My new spec'd out gaming system - comments welcome

[Dethfrumbelo]

Originally posted by: Allistah
I mis-interpreted what I was having suggested to me. I'm going with the Corsair 620HX or whatever it was. It's a single rail PSU but is advertised as 3. I think I'm pretty sold on the Corsair after reading the reviews that BenchZowner suggested to me.

The Corsair is fine.

Just a couple of suggestions:

Like someone else has said... drop the KO and get a regular GTS. They all overclock to 650/900 and beyond.

Forget about the E6850. Either go for the Q6600 or down to an E4300/E4400. The difference between an E6850@3.0GHz and an E4300@3GHz will be very small, and not at all noticeable in games. After that, wait for the Penryns.

You could even use those CPU savings to get a GTX, which will make much more of an impact in games.

 

[chiew]

Some people like XFX because it has a double life warranty. That means if you sell your card, the warranty on the card will apply to them as well. What does that mean? It means you will get more cash when you sell your card. Not only is the card covered for the time that you use it, it will be covered for the next person if you sell it, and they will therefore want to buy it for more if they get covered.

 

[chiew]

There really is nothing wrong with getting XFX, BFG, or eVGA, they're all big names. They just have different advantages to their warranties. And since XFX's is just like eVGA in that it will cover the life of your card, there is no real harm getting either the eVGA or XFX (not exactly sure what BFG's is...I think they may have some type of step-up program, which isn't that great because you're forced to buy BFG again). XFX has the advantage in that you will probably get more resell value.

 

[BenchZowner]

Originally posted by: Ozoneman
Benchzowner - "By the way don't think of the Galaxy as a "reference / top-end" PSU because it's not, and it suffers from ripple in mid to high loads ( as illustrated in real PSU reviews like JonnyGuru's )"

You refer to JonnyGuru alot, what other "real PSU reviews" can you point me to. I did a quick Google search and found this. What do you think of Bjorn3d reviews? Here is what I found there about the Galaxy 850.

http://www.bjorn3d.com/read.php?cID=960

He gives it a "Goldbear Award".

In his intro he says, "Today, we are going to take a look at one of the best power supply unit's that is currently available?Enermax Galaxy 850W EGA850EWL (probably the only other PSU that?s better than this PSU is the Enermax Galaxy 1000W model)."

PSU Reviews: JonnyGuru, HardwareSecrets
These and myself, are the people that I trust their words on PSU reviews.

 

[Allistah]

Does anyone happen to know if the Lite-On burner I was going to get has a decent dvd rip speed? The model is LH-20A1L-05. I've got a bunch of home movie stuff that I make copies for family and I'd like to be able to rip these things at a decent speed.

 

[BenchZowner]

Check CDRinfo.com & CDfreaks for such stuff m8.
I had a friend in CDRinfo, full of knowledge and 'turned on' with burners unfortunately he left a year ago.
Anyways, check those sites

 

[Allistah]

Cool, thanks again for the help. I'm a lot closer to having the final list of components due to the help from you guys. I just want to make sure I get the right burners.. Here is where I'm at:

Gigabyte mobo
3GHz Core 2 duo (I've read they overclock decently)
Crucial 800Mhz ram
Corsair 620 PSU
Samsung 500gb drive
Antec P182 case
8800GTX 768mb (I decided to just get the fat one based on reviews I've read)

These aren't exact model numbers but they have been mentioned higher up in the thread if anyone is interested in all the numbers. Once I actually make the purchase I'll post the final list with all the details and accurate model numbers.

The only thing that is bothering me is that Newegg and mwave are out of stock on the Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3P mobo right now.

 

[chiew]

Only suggestion now is, skip the DS3P and get the DS3R if you want a Gigabyte:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813128050

The DS3P you chose has 2 PCIex16 slots, but only one of them you can use (I don't think you can SLI on that mobo, since newegg says that the other x16 slot is electrically x4).
The DS3R does not have that second PCIex16 slot, but if you can't use that second one for SLI anyway, why get the DS3P?

DS3R is about $30 cheaper and you won't notice a difference. I still suggest the Abit IP35E because its the same P35 chip and only $72 at mwave.

However it's your rig! Sounds like a beast, have fun with it . What monitor will you be using?

 

[Ozoneman]

Allistah,

I stand corrected. Sorry for misleading you on the multi-rail thing. I had been told by others that multi-rail was good. Even though I also had been mislead, I ended up getting a very good PSU as you can see from my sig at the bottom of my post. I think you will be happy with your choice of the Corsair 620. If interested here is something I found as a result of this recent discussion on multi 12 volt rails.

http://www.playtool.com/pages/...tirail/multirails.html

 

[Allistah]

@chiew:
The reason I was going after that mobo was because of the firewire port. I don't really care about SLI. I just want a good mobo that will overclock well, has a good bios, does S3 sleep well, and is stable. I wanted firewire as well so I wouldn't have to get a firewire card for my camcorder.

I'm not completely stuck on any one board, I just will go with the selection that I know most about and fits my needs. I appreciate all the help you guys have given me.

I'm gunna go check out the Abit oard you suggested.

@Ozoneman:
No problem on the rail thing. I'll take a look at the link you gave in a bit for reference. Thanks again for all the help, I appreciate it.

 

[chiew]

Oh ok, sorry. Don't think the abit has firewire, but you can check.
How do you know the gigabyte does S3 sleep well? interested myself.

