computer, and I don't need or plan on having one. I'd use the Audigy 2 I have in my current machine but I've lost a lot of the software, so I figure it's time for a replacement, especially since it is so cheap. Obviously if you want kick-ass sound, you'd want a bigger and better card, however, I only see getting an expensive card necessary if you plan on doing a lot of music recording (I have a musician friend that records all his stuff with a card that's only a step or two above an Audigy 2 and it works great).

RAM; OCZ, Platinum 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 800 (http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16820227089) - $206

**Optimized to work with my motherboard and I'll get an extra benefit out of it through slight overclocking. 2GB is definitely the way to go for games and OCZ is some of the best RAM out there.

Power Supply; PC Power and Cooling, EPS12V 610W (http://www.pcpowercooling.com/products/viewproduct.php?show=S61EPS) - $159.00

**One of the best PSU makers out there, and for a great price too. 600W should suit you just fine even for SLI systems, unless you're doing Quad-SLI, then you might need more. Like I said earlier, I'm not, so 600W should suit me just fine, and it's a silent model as well.

Hard Drive; Western Digital, Raptor 36.7GB 10,000RPM SATA (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822136054) - (2) $220
Western Digital, Caviar 320GB 7200RPM SATA (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822136003) - $100

**Instead of partitioning my hard drives, and because I'm going for an ultimate gaming machine, I decided to go with 2 smaller, very fast (10,000RPM) hard drives linked together in RAID0. This just means all the information used in my programs and games will be split between these 2 drives. The upside is that I'll get fast performance, downside is if one of the 2 drives crashes, I can't get ANY of my data because it's split between the 2. Meanwhile I get a 320GB Hard Drive to store all my pictures, music, movies, whatever.


TOTAL COST ~ $2280

So I've got about $720 to work with for a DVD-RW drive, any case mods I want to put on, and a water cooling system. Definitely do-able, hopefully keeping my grand total under $2800.

I know this was kind of long, but it gave me an opportunity to show you all the thinking I went through when trying to put together a system similar to what you want. Hopefully I can finish my case soon and start ordering parts and putting this beast together. Hopefully it helped you out some!

[Ronyx]

thxs lolz but it seems like you're looking to buy NOW where as i'm looking to buy in March next year (roughly around there + or - a month) as for the setup. i'm pretty close to the same thing but i m going with

X6800 (for me i haven't upgraded comps for a while and after this one big buy i'm not looking to upgrade for atleast 2 or 3 years so i'm going with solid top of the line)

DDR2 - 1067 (Corsair because if you up the performance of RAM even a little bit then you're looking at a pretty big increase in your total outage of performace. read this thread if you're not convinced:Performace Tuning X6800 (http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/core_2_memory_tuning/))

XFX's 7950GX2 Extreme (400$ more for a slightly mroe stable card and overall generally good "brand name")

and ofcourse my beautiful Dragon case =]

most of my choice you've seen on the first page so i won't need to list em all here but just a small question. help me with my mobo's. i am still on a knife's edge about them (seems like when i decide on one thing something else becomes stranded on a knife's edge lolz) you've picked a deluxe version close to the one i've got selected but what about the M2N-32 SLI?

[Silenced_Coyote]

To answer your motherboard question:
Since you are not buying your parts until March, you should go with the nVidia 590 SLI motherboards.

The M2N-32 SLI is for AMD processors because that motherboard has socket AM2. So you can only go with this motherboard if you decide to not get a Core 2 Duo X6800.

[Ronyx]

ok so now looking around one great board is out. i've just read up on the feature packed Asus P5W DH Deluxe and it's really looking good. one problem though...

it only supports DDR2 800 so no 1067!!! =[ =[ =[
it only supports Crossfire... no SLI!!! so it's NOT a future proof mobo at all... if i do want to go Quad SLI... i can't!!!

damit why are motherboards so hard to come by now... any other suggestions for motherboards? i'm looking at Asus mobo's now. It gets way to hard when you change your mind on a brand. Then there's like hundereds of different ones available... just when you thought you narrowed it down.

