Need help with building up a new PC.

instead of liquid cooling get 3 tornados.

People say that theyre noisy but i think its cool(pun intended)

Get the 8800GT rather than the GTX. It is half the price and performs at only a small % lower than the GTX. The P182 is a fantastic case, you will have no trouble with heat, particularly at stock speeds. I would get Vista-you would only have to upgrade in 6 months or so anyway. With those specs you are looking at getting the % hit on the FPS will be minimal. Finally, if I were you I would save some money and get the GO stepping Q6600 rather than the Q6850. It will overclock easily to the same speeds.

Those specs will last you a good while, altough you may well need more RAM soon. I recently upgraded to 3gb and noticed a world of difference.

Greetings and Salutations,
At the moment, im planning on building up a PC for my first time, although i wouldn't know what to get. I've got some idea of what parts i should get though:

*GeForce 8800GTX or a GeForce 8800GT
* 2.6-3GHz CPU (Intel or AMD)
* A Motherboard with SLI compatible
* 2 Gigs of ram

So right now my plan is to be able to get games like UT3, CoD4 and WoW in near to full settings, and maybe Crysis at medium settings (since thats a whore of a game). So I've decided to look out at various websites and probably tried to get a list on what i should probally aim for. So i went ahead and checked out NewEgg.com And i thought about getting these parts:

* Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6850 Kentsfield 3.0GHz 2 x 4MB L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor - Retail - $1,029.99
* ASUS P5N32-E SLI LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail - $204.99
* CORSAIR Dominator 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail - $170
* OCZ GameXStream OCZ700GXSSLI ATX12V 700W Power Supply 100 - 240 V - Retail - $139.99
* Antec P182 Gun Metal Black 0.8mm cold rolled steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail - $149.99
*Western Digital Caviar SE WD3200AAJB 320GB 7200 RPM IDE Ultra ATA100 Hard Drive - OEM - $74.99
* XFX PVT80FSHE9 GeForce 8800GTX Extreme 768MB 384-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail - $529.99

Now i've added the price out and i got a price of, $2299.94 US dollars. Now when i convert that to AUS its $2,498.31, these above specs are without shipping too, so i will be expecting atleast a 200 dollar shipping to the US then getting someone there to send them to me for another $200 and plus i might need a transformer since the US has a lower Input Voltage than we have. Now these prices are at Newegg.com, and i don't even know if they ship here. But what i did then was look up dell.com.au, picked the parts that were similar to mine and i got a price of 5 grand AUS. I then looked up another Australian store with the exact same PC parts as above.

* Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6850 Kentsfield 3.0GHz 2 x 4MB L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor - $1,310.00
* ASUS P5N32-E SLI LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard - $170.00
* Corsair TWIN2x2048-8500C5DF (2x1G) 2GB (2xXMS2 1GB) PC-8500 (1066MHz) DDR2 RAM, 2x240-pin DIMMs Non ECC, Unbuffered, 5-5-5-18, Dominator Airflow Fan - $299.00
* OCZ GameXStream OCZ700GXSSLI ATX12V 700W Power Supply 100 - 240 V - $96.00
* Antec P182 ATX Mid Tower Case: No PSU, 11 Drive Bays, upto 5 Configurable Fans, Front USB/ IEEE1394/Audio - $210
* Western Digital WD3200JB IDE 320HB 7200rpm 8MB Cache Caviar SE $96
* XFX PV-T80F-SHE9 GeForce 8800GTX 768MB GDDR3 XXX Version - $899

Which gives me a total of $3,284,00 (And i dont need to care about shipping since the store is nearby going to pick them up.) Now my main questions are:

1) Are these parts listed at the end compatible with one another?
2) Will i be expecting a good FPS from games like WoW, CRYSIS, UT4, Spore etc.?
3) Should i buy Windows XP or Vista? ATM im thinking of XP because it seems that XP dosnt suck out much FPS durring gameplay or w.e.
4) Will these specs be lasting me for a couple of years before i need to change them later on? (Obviously they wont take games that will be releasing for 2009 lol, but will they be lasting me throughout 2008 and so on?)
5) I've been worried about the power of these specs, will they be overheating if i don't have liquid cooling system? The casing says that its liquid cooling ready so i can get those and install them without much hassle.

Thanks for your time =D I'm planning on building it ASAP with some help by my side. Xeno_Angelic

I don't think Newegg ships internationally (they don't ship to Canada, so I doubt they ship to Australia). Sorry to be the bringer of bad news.

I don't think Newegg ships internationally (they don't ship to Canada, so I doubt they ship to Australia). Sorry to be the bringer of bad news.

drucom

A few small things:

1: No need for that QX6800 processor. Get a Q6600 instead, or an E6750 if you really want to save money.

