DeepSeaDoc Posted June 5, 2008 Posted June 5, 2008 I have put allot of time and Effort into the researching of this. My goal was to stay under 3k. This system will stand the test of time for sure. It is High End gamers Dream System. Before I buy it I would love your Input so please write away! Oh, this is my first post...Hello All!! Cooler Master Stacker 830 Evolution ATX Full Tower- Ok I chose this case for a number of reasons. Great reviews, BIG, great ventilation and looks good. $259 XFX LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 780i SLI Motherboard- It was the best SLI motherboard I could find period. I really like the DFI MB but no SLI so this is the one. $249 Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 Wolfdale 3.16Ghz LGA 775- This was an easy choice came down between this and E8400. I choice this one cuz I am running DDR2 not DDR3 so no need for Quad and had 3k budget. $269 ZALMAN 9700 LED 110mm 2 Ball CPU cooler- Ok I went back and forth, back and forth on this pick. I was originally going to go with yes you guessed it. The Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme with Scythe S-Flex 120mm fans. But after more research and the crazy size and a you tube video, I switched to this Zalman. It has amazing reviews and way better price. $59 Scythe S-FLEX 120mm Case Fan- I chose 3 of these for my case fans. They are just amazing quiet fans. My case will be COLD!!! $44 XFX GeForce 9800 GTX Black Edition 512MB- Ok this wasn Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jammin Posted June 5, 2008 Posted June 5, 2008 (edited) Ok, I'm going to have to nitpick a few things: E8500 - Unless you planning on a serious overclock, the E8400 is pretty much as good for less money. That being said, if you really want this system to stand the test of time, a quad core chip might be the best option. Zalman 9700 - It's old basically. Not bad, but can't compete with the TRUE. The fan is pretty loud at full tilt as well. Xigmatek PSU - A bit of an unknown quantity for me. A CWT design, so should be a least reasonably decent. I doubt you need 750W either really. The SLi issue - You've picked an SLi board but only one 9800GTX. A 24" monitor is one situation where SLi may actually be helpful. Are you planning on adding another card some time in the near future? Because if you're not then it's not going to be worth it. Bear in mind there are new graphics cards just around the corner as well (from both ATI and NVIDIA). If you are confused about RAID, then do some more reading. If going for RAID 0, a couple of smaller fast drives would be good for your OS, Programs + Games, with a large third drive for storage and backup. Personally, I'd be sitting and waiting for the new graphics cards to come out and seeing if a single one of those could handle what you want to do at 1900x1200. If it could then the main parts of the system could do with a re-think (as you wouldn't need an SLi board). Edited June 5, 2008 by jammin Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
CanadaGUY Posted June 5, 2008 Posted June 5, 2008 Along with what jammin said, I'd also want to know where you are buying that mushkin ram from? I just got 2x 2gb of Mushkin XP2 DDR2-1066 for $110 after rebate, so $279 kinda strikes me as "way" overpriced. Hell the XP2's now are sitting at Mushkin XP2 DDR2-1066 $120, american. I paid $110 CDN, which is odd usually american prices are lower Also are you going to be OC'ing this thing? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uantyv Posted June 5, 2008 Posted June 5, 2008 If you wana top notch pc maybe wait a little and get 9900gts? It should be out in couple of weeks. And for cooler Thermalright Ultra-120 eXtreme if you can buy it in your country. Q9300 instead of E8500? More and more pc gaming titles are using 4 cores instead of 2. I don't think you will feel fps issue at 1900x1200 max options AAx4 at games which use only 2 core cos those resolutions and option depend on gpu not cpu Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boldeagle Posted June 6, 2008 Posted June 6, 2008 (edited) Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 Wolfdale 3.16Ghz LGA 775- This was an easy choice came down between this and E8400. I choice this one cuz I am running DDR2 not DDR3 so no need for Quad and had 3k budget. $269 Scythe S-FLEX 120mm Case Fan- I chose 3 of these for my case fans. They are just amazing quiet fans. My case will be COLD!!! $44 XFX GeForce 9800 GTX Black Edition 512MB- Ok this wasn’t as easy to decide one. So many to chose from. The reason I chose this card is the stats on it were amazing. Supports true 1920x1200 resolution and c’mon it’s the black Edition. Only got one but that is what make upgrading a blast. I will get another. $319 Mushkin 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) memory- Again it came down between this and OCZ and this one edge in reviews. Same Price. $279 Bubble burst build this and you are going to "want" to upgrade at least the Video Card within 12 months, 2 years top. Get a Quad Core they OC and handle multi-tasking a lot better. Have my Q6600 from 2.4Ghz to 3.0GHz on air (CNPS9500) with ease. Like the case fans but would seriously consider the Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme, or search for more shootouts/technical reviews, the Zalman gets midway at best and is a bit of a let down. Video Card looks good. Have you ever heard of Crucial Ballistix???? Win most "serious technical shootouts" but used to be discounted because of price (bang for buck) but now they compete $$$ wise as well (many major RAM manufacturers use Micron memory wafers.......Micron makes Crucial Ballistix!!!!). Why not DDR3? Either way any serious gamer knows he's got a 2 year life cycle at best on any system build (particularly Video Cards) so you aim to future proof. Motherboard that will take the 45um CPU's, MOBO with DDR3 and 3xSLI etc etc etc. Without wanting to over simplify RAID 0 is like DUal Channel RAM the DATA is spread equally between 2 devices, in RAID 0 we have ~%50 of the dat being written to 1 HDD and ~%50 of the DATA written to the other HDD at "the same time" and effectively doubling your DATA write and or retrieval, so instead of writing/retrieving DATA at 3GB/s we are achieving DATA rates of 6GBs. Dual channel RAM is much the same principal, sharing the DATA transcription between 2 components and effectively doubling the speed. Problem is you also increase the likelihood of DATA failure by 2, if one HDD fails you lose everything, you cannot retrieve DATA from a single unit!!!!! Hope this clarifies RAID 0, then there is RAID 5, RAID 1 and RAID 10..... Edited June 6, 2008 by Boldeagle Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bosco Posted June 6, 2008 Posted June 6, 2008 If you are looking at Mushkin you can get decent prices from their site: Redline XP2 There is a new batch of Video cards coming in just over a week if you are intrested in waiting to see if there is a price drop. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
J-Stew Posted June 6, 2008 Posted June 6, 2008 And judging by some computex reviews, and dates, nelahem should be out at the end of this year, effectively meaning the start of the end for Core 2 architecture, so maybe a full expensive gaming build is the wrong choice at this stage, maybe a budget build, and then get all the new stuff as it comes out? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
CanadaGUY Posted June 6, 2008 Posted June 6, 2008 I'd wait for the video cards, get yourself a decent CPU/mobo nothing too fancy. Anything that will run crysis playable will be good for some time to come. And by that time you'll have access to the new socket and probably newer video cards. As is the whole game of computer upgrading, once you buy there is probably something better already in the works Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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