 

[Allistah]

I don't know if it does S3 well or not, it's just a gamble I'm going to have to take. :-/

Newegg doesn't have the Gigabyte board that I want in stock but they have another board (GA-P35-DQ6) that uses the DDR2 1066 ram instead of the DDR2 800. Is that just a joke? Money really it's too much of an issue so would I be better off getting the board that does DDR2 1066? Here is the link to the board they have in stock that I'm looking at:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...3128046&Tpk=GA-P35-DQ6

If anyone has any comments about this board, let me know. Thanks!

 

[chiew]

If you do OC, you might not see 1066mhz ram if you run your FSB and RAM at 1:1.
Max I've seen a E6850 is about 3.8ish Ghz, and that's with some nice aftermarket air cooling. Will you be running stock cooler?
3800/9 = 423 mhz bus.
If your ram is locked to your FSB, it will run at 423*2 = 846mhz. A board that supports 800mhz ram should be fine with a 46mhz OC on its limit.

By getting that board you are spending $70 too much on the board just to get a feature that you may not use (the faster RAM). Also, the 1066mhz crucial is too expensive ($70 more than the 800mhz), since you can get the exact same performance for less.

You can save $140 by OCing the board's RAM limit and the RAM, and this OC isn't very extreme (46mhz). I wouldn't worry about getting RAM that that is 1066mhz or a board that runs 1066mhz ram, because you can get the same performance out of cheaper parts, but if money isn't an issue, get whatever makes you happy

I have thought about the DQ6 myself, and it adds some nice features, but many of them I don't need, so I can't justify doubling the amt I pay. The big NB cooler is nice, but from what I hear P35's run pretty cool. You do gain the ability for SLi, which might be nice for you, but I think there are other SLi boards out there for cheaper.

 

[Allistah]

Ah ok. I see the difference now. I really want to order all of this stuff at once and I have the itch really bad to get this stuff ordered so I thought maybe that board would work well for me.

If they had that other mobo I'd just get the ddr2 800 and call it done but they're out of stock. I guess I'll just have to wait a bit and see if they get that board in stock Monday when they say they will.

Thanks again for the info.

 

[Allistah]

So I could still get that mobo they have in stock but just get the DDR2 800 memory instead right? Then I'll be able to SLI later if I wanted and I can still OC stuff, and I can order today.

 

[cmdrdredd]

You're sure you want SLI right now instead of waiting just a little bit to see if the 9800 is anything special?

SLI is alot of driver headaches for me. I've setup 3 systems using SLI and all were a pain to get working correctly and it's because the drivers cause problems in some games with SLI. One card worked fine in the same config.

Just a quick thought.

 

[chiew]

Yup, if thats what you want to do.
If you did want to stay within limits of the 800mhz ram (as in not OC the ram), you could easily get 800/2=400
400*9=3600=3.6ghz
that is, if you get an aftermarket cooler for the cpu.
the ram will OC to at least 1000mhz easily, from what i hear.

 

[Allistah]

@cmdrdredd:
Ahh.. Well, I don't have to have SLI today.. I just want to order today. THey don't have the board I want (GA-P35-DS3P) so I was just going to get the other one (GA-P35T-DQ6). It's more money but it has the extra cooling for OCing and -could- support an SLI config if I wanted to do that at a much later date. To be honest, that's not a big deal for me actually.

If I look at getting the board I want from other places, it's about as much as the GA-P35T-DQ6 is here at Newegg. <shrug>

 

[Allistah]

@chiew:
Ok, thanks for the info. I think I'll just get the ddr2 800 as you suggested along with the board that they have in stock.

 

[chiew]

I agree with cmdrdredd, I'd rather go with a one slot solution.
I don't think you ever get 2x the speed with SLi, and some games don't benefit much from 2 GPUs.
In my opinion, SLI is for the interim time between one generation and the next. Usually the next generation will almost double the performance of the previous generation, without the need for SLI. Plus, since its one GPU, you're guaranteed it to be worth your money, since you don't have to worry whether adding a GPU will add performance across the board in all games.
That's just me though, since I can't justify spending >$600 on two cards.
Hopefully NV 9800GTS or whatever they name it will be able to handle my next monitor, maybe 24 or 30 inch..gotta wait for the 30" to drop though

 

[chiew]

But yeah, enjoy your rig! It's always nice to avoid having to get a new board if you do want to go SLI.

 

[BenchZowner]

Ahem...the P35T-DQ6 and all the Intel P35 mobo's do NOT support SLI.
As for the Gigabyte mobo, you can't say I didn't warn you

 

[chiew]

OK sorry, was misinformed, just looked it up. P35 boards to not support SLI
What is the extra x16 slot for then?

 

[Allistah]

I went ahead and placed my order for my system. I don't really care for the other slot it's just there I guess and can be used for other stuff if I ever have it. At this time, the only other card I plan on putting in the machine at a later date is a sound card which will go into a regular PCI slot.

I wanted to thank everyone for all the input they gave me - it is greatly appreciated! Now where the hell is the UPS truck!? ;-)

Here is what I ordered:
http://secure.newegg.com/NewVe...4130072|1&preitemList=

 

[BenchZowner]

Originally posted by: chiew
OK sorry, was misinformed, just looked it up. P35 boards to not support SLI
What is the extra x16 slot for then?

The other slot is for:

1) Adding a second 'same class' ATi card ( if you already have one ATi card up ) to get them to work as a pair ( CrossFire )

2) Or just adding any other VGA to use it as a single one to drive more monitors ( you can use two nVIDIA cards [ only for driving more monitors, not SLI ], two ATi cards, two Matrox cards, or even a mix of two different cards { drivers headache masterplan } )