New build, advice and recommendations needed!

[IggSter]

First a little bit of background to help you understand what I'm interetsed in and what i want this PC for:

I've built many PCs in the past mainly for gaming purposes but I have always resisted going for the best/latest and have usually gone for the next best everything (7800 vs 7900, 8800gts vs Ultra etc)

I have no problems modding standard compenents (to a certain degree) ie, i will happliy fit after market cooling, cable management etc.

This goal for this PC is a gaming rig and must be as future proof as possible.

I have no real desire to overclock past the standard auto settings offered in the BIOS

The PC must be very quiet (aiming for around 20-25db max)

The PC will have 3 OSs installed - XP 32bit, Vista 64bit and Ubuntu.

(I have no limit to budget but will not spend rediculous amounts to get a 5% better product)
(I am not a fanboi )

With all that out of the way here is what I have and what i "think" I want:

Things I have and will reuse:

- Dell 24" monitor
- 8800 GTS 515 with Thermalright HR-03-GT VGA Cooler + Scythe Kama PWM 92mm Fan - 4-Pin PWM

Things I am considering dependant on your feedback:

- CoolerMaster Stacker 832 - Black Trim (No PSU)

I'm not 100% sold on this case as I've never seen one in the flesh and have no experience of coolermaster products. I want a large case with 120mm (or bigger) fan support with supplied filters or ability to fit, Aluminium preferred, I'm not a big fan of bling, motherboard tray MUST be removable with cards installed (Flip down would be considered), good cable management would be a bonus, would prefer no windows. Black case also please​

- Intel Core 2 Quad Extreme Edition QX9650 "LGA775 Yorkfield" 3.00GHz (1333FSB)

Im pretty much decided on this.​

- Asus Xonar D2 7.1 PCI Sound Card

Only reason ive chosen this is I really dont like creative products - please suggest away​

- Asus P5N-T Deluxe nForce 780i (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard

Again, Im not 100% set on this choice. What i want is SLI and DDR2 support as i feel that DDR3 is waaaay to expensive for what little benefit you get in return. If there is a board that supports both + SLI please let me know​

- OCZ 8GB (4x2GB) PC2-6400C5 800MHz Quad Channel Platinum Low Latency XTC Series DDR2

Again not 100% set on the memory, but I do want a minimum of 4GB with 8GB preferred​

- Hitachi Deskstar T7K500 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache x 6 (Raid 5)

Again not 100% sure about Hitachi, comments welcome​

- A DVD/CD writer

all seem pretty much the same to me, please chip in with experiences​

- Scythe Infinity/Mugen CPU Cooler

Looks to be one of the best/quiestest high performance coolers - again please correct me if wrong​

- PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750 Quad PCI-E 750W Power Supply

Im pretty sure about this one, single rail and should run this PC if my calculations are correct, might consider the 1000w version if you think this wont leave much headroom for future upgrades​

- 8GB OCZ ATV Turbo USB 2.0 Flash Drive off the list due to feedback

This is purely for Vista readyboost and I'm not sure I will see any big improvement - comments/advice please​

- a Selection of Noctua fans to replace stock fans in case / on coolers if needed

These seem to be about the best fans available atm (ive 3 fitted in current PC and I'm very happy with them​

- Accessories such as Artic silver 5, rubber fan/drive mounts, accoutic foam to line case

Basically anything that will make the case a quiet and vibration free as possible​

Future plans:

A second 8800 GTS 512 is one posibility otherwise I will wait the Ultra g92 or whatever it will be called and get two of those and Use the current 8800 in the 3rd x 16 slot (if the chosen mobo has one, Plan is to have 2 cards in SLI and a 3rd to run a 2nd monitor.

That's this wall of text complete, please post and disagree with me, make recommendations etc.

Many thanks in Advance

p.s Timeline for build is within the next 4-6 weeks

 

[pt]

no need for a usb pen for readyboost if you're going to have 4gb, and you really feel you need a add on sound card, i think onboard is pretty decent
everything else is fine

 

[panchoman]

looks good, the mobo & sound card are the only things that may need changing

 

[IggSter]

i think onboard is pretty decent
everything else is fine

I've had huge problems with onboard sound in the past so that is the main reason for adding a dedicated card. Thanks for the readyboost info

looks good, the mobo & sound card are the only things that may need changing

Do you have any suggestions you could throw my way?

 

[keakar]

you'll never use 4gb of ram much less 8gb, save the 8gb idea for your next build in a few years. getting 2x2gb set of ram is more than you will need and if you really want ram your not going to ever use you can add another set later.

other than the overkill on ram the rest looks good

 

[IggSter]

you'll never use 4gb of ram much less 8gb, save the 8gb idea for your next build in a few years. getting 2x2gb set of ram is more than you will need and if you really want ram your not going to ever use you can add another set later.

other than the overkill on ram the rest looks good

My reasoning for going to 8GB is twofold:

DDR2 is rediculously cheap atm and I dont want to find that in 6mths/1Yrs time that is has been discontinued and only DDR3 is avail and its always better to have too much than too little.

RAMdrives - I love them, 8GB would allow me to create a HUGE RAMdrives and be able to run most application directly from memory.

But yes I do agree that currently, unless you are a multi-tasking fiend, 2-4GB is plenty for todays games/applications.

 

[nguyenpeter76]

seeing how your not on a low budget have you checked out the lian li pc full tower case???

