new system build advice

[TitusTroy]

I'm planning on building a new system shortly and want to know people's opinions on my components...I'm especially confused on the memory...I'm mainly going to be using this for high end gaming with medium overclocking...any and all help is appreciated

CPU: Intel E8400 or Intel Q6600

Mobo: ASUS P5E3 Premium (X48) or ASUS P5E3 Deluxe WiFi-AP (X38)

CPU Cooler: Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme or Tuniq Tower T-120-LFB

Video Card: ATI 3870X2 or GeForce 8800GTS (G92)

Memory: need help in choosing the correct DDR3 memory (DDR3-1066? DDR3-1033?)...if I go with DDR2 I will most likely go with 4 GB DDR2-800

Hard Drive: either 1 500 GB 7200 RPM drive or 2 Raptors in RAID0

Sound Card: Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer Fatal1ty Professional

Case: Antec P182, Cooler Master CM-690 or Cooler Master Stacker 832...or a dark horse candidate the XClio Windtunnel Advanced---> http://www.newegg.com/Product/...clio%2bwtbk%2badvanced

Power Supply: PC Power and Cooling Silencer 750W or Corsair 750W/650W

 

[DSF]

A couple of your choices are serious overkill. If you're not running two graphics cards, the X38 loses a lot of its appeal. A P35 solution would be cheaper, use less energy, and overclock just about as well. For gaming the E8400 will be better than the Q6600 in most cases, but either will serve you fine.

Don't bother with DDR3. Not only does it not offer much in the way of a real-world performance advantage over DDR2, it's insanely expensive. Go with your 4GB of DDR2 idea.

You don't need anywhere near 750W for that setup. A quality 500W power supply is plenty.

 

[imported_wired247]

until FSBs start getting much faster, DDR3 has no real business inside any computer unless you're looking to score big on artificial benchmarks

the asus p5e is a good mobo, skip the p5e3. I liked the x38 chipset because it has two full pcie 2.0 x16 ports, whereas the p35 cannot accomplish that. but, if you do not have a need for the 2 ports, then a p35 chipset would be fine for you, even to build a bleeding edge system.

 

[TitusTroy]

thanks for the advice...yeah I know the X48 and power supply was overkill but I also was thinking about somewhat future proofing my rig (hence the quad core CPU)...so the P35 is pretty much the same chipset as the X38 minus the PCI 2.0 support and the full PCI-E 2nd lane?...so if I never plan on using dual cards then I should not even bother with the X48 or X38?...will those new dual GPU card setups, which is pretty much Crossfire on a single card, be affected by not going with the X38/X48?...also if I got the P35 board would it make sense to pair it with DDR3 or should I stick with DDR2 no matter what?...I read that the P35 is a mainstream board, is this not correct?

I read some reviews of the X48 + DDR3 which raved about its performance...here is one article

http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/...wxLCxoZW50aGlzdWFzdA==

 

[chinaman1472]

By the time DDR3 becomes affordable, you'll upgrade again anyway. SLi/Crossfire is not an upgrade path. It makes virtually no sense to buy a $250-400 video card now, and spend another $200-400 months/years later to get a minor increase in performance when you can just buy a newer, faster video card for the same price. High end motherboards are geared towards more extra features. It's doubtful that a $250-300 motherboard will give you big advantage in overclocking compared to a $100 one.

The only good future-proofing you can really do is getting an eVGA card and use the step-up program. Outside of that, don't build a system with future proofing in mind, especially now with Intel changing the socket for the Nehalem chipset.

 

[mcv]

Personally I think the E8400 is more future-proof than the Q6600, but if you do lots of heavy multi-threaded stuff, go ahead and take the quad core.
I agree DDR3's time hasn't come yet. It's a waste of money for little benefit.
For your video card, isn't the 3870X2 by far the most powerful video card at the moment? If you're even considering it, I don't see how an 8800GTS is any competition. Although I don't know the 8800GTS very well; I only know the 8800GT is excellent value for money.

 

[Roguestar]

Never buy to "future proof" in the gaming market, you'll end up spending way over the odds now when saving that money and spending it two years from now will get you something better. Stick with the E8400 and DDR2. The 3870X2 mcv recommended is currently the best single-card solution.

 

[imported_wired247]

Originally posted by: mcv
Personally I think the E8400 is more future-proof than the Q6600, but if you do lots of heavy multi-threaded stuff, go ahead and take the quad core.
I agree DDR3's time hasn't come yet. It's a waste of money for little benefit.
For your video card, isn't the 3870X2 by far the most powerful video card at the moment? If you're even considering it, I don't see how an 8800GTS is any competition. Although I don't know the 8800GTS very well; I only know the 8800GT is excellent value for money.

It's a toss up, one might consider the 8800 ultra / 2x 8800gt SLi / 8800 gtx but none would likely be as good of a value as the 3870x2