After a LOT of debate on specs, this is what I decided to go with...what do you all think?

Thanks for all who posted before...I really appreciate your help/comments!


ASUS P5Q Pro LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail $150

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Model BX80570E8400 - Retail $190

^^ Got these in a combo from newegg for 305

EVGA 512-P3-N802-AR GeForce 8800GT Superclocked 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail - $150

Acer AL2216Wbd Black 22" 5ms Widescreen LCD Monitor with HDCP support - Retail $220

Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3500320AS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM $85

CORSAIR 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TWIN2X4096-6400C5 - Retail $86.50

ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro 92mm CPU Cooler - Retail $32

CORSAIR CMPSU-550VX 550W ATX12V V2.2 Power Supply - Retail $86.50

Only thing I would change is look into the new Radeon HD4850s. Its a better card, not much more plus later on you can get another 4850 and do CF with that mobo where as you cannot do SLI since its not capable.

Keep the mobo as its better than any nvidia equivalent. Everything else is great.

Enjoy it.

Here:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814121253

Thats a link to a Asus HD4850 that has a $30 dollar Mail in rebate bringing it to $164.99 making it only $15 bucks more.

Here are some charts too:



This is COD4 and you can see that the 4850 bests the 8800Ultra and easily goes above both the 9800GTX and the 9800GTX+ while also keeping a bit below a GTX260.

What the heck, isn't the 9800GTX+ meant to be faster than the 9800GTX?

Dump the 880Gt.
Get two 4850's and bridge.
Get another seagate and use RAID 0 striped.
Upgrade that PSU to 750W, you'll need it with RAID and SLI.
the artic freezer 7 is a good budget cooler but think about the sort of overclock you're planning because that cooler won't get you maximum cooling.
RAMS ok
Haven't researched the monitor.
Good luck

Sorry to sound like an idiot, but can someone (in the simplest terms) please describe to me what RAID is? I know it has to do with combining hard drive but I dont fully understand it. Thanks.

RAID is just what you said. Making 2 HDDs look like one. For instance a RAID 0 (Performance) would take 2 500GB HDDs and make them look like one 1000GB HDD and increase transfer speeds by a lot. Now it does leave the risk that if anything goes wrong with one drive you are screwed.

Then there is RAID 1 (Redundancy) which would take the same 2 500GB HDDs and make them look like 1 500GB HDD so whatever goes on one drive is duplicated to the other drive so if anything goes wrong you do not loose all of your data and can replace the bad disk.

RAID 5 is a good one. Its like having the performance from RAID 0 but with the redundancy of RAID 1 . This one needs at least 3 HDDs to work though. 2 for performance and 1 for redundancy.

Thanks jimmy!

...but one question...how does RAID 5 work? say you have 2 500 GB Hard drives (for performance) and 1 500 gb hard drive for redundancy?


or am I just not seeing the obvious that the redundant one would have to be 1 TB?

^Your first guess is right but just for further info here is a good link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID

I read over that and its almost all correct.

to be hosnet you proberly wont need raid and if you dont knwo eactly what it is might be a bit of hassel getting it going and maintaing it for the same price you could get a velociraptor, whihc although would offer the same storage real estate, would be jsut as quick. but that just my opinoin.

i would deffinatly go for a 4850 rather the 38 series, i dont like buying old series equipment.

you also might want to consider getting a q9300 instead of the e8400 if you feel that you would benifit from the extra cores, i know that i would blink twice at the option especially as multi core utilisation is going to become big.

dont forget to get a good case a case is not the place to cheep out on. you can get a solid case from coolermaster case for not to much, just dont get roped into buying a unnamed PSU/case combo.

good luck with build!

^Meh the Velocoraptor is too expensive in terms of storage space for performance.

Setting up a RAID 0 on any Intel chipset is easy. You hook up the HDDs, wait till the screen after POST and press CTRL+I and read the mobo manual for full details. Select STRIPE size (128K is the best for performance) and set it and your done. Heck my first RAID was so easy to do I was amazed.

And if you want an easy Windows Installation use Vista. Vista will see the RAID array without any other drivers needed where as the XP installation will need you to load the RAID drivers from a floppy. Trust me on this as I know since I have done this a lot.

another question which i didnt think of before

I know I want vista for this machine....but what version? there are so many damn versions...what would everyone recommend?

I would recommend 64 bit, and probably Home Premium.

whats the difference between 32 and 64 bit???

AMD Athlon 64 X2 5400+ Brisbane 2.8GHz 65W: $87
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819103235

MSI K9A2 CF-F V2 AM2+/AM2 AMD 790X ATX: $104
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813130172

SAPPHIRE 100242L Radeon HD 4850 512MB 256-bit GDDR3: $370 ($340 AR)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814102747
(let yur GF buy the second card and send end the rebate to save few bucks - lol)

Seagate Barracuda 500GB SATA: $85
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6822148288

SAMSUNG Black 20X PATA DVD Burner with LightScribe: $27
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6827151155

Acer AL2216Wbd Black 22" 5ms Widescreen LCD Monitor: $220
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6824009094

Rosewill 120mm Fan ATX Mid Tower Computer Case: $45
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6811147056

CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply: $130 ($110 AR)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817139006

Some type of qualified 4Gb 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800: $100

Vista Home Premium SP1 64-bit: $110


HD 4850 Crossfire at 16x10 will fly and most likely take down a GeForce 9800 GX2 (except for the usual suspects - like in Crysis)

"to be hosnet you proberly wont need raid and if you dont knwo eactly what it is might be a bit of hassel getting it going and maintaing it for the same price you could get a velociraptor, whihc although would offer the same storage real estate, would be jsut as quick. but that just my opinoin. "

You are in fact correct to a point, but when you view PC mark benches, two SATA2 drives at 7200rpm will load game levels and bulk data much quicker than one raptor. When your talking burst rates there arent too many people that can notice 5ms over 10ms, even though technically it's 100% faster. Get a RAID setup, striped.

64 bit vista will also run almost all 32 bit programs, so that's worth getting. For example I can run crysis in 64 bit business.

"Select STRIPE size (128K is the best for performance) and set it and your done. "
Jimmysmitty: Have a look at some 64K stripe benches, you might be pleasantly surprised.