Hi there,

Despite me being new here I hope you will help me a bit with a new system. For a while I've been on the lookout for a new gaming rig, since my old AMD Athlon 2000+ just can't cut it any more. I don't feel any need for overclocking or Vista and I'm quite satisfied with Windows XP, though I don't have a 64-bit version unfortunately.

From what I understand if you're going for a gaming rig you might as well choose dual core since when the games properly support the quads it's most likely time to upgrade anyway. With the Penryns out soon that's the way I'm heading. I'd like the system to be somewhat quiet though not necessarily inaudible and keeping power usage down is also a plus. I've heard that the box cooler for the chosen CPU should be adequate and reasonable quiet too.

As for graphics card from what I've read the Nvidia 8800GT seems to be the best there is right now when it comes to price vs. performance. Apparently the extra £50 for the 8800GTS should not be worth it.

With that in mind and by reading a lot on the net and getting a few tips here and there I've come up with the following:

Core 2 Duo (Wolfdale) Model E8400 (3.0GHz), BOX
Asus P5N32-E/SLI, nVidia nForce680i SLI
Corsair Twin2X 2x1024MB DDR2, PC6400 DDR800
Asus EN8800GT/G/HTDP/512M
WD Caviar SE16, 500 GB – SATAII-300
Samsung SH-S203D - DVD±RW, DVD±Rx20
be quiet! BQT E5-500W, ATX 2.2, 120mm Fan
Antec Performance One P182, Miditower
£770

I guess the first question is - proof reading, will these things work together or have I missed something?

Secondly, do some of my assumptions above sound incorrect? Should consider changing any of the components? I don't mind spending a bit extra but I'm not sure I think it's reasonable to spent an extra £170 to upgrade motherboard and RAM to DDR3. The extra performance doesn't seem fair compared to the price.

Thanks in advance.

Can I persuade anyone to look at it... I'll bring cookies

Welcome to the forums buddy!
Its looks fine (though proofreading is when you check a translation..?) Why get the Asus P5N32-E/SLI, nVidia nForce680i SLI?? if you're only getting one 8800GT?
Be safe
Ryan

Hi and thanks!

I still can't quite decide on the motherboard but this one seemed like a nice overall choice and give me the opportunity to go for SLI at a later date. Though I'm not sure if the SLI is actually worth it for when I need to upgrade again I might as well get a new card entirely.

Two 8800GT seems a bit over the top at moment, doesn't it?

I also looked a bit at the Asus P5E, Intel X38 which supports PC8500 RAM. Would that be a better choice? And then there's the Asus P5E3, Intel X38 which supports DDR3 but with RAM it'll be around £170 extra and I don't think it'll give that much extra performance as the price suggests. Other motherboard suggestions are most welcomed


Uh... and I didn't know I couldn't use "proof reading" like this - it just sounded reasonable :-/ English is not my first language as you might have guessed

2 GTS is not OTT if you wanna play crysis (hi rez maxed). Anyhows, I would save some cash - get some standand ddr2 mem, a cheaper mobo and hold on for ATI's dual gpu card - looks like it's gonna be pretty hot. Over the next few days we'll probably see some more benchies..
Ryan

I think I'll prefer to stick with Nvidia - it just feels more right to me (<- religion thing, I guess).

Do you have any specific suggestions for a different mobo?

A new question came to me which I hope you can help with:

If I end up going SLI with a second 8800 GT will the 500W power supply be big enough?

Any thoughts, please?

Nice build you have there, but there are a few things to consider. First since your considering SLI a 600+ watt 30 amp minumum PSU is more in line with what you plan to do, these days with graphics cards performing better and faster I would recommend at least an 800W PSU. Its always better to have more power than you need then to not have enough. Second the 8800GT's cooler is tiny compared to most GPU coolers which is why I would spend the extra money on the better 8800GTS 512MB graphics card which has a way better cooler on it.


I totally agree that DDR3 is a waist of money as of now, two months ago I purchased the Asus P5E so I could use DDR2 PC2 8500 on it. "If you ever decide on only using a single graphics card for your gaming this motherboard simply rules." It is very important that you buy the best quality power supply your budget will allow", I've seen to many people buy cheap PSU's only to have it fry the mobo, hard drives or the whole computer. Here is a list of tier (tier meaning a rating system) power supplies that meet certain quality standards for safe operation of you new computer. I will also suggest that you visit Jonny's Guru PSU only review website, and heres a PSU calculator.


Jonny's Guru PSU review site>>>> http://www.jonnyguru.com/index.php

Tiered+PSU+Listings PSU's>>>> http://www.tomswiki.com/page/Tiere [...] ngs?t=anon

PSU calculator>>>> http://www.extreme.outervision.com [...] orlite.jsp

Here is a picture of a multi GPU SLI on one graphics card that will be released Feb/March time frame for about $449.

Pretty aren't they?

By systemlord at 2008-01-04



By systemlord at 2008-01-04



By systemlord at 2008-01-04

systemlord, thank you for your comments - it's much appreciated

PSU:
I used the calculator to have a look and even with two cards in SLI it said it would use some 300W including everything I could find. Do you find the "be quiet!" power supply to be low quality? I choose this because I got it recommended and as far as I can see it's more energy efficient, a bit more expensive, and a bit more silent than the Corsair 520HXEU which seems to be a Tier 2 brand. I couldn't see it on the list but I guessed that the list might be from US and the PSU is European. Some stats for it:

+ 3.3 Volt: 30 A
+ 5 Volt: 30 A
+ 12 Volt: 34 A
+ 12 Volt (12V2 - ATX 2.2): 25 A
+ 12 Volt (12V3 - ATX 2.2): 18 A

Mobo:
As mentioned in an earlier post I've had my eyes on the Asus P5E too. I think I'll go with my gut feeling and pick this one and ignore the SLI. Saves power too

GFX:
I hadn't heard about the 8800GTS having a larger cooler than the GT. I guess this means that the GTS might be quieter too? That counts for a bit in my book too. The performance increase doesn't seem to justify the price difference but skipping SLI and having a quieter card points to that I should pick the GTS anyway.

Oh, and it's pretty pictures too but I think the $449 is just a tad too much

I used the calculator to and I only needed 350 watts with 30 amps minumum for my 8800GTX spec, to bad PSU makers can't make a 350W 30 amp PSU. "I have heard that the "be quiet" brand PSU's are quickly becoming the #1 brand in the UK", because they are very good quality and also very quiet. As for the mobo the Asus P5E is a great mobo weather your overclocking or not.


As for the 8800GT's GPU fan (4500 RPM's) being so small it must spin faster to push a large amount of air, the 8800GTS has a much bigger GPU fan (3000 RPM's) that pushes more air at a lower speed. Silence is priceless isn't it?


8800GT GPU fan is tiny>>>

By systemlord at 2008-01-15



The 8800GTS 512MB G92 GPU fan is large>>>

By systemlord at 2008-01-15

^
Agreed.

They do have dedicated GPU power supplies like these ones:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817153037
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817101025

If you are not going with SLI consider a P35-DS3R/L.