2: You don't need RAM that fast, it offers basically no performance for quite a jump in price. Pick up a nice 2x1GB DDR2 800/667 setup for less than half that cost, or you could probably get 4GB of RAM for what you're paying.

3: I'm just not a fan of the GameXStream or StealthXStream line from OCZ. I'd get a Corsair or Seasonic unit myself, or if you're feeling grossly overkill, an Antec Truepower Quattro 850w.

4: If you've already got a DVD drive, it's most likely on the IDE interface, so you'll be short one IDE port. Pick up a SATA hard drive instead of IDE, it costs the same, the cables are smaller, and the hard drive will be slightly faster.

1: No need for that QX6800 processor. Get a Q6600 instead, or an E6750 if you really want to save money.

RayvinAzn

I've decided to go for the Q6700 2.66GHz CPU instead of the 3GHz, the price is amazingly different and with that extra cash i could go buy a 22" screen or something, what size screen can i get for 800 dollars by chance anyways?

2: You don't need RAM that fast, it offers basically no performance for quite a jump in price. Pick up a nice 2x1GB DDR2 800/667 setup for less than half that cost, or you could probably get 4GB of RAM for what you're paying.

4: If you've already got a DVD drive, it's most likely on the IDE interface, so you'll be short one IDE port. Pick up a SATA hard drive instead of IDE, it costs the same, the cables are smaller, and the hard drive will be slightly faster.

RayvinAzn

At 2: Could you possibly run that by me again? I'm paying extra for something i can get for 4 gigs of ram, could you possibly tell me a good Australian store or possibly the name of a good pair of Ram i could get?

At 4: I didd'nt really understand you in that point there, could you explain it for me sorry?

DDR2 1066 RAM is much more expensive than DDR2 800 or DDR2 667, and offers very little (we're talking less than a frame-per-second in games) in the way of real-world performance. My point about 4GB is that for what you're paying, I'm almost certain you can get 4GB of RAM instead of 2GB of "fast" RAM. Stores in Australia, I've managed to forget, but one of the Aussie guys here should be able to help you out.

Regarding the hard drive, there's a "new" interface out called SATA. It offers improved bandwidth and much smaller cables. Modern motherboards always come with more SATA ports (usually between 4-10) than IDE ports (usually 1 or 2). Granted, only one SATA device can be used per port unlike IDE's 2 devices per port, but the trade-off is obviously worth it. The cables used by SATA are much smaller, and easier to work with and less restrictive to airflow. SATA also eliminates the need for master/slave settings, which is another plus. While I'm talking about SATA, I'd recommend that you buy a new DVD RW drive on the SATA interface as well, since that will mean you'll have no more ribbon cables floating around in your case, making for a very clean and cool environment.

DDR2 1066 RAM is much more expensive than DDR2 800 or DDR2 667, and offers very little (we're talking less than a frame-per-second in games) in the way of real-world performance. My point about 4GB is that for what you're paying, I'm almost certain you can get 4GB of RAM instead of 2GB of "fast" RAM. Stores in Australia, I've managed to forget, but one of the Aussie guys here should be able to help you out.

Regarding the hard drive, there's a "new" interface out called SATA. It offers improved bandwidth and much smaller cables. Modern motherboards always come with more SATA ports (usually between 4-10) than IDE ports (usually 1 or 2). Granted, only one SATA device can be used per port unlike IDE's 2 devices per port, but the trade-off is obviously worth it. The cables used by SATA are much smaller, and easier to work with and less restrictive to airflow. SATA also eliminates the need for master/slave settings, which is another plus. While I'm talking about SATA, I'd recommend that you buy a new DVD RW drive on the SATA interface as well, since that will mean you'll have no more ribbon cables floating around in your case, making for a very clean and cool environment.

RayvinAzn

The DVD Burner in the older PC was bought seperatly and i installed it, so i'll have a look if its SATA compatible, And thank you for that grand explanantion, you really were able to explain it to me perfectly =D, i'll go around and look out for better RAM instead of the one i have on that list there.

I just have one final question, regarding the Graphic Card, i read that buying a GeForce 8800GT is more cost effective and gives better preformance, so just by chance i looked up here several GeForce 8800 GT, would anyone advise me in which to get?

LeadtekLT-8800GT-E3
PCI Express (Nvidia): GeForce 8800GT 512MB GDDR3 256-bit , 600/1800MHz, Max Res. 2560 x 1600, 2 x Dual-Link DVI, HDTV, HDCP, Fan - $378.00

GigabyteGV-NX88T512H-B
PCI Express (Nvidia): GeForce 8800GT 512MB GDDR3,256-bit 600/1800MHz, HDCP, Dual Link DVI-I, TV-Out, Fan - $380.00

XFX11PVT88P-512
PCIe(Nvidia):GeForce 8800GT 512 MB DDR3 256-bit 1.8 GHz

And there are plenty of others, so does anyone know which brand or kind of the 8800GT series i should buy?

