The girlfriend said go nuts

[shifty]

Hi guys for the last 6 months Ive noticed my PC starting to suffer glitch's random reboots lack of memory and a general spec outdatedness ( I think thats a word) , anyway Ive decided to start a fresh and build a beast which will do everything from games , work , research, and multimedia (Stereo and TV) , I have been talking to a mate who can get all the bits at trade prices and he said he will put them through the company so no Vat either so I have been given permission by the girlfriend to go nuts (I know I was in shock to she must have done something really bad or want something pretty big) but anyway Ive been going through the forums and online stores but its all a bit confusing,

I know I want to build a system round the new Intel QX6850 quad

mobo wise asus seem pretty popular the striker in particular although people have said its a waste when the commando does the same.

Ram well this is what is really getting me ive been looking at the dominator's and OCZ flex as I may decide to water cool which would make the flex system handy extra.

GPU well it will have to be nvidea in sli but there is a lot of contravesy over weather the flagship 8800,s are worth it and ive heard that december time the next gen are out and they will devastate all in there way. Also a PhysX Accelerator may be thrown into the mix.

Hard drives well I already have 2 150gb raptors I bought of ebay which I will use as my OS drive setup in raid so a decent storage drive is all that I require.

Optical drives well until bluray and HD drives come down I will stick with a lightscribe.

Cooling well as I stated before I may go for water cooling depending on space but I am still open to suggestions on air cooling.

Psu = I have no clue there are so many

case I already have a large Antec tower case which stands just over half a meter so its pretty roomy inside.

And finally the operating system I have XP on disk but I do fancy Vista but which one and do I get 32bit or 64.

Well there you are I know its a bit over the top but ive found if you go as hard core as pos it tends to last that much longer so if you have any advice that would be great and maybe together we can rule the world or at least build a first class PC.

 

[Zefan]

Psu = I have no clue there are so many

This is what you want

 

[DavidB]

To be honest, with such trade benefits and no VAT, its almost a case of pick the most expensive in the class to get the best.

If you want a slightly more extravagant PSU a enermax would probably provided you with enougth power for 100 years or so.

Other than that it seems you pretty much know what your after.

Hard drives well I already have 2 150gb raptors I bought of ebay which I will use as my OS drive setup in raid so a decent storage drive is all that I require.

Be VERY careful buying hard drives off ebay, even if there in sealed packaging there often returned hard drives.
A forensic examiner bought 5 hard drives off ebay and found illegal/ confidential content on 2 (remember, deleting dosnt remove it), so yeh, just be careful, if your hard drives are confiscated by the police (for whatever reason) youd really want to be 100% sure that theres nothing dodgy on it (e.g. child porn traces ).

 

[Hen_Dawg]

Welcome to OcUK

GPU well it will have to be nvidea in sli but there is a lot of contravesy over weather the flagship 8800,s are worth it and ive heard that december time the next gen are out and they will devastate all in there way. Also a PhysX Accelerator may be thrown into the mix.

It's possible that the next nvidia's are out at the end of the year, nothing is for sure. May be worth getting 1 card now are seeing what happens with the 9800's when they come. Plus SLI in Vista it not even working properly yet. One 8800GTX should do you well anyway
The 8800's are definitely worth it. The doubt is if the Ultra's a worth it over the GTX's.

What screen will all this be used on?

 

[shifty]

Thanks guys its nice to know there are some friendly people out there I left this exact post on another forum and got completely abused for going for the dearer stuff, anyway I did have half a mind to stick to one GPU for now maybe find a cheap second hand 8800 on ebay and wait also would anyone recomend vista at all as I remember XP when it came out and it was a nightmare nothing ever worked with it but now its pretty stable , is this the case with vista and also I have been told that if I want more than 4GB of ram I need 64bit vista is this the same on xp will that also limit the ram.

 

[Greenlizard0]

I'd get a few monitors if you're able "go nuts"

You lucky git by the way I wish I could get 17.5% off

 

[DavidB]

You lucky git by the way I wish I could get 17.5% off

thats 17.5% off staff discount, so what, another 10% off !
Its true what they say, "its not what you know, its who you know".

a lot of forums shun people for not doing things exactly the way they thinks best, in my opinion your in the perfect position to....well "go nuts"

Id go dual screen too btw, buy one graphics card and wait for newer ones to be released (that way you could use a p35 motherboard too).

Then buy an x38 motherboard when there out and go sli with 2 new graphics cards

 

[shifty]

Dont know about the multi monitor but it will be hooked up to a 42inch HD lcd .
Although multi screens would be cool I dought the missis will be as impressed and I dont wanna push it

 

[HangTime]

I have been given permission by the girlfriend to go nuts (I know I was in shock to she must have done something really bad or want something pretty big)

I hope you have another mate who works in a jewellers

 

[shifty]

Yeah I did wonder if this is a scam to back me into a corner .

 

[Angilion]

I wouldn't bother with a PhsyX card, but if money is no object then what the hell.

