Newbie PC builder, need some help/advice

During Christmas I put together my first PC that didn't have a brand label slapped on the tower. I had always been interested in PC gaming but only recently got enough money to put together a half-decent rig. After budgeting and much research I came up with this:

EVGA Nvidia 750i FTW Motherboard
2x EVGA Nvidia 9800GT superclocked edition cards in SLI
Wolfdale E8500 dual core processor
4 gigs of Corsair 1066 DDR2 RAM
PC Power&Cooling 750w Silencer PSU
WD Cavier 640 gig HDD
Windows Vista Home Premium (Please don't shoot me, I regret it enough already lol)

I know this isn't exactly top of the line or anything, but it's what I could afford haha.

I have a couple of questions, and would love any comments on the setup that you might have, or random suggestions. First, if I'm going to be mainly playing games like Starcraft 2, Diablo 3, and Guild Wars 2, with maybe some other odd games here and there -- how long is this PC going to last me? Should I do a minor upgrade toward the end of the year to give it a tad more longevity? Second, do you have any suggestions for how I can get the most out of my machine without doing a complete overhaul? Lastly, any general advice would be much appreciated, just be gentle :P

what rez will you be playing at? The 2 9800gt's are very good in performance, normally outperforming a GTX260 and 4870. Only thing I would recommend is maybe swapping out the dual-core for a quad. Other than that though, you have a pretty solid build

edit: Vista is an awesome OS, don't listen to all the XP fanboys, but make sure you go 64-bit

In terms of longevity it is a very good build. With no upgrades, you should be able to play any game at a good rez for the next few years.

Even better, you have enough memory and your mobo is good enough that, should you require an upgrade, all you'll need to do is slap a better vid card in there.

Good job!

what rez will you be playing at? The 2 9800gt's are very good in performance, normally outperforming a GTX260 and 4870. Only thing I would recommend is maybe swapping out the dual-core for a quad. Other than that though, you have a pretty solid build

edit: Vista is an awesome OS, don't listen to all the XP fanboys, but make sure you go 64-bit

lundy86_4

well thats not 100% true but yeah vista 64-bit is superior to xp but i refuse to recognize premium or home basic as good OS's for gaming.

If your planning on playing like crazy rts's with lots of **** going on, you might want to upgrade to a quad in a year or two

I would avoid dual videocards at all cost, but that's your choice.

[QUOTE="lundy86_4"]

what rez will you be playing at? The 2 9800gt's are very good in performance, normally outperforming a GTX260 and 4870. Only thing I would recommend is maybe swapping out the dual-core for a quad. Other than that though, you have a pretty solid build

edit: Vista is an awesome OS, don't listen to all the XP fanboys, but make sure you go 64-bit

aura_enchanted

well thats not 100% true but yeah vista 64-bit is superior to xp but i refuse to recognize premium or home basic as good OS's for gaming.

True they're not the best... but I use Home Premium and haven't had a problem so far. I just meant I hate the guys who absolutely despise vista for no reason, when 1/2 of them won't even try it. Windows 7 is on the way, so that should be even better

That rig seems overkill for what you're going to be playing :?

Your system sounds great... maybe as you can upgrade your videocard when you can budget it. if you need other help sign-up thru my website: http://pcsbydesign.com

jim 8)

I would avoid dual videocards at all cost, but that's your choice.

Mr_BillGates

[QUOTE="Mr_BillGates"]

I would avoid dual videocards at all cost, but that's your choice.

nightz2k

Based upon price, the benifits of using crossfire/Sli isn't that great until you get into 3-4 cards...

[QUOTE="nightz2k"][QUOTE="Mr_BillGates"]

I would avoid dual videocards at all cost, but that's your choice.

slayerpker

Based upon price, the benifits of using crossfire/Sli isn't that great until you get into 3-4 cards...

Depending on the games, it's actually noticable in crossfire, at least in my experience.

I'd actually say to get an HD 4870X2 or GTX295 cause they're 2 GPU's in one. ;)

Ahem...'rulze, I would like to state, for the record, that I told you that rig would be good enough to play the games you wanted to play at high settings. :)nocoolnamejim

hahaha way to blow my cover Jimbo