 

[panchoman]

i actually want to buy an 8 gb usbdrive, and then install windows onto it, and other stuff, and then get to carry around my whole os and its files in my pocket. i mean im already running xp pro and photoshop and all other program files off of this crappy ancient 9 gb drive, now if i could just ghost my hdd onto a flash drive, i'd have like ssd like performance on my pen drive, plus a mobile os, how cool would that be? of course games, pics, etc. all on the other hdd..

as keaker said though, 8 gigs of ram is overkill. 4 is plenty, especcially if you're gonna readyboost an 8 gb drive.

 

[IggSter]

seeing how your not on a low budget have you checked out the lian li pc full tower case???

Actually im a big fan of lian Li cases and have 2 mid tower ones atm.

I have noticed that a few of their newer cases require you to remove all your installed cards before the motherboard tray can be removed and that in my mind defeats the purpose of having a removable tray.

If you know of a full tower Lian Li case that has a FULL removable mobo tray please post linkies

 

[IggSter]

@ panchoman: to be honest the 8GB kit is selling at £129.24 and the lure of a 4GB ram drive......

 

[kwchang007]

Pendrive=overkill. 8 gb of ram is defiantly pleanty.

 

[keakar]

My reasoning for going to 8GB is twofold:

DDR2 is rediculously cheap atm and I dont want to find that in 6mths/1Yrs time that is has been discontinued and only DDR3 is avail and its always better to have too much than too little.

RAMdrives - I love them, 8GB would allow me to create a HUGE RAMdrives and be able to run most application directly from memory.

But yes I do agree that currently, unless you are a multi-tasking fiend, 2-4GB is plenty for todays games/applications.

well your reasoning sounds good but your failing to consider that motherboards are changing cpus are changing so in a year to 18 months adding more ram wont help you anymore than adding more ram to a single core prescott would.

the future proofing idea just cant really work because upgrades are becoming so radical that just plugging in more ram is like putting a band aid on a broken leg.

4gb IS future proofing because it will supply all your ram needs for a year or two, after that it will be a cpu needing upgrade not ram.

get yourself the Q6600 and overclock it to 3.4 (very easy to do) and your system is good for 2 yrs at least.

 

[panchoman]

what?!?! you're gonna get 8 gigs of ram and 4 gigs of flash drive?

 

[keakar]

what?!?! you're gonna get 8 gigs of ram and 4 gigs of flash drive?

no, he wants 8 ram + 8 flash

 

[IggSter]

Yes the plan was to have 8GB DDR2 (as its so cheap) use half of that for a RAMdrive and also use an 8GB USB flash drive *if* that would make any difference to Vista performance.

I've now taken the 8GB flash drive off the list but I'm still fairly keen to go with 8GB DDR2 and keep the RAMdrive idea.

 

[panchoman]

wha? ram drive and usb flash drive? what are you talking about man

sorry if i make no sense lol. the smell of hospitals makes my brain unclear for some reason.

 

[niko084]

Everything looks good, but why spend so much on an EE processor... It's quite useless in reality..

Only other thing I would be tempted to say is 8gb of ram is ridiculously more than you will ever need for any game in the near future.... Put it this way, by the time games need 8gb of ram, that computer wont be able to play them above 10fps.

If you are just going crazy for maximum speed, you may as well go for some SAS 10k or 15k drives and raid them.

 

[IggSter]

hehe np pancho

At present under XP I run 3Gig ram, 1Gig of that is configured to be my R drive.

I have scripts that copy whole apps/parts of apps to the R drive at bootup and set up NTFSlink pointing back to their original locations:

For Example: I can take any subdirectories from a game folder and move them to R drive with a link back to orig location. The game still sees the directories where they are meant to be but in fact they are read from R at much higher speeds then any phsical drive can get close to. Works particularly well with game textures, cache directories that get contantly updated etc.

So in effect my OS has 2Gig of useable system memory and the 3rd Gig is a super fast hard drive.

With 8Gig of ram i could setup a 4-6Gig R drive and store so much more in there.

 

[panchoman]

so you're going to have 4 gigs of your ram in operation, and the other 4 gigs as your R drive?

 

[pt]

wha? ram drive and usb flash drive? what are you talking about man

sorry if i make no sense lol. the smell of hospitals makes my brain unclear for some reason.

that's a ddr drive, and he also wants a 8gb usb drive, to use as ready boost in vista

 

[panchoman]

interesting, after 8 gigs of memory in your config, would you really want the 8 gb flash drive as ready boost?

 

[IggSter]

Everything looks good, but why spend so much on an EE processor... It's quite useless in reality..

Only other thing I would be tempted to say is 8gb of ram is ridiculously more than you will ever need for any game in the near future.... Put it this way, by the time games need 8gb of ram, that computer wont be able to play them above 10fps.

If you are just going crazy for maximum speed, you may as well go for some SAS 10k or 15k drives and raid them.

The reason for the CPU was mainly due to reading some of the results obtained in these forums (4Ghz on air with no need for 40db fans and uber overclocking skills)

With the 8Gig of ram I can use 4-6Gig as a fast hard drive and leave 2-4Gig for my OS.

With regard to harddrives, would these cost considerably more? Would the noise level increase by any noticable amount? Would the performance gain be worth it over 6 x RAID5 Sata2 drives?

Thx for you comments

 

[nguyenpeter76]

where you get this extra money? whats your occupation? so maybe ill pursue that job

 

[IggSter]

interesting, after 8 gigs of memory in your config, would you really want the 8 gb flash drive as ready boost?

Ive scrapped that idea and updated the OP

 

[IggSter]

where you get this extra money? whats your occupation? so maybe ill pursue that job

I work with Cisco switches/routers etc and also dabble (read hobby) in html, php and python.

And ive just sold my house so with some of the money made I want to build the best I can before I blow it all on new house, furniture etc etc