If you go with air cooling, I suggest that it's worth paying the higher prices for kit that can cool well enough with as little noise as possible. It will be a minimal increase in price compared with the overall cost and you're obviously looking to build as perfect a PC as you can. Whooshing, whining and humming noises would probably detract from that. Noctua NH-U12F would fit the bill for a CPU cooler, or a Thermalright 120 Extreme with a top quality fan, or even a Titan Amanda if you don't mind the amount of space it takes up or the huge weight hanging off your motherboard (it's so heavy, it comes with supporting cables!). If you don't mind voiding the guarantee on your graphics card, fitting a 3rd-party cooler on it would usually be a good improvement over the cooler it comes with. If you do mind voiding the guarantee, hunt around for a card that comes pre-fitted with a cooler of that standard, if there is one. It's all too common for good graphics cards to be sold with coolers that aren't very effective and which are noisier than the rest of the system put together. Whichever way you go, make sure to check that the cooling system is compatible with SLI usage - some are too thick to fit between the two cards.

I'd do a full reformat of those HDD, to be on the safe side. As DavidB said, there might be things on them that you really don't want. I would even go as far as to do a DoD-standard wiping of all blank space as soon as the OS was installed (free tools for that are online).

If you're going to be gaming on it, you may as well put an X-Fi soundcard in it. The basic version will do. The higher versions are the same thing with 64MB of memory and/or extra inputs for recording. I don't know if the memory on the soundcard actually makes a difference in games, but you can look that up.

Memory-wise, a 32-bit OS can only use 4GB at a time. It doesn't matter which 32-bit OS it is, that's the limit. Some 32-bit versions of Windows (the ones aimed at servers) will allow the use of more than 4GB by paging it in and out, but if I understand correctly it's still limited to 4GB for any one thing. Standard home and business versions of Windows won't even "see" more than 4GB.

 

[Hen_Dawg]

Memory-wise, a 32-bit OS can only use 4GB at a time. It doesn't matter which 32-bit OS it is, that's the limit. Some 32-bit versions of Windows (the ones aimed at servers) will allow the use of more than 4GB by paging it in and out, but if I understand correctly it's still limited to 4GB for any one thing. Standard home and business versions of Windows won't even "see" more than 4GB.

All true. Plus games barely benefit from 4Gb at the moment. For the money, 4Gb is not a great investment unless you are encoding HD video or professionally working with Photoshop etc

 

[Megahurtz400]

Ive got a feeling this is gunna be a COOL thread!

What antec case is it?

As i know the p182 has trobules fitting things in the very lower expansion slots due to the power cables coming through.

 

[stickroad]

I know I want to build a system round the new Intel QX6850 quad

A compltete waste, just get the Q6600 and overclock it to them QX6850 Speeds.

mobo wise asus seem pretty popular the striker in particular although people have said its a waste when the commando does the same.

Both are pointeless to get to be honest, go for one of the newer Chipset boards, the P35 Series. They support Intels upcoming 45nm Processors, much better memory tolerance, very reliable, rock solid and great overclocking poteinal.

Ram well this is what is really getting me ive been looking at the dominator's and OCZ flex as I may decide to water cool which would make the flex system handy extra.

Water cooling Memory, havent really heard much experiance with it myself. That OCZ Flex Memory is 8500 Rated which isnt needd at all. 5300 Memory will be fine. For example the Crucial Ballistix which is rated at 533 (667MHZ) but will overclock to 8500 (1066MHZ) and beyond, brilliant stuff.

GPU well it will have to be nvidea in sli but there is a lot of contravesy over weather the flagship 8800,s are worth it and ive heard that december time the next gen are out and they will devastate all in there way. Also a PhysX Accelerator may be thrown into the mix.

SLI is totally a waste of money. Unless you game on a 30inch+ screen, SLI isnt needed and is just a waste, single card solution is always best. Their isnt enough games that take advantage of a SLI configuration. The performance you get out of SLI dosent justify the cost of buying that second card.

Hard drives well I already have 2 150gb raptors I bought of ebay which I will use as my OS drive setup in raid so a decent storage drive is all that I require.

Should be good.

Optical drives well until bluray and HD drives come down I will stick with a lightscribe.

Yep i agree. A standard DVD Drive will be fine.

Cooling well as I stated before I may go for water cooling depending on space but I am still open to suggestions on air cooling.

Water cooling is very nice to have but Air Cooling is also stil very efficiant.

Psu = I have no clue there are so many

Seasonic/Corsair, Enmerax make very hig quality power supplies. Dont go stupid and buy a 1000 Wattage PSU though, no need.

case I already have a large Antec tower case which stands just over half a meter so its pretty roomy inside.

Which case is it.

And finally the operating system I have XP on disk but I do fancy Vista but which one and do I get 32bit or 64.

Get Vista 64bit and dual boot along with XP.

Right heres a spec:

Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64-Bit Edition DVD - OEM - 1Pk
Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "LGA775 Kentsfield" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail
Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme (Socket AM2/LGA775) Heatsink
Abit IP35 Pro (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 PC2-5300C3 667MHz Dual Channel Kit X2
BFG GeForce 8800 GTX OC 768MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express)
Western Digital Caviar SE16 500GB 5000AAKS SATA-II 16MB Cache
Samsung SH-183LBEBN 18x18 DVD±RW Dual Layer Serial ATA Lightscribe ReWriter
Creative X-Fi Xtreme Gamer Fatal1ty Professional 7.1 Soundcard - Retail
Corsair HX 620W ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU

Total : £1,170.11 thats including VAT so just take the VAT of which is £174.27.

