New Intel Build

[rjbarker]

I've gone ahead and ordered the following from DirectCanada.com: 1. MOBO - Evga Nforce 780i Sli LGA 775 ATX 1333 FSB - 2. CPU - Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3.0 Ghz Wolfdale 1333 FSB 6 MB Level 2 Cache - 3. GPU - Evga E Geforce 8800 GTX 575 Mhz / 1.8 Ghz 768 MB GDDR3 - 4. RAM - Crucial Ballistix Tracer PC2 6400 2GB - 2X 1 GB DDR2 800 Mhz CL4-4-4-12 - 5. HDD - Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320 GB SATA2 3GB/s 16 MB Cache 6. PSU - PC PowerCooling Silencer 750 Quad 750W ATX V2.2 EPS 12V 24Pin SLI - 7. LG GSA-H55L DVD+RW 20X8X16 DVD-RW Dual Layer 10X Lightscribe 8. ASUS 16X DVD-ROM Drive SATA 9. Windows XP Home Edition OEM ... $1,631.61 I finally (after 3.5 yrs) hit a game that I had to dial down my Resolution and Settings at Low....yep Crysis.....so...out with the old and in with the new....Hope DC pulls through!! Any input on this build is always appreciated... Cheers

[Babrbarossa]

Hey welcome to the boards- Are you sure you want input AFTER you've ordered the parts?

The parts do look well chosen although I might have done some things differently-

I would have bought faster RAM PC2 8500 since the motherboard is unlockable and you can squeeze every bit of speeed out of the memory

If I really wanted an SLI board, I would have bought a cheap 680i or waited until the 790i which is coming soon- for your purposes, the 780i doesn't offer anything beyond the 680i except maybe a little more heat

And I would have saved some money by buying an 8800GT- or maybe two of them, or maybe a HD 3870 as the GTXs are getting long in the tooth and are pricey in terms of price/performance ratio- and they'll be replaced soon.

[Thund3rball]

Wow I'd say you got a lot of life out of that P4 w/6800GT! Nice setup you picked out but with an SLI board I would have gotten 2 cards instead of the GTX and better RAM too as mentioned. Otherwise suhweet Wolfdale 3GHz 6MB O.O

[rjbarker]

Hey, no worries on any criticisms.....I had done a fair bit of research and yes, the points you folks had brought up were thought of. As for the MOBO, it was a toss up between the 680i vs 780i....not waiting any longer for newer stuff though. The price difference sold me as the 780i was not a whole lot more. Ahhh...2 8800 GT's vs 1 8800GTX....well....how about 1 GTX now and another soon? As for the price of the GTX..hhmm $485, hey thats what I paid for my 6800GT sooo long ago and I'm sticking to GeForce (particularly Evga) as my 6800 GT has been rock solid plowing me through all my FPS's. Yes, the Memory....PC2 6400 vs 8500 (800 Mhz vs 1060 Mhz), another one I mulled over and decided that when / if I get Vista, then I'll go for the 2 X 2GB faster Memory.... I had been working with some folks on "Open Tech Support Community Forum" as well, so I have had a large amount of Input, eventually you just have to weigh everything and "Do it"!! As for my old system, yes, I can play Crysis on it, BUT....1024X768....Low (some Medium) Settings and it sucks compared to what I'm used to...BTW...that Evga 6800GT was the 2nd fastest GeForce card when I got it...only the Ultra beat it... Anyhow, according to Directcanada it has been shipped already (Tracking number provided), hopefully all the components are their. I'm on Vancouver Island so it doesn't have to go far! Ah...and thnks for the "welcome"....I have found these Forums soo very invaluable for so much information. Cheers B

[3.0charlie]

You will be amazed by the speed. It's one great leap from your old rig to this new one. 2 questions:

case?
after-market cooler? 'cause you will overclock.

[rjbarker]

I'm having a fellow whon owns a Local PC Store here in Courtenay build it for me.....I would love to tackle the build myself, but I would be a little worried of buggering something up... Anyhow, seeing as how he's doing the build, I'll purchase one of his Towers (to be respectful of Local Businesses of course) The Tower: Raidmax Smilodon ATX I haven't put a lot of thought into AfterMarket Coolers, although I know there are a number of good ones available and yes....I was told by several others on another Forum that the E8400 has proven to succesfully O'Clock well...... ...we'll see. I have never attempted O'Clocking a PC before, my only experience with OC'ing as woth my 6800 GT, but that was quite simple. Anyhow, I hope my choices prove good, as there are so many options and alternative opinions when putting something like this together. I know the last one was also put together, but it was a "Standard Assembly" within a PC Store with "add-ons" and I find that this seems to be the way to go.... There seems to be a lot of different experiences with DirectCanada , some good, some bad, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.. Cheers B

[AkG]

If you want a little more "snap" from your system with out OC'ing you might want to pick up a Western Digital SE16 500GB hard drive (they go on sale @ ncix.com for 89 bucks from time to time). You will notice a nice performance increase (especially) on startup...At least I did ;)

[3.0charlie]

Originally Posted by rjbarker

I'm having a fellow whon owns a Local PC Store here in Courtenay build it for me.....I would love to tackle the build myself, but I would be a little worried of buggering something up... Anyhow, seeing as how he's doing the build, I'll purchase one of his Towers (to be respectful of Local Businesses of course) The Tower: Raidmax Smilodon ATX I haven't put a lot of thought into AfterMarket Coolers, although I know there are a number of good ones available and yes....I was told by several others on another Forum that the E8400 has proven to succesfully O'Clock well...... ...we'll see. I have never attempted O'Clocking a PC before, my only experience with OC'ing as woth my 6800 GT, but that was quite simple. Anyhow, I hope my choices prove good, as there are so many options and alternative opinions when putting something like this together. I know the last one was also put together, but it was a "Standard Assembly" within a PC Store with "add-ons" and I find that this seems to be the way to go.... There seems to be a lot of different experiences with DirectCanada , some good, some bad, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.. Cheers B

First built is always stressful, but there is no magic involved here. I suggest that you hang around your bud when the assembly is being done. You'll learn a lot.

And don't go cheap on the HSF, you'll regret it - and your E8400 will love it. Your HDD is quite fine, it's the Seagate version of the WD that AkG proposed.

[rjbarker]

HSF?? Sorry....

[rjbarker]

And yes, I am planning on hanging around his shop as he builds....I'm looking forward to it...seems I have progressed with this stuff and it is now a hobby!! Amazing though when I look at the Hardware nd compare to my 1st Computer - 1995 - Macintosh Performa (all in one model) I believe it had 75 Mhz Power PC Processor and kept "packed" with 6 MB RAM ...with of course 2 MB Integrated Video Memory - but hey I used to play Doom on this machine... Apple Macintosh Performa 5215CD Specs @ EveryMac.com