[b4i7]

it only supports Crossfire... no SLI!!! so it's NOT a future proof mobo at all... if i do want to go Quad SLI... i can't!!!

i dont know of many boards that support quad atm

[jreffy]

help me with my mobo's. i am still on a knife's edge about them (seems like when i decide on one thing something else becomes stranded on a knife's edge lolz) you've picked a deluxe version close to the one i've got selected but what about the M2N-32 SLI?

Well if you aren't building until March, I wouldn't worry about mobo's at all right now. As time goes along more and more motherboards will come out (some already slated to in the next few months) that will be a much better fit for what you want to do. Especially with the release of the Conroe's, more Motherboards will support your higher memory and be optimized to work with the Core 2 Duo's.


As for Video Cards, if you aren't building till March, wait till then. DirectX 10 cards will come out right before 2007 hits. If you don't want to upgrade for 2-3 years, you're going to want a DX10 card. Especially with Vista coming up and DX10 allegedly outperformign DX9 cards by 10 or 11 times.

[Silenced_Coyote]

I agree, you shouldn't worry about what motherboard you want because things will change and sometimes really quick. The 590 SLI chipsets should be coming out soon so you don't have to worry about not being able to have both Conroe and the upradability of quad SLI.

Of course the motherboard only supports DDR2-800. That was what I was discussing with you earlier in this thread. So the only way to get the maximum performance from your RAM is to mess around with your motherboard settings (change multipliers and such). Anyways, the performance of DDR2-1067 isn't that much greater than DDR2-800 overall. You might see 10 fps in few games but you are already running those games well over the min fps that is considered playable.

Motherboards really aren't that hard to choose. Pick a few features and you have already narrowed it down to a few.

[Ronyx]

yea but won't the first DX10 cards be pretty bad compared to the developed DX9 cards out now? every new hardware that comes out isn't all that great until it is developed more. Like with Conroe they had the E series then the Extreme X6800. That's why the X6800 is looking good now because it had been a long time coming and was developed more and more.

when i say Quad SLI i mean going two 7950GX2 cards in SLI. wouldn't that equal Quad?

is there any information or pre released beta versions of mobo's running the nForce 590 chipset for Intel yet? i'm really itching to read up on specs for the nF590 series for Intel but everywhere i look it's all blanck. No names, no specs, nothing.

P.S. atleast the good thing is that the items i am choosing are actually cheaper then what i had in mind before. Liek for example now my head is turned to 800 because 1067 would need to be OCed. Thus cutting down the price of a memory kit significantly by around 200$ or so. Sorry for not understand what you were trying to say before. It was because i was still learning (and still am) so i might not get things now but i will eventually pick up on them in the future.

[Silenced_Coyote]

I doubt the DX10 cards will be called bad compared to the one currently. You can't really assume that.

Oh, the comparison between the Conroe E series and the Extreme X6800 is totally wrong. One is not more developed than the other. They may not be available in-stores at the same time, but they were made and released at the same time. Also, they are of the same Core architecture. This might be a bad comparison but think of an nVidia card for example. They released the 7900GT and the GTX variant at the same time so the GTX isn't better because it is more "mature". Basically, all nVidia did was clock the GTX to higher speeds.

Here is a sneak peak of the nForce 590 SLI motherboard (remember, it is not a finished product):
http://www.guru3d.com/article/mainboard/366/

Yes, Quad SLI refers to two 7950GX2 cards in SLI.

It is alright if you don't understand. I'm just glad that you know now and that you are happy that you saved yourself some money.

[Ronyx]

hmm but there is a visible difference in performace between the X6800 and any of the E series yes?

[jreffy]

hmm but there is a visible difference in performace between the X6800 and any of the E series yes?


All of the Core 2 Duo's had the same release date, one is not more "technologically advanced" than the other, it's all the same parts. The difference in the X6800 and the E6xxx's is in the multipliers. When overclocking, what you change is the CPU multiplier, making the CPU and FSB run faster. In most CPU's, from what I understand, there is a hard cap for how big you can make your multiplier. In the X6800, there is no cap, it's an "unlocked" multiplier. That, and the stock CPU speeds are the only difference. Oh, and the huge price :) Hence why I'm going with an E6600 and overclocking it to 3+GHz

The previous poster was right, it's the same as the NVidia cards, 7800 and 7800GTX are the same cards, with all the same parts, one is just clocked faster or sometimes already comes overclocked.