If it's got a ribbon cable going to it, it's not SATA compatible. It's one or the other, there are no drives that support both interfaces. The 8800GT is indeed a much better buy than the 8800GTX, especially at lower resolutions.

Out of the three cards you listed, I'd go with XFX. EVGA, XFX, and BFG are widely considered to be the top three Nvidia companies, so I'd try to stick with them if at all possible.

You didn't take my advice on the RAM, power supply, or hard drive - why not?RayvinAzn

If you're carrying over an old IDE drive, that's all well and good - but do not add another IDE hard drive to your system, buy a SATA drive instead. They're just as cheap if not more cheap, and better in basically every way a hard drive interface could be better.

As for the RAM, I'm not talking about a couple dollars here, you should be able to get 2x1GB of DDR2 800 or DDR2 667 RAM for half what you're paying for DDR2 1066. Exact models are pretty much any DDR2 RAM with a heatspreader. I prefer Crucial RAM if you can get it, but Corsair, Kingston, Geil, G.Skill, Mushkin, Buffalo, and a number of other companies will do just as well.

Ordered my new PC last Wednesday, similar spec to yours:

Case: Akasa Mirage-62 V2 Midi Tower Case - Hi-End

CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6700 S775 2.66 GHz 1066MHz FSB Kentsfield Core 8MB Cache Retail

Memory: 2GB (2x1GB) CorsairTwinX XMS2 DDR2 PC2-6400 (800) 240 Pins Non-ECC Unbuffered CAS 4-4-4-12 EPP

nVidia VGA-The Way It's Meant To Be PlayedTM: 768Mb XFX 8800 Ultra XT PCI-E (x16) Mem 2200 MHz GPU 650 MHz 128 Stream 2 x Dual Link DVI

System Drives: 150 Gb Western Digital WD1500ADFD Raptor Enterprise SATA150 10000 rpm 16MB Cache NCQ 4.6 ms

Storage Hard drives: 500 Gb Samsung HD501LJ Spinpoint T SATA300 7200 rpm 16MB Cache 8.9 ms NCQ

Sound Card Specialist Card Option: Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi Xtreme Gamer Sound Card UK Retail

Operating system: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 32Bit

Asus Striker Extreme NF680i SLI, S 775, PCI-E (x16), DDR2 533/667/800, SATA II, SATA RAID, ATX

850W Coolermaster Modular PSU Quad PCI-E, 6x12V Rails, >85% Efficiency, Intelligent 135mm fan

Cant wait, better tbh to just find out what works well then lay out the cash, coming on the net since I ordered has freaked me out more than once.

If you're carrying over an old IDE drive, that's all well and good - but do not add another IDE hard drive to your system, buy a SATA drive instead. They're just as cheap if not more cheap, and better in basically every way a hard drive interface could be better.

As for the RAM, I'm not talking about a couple dollars here, you should be able to get 2x1GB of DDR2 800 or DDR2 667 RAM for half what you're paying for DDR2 1066. Exact models are pretty much any DDR2 RAM with a heatspreader. I prefer Crucial RAM if you can get it, but Corsair, Kingston, Geil, G.Skill, Mushkin, Buffalo, and a number of other companies will do just as well.

RayvinAzn

Well, that extra cache would be nice, but not for that price. Part of the reason for that is you're looking at a RAID edition drive, which are more server oriented, durable, and reliable. It's not a huge difference as a single drive in a home PC, but get a server rack with 10 of those lined up, and it can make all the difference. I'd see if you can find a nice Seagate 7200.10 drive or a Western Digital SE16 drive. Both of those should be very close in price to the Western Digital SE, and will have a 16MB cache. It's not a huge performance difference if you can't find one, but it's worth a few dollars.

As for the RAM, that first kit looks decent, but still a bit expensive. You should be able to find some decent stuff for around $100 if you look in the right places.

And no need to apologize, we're not all experts, and I don't browse these forums to ridicule people. I'm here to help, and in helping people expanding my own knowledge.

I'll try to update the list again, what do you guys think of this list atm:

* Intel Core 2 Extreme Q6700 2.66GHz - $339.00
* ASUS P5N32-E SLI LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail - $204.99
* SeagateST3320620AS SATA 320G SATA II NCQ 16M 7200RPM.10 - $110
* OCZ GameXStream OCZ700GXSSLI ATX12V 700W Power Supply 100 - 240 V - Retail - $139.99
* Antec P182 Gun Metal Black 0.8mm cold rolled steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail - $149.99
* Xe-GeForce 8800GT SSC 512MB - $460.00
*CorsairTWIN2X2048-6400C4(1GX2)G (2x XMS2 1GB) DDRII-800 (PC-6400C): 2x240-pin DIMMs, Non ECC Unbuffered, 4-4-4-12 - $85 (A friend told me he's got one that he can give me for free, and i can buy the other off him.)

