Help wth Spec

[Malal]

Hi,

Been a long time since I last built a system, so here is the spec any comments and advice would be most appreciated.

I'm looking to get somethign that is going to last, just started Uni so this is all my spare cash for next few years so looking for something that will last especially components like Case/PSU etc

I haven't done any overclocking before so I'm also looking for any adivce you can throw at me on whether I should water cool the system or just air cool and if so what I need.

CPU: X6800 or E6700
Mobo: Abit AW9D-MAX / or would one of the Abit boards be better i.e. P5W64-WS
Memory: Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2 Dominator PC2-8500C5 TwinX (again thoughts?)
Case: CoolerMaster Stacker 83
PSU: Enermax Galaxy 850W
HDD: 2 x WD Raptor 150GB (RAID 0)
GFX: ATI X1950 XT-X
SoundCard : Soundblaster X-Fi

Water Cool: Zalman Reserator2
Air cooling: No clue

Thanks a lot for any help your able to give.

Cheers

Malal

 

[GhostRider]

Looks like you want to put together a monster. What is your budget ?

Because you are overclocking you won't need to buy the E6700 or E6800. An E6300 can reach these speeds and costs a lot less. An E6600 can also reach the speeds but the idea of it being faster at stock speed and having more cache would make that a good choice also.

The more expensive motherboards with 975x chipset are better for overclocking the E6600 to E6800. The slightly cheaper 965 chipset is better for the E6300.

Coolermaster stack is a very large, and rather ugly case imo. I'd recomend the Lian Li PC-7 or the Akasa Eclipse 62 (out of stock at the moment).

850 PSU is overkill you should get around 580 - 700 watts if you want dual graphics cards.

What size monitor and resolution will you be gameing at a X1950XT-X graphics card could also be overkill.

I've never bothered with a sound card.

There are a lot of great air coolers around at the moment i would get these over a waterkit.

 

[Tetras]

You can put together a system with 80% of the performance at 50% of the cost, the E6600 is highest you need really, the E6700 and X6800 are substantially more expensive.

Go for a decent overclocking mobo as that'd be your main issue and air cooling is fine for decent clocks, especially with a case like the Eclipse. The PSU is overkill without a doubt *but* it looks like the next gen is gonna draw one heck of a lot of power and you can never have too much, I'd consider that one of the less excessive purchases in your list there.

The memory is way OTT, even for pretty substantial overclocks, the performance can't possibly justify the cost and it doesn't. I'd also consider downgrading the Raptors to Seagate 7200.10s, quieter, cooler and offer great performance at a similar price to regular drives.

 

[Malal]

Well my budget is around £2k ex VAT.

What would be a good suggestion memory wise? and which of the motherboards if not the one I suggested or is that one ok?

GFX again im not 100% sure on, basically I want something that will do well till we get to at least 2nd release of DX10 cards. I can run up to 2048x1536 on my monitor.

Is it worth dropping the card I chose and getting 2 older cards in a crossfire configuration? I've heard mixed reviews about crossfire although it may be a lot better now.

I'll take a look at the case suggestions I've seen the reviews and pics on the net of the coolermaster.

I want if possible to try to keep the noise of the PC down as low as possible if I go with air cooling is there any way to work out how many fans etc I will need to keep it cool while OC'ing?

Cheers again for the input

Malal

 

[wnm0]

Good sound and graphics I always think, Mine were good when I bought them lol,I desperatly need to upgrade esp cpu m/b g/c sound lol..