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volkan

volkan

volkan

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Joined
30 May 2008
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74
Location
London, UK
Hi Guys,

I have built many servers and upgraded many machines but I have never started something from scratch, and it's time for a new machine. I want a good machine that will last at least a couple of years and I am planning on ordering all the bits end of June / beginning of July so if there is anything worth waiting for, please let me know.

Here is what I am thinking:

Antec P190 Case,
Intel Q6600 (OC)
nForce 790i Mainboard
Corsair 4GB DDR2 Dominator (Is DDR3 really worth it?)
2 x WD Caviar 1TB (RAID1, had a disk fail on my desktop years ago, horrible feeling!)
2 x BFG 9800 GTX (Watercooled)

As for the cooling I am thinking about the Zalman Reserator1 v2, but is this enough to cool the graphics cards and CPU? Or will I need something more?

I also can't decide on a monitor, I am looking at the Samsung SM-2493HM vs Samsung SM-245T, there is a huge price difference, and the cheaper 2493 seems to have better specs?

Any input would be much appreciated!

Thanks A Lot,
 
Hello and welcome.
Claimed.

the nforce 790i is a DDR3 board.
either downgrade the board to a 780i, or upgrade your RAM to DDR3 (i'd get the 780i myself)

the 9800GTX is just an overclocked 8800GTS. if i were you I'd wait until next month (18th) for when new cards come out, and see what the state-of-play is then.

reserators are good for passive cooling, but they aren't very good for getting the best temps, and you would need two to cool a cpu and two graphics cards.

don't but a pre-OCed chip, buy a normal one and overclock it yourself. the whole debate is pretty much here in this topic:
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17879830

for the drives, I'd go for 1tb samsung F1s myself, they are very highly rated.
 
please just wait for the new cards please :)

then if SLI numbers are good, or Xire numbers (if your persistant on dual cards) we can go from there.

but a Q6600, the samsung F1 1TB and the antec 1200 would be my choice for the other components.
 
Thanks for the info guys, I will bear it all in mind, and will probably post again once these new bits are out!

Does anyone information on these new cards? A press release or something I can read up on? I only chose the WD drives as I have been using them for years now without problems, but I am open to change of the F1s are better!

As for the memory, I should stick with DDR2 rather than 3? Oh and as for the cooling with the reserator XT be a better choice?

Thanks Guys,

V
 
2x 9800gtx ? what for, are you playing on 2560x1920 or what ?

Just grab 8800gts/gtx and it will do more than enough.

Also looks like a pure gaming rig to me, I would get 8400/8500 over q6600 anyday for gaming. By the time games starts supporitng quads the q6600 will be too old and crap to run anything already and there will be probably 4ghz @ stock nehalem quads out or six cores already.

And I can advise the spinpoints f1 as well, got one myself.
 
Be very careful in deciding on 790i chipset and what board you get. I've been reading up a lot about it lately in the evga 790i fourms, seems there's issues with data corruption and memory config issues with certain memory (namely OCZ) even the latest bios update (yesterday) hasn't helped a lot of people out. I'd imagine the same can be said for XFX 790i boards too.
 
volkan said:
Does anyone information on these new cards? A press release or something I can read up on?
Click to expand...

release dates are:
16th june ati- midrange cards
18th june nvidia- top-end cards

There are many topics in the graphics card forum.
 
as for the watercooling, i have no experiance in it, so i cannot comment. how long do you plan to have this build?

if its for 3 years, then id go with a good QC and DDR3, if its for 2, DDR2 and a DC will suffice

oh and the 4870x2 is first 2 weeks of august

and ben, the dates for the top end Nvidia have been moved back one day :)
 
I'm glad I posted here first, I do want this to last 2 years +, so I may go with DDR3, I plan on starting the build at the beginning of July once I get some other projects out the way. If these new graphics cards eliminate the need for SLI, then I don't think cooling will be as big an issue?

Any advice on monitors? I have been living off Laptops for 2 years and have gotten used to the shiny screens of Vaios!

Thanks for all your input so far, appreciate it.
 
Thats good news! I have been reading up on GTX280s and it seems they will make life much easier! As for the monitors, I don't want anything larger than 2 x 24"s, and I have been looked at the Samsung SM-2493HM and Samsung SM-245T, but as mentioned in my original post, the cheaper one seems to have better specs!

Thanks,

V
 
Mmmm never been fond of Dell screens (though I have never used the new ones), always thought Samsung made some good ones, maybe it time to reconsider!

Thanks for your input!
 
Hi Guys,

Well the new cards are being advertised and here is what I am now thinking:

Antec P190 Case,
Intel Q6600
nForce 790i Mainboard
2 x OCZ 2GB 1333MHz ReaperX
2 x SpinPoint F1 1TB (RAID1)
EVGA GTX 280 1024MB
Asus Triton 79
LG GGW-H20L Blu-Ray Rewriter
Vista Ultimate 64 bit
Creative Fatal1ty Professional
2 x Dell 2408WFP

Any obvious mistakes?

Thanks

V
 
280GTX cards will come down in price quite a lot in the next couple of months (and even weeks)

don't buy a 280GTX without seeing how the new ati cards perform.

there's no point in buying an nvidia motherboard unless you intend to sli
 
Thanks for the info, I will see where I stand in a few weeks, I might not go for SLI now, but I do want the option in the feature.

V
 
shaffaaf27 said:
go xfire. the 4850s in xfire are beating the GTX280
Click to expand...

Are they? I thought they couldn't keep up with the GTX 280 and it was up to the dual 4870's to do that? Either way you must also factor in the fact that dual 4850 is already set up with dual GPU when GTX 280 is still only a single and will leave you the option to SLI it later on down the line and might I add that the SLI reviews of the GTX 280 have shown some very nice performance ;) (But you'd only want to SLI them later on when the prices drop and a single is no longer enough)
 
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