What i do plan on doing later on whenever i need to i'll change the CPU to a 3.0GHz. I do have some problems though, i'll quote this off what someone just told me:

In regards to the motherboard:
* ASUS P5N32-E SLI LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail - $204.99
"Don't go with this mobo at all. If you want nothing else but SLI, it's best to hold off for the N780SLI chipset boards to come out. Can't wait? Then grab a Gigabyte GA-P35-DQ6 and throw two ATI HD2900XT VGA's into it CrossFire'd."

In regards to the Power Supply:
* OCZ GameXStream OCZ700GXSSLI ATX12V 700W Power Supply 100 - 240 V - Retail - $139.99
"Not enough power, you'll need at least 1000W to run the CPU, graphics etc."

I don't get what he ment with the motherboard, doing what he tells me seems like i'll be spending more on those 3 pieces than buying the entire computer. And inregards with the Powersuppy, isnt 700W not enough for the computer to run, or will i be pushing it?

That's some pretty bad advice. He's right about the 680i board being better suited for dual Nvidia graphics cards than anything else, but running HD2900XT cards in Crossfire on a P35 board cripples their performance. The nForce 780i boards apparently got pushed back a few months, possibly into next year. The way I see it, you have three options:

1: You just want a single card setup, and are on a bit of a budget. Pick up a single PCI-e slot P35 motherboard. They're reliable, up-to-date, reasonably future-proog, and are excellent performers for most applications.

2: You really want SLI/Crossfire video cards, and you want them now. If you want SLI, stick with the 680i board - but I wouldn't expect any of the really good upcoming Intel processors to be supported by any 680i board. That's not to say they won't be, but don't expect it. If you want Crossfire, pick up one of Intel's X38 chipset boards. They're expensive, but they boast PCI-e 2.0 (not that big of a deal), are confirmed to support Intel's upcoming processors, and and exceptional enthusiast boards.

3: You won't be building for a while anyway, so waiting for a new board isn't a bad thing. Well, that's all up in the air right now. AMD is going to have a big month, what with its new graphics cards, processors, and chipsets, Nvidia is re-re-rereleasing the 8800 GTS/X/O/Type R/whatever, Intel's got some new processors in the works, and it's just generally a busy time of year. If this rig isn't going to be shipped within a week, I'd basically scrap all your plans for the processor, motherboard, and graphics card.

Power supply, you won't need a 1kw unit. Even a watercooled quad-core machine with dual 8800GTX cards, multiple hard drives, 4x1GB of RAM, lots of fans (though who knows why in a water-cooled system), etc. will be fine on a decent 850w unit, and even that's going overkill.

I've been looking around and was thinking about waiting on buying the more advanced motherboards. Though when will the nForce 780i motherboards be released? I read somewhere they're planning it durring december before the end of 2007, if i do go for that motherboard though, will the graphic card, ram, cpu, harddrive still be compatible with it? Or will i need to make a completely new overhaul of the machine to suit the 780i?Xeno_Angelic

I believe all the 780i boards are adding is PCI-e 2.0 support and possibly Penryn support. Nothing major that will affect your machine.

Could someone list me the differences between the:

* Asus P5N32-E SLI LGA775 nForce 680i SLI, 1333MHz FSB, Dual Channel DDR2-800, SATA-II RAID, Dual GbE LAN, ATX - $310.00
http://umart.net.au/au/product_info.php?manufacturers_id=&products_id=108212

Or the

* Asus STRIKER-EXTREME S775, QuadCore, nF680i-SLI, 2xPCIEx16, RAID, 2xGbLAN, 1394a, ATX - $425.00
http://umart.net.au/au/product_info.php?manufacturers_id=&products_id=108245

I can't really myself find a difference in them both, So which of the two do you advise me to get. I'm now on a deadline to get this PC done asap.

Could someone list me the differences between the:

* Asus P5N32-E SLI LGA775 nForce 680i SLI, 1333MHz FSB, Dual Channel DDR2-800, SATA-II RAID, Dual GbE LAN, ATX - $310.00
http://umart.net.au/au/product_info.php?manufacturers_id=&products_id=108212

Or the

* Asus STRIKER-EXTREME S775, QuadCore, nF680i-SLI, 2xPCIEx16, RAID, 2xGbLAN, 1394a, ATX - $425.00
http://umart.net.au/au/product_info.php?manufacturers_id=&products_id=108245

I can't really myself find a difference in them both, So which of the two do you advise me to get. I'm now on a deadline to get this PC done asap.

Xeno_Angelic

If you're a heavy OCer then go with the Striker since you can't tell the difference between those 2 boards by just looking at them or by their specs but I believe the Striker is built with better components (transistors, capacitors...) and therefore allow more OCing capability than the P5N.