Looking for advice for new rig build

[+PeterUK MVC]

Update SAPPHIRE Toxic 100225TXSR Radeon HD 3870 512MB 256-bit GDDR4 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail

Model #:100225TXSR

Item #:N82E16814102732

$139.99

You really don't want to get that one. :blink:

[Kittamaru]

Oh? Why's that? This is the "lower end" PC for my fiance, I forgot to mention that.The higher end one is pending me being able to find the right stepping (E0 instead of C1) on the CPU I want :)

[gwai lo]

Lose the X48, not running Crossfire, 750TX is cheaper although the Silencer will perform better, lose the Zalman 9700, what's with all the fans?

[Kittamaru]

I'm putting that mobo so I have the option of crossfire at a later date :)

The fans... I'm an advocate of good airflow? :)

And why loose the Zalman? I do intend to overclock at least to the level of the EE's. Any particular cooler you'd recommend?

[gwai lo]

Xigmatek S1283 or OCZ Vendetta 2.

You've got four 120mm fans picked out and a single 80mm fan and your case doesn't appear to have 120mm slots and it already comes with 80mm fans. Where are they going to go?

Well, if you weren't getting open box, I'd say go X38 for Crossfire later..but that'll be more expensive. Not sure how well that's going to work out down the road, but it's your money.

[Kittamaru]

Not sure how which one would work out? The x38 or the x 48?

Also - I'm actually looking at the possibility of the Vendetta 2 now... I haven't seen H.D.T. tech before 0o'

As for the fans... I might have grabbed them from the wrong list >_>

[gwai lo]

The X48's are handpicked X38's that do 1600 FSB and some other minor detail. Don't confuse this with X38's not being able to overclock just as well as all of the other chipsets and motherboards.

[Kittamaru]

So the x48 is just a hand-picked, quality control x38 that is then rebadged?

[gwai lo]

Yep, they're essentially the same...though quality isn't really that significant. Doing 400 FSB according to Intel's specs are probably different from our specs as we know X38's do not run into a FSB wall at 400 FSB.

[Kittamaru]

Alright, I'm lost... I can't find a single site that states if a CPU Heatsink is Heatpipe Direct Touch or not... any help there?

[White Cuban]

Core i7 'Nehalem' will use a new socket LGA1366 with the new X58 chipset. Should be out in November.

More than enough, you should even be able to play Crysis with this setup! I prefer Asus motherboard but the Gigabyte is a good choice too.

Stupid crysis, why would people wanna play it, finished the game, half baked storyline, so it looks pretty.. so do other games theese days. yawn.

Back on topic.

yeah you should be able to play probally all games of theese days with high specs (though you never know whats arround the corner right? and theres ALOT of dem' corners)

[Kittamaru]

Hence why I'm hoping to look to the future... but they keep changing the frackin socket on meh!

[Kittamaru]

Aighty, well, I re-build my lil bro's PC

Gigabyte GA-G31M-S2L

PC Power and Cooling 600W PSU

Intel Core 2 Duo CPU @ 2.5 ghz

2g OCZ DDR2 800 (the fire red ones)

Radeon HD3850

Would post more, but I'm dead tired.

That little thing overruns my Opteron 148 system easily. I'm pleasently surprised.

[Vidar]

Having worked in both retail and oem in the computer industry, I see this alot and its quite amusing... Spore is not that intense of a game, Crysis was intense... back when ATi Radeons were in the x1000-series of cards. 8GBs? Have you decided to do professional video editing or kernel compiling for Nasa?

Windows XP - 2GBs, there's absolutely no point to go beyond 2GBs, especially since 32-bit OSs can only address to the 3.35 (Might be off on the .35) GBs of RAM. Vista 64-bit is quite nice and roomy at the 2-4GB range. I'd say step up to the 4GB for a 64-bit since the OS itself is a memory hog with the aero effects and what not. 8GBs is overkill.

Video Card? Tough call as I'm shopping myself. I've been a staunch ATi guy for sometime but their driver support has been horrible. I have a single ASUS EAH Radeon 3850 at stock clock and its plenty responsive for playing Spore and Warhammer cranked up on a 1680x1500 widescreen.

Water Cooling? Meh. Water cooling maintains room temperature. If you are really hard bent on overclocking, move towards phase change. If you're running stock, HSF is perfectly fine and in some instances, cooler than water cooling temperatures. Placement vs. Noise vs. Flow.

Case? Asthetics. If you really don't care if the case was lime green and purple polka dotted but served its purpose for function amazingly, the only function over form (but still pleasing) company I can promote would be Lian-li. I was really against them in the beginning due to the price, but after breaking down and buying one, they are insanely efficient in cooling, room, and features. You can just tell the difference in manufacturing between Lian-Li and, for example, Antec, who tend to just rebrand other cheaper cases until you hit their high end expensive cases that still pale in comparison.

Photoshop is not that intense with proper ram, cpu and hard drive space. Its more intense on the HDD than the other two due to scratch disk use. And Alt-Tabbing between Spore and Photoshop is about a 5-sec lag on my current setup at only 4GBs DDR2 6400, Core2Duo 2.4GHz, and a SATA 3 500GB WD w/ 16MB Cache.

And just some caveats... 4GB = No Media Center. TV Tuner cards currently have an issue, even in 64-bit, with properly displaying when the machine has more than the 32-bit 3GB ceiling. Hauppauge is currently blaming Microsoft, who is currently blaming bad drivers.

*shrug* Its your cash, but honestly, I'd check out actual game/application use prior to just throwing hardware at it. Mad Dog is a horrid company who tend to raise large numbers in hopes people will buy their products. I distinctly remember seeing their original Nvidia G4 with "1GB DDR MEMORY!". The card's clock speed was a joke and was out performed several times over by its GeForce 2 Ti 64MB SDRAM predecessor, a "bargain" card. Its like having photographic memory but also having the intelligence of a pea, "I know that texture color! Its called 'GARKILSTEIN!'"

Also, Gizmodo.com is a good place to checkout. As of today, they released news that the new Adobe CS4 actually gets a rendering boost on nVidia based cards. Good to know if you almost bought an ATi and work primarily in Adobe products :D

[Kittamaru]

I like aesthetics but I want space to expand - I want this to be the last case I buy OR to turn it into a file-server.

Remember - this build is for my fiance, who WILL be doing 3d Video Editing and photo editing.

I've seen my rig use up all it's 2 Gig's in EvE Online and other games, which is why I want 4 for the gaming rig.

Media Center is no big deal *shrugs*

Video cards - I want a good card that'll run the games 5 years down the road (as my current build has done). Going on it's 5th year, my PC can (barely) sustain playable FPS in most modern games. Granted, Supreme Commander lags to hell when we hit around 5k units... but duh?

As for ATI drivers... 3rd party drivers ftw? :) Can't remember the last time I used a default ATI driver longer than just to install the rest of the system.