Opinion on build

CaptainRAVE · 7 Jul 2008 at 18:18

Sorry, its me again!

This is subject to change, and is me continually trying to nail what I am going to buy in early August, from overclockers of course

...I know things will change (pricing/technology), but I need a rough idea of what I am going to buy...

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 (after this they get very expensive...)

Thermalright IFX-14 CPU Cooler and Noctua NF-S12 1200RPM 120mm Silent Case Fan to go with it (plus Arctic Cooling MX-2 Thermal Compound)

Asus Striker II Formula nForce 780i (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard

OCZ 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-8500C5 1066MHz Reaper HPC Edition Dual Channel DDR2 (two lots for 8gb)

BFG GeForce GTX 280 OC 1024MB (may add a second later or wait for new advancements...was considering two 4870s, but I want the best single card solution, okus this is seeing a HUGE price drop...may wait for the 4870X2s which sound good so far)

Samsung SpinPoint F1 640GB SATA-II 16MB Cache (two of these in Raid 0...heard thats the fastest way)

Dell Ultrasharp 2408WFP 24" Widescreen LCD Monitor (IF REV01 is released by then)

Logitech Z-5500 THX Certified 5.1 Speaker System
Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Gamer Fatal1ty Professional Series 7.1 Sound Card
Coolermaster RC-1100 Cosmos S "Sport" Silent Full Tower Case
Coolermaster Real Power 1000w Modular Power Supply
Sony NEC Optiarc DDU1615 IDE DVD-ROM
Logitech G15 Gaming Keyboard
Logitech MX Revolution Advanced Cordless Mouse
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-Bit

Opinions...that is the full list I have put together over the passed few weeks...still not happy with it for some reason!!!

martian_aphid · 7 Jul 2008 at 18:37

Hang fire on the Q9450, I might be wrong but I expect these to drop in price as strangely enough that product is getting phased out pretty soonish. Of course Q6600 is still a good option and is so cheap now too. If you want single card solution that will be the highest performance I'd wait for reviews on the X2, if 4870 performance can be scaled it will most certainly outperform a 280, and if it does expect nvidia to have no choice but to further drop the price of the 280 so its all good for the consumer.

BTW i'm in a similar situtaion to you I lingered a long time and I'm finally starting to buy this week, just ordered the Q6600! And will also be waiting for the 2408 A01 to see if its my best choice for a 24" monitor

GL mate

CaptainRAVE · 8 Jul 2008 at 08:24

Any other suggestions??

mp260767 · 8 Jul 2008 at 13:24

maybe swap the soundcard to something like the Asus Xonar D2 7.1.

CaptainRAVE · 8 Jul 2008 at 13:58

Will that fit into the motherboard?

Teaf · 8 Jul 2008 at 14:40

CaptainRAVE said:
Will that fit into the motherboard?

The PCI-E one you'd probably have trouble with, the 1st lane above the PCI-E 16x slot looks like it'd be blocked by the Northbridge heatsink, but the D2 that mp260767 mentioned is PCI so that'll be fine assuming you went SLI and have no other PCI cards. If you didn't go SLI then you'd be fine.

CaptainRAVE · 8 Jul 2008 at 14:42

Not sure if I'll go SLI. Think i'm just going to keep a single slot flagship card in there constantly. I dont like more than one card, I have had driver problems in the past.