Right as i said before the QX6850 is a waste of money, just get the Q6600 and clock it up.

The Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme is one of the best air coolers around and will cool that Quad very efficaintly.

The Abit Motherboard is one of the best p35 chipsets out if you ask me. Very reliable, rock solid and fantastic overclocking poteinal.

As i said eariler the Crucial Ballistix, whilst only rated at 5300 (667MHZ) is will overclock to 1000MHZ + with little problems and that will be plenty fast enough, great stuff.

The 8800GTX is a fantastic card, no need to go for the Ultra which is a complete waste of money anyway since it only offers a few extra FPS over the GTX.

The Western Digital Hard Drive is very fast and quite.

The Samsung DVD Drive is pretty quite too. It also connects to your motherboard via SATA connection, this means you can get rid of them big, fat, ugly IDE cables.

If your looking to spend as much as you are a soundcard is a must, the Creative X-Fi Xtreme Gamer Fatal1ty Professional will fit the bill perfectly, you will hear things you thought were never their.

The Corsair PSU is one of the best PSUs around, very reliable and very quuite. 620 watts will be plenty.

Now as for Vista, i higly recomend Dual booting XP along with Vista, its a great way to experinace Vista fully but if you do come across any problems you can still use XP.

 

[Megahurtz400]

Seeming as he said "Go-nuts" and he has the money...

Why doesnt he get DUAL 30" screens?

Ok, maybe one is a bit more sensible

 

[DavidB]

shifty Dont know about the multi monitor but it will be hooked up to a 42inch HD lcd .
Although multi screens would be cool I dought the missis will be as impressed and I dont wanna push it

Sli still looking like a bad idea ? lol

 

[Big.Wayne]

I know I want to build a system round the new Intel QX6850 quad

A compltete waste, just get the Q6600 and overclock it to them QX6850 Speeds.

Hey shifty, good news that you got the green light for a big spend, always an exciting time!

However try and keep your feet on the ground and don't waste your money, I'm sure there is a heap of other stuff you can use the money on!

stickroad pretty much got it right.

Kudos to the overclocker with the fastest system for the least money!

 

[stickroad]

About the 42inch LCD screen, i sort of missed that part.

Anyway i would be very inclided to get a nice 24inch screen, say for example the Dell Ultrasharp 2407WFP 24" Widescreen LCD Monitor. Your not always going to have the money to buy 2 top of the range GPUs (unless you earn mega bucks) to run the latest games on that screen which could hinder the performance.

I can understand the thought of running games on such a big screen at first but i think it would be so much better buying a nice 24inch screen (which isnt small to say the least).

Thats my view on it anyway.

 

[Dan777UK]

If I was 'going nuts' I'd get this:

Q6600
Gigabyte GA_P35C_DS3R
2x Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 PC2-6400C4
EVGA GeForce 8800 Ultra SuperClocked
2x Western Digital Raptor X 150GB (RAID 0, Drive for OS and programs)
2x Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 750GB (storage)
Samsung SH-S203BEBN 20x20 DVD±RW Dual Layer Serial ATA ReWriter (Black)
Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme + 2x120mm fans
Creative X-Fi Xtreme Gamer Fatal1ty Professional 7.1 Soundcard
CoolerMaster Stacker 830 Evolution - Nvidia Special Edition + 4x120mm fans
PC Power & Cooling Turbo Cool 1KW-SR 1000W Power Supply
2x Samsung SM-305T 30" Widescreen LCD Monitor

 

[shifty]

some excellent comment,s and you are starting to bring me down to reality which is always a good thing.
I am still in half a mind over the CPU but an 8800 gtx will most likely be what I get not the ultra and as for sli well I think that may go on the back burner until I get to grips with what I have and start really testing the system also with the new stuff around the corner I think it may be worth waiting to see whats on offer and at the least the 8800 will start dropping in price and some second hand ones may start popping up.
As for ram well I think by whats been said 2GB will do for now again until start pushing the system .
Sound card well I already have a sound blaster audigy with the front plate so that may do for now.
PSU unit all suggestion sound good.
Mobo wise this is trouble what is giving me the most troubles as this P35 chipset has been mentioned to me a couple of times so any recs would be cool I was looking at the Asus Blitz Formula Special Edition so if anyone has any comments on it also I'm not sure if it supports SLi or crossfire the only thing as far as mobos are concerned is it needs to have a decent amount of PCi slots as I have to stick the sound card (which needs some space) in and a USB card in there.
And my case is an Antec plusview100 AMG soho file server case.

Well I think thats everything I wanted to say oh yeah the only other thing is although I may venture into overclocking in the future I wont be straight away so I would prefer to get components with high specs to begin with.

So any further ideas would be great and thanks again for everybody's input I will be an IT genius in no time.