[jreffy]

and as far as Quad-SLI, this a great read for you. Explains compatability, what you need to run it, and the power consumption you're going to have to prepare for. NVIDIA Quad SLI (http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTEzNywxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==)

Basically, any system with the NVidia 570 or 590 chipsets, and already is compatible with the 7950, will run Quad-SLI, you just need to download and update a new BIOS and drivers for your motherboard.

[Murader]

Sounds and Looks like it will be sweet

[Ronyx]

hmm i'm still not sure, although i could get the E6700 CPU and then overclock it to X6800's standards but i really am lost. I check benchmarks for them where they pit all the Core 2 Duo's and Extremes and FX's againt each other and now i'm stuck between the E6700 and the X6800... Clock speed and multipliers are the only difference. I will most likley go with the X6800 when in March it will most likley hit the 700$ price tag. I am sure that i'll find a good deal, hassle with the salesman and knock it down there. So yea i think my mind is made up. Not fully but 2/3 of it are on X6800. Now i wait for motherboards... I've read up on the reference mobo but i need actual specs for real mobo's running the chipset. From what i understand it's going to be a motherboard running the nF590 chipset BUT with it's own little differences and addons. Is that right?

[Ronyx]

oh and does anyone know how high the E6700 multiplier can go? i mean can i crank it up to X6800 standards or not? that is the thing that is going to change my mind. To OC or not to OC. That is the question =]

[Silenced_Coyote]

For deciding which CPU to buy, one thing depends on if you want to overclock or not. If you do, then don't go for the X6800. Even the E6400 (overclocked) can match up with the X6800 (at stock speeds). If you don't want to overclock, the E6700 will give you more than enough performance.

I am interested to see what the price of the X6800 will be in March and if any other Conroes might get a price drop. You might be able to find a good deal, but I seriously doubt you will be able to hassle a salesman.

The nForce 590 SLI chipset is going to be the same as the ones on the old motherboards. From the sneak peak I showed you, the only difference is that the chipset on the Intel motherboard does not support Link Boost, which is a feature you don't have to worry about. The other little differences and add-ons that you speak of having nothing to do with the chipset and is up to the manufacturer. Like if the motherboard chipset is cooled with heatpipes or with fans.

[Ronyx]

ok well i have spoken to my father about this and it seems like i am going to go with the X6800. Sorry if that seems like a bad choice for anyone but i have made up my mind. The thing which swung me to the X6800 is the fact that
1: I am not going to OC is
2: If i do go with the E6700 then i CAN OC it to X6800's standards and even higher at lower voltages but that would involve me soldering 2 pins and htus voiding my warranty. I can OC to the X6800 standards without soldering but i am still not going to like messing around with the BIOS. I may like performance but i'm not going to screw around with my BIOS to achieve it.

so once again i am back with X6800 and this time because I've chosen and not because some review said so. =]

It may be a bad choice but... it's what i've gone for.
No OCing and no BIOS messing = Extreme


moving on to monitors: viewsonic VX922 or VX924? the 922 has a faster responce time but the 924 weigh's less. and the 924 costs less. so what would be a good choice?

[Silenced_Coyote]

You don't have to do any soldering to overclock.

You don't even have to overclock the E6700 because it is very very powerful as it is. It would be like shooting a rabbit with a tank but opting to nuke it instead.

[Ronyx]

if you want all the OC options of the X6800 then you can solder two pins. that way you can change everything just like in the X6800. But the Multipliers limit is still set at 10x so there's nothing you can do there.

i know it's still powerful, very powerful, but only time and research can change my mind. I may have made up my mind but still, there is a huge "if" in my head. i have seen the data for myself and now i have to choose and the only way i can chose is when i am completley ready to buy. When i have picked out every part of the comp and am ready to buy, nothing stopping me, then will i make up my mind. Until that time i am and WILL be undecided. So lets move on to monitors.

P.S. for any of those interested on how to unlock all OC options in the E6700 there here's the article:

http://www.overclockers.com.au/article.php?id=489587&P=6

oh and i know you don't need to solder to OC, i'm not completley n00b (yet =P) but that's just giving you more options, pretty much all the OCing options of the Extreme version. Very handy for those who don't want to spend a fortune but want complete control like in the X6800.

[Silenced_Coyote]

For starters, you aren't getting that particular motherboard. Even if you do buy that Intel board, you would only want to overclock it to the level of a stock X6800 right? Without soldering, you can do that and a bit more (as show in the link you gave us). You would save youself some money by going one step down from the X6800 and not have to solder at all.

This is Intel's product policy on their motherboards. Other companies like Asus and DFI wouldn't restrict you like this.

[Ronyx]

--- Post edited ---

sorry now i understand what you mean. It's the mobo that restricts the OCing options right? Ok cool now i understand =] Hmm... if i do go for the E6700 it would be because i can OC it without voiding anything and without pushing the system too much. (No voltage added or anything like that)

[Silenced_Coyote]

We are talking about CPUs. But we are also talking about overclocking. The article link you sent us showed them soldering the Intel motherboard. That motherboard does not have the nF 590 SLI chipset (which is the chipset you want). Therefore, you aren't getting that motherboard, right?

Even if you later decide to change your mind and do get that motherboard, you WILL be able to overclock to what you want, which is "pumping it up to X6800's standards (with a little bit more yes)" which the Intel boards lets you do. It doesn't matter if you have the FULL range of options, the point is that you reached your overclocking goal without doing ANY soldering. Therefore, no warranty is voided.

[Ronyx]

ok so nF590 mobo won't have these limitations because as you said only the Intel mobo's have this policy.
But i still won't decide now. Not until i collect everything. So monitors =]

924 or 922? the 922 weighs more but does it have a lot of new features? i mean is the only thing that's changed between the 924 and 922 is the fact that one can do 1ms more? if so then that's barley good enough to spend more money on.

(lolz and don't try to compare what i have just said to the CPU's. =P)

[Silenced_Coyote]

well... I don't know how you are comparing the prices, but I saw a the Viewsonic VX922 for $200 after rebate. (Didn't do a comprehensive check. I just saw the deal as I was browsing outpost.com for their deals of the week.)
http://shop3.outpost.com/product/4884650

I took a quick look on Newegg and it says that they both weigh the same. Maybe Newegg is wrong, but I don't feel like looking around right now. Is weight really a big factor for you?

[jestyyr]

ronyx, take the measuring system fairly lightly on lcd refreshes, it is relevant, but manufacturers can occasionally be creative with their measurements. If you are looking at those 2 monitors google those 2 monitors, see what others have had to say about them (avoiding the occasional crackpot). It is all well and good to have people who have not used one tell you how good a monitors specs and brand reputation are, but finding people who have actually seen/experienced it can also be important.

[Ronyx]

cool so i guess i dont need to spend extra money on the 922. I can just get the 924. But i won't decide until i read some reviews. I'm posting from school so i'll read up on some stuff when i get home =]

P.S. anyone from AU?

[Ronyx]

just had a good look at prices. It seems like the VX922 sells for LESS then the VX924. Surprising considering that the VX924 is the older model.

VX922 - $230
VX924 - $270

[Silenced_Coyote]

Prices of LCDs are dropping pretty fast. I don't know if Outpost.com (online store of Fry's Electronics) ships to AU, but you should check because I saw the VX922 for $200 after a mail-in rebate. Save $30, yay!

[EPYK]

i would say go with an sli video card and get another HD, raid it for safety

[Silenced_Coyote]

Don't RAID unless you really got important stuff on your PC. If it is just game files and that sort, then I wouldn't RAID. I'd rather just get an external hard drive. Wouldn't want Trojans mirrored on both my drives.;)

[Ronyx]

what's RAID? (sorry for the n00b question)

[Cevinzol]

RAID: Redundant Array of Inexpensive Drives.
See article at Wikipedia.com (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redundant_array_of_independent_disks)

the most common used by enthusiast are raid 0 (for speed), raid 1 (for redundancy) and raid 10 (1+0) for those cautious souls who wear suspenders AND a belt. JBOD's are also used to make big server drives for things like HTPC servers (movie/music files)

[Ronyx]

considering that i won't really be buying more then one drive when i first buy, RAID won't be needed. If i do decide to get another drive i'll keep them seperate. It's only implemented when you have hundreds of drives like on a server and you need to have lots of space and lots of files in the same place. For me i'll stick with the good old fashioned list of HDD.

