Building new rig - advice and comments?

scoobyrich · 22 Nov 2006 at 21:28

OK, so its time for a new rig. In the past I've never been too picky and generally gone cheap and cheerful, but this time I thought I'd put a bit more time and money into it, mainly so I don't have to rebuild every year....

Use is split 50/50 between online gaming and .Net development.

OK, so far I have:
EVGA nForce 680 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
Intel CPU: Core 2 Duo E6600 (2.4GHz) LGA775 Retail
Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2-6400C4 PRO TwinX (2x1GB)
EVGA GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail
4 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 160GB ST3160811AS SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM configured as 2x RAID 0 (System) 2x RAID 1 (Storage)
Thermaltake VA8000BWS Armour Super Tower - Black
Antec TruePower Trio 650W PSU
Pioneer DVR-111BK 16x DVD±RW/RAM Dual Layer Internal IDE (Black) - OEM

Disc is fairly important, not so much size as performance and reliability. This config seems a reasonable compromise on price vs perf / reliabilty.

I figure the 8800 is a must, I'll be looking for DX10 support next year anyway, and it seems pointless buying a DX9 card now only to replace it in 6 months. Unless of course someone can suggest a DX9 card at a price that wont hurt when I pull it out in 6 months?

Seriously considering water cooling. I like quiet. Swiftech seems to be the recommendation for beginners

, tho whats the advice for water cooling an 8800?

All in all a little pricey maybe, but I don't plan on replacing this lot for a while. Any alternative suggestions, something I've missed, or something cheaper? Price doesnt worry me too much, tho I'm not so flush that I'm happy to chuck money away for the sake of it... I'm way open to suggestions...

Murzo · 22 Nov 2006 at 22:00

That all looks very good, but i would switch your seagates to the 7200.10 as they are much faster and quieter than the 7200.9.

SiriusB · 22 Nov 2006 at 22:04

Murzo said:
That all looks very good, but i would switch your seagates to the 7200.10 as they are much faster and quieter than the 7200.9.

Agreed.

SiriusB

TheGunslinger · 22 Nov 2006 at 22:11

That looks great, similar to mine (sig) If I were you I would get a gtx, for the sake of an extra 50 quid the performance increase between the two cards is vastly measurable.

scoobyrich · 22 Nov 2006 at 23:11

Cheers guys, good to know I''m on the right track. I'll take the advice on the 7200.10's. Not sure what I'm gonna do with that much disc, but hey, I'll find something

. Not so sure about the GTX to be honest. Will have to think about it. If I stick with the EVGA its another £130 on top. I am tempted tho.

Simonnn · 22 Nov 2006 at 23:21

looks a good setup!

TheGunslinger · 23 Nov 2006 at 11:34

scoobyrich said:
Cheers guys, good to know I''m on the right track. I'll take the advice on the 7200.10's. Not sure what I'm gonna do with that much disc, but hey, I'll find something . Not so sure about the GTX to be honest. Will have to think about it. If I stick with the EVGA its another £130 on top. I am tempted tho.

Get yourself a lesser known brand of GTX, they are all the same architecture, they have all the same stuff, beans are beans. I dont overclock any of my gear (lol what a place to say that

) or cut some corners on your other stuff to raise the cash, its worth it.