help plx

[camalotious]

I am new to the pc building community and have, over the past few months, been intensely researching the latest hardware. With Vista and dx10 out, I have decided that it is necessary for me to finally build a good machine.

In my "journey" (*gag*) I came across this forum network. I finally feel like I have come up with the final set-up and I was hoping you guys could help me with a final compatibility check to make sure all of this stuff will hook up together. Also, I welcome any suggestions or improvements. Thanks alot.

Case
GIGABYTE 3D Aurora 570 GZ-FA1CA-ASB Black 1.0 mm Aluminum body ATX Full Tower Computer Case

Mobo
ASUS P5N32-E SLI Plus LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI ATX Intel

CPU
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe 2.4GHz 4M shared L2 Cache LGA 775

GPU
BFG Tech BFGR88768GTXOCE GeForce 8800GTX 768MB 384-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 OC HDCP Video Card

HDD
Western Digital Raptor X WD1500AHFD 150GB 10,000 RPM 16MB Cache Serial ATA150

RAM
CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory

Sound Card
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer 7.1 Channels 24-bit 96KHz PCI Interface

PSU
Thermaltake Toughpower 850W W0131RU – NVIDIA QUAD-SLI APPROVED, FOUR +12V RAIL READY

COOLING
COOLER MASTER RR-CCX-W9U1-GP 90mm Sleeve CPU Cooler

The PSU is overkill as of now, but I hope to upgrade to 8800 GTX SLI eventually as well as upping the RAM to at least 4 gb. Even that set-up should give me about 100 watts of buffer to feel safe and free to mod. I am also going to put on a 7200 Barracuda for mass storage eventually.

Alright, I am new to all of this, but I think I've done enough research. Thanks all.

[GT40_GearHead]

welcome on board mate !
you've come to the right place

as for your setup, i don't see anything out of order but, but don't take my word for it

[sirkillalot617]

Looks fine to me except maybe check if your 8800gtx will fit in the case you chose.

[XcOM]

my bro has the same case, and an OCZ 8800GTX 754MB card,

We had to bend the HDD rack to get the card to fit!

Other than that, your system looks like a good setup.

[camalotious]

Hey guys, thanks for the warm welcome. I think I will love this place as I become more into computer building, because I'm also interested in modding the case.

I have two questions about hardware:
1) have you guys read anything about my mobo, because it seems equivalent to a 680i even though it is 650i because in sli both gpu's can run at x16. Also, there is another x8 slot for an additional physics card...that seems to ring 680i to me...

Will it overclock like a 680i?

2)it seems like i have a potential overclocking problem (is it called a bottleneck?) with my memory, would you guys suggest high performance memory or is standard corsair just fine?


Oh and as far as the case is concerned...I am not partial to that case explicitly. If you know of a better case then feel free to suggest it. I was looking at the kandalf lcs or a full tower lian li, but opted for the cheaper gigabyte due to a recent review in cpu mag. Id like to keep the price between 100-200 bucks but it's not crucial.

Again, thanks for the quick responses and warm welcome to your community, I'm excited to join all of you. I have been researching nonstop for a few months now and it is great to have an outlet to share my excitement with others. All of my friends around me could care less about computer parts, haha.

[sirkillalot617]

You could always get that case and mod it. I heard the jeantech phong is a good cheap case comes with a fan controler a front mounted 140mm fan and a rear 120 fan.
Not bad for 50 pounds dont know what that is in dollers.

http://www.custompc.co.uk/custompc/reviews/87597/jeantech-phong-ii.html

A review of the case.

[camalotious]

yea...it seems like a fantastic case, but I have my heart set on a full tower. I'm just worried that my fat fingers couldn't navigate a mid-tower.

[public_eyesore]

If i was you, instead of the raptor i would get 2x300gb 16mb cache hdds and run them in raid zero. It will perform about the same, probably cost less, and give more storage room.

[camalotious]

I have read alot about there being a noticeable difference between games when run at 7200 and 10k. is that a load of bull, because I thought it was when i first read it. I am planning on expanding the hdd's soon after I build the pc's, the 10k is just the first harddrive that will go in first, because I want to install vista on it as well as wow.

[public_eyesore]

it helps with load times, but you will probably not notice a difference except for benchmarks.

[Airbozo]

I have read alot about there being a noticeable difference between games when run at 7200 and 10k. is that a load of bull, because I thought it was when i first read it. I am planning on expanding the hdd's soon after I build the pc's, the 10k is just the first harddrive that will go in first, because I want to install vista on it as well as wow.

This is bunk. Like others said, the only difference will be in the load times and then barely since the data transfer on the 7200 vs 10k rpm drives are the same, it is just the access times that are faster.

As I remember the difference in the 680i vs 6501 chipsets is the processor support. The 680i will support "quad core" processors, the 650i will not. That is my recollection anyway...