[Silenced_Coyote]

People implement it even if they only have 3 drives. I see a lot of people RAIDing 2 Raptors in RAID 0 and then have a 3rd drive with lots of storage.

[Ronyx]

ok i guess i'll implement it when i buy a second drive or maybe even a third (not too soon though since i dont think i'll use up all of my 350GB in a month lolz.... AAAA ****in bird BIT ME!!!!!!!!!! mutha ****a!!!!! Oh you'll pay byotch.... sorry err yea so when i do use up all my 350GB i'll consider it =])

[.Maleficus.]

... A bird bit you?

What?

What kind of bird?

[Ronyx]

my bird, a girl budgie lolz, they're feisty =P

she doesn't like hands so she bites people when they try to stroke her or hold her lolz. now she got the idea that wen i'm typing i'm actually trying to intimidate her so she climbs down from my shoulder onto my typing hands and starts biting my fingers. once twice it doesn't hurt but sometimes she jsut grabs on and starts squeezing my finger like there's no tomorrow. it hurts like hell...

[Ta10n]

Budgies are teh awesome!

My cousins had one then it died :( so they got another one :)

[Ronyx]

lolz i'm back =]

now i'm looking for a Sound Card. i know i should go with an X-Fi card but i'm not sure which model and stuff like that. So anyone got any "you should get this" feedback on this?

i remember a couple of posts back i read someone telling me to get an X-Fi Elite sound card and then later on someone said just an X-Fi. What is the difference between those two and am i getting performance for money with the X-Fi Elite?

P.S. Any updates on nF590 mobo's for Intel? Any new models? anything "hot" out yet?

--Thanks =]

[Silenced_Coyote]

Are you really dead set on buying the Creative X-Fi line? And also tell us why.

I haven't heard anything new with the Intel nF590 boards...

[Ronyx]

not really i'm open for suggestions just seemed like everyone was raving about it a lot =]

[Ronyx]

bump =]

[GT40_GearHead]

did you buy anything???

i see a big list but did you something, or stated making some progres

[Ronyx]

no i'm gathering information, this thread is all about going over what items are good and which shoould be bought if u have the money. right now i'm stuck on picking a sound card but it seems like everyone's just... disappeared lolz

i started an excel document and i'm checking the prices of items every few weeks or whenever i have spare time. and it seems like prices are steadily dropping on everything i have on my list. most of the big items anyway.

[Silenced_Coyote]

Once you assemble your PC, play a few games, listen to some music, and maybe even watch a few movies. If you aren't satisfied with the sound, then buy a sound card.

[Ronyx]

isn't it mandatory to have a sound card for your computer? or does the motherboard have it's own built in sound card?

[isunktheship]

It's not mandatory, most motherboards come with pretty decent built in sound. (onboard sound). Some mobos even come with sound cards, 7.1 ready at that! If you use anything off the mobo, like audio, or video, etc, it's called "onboard".

Anyways, if you check my comment, I just upgraded my computer for about 700, and it's God-like. The motherboard I am using is insane, it can take:

DDR2 800 memory (up to 8Gb)
SLI video cards (perfect for 2 7950's)
Core 2 Duo ready
...and it's an ASUS, so it comes with fancy overclocking tools.

Are you planning on watercooling? One thing I have noticed is that the fans are loud for this new stuff. I mean, it sounds like a small vaccuum cleaner is inside my case. I'm going to upgrade to water cooling just so that I can bump my Ghz from 1.9 to 2.5. Yeah, apparantly it's that easy to overclock a Conroe.

