Need help with hardware choice.
 

My friend is buying an Intel setup and I want him to have a killer rig.He is like us as far as gaming and liking to overclock ect.
I am NOT that familiar with the newest and greatest from Intel.
He has a x1900 crossfire setup now and I know he wants to use them with his new rig.
He said price is not much of a problem.{great job}.
It will be my responsibility to buy and install so ANY help here will be really appreciated!!
I was looking at the newer e6420's with the 4mb but stopped after looking at all of the chip sets available now.

Thanks in advance to all that respond.

It really depends on if he is OCing or not and how long he wants this system to last him.
However, a ballpark figure would help or else he could just go all out and get the greatest and best of everything.

But I would say the E6420s are a great bang for the buck right now (esp. if you OC).
A Crossfire mobo will cost a nice deal of money since there arent that many of them out for Intel boards (round $200).

As for RAM I would suggest getting 2 x 1GB of Crucial Ballistix DDR2-800 or DDR2-1066 RAM.
They are pretty low priced at the moment (at around $150 I believe).

Also, what else does he need since he doesnt need a GPU.

check this out>>http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=30455

Just get him:

E6600
4 gb Crucial Micron D sticks.
Asus P5N32E SLI
8800 GTX
1000 w psu
Antec P182 SE

And some other stuff.lol

If he wants to overclock and run a Crossfire setup, try this mobo: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813136032

I would suggest an aftermarket cooler for the northbridge, however.

And again, if price isn't an object, why not go quad core?

4GB is useless esp. since I doubt he is using a 64 bit OS.
Just get 2GB, that is more than enough.
Also, he needs Crossfire since he has 2 X1900 cards as stated above so dont worry about the need for the PSU or the 8800GTX.

Does he need a case?

This is about the only good Crossfire board at the moment.
Also, I agree why not go quad core is price is no object (unless you just meant for the mobo) :)

Wow,...talk about fast responses!!!!TPU FTW!!!!:rockout:
No case if needed an the moment.
The Quad core really looks like a good Idea.Thanks.I will check out the recommendations now.:)

The Newegg reviews seem horrible?What is up with that?

The reason its one of the best Crossfire boards out there is bc its one of the only ones out there.
Unless he is willing to sell his X1900 cards and go for an 8800GTX and a 680i board, he will have to settle with that board.

They don't know what they are doing. It has an extremely complicated BIOS. It maxes at 511fsb, but the northbridge runs HOT. It needs 3rd party cooling. With 3rd party cooling it will run at 511 all day. His only other option for Crossfire on Intel is a 975X chipset mobo, but those don't clock nearly as well. Most of them don't even get close to 500 fsb.

Here's just one review of the DFI: http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2891&p=3

For more, just type DFI LANPARTY UT ICFX3200-T2R/G overclocking into google.

"ditto"
the DFI is not a good mobo unless you go into the complicated bios and set up the mobo then it out screams most everything:toast: I luv DFI mobos and have 5 of their mobo's (3 different kinds) You will get to know the bios very fast so no worries !;)

yeah..i would say quad core if price is no object. if he does like to overclock, just get him an aftermarket cooler with that quad core ;)