If you wanted to save some cash you don't need to buy the sound card right now, or video (don't be crazy though). I haven't tested the onboard sound, just because I have THX speakers... so I need my precious X-Fi. I really should have tested the onboard sound, beecause then you would know for when you buy this mobo. Er not that you are going to. But it's basically perfect. Check my stats to see everything.

[Ronyx]

lolz thank you very much man that helped me a lot because now i know that when i buy, as i planned, the P5N32-SLi SE Deluxe mobo it's going to be maaaaaaaaaad =], i probably won't waste money on a sound card just yet but i'll probably get the XFX XXX Edition GeForce 7950GX2 video card and DDR2 800 Corsair, the new TWINX models =D with preset profiles. Oh and it actually is very very easy to overclock safley with the new conroe cpu's. I remember i read somewhere that you can jump on the X6800 from 2.93GHz to 3.1GHz without even increasing voltage and it will run smoothly =]

Here is a good article on how to safley overclock and balance out noise, heat, power consumption and speed =]

Overclocking X6800 (http://www.overclockers.com.au/article.php?id=489587&P=6)

i'm sure it's close to the same basics for the E6300

Thanks again.

[Silenced_Coyote]

You don't need to go water cooling just to overclock a E6300 to 2.5 GHz... Just go with an aftermarket heatsink and it should be perfectly fine.

[isunktheship]

well I'm glad i could help!

oh and, that's good to hear about the watercooling, because I don't want to spend a lot of money.

[Ronyx]

hmm now i'm actually reconsidering my whole water cooling status because if your rig sounded like a small vaccum cleaner then imagine what my 3 fan system is gonna sound like. i think i'd rather spend 200$ more on watercooling then have to wear earplugs while i'm playing games so yea i'm gonna read up a lot on watercooling now.

if anyone see's any good guides let me know =]

[Silenced_Coyote]

Vacuum cleaner? Only if you put fans in your case that are rated at high decibles. Having 120 mm fans help too because they can spin slower and still put out the same CFM, which means less noise. Even if you do go with water cooling, you would still need fans. The fans is what takes the heat away from the radiator.

I don't know what fans isunktheship is talking about, but just replace the fans that came with your case if you don't like them.

[Ronyx]

ok fans first and then if it's loud i'll go watercooling. how many decibells would be a good silent fan? and what is considered loud decibell wise?

[Silenced_Coyote]

I think you missed my point, water cooling or not (unless you get a Zalman Reserator) you will have fans not matter what.

Everyone has their own tolerance to sound so I don't know. My friend says that he has some fans in his PC that are rated around 30 db and I didn't mind them.

[Ronyx]

ok but if i do feel like they're just way too loud i can always lower their speed and have watercooling do the main work right?

[Silenced_Coyote]

You can lower the speed of the fan on your PC case if they are too loud if you want.

[Ronyx]

k thxs

P.S. i just stumbled onto some product comparisons of the XFX cards and i'm sort of surprised. Check it out and tell me really which one is better? =S oh and if you can why lolz

XFX Card Comparisons (http://www.xfxforce.com/web/product/compareProducts.jspa?productConfigurationId=185612&productConfigurationId=291593)

[Ronyx]

Hi, i'm back again =]

A lot of good news, many articles have been supporting my motherboard of choice but surprisingly not supporting my graphics card of choice. Mainly the benchmarks and things like that have been put up with a Radeon X1950 XTX. The problem for me is that it's better performance in Crossfire then the single 7950GX2 but it sucks more power and there's no room for quad. If i stay with the 7950GX2 then i get less power consumption and higher graphics quality then i would with a single Radeon card. And i don't know how it will perform in Quad SLI againt the Crossfire model.

Prices:
Radeon X1950 XTX = Cheap but not great graphics
GeForce 7950GX2 = Not cheap but good graphics
Radeon Crossfire = Not cheap at all but great graphics
GeForce Quad = Very high price but don't know how it will compare to the Radeon in graphics quality.

Here's a benchmark: >>> Here <<< (http://xtreview.com/review141.htm)
If anyone has anything to say to help me decide then please do =]

[Ronyx]

Just found a Quad rig and a Crossfire benchmark. Her are the results.

Looking good at 8xAA (http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/ati_radeon_x1950xtx_crossfire